After Marvel Rivals’ latest patch buffed Moon Knight’s ultimate ability, Hand of Khonshu, I noticed it was melting my teammates. I had already considered the AoE attack—which has a super-quick cast time and a decent radius of almost immediate damage—one of the most effective damage dealers in the game, then when it became even more powerful in the current season I didn’t question it. But it turns out its devastating efficiency might actually be a bug.
Hand of Khonshu rains down talons from the sky that are supposed to dish out 75 damage per hit, according to Marvel Rivals’ official description. However, fans have done some testing, and it turns out that each talon does twice that, meaning if you’re a squishy hero caught in the ult for even a brief window, you will likely be shredded to pieces. Reddit user Sidewaysgts uploaded a video onto the Marvel Rivals subreddit showcasing what appears to be inconsistency with how developer NetEase describes the ability. One talon is shown doing 150 damage to one of the training bots in the game’s practice range. There does appear to be some kind of damage drop-off, as one bot who is further away from the talon’s impact zone seemingly only takes the advertised 75 damage. Sidewaysgts hypothesizes that each talon may be producing two AoE fields, but it’s unclear if this is a bug or if Marvel Rivals lacks clarity on how the ability works.
Bug or not, Moon Knight’s ult is one of the most powerful in Marvel Rivals right now, thanks to casting so quickly and killing most characters in seconds, all for little effort. Even Vanguard players, who use some of the bulkiest characters in the game, are noting how odd it is that Hand of Khonshu is taking out tanky heroes like Hulk or Thor so quickly. The math isn’t mathing. We’ve reached out to NetEase for clarity on the situation, and will update the story if we hear back.
I guess if this turns out to be a bug, I’ll need to update Moon Knight’s placement on our ranking of the Duelist heroes. He’s still a great hero at claiming space, but not having the ability to Thanos snap a bunch of enemies off the map in a split second would be a major hit. For more on Marvel Rivals, check out Kotaku’s review.