Marvel's Midnight Suns is an explosive turn-based strategy game set in the Marvel Universe. Featuring some of the most iconic Marvel characters like Spider-Man and Wolverine, Midnight Suns is packed with superhero action, strategic mechanics, and a complex, turn-based battle system. The game is easily Marvel's best exploration of the genre.
It's also one of the most complicated. Navigating through the various upgrades, card builds, out-of-battle mechanics, character abilities, and collectibles can be a daunting task for new players. To ease entry, here are some of the best overall tips and tricks for new players.
10 Keep Exploring The Abbey
The Abbey is where all the superheroes spend their time in between missions. Make sure to continuously explore the inside and outside of the area, as there are a number of benefits to doing so. The Abbey is filled with hangout spots that you need to scout in order to use, resources for side missions, and all types of essences randomly spawn on the ground.
Reagents, character gifts, and Masterworks are all involved in exploring the Abbey. There are also chests scattered through the grounds with upgrades and cards to unlock at various hero stations. As players progress in the game, more areas of the Abbey will open too, so leave no stone unturned, even into the late game.
9 Before Bed Checklist
Marvel’s Midnight Suns revolve around doing missions during the day and having the Hunter go to bed at night. However, don’t get in the habit of hitting the hay so soon. There are characters to talk to, side objectives to finish, and social obligations that players do not want to miss. Always consult the Superlink, the heroes’ in-house social media app, as characters will message the player directly, and they will expect a timely response.
No one wants to see Wolverine react to being left on read. These moments between missions are some of the best opportunities for improving friendships too. Often, even a short conversation can give a bump to a character’s Friendship level.
8 Daytime Checklist
The most important thing to do before starting a mission each day is to complete a round of training with the character of your choice. Just outside the Forge, players will find The Yard, an outdoor training area. Walk up to the sword in the stone and select “Daily Sparring,” something that can be done once per day. Sparring gives XP, currency, and character Friendship points and is one of the easiest ways to progress in Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Characters’ abilities can also be upgraded in The Yard.
Some other considerations each day are things like Hero Ops and research. These activities are passive but can take up to several days, with Hero Ops sending one of your heroes on an automatic, off-camera mission for upgrades and rewards. Research is limited by certain objectives, like finishing a number of missions with a certain hero, so try to have the next standard met and be ready by the time a current research topic is finished.
7 Upgrade Everything Often
The difficulty in Marvel’s Midnight Suns can ramp up pretty unexpectedly. This is especially true when taking on a mission a level or two higher than your heroes' current standing. So, make sure to constantly upgrade abilities, battle bonuses, crafting bonuses, card decks, and Friendship levels.
The heroes’ stations can also be upgraded as well, so don’t sleep on improving the Forge, the Yard, and C.E.N.T.R.A.L. -- this can all be done by collecting resources, crafting materials, completing missions, and advancing character relationships.
6 Don’t Go For Gold
The “Golden Path,” or the quickest way through a game by focusing on main missions, is not recommended when playing Marvel’s Midnight Suns. As it’s a turn-based strategy game, rushing through is going to get many players in over their heads. While it may be the quickest to advance the story and unlock characters, ignoring the side missions is not recommended.
In fact, doing all the side missions is often the best way to be well-prepared for the main ones -- especially considering that they usually feature a boss or villain that will give the heroes a tough fight. Even on lower difficulties, many missions are won on a razor-thin margin. Use those side missions to get resources for upgrades, let main characters recover, and empower your backlist of heroes.
5 Forge Friendships
Each hero has a personal relationship with the Hunter, who players play as whenever they are between missions. This is reflected in each hero’s Friendship level. The bonuses from stronger friendships provide strong in-battle boosts and should be improved whenever possible. Not every friendship can be maxed out, though, so try to focus on a few characters while maintaining decent relationships with the others.
It does get tricky, however, as part of building friendships involves using Light or Dark conversation options, which affect the Hunter’s overall Light and Dark score. This can affect how players intent to build the Hunter, and they may have to choose between a boost to their Hunter’s build of choice or losing friendship points with a particular hero.
4 Card Strategy
During battle, players are presented with random cards from each hero’s deck. There is in-depth strategy to building each 3-person team, the deck builds for each hero, and utilizing characters for certain strengths. During the battle, though, there are a few main things to consider when using and choosing cards. Generally, the card-play is centered around saving up Heroic points to use Heroic cards. These have the most damage and impact on the battle. So, a basic strategy might be to use Ability, Skill, and Attack cards while saving up for a Heroic smash.
Many cards feature crowd control, buffs and debuffs, and support strategies as well. The overall plan of each encounter varies wildly with objectives, heroes, and difficulty, so players need to get flexible with their strategizing around builds and teams. Also, the redraw mechanic is not to be forgotten. Cards are drawn randomly, but players are given a base amount of times they can redraw a card for each battle.
3 Prioritize Targets & Objectives
One of the main things players should learn is basic turn-based battle strategy. For one, prioritizing certain targets is often smart. For example, a Hydra Officer is a bigger, stronger enemy that can stun heroes and may deserve to be focused first before inflicting too much crowd control. If the enemy team has a healer, though, it can be a toss-up about which to choose first. Bosses can spawn endless enemy waves as well, so players need to make sure they’re focusing on the boss or the objective to finish the mission.
If a full-fledged villain shows up, they will wreak havoc until defeated or knocked out, so make sure to focus them down quickly. Some missions, like disarming bombs, force the player to focus on certain enemies in order to complete them. So pay attention to the objectives and learn to focus on certain enemies when the time calls for it.
2 Move Characters In Battle
One mechanic that may not seem important at first is the basic movement of the heroes on the battlefield. Each character gets one free move outside their cards and abilities. Unless they are stunned or restrained, make sure to move your team around to best utilize abilities, Knockbacks, and builds. Movement is ideal for setting up angles and abilities to punish enemies too.
By moving a hero, players can often create chain reactions with environmental hazards and character cards. Also, movement is needed for avoiding area-of-effect damage. So try to avoid grouping heroes up too close together. In fact, characters can use certain abilities and cards to move enemies around the area and should try to group them together when possible.
1 Play For The Big Picture
It is inevitable that the superheroes will get injured. In order to recover completely, they need time to recuperate. That means that players should always give their characters time to get back to 100%. Otherwise, they will suffer debilitating cutbacks to health, damage, and battle effectiveness. This mechanic where heroes get injured means players cannot rely just on their strongest team to carry them through. In other words, having one or two very strong characters isn't enough. Players need to build strong backup teams to switch out when their starters need time to recover.
So things like Friendship levels, upgraded card decks, and careful team selection are important for each and every character in Marvel's Midnight Suns. To that end, each team of three in Midnight Suns should have a basic strategy of incorporating a damage dealer, a support class, a tank, or a crowd control or area-of-effect specialist. Overall, aim for synergy between play styles, abilities, and cards. One of the best things about the game is its versatility and the amount of control players have over how to approach each and every battle.