Marvel’s Midnight Suns features incredible superhero action, turn-based strategic brilliance, and iconic characters in a new, epic story set in the Marvel Universe. Among the classic characters is the half-vampire and half-human, demon-killing badass Blade. One of the many playable classic Marvel characters in Midnight Suns, Blade is a damage dealer that applies stacks of the bleed effect while using lifesteal to suck enemies’ HP dry.
He is one of the best characters early on in the game, acting as an assassin with a risk vs. reward style of play. Getting his kit in a good balance isn’t always easy, however. Unlike other heroes, stacking damage to unleash Heroic points will need to be bolstered by lifesteal and abilities like The Hunger in order to be effective. So, to make things easier, here are some key pointers to get Blade to his best vampire-hunting self.
5 Comeback Kid
Blade’s most unique and useful feature on the battlefield is his resilience. Being half-vampire and half-human means Blade not only uses a large amount of a bleed mechanic but also has abilities that give him lifesteal. This makes Blade a long-lasting vampire. One of the few heroes to be able to self-heal while using their natural damage abilities, Blade also is a formidable assassin. He may have only one area-of-effect attack, but he can spread his bleeding, stay alive when he shouldn’t, and do big damage to individuals and groups alike.
So, if you're looking for aggressive gameplay, Blade is a perfect fit. If there's a risky situation where you might receive great damage, use Blade because, with the self-healing ability, he has a better chance of coming out alive. The main flaw that Blade has as a damage dealer is that it takes time for his bleed stacks to become significant. His kit helps to survive those rounds, but an unlucky draw or the need to spam damage early on can affect Blade’s usefulness on the battlefield by a large margin.
4 Deck Building Strategy
Blade’s role lands squarely in the damage variety, and players should always focus on optimizing the damage of the semi-vampire. However, there is a bit of nuance in navigating his unique kit. As always, a good strategy is a mix of cards that build Heroic points and cards that spend them. However, with Blade, players don’t want to stack too much raw damage without balancing the character's deck.
Lifesteal, Heroic point-builders, and the bleed effect, need to be accounted for. Obviously, all abilities should be upgraded whenever possible. A late-game deck for Blade should probably have lots of chain strikes, Make 'em Bleed, The Hunger, and a Glaive card at the minimum.
3 Best Cards
Blade's cards and abilities revolve around survivability and applying bleed stacks to as many enemies as possible. Make ‘em Bleed, The Hunger, and the Reaper cards are Blade’s best go-to abilities and should be present in almost any deck build. Make 'em Bleed draws two cards and gives the next 3 Blade cards an added bleed effect.
The effect of bleeding is the perfect setup for The Hunger card, which adds lifesteal and marks all enemies with any bleed stacks. These cards should set up Blade with resilient lifesteal and a decent amount of bleed stacks on enemies. Reaper is Blade’s big Heroic ability, and it consumes every stack of bleed and can do massive damage to affected enemies.
2 Battlefield Strategy
The overall battlefield strategy for Blade is pretty simple: apply stacks of bleed while using lifesteal to stay alive, and when the time is right, try to cash in as big of a Reaper use as possible. This is where the special passive of Blade becomes vital, especially as the game gets into later difficulties.
Cold Blooded is the name of Blade’s passive ability. This unlocks at the 2nd level of Friendship and gives the hero a random chance to apply Bleed to an enemy directly after he is attacked. Use this in conjunction with Blade’s overall kit for some harrowing, last-minute surprise turnaround victories.
1 Team Role
The main damage role is always going to be where Blade lands in a team. Unlike other characters, Blade’s kit doesn’t have much room for variation. However, he can be a great 3rd wheel to any team composition, so long as it’s arranged around Blade as a damage dealer and assassin. In Midnight Suns’ turn-based fighting, Blade’s thing is that it takes him a few rounds to begin ramping up his bleed stacks.
Lifesteal will help Blade’s survival potential, but one big tip is to level up his Friendship score quickly. Having Cold Blooded, his passive ability, up and running, makes his bleed stacks spread much faster. This makes abilities like The Hunger and Glaive much more viable and quicker too. Otherwise, waiting for Blade to get his damage going can feel slow if players get a bad draw or start.