Bucky Barnes, also known as the Winter Soldier, is one of the most complex Duelists in Marvel Rivals. Whether you're looking to dominate team fights or immerse yourself in his rich lore, this guide will cover everything you need. From gameplay tips to his role on the battlefield, this is your one-stop marvel rivals guide for mastering the Winter Soldier.
Winter Soldier excels as a versatile duelist in the game, offering high burst damage with mid-range capabilities. His gameplay revolves around rapid target elimination and mobility, making him a lethal force in the right hands. With crowd control immunity during certain abilities, he can disrupt the enemy team and escape tight situations effectively.
Winter Soldier is characterised by high damage, excellent utility, and great mobility thanks to his grappling tool. However, he has a relatively low hp compared to Vanguards and requires precise position to maximise damage output. His turret abilities grant immunity to crowd control but can leave him vulnerable to flanking.
Roterstern fires explosive rounds, damaging the target hit and enemies behind them. This primary weapon generates a spell field upon impact. The damage falloff begins at 20m, decreasing to 60% at 40m. Roterstern reloads automatically when other abilities are used, granting bonus health to Winter Soldier in the heat of battle.
This ability allows Winter Soldier to leap high, dash forward, and slam down with his bionic arm, dealing area damage to enemies within a 5m spherical radius. Marked enemies will perish instantly if their health drops below 20%, recharging Kraken Impact for another use within a short period. This is a tank buster when used against heroes with lower health.
Trooper's Fist enables Winter Soldier to dash forward, seizing enemies along the path and launching them into the air at the end of the dash. The attack has dimensions of 4.5m in length, width, and 2m in height, making it highly effective for disrupting multiple enemies and dealing damage in close quarters.
A charged electrical punch with the bionic arm, Tainted Voltage fires in a straight trajectory, piercing through enemies, dealing damage, and slowing targets. This ability can knock down flying heroes, making it a useful tool for crowd control in the heat of battle.
The ability called Bionic Hook launches a charged hook with the bionic arm, reeling in the first target hit and enemies behind it. The projectile travels up to 10m with a 0.5s charge, or up to 20m with a 1s charge. The hook generates a spell field upon impact, adding utility in team fights.
This called Infinite Grit ensures that Roterstern reloads automatically while the bionic arm is in action. It also grants extra health: 40 HP for Bionic Hook and Tainted Voltage, and 50 HP for Trooper’s Fist and Kraken Impact.
Rocket Raccoon throws an ammo overload device in the target direction. Upon entering the device's range, Winter Soldier receives the buffs of infinite ammo and faster firing. This combination makes him an invaluable asset for sustained engagements.
Rocket’s Ammo Overload enables Winter Soldier to maintain infinite ammo and faster firing, creating a relentless barrage of attacks. This makes them an exceptional pair in battles requiring extended damage output.
The synergy between these former allies translates well into marvel rivals. Captain America’s shield offers cover, allowing Winter Soldier to position effectively and eliminate enemies efficiently.
Loki’s crowd control capabilities and healing provide essential support, keeping Winter Soldier alive and enabling him to finish targets quickly.
Hela’s ability to provide constant pressure complements Winter Soldier’s unique abilities. Together, they can dominate mid-range battles and secure key objectives.
With his lower health pool, Winter Soldier should remain near cover to avoid unnecessary damage. Use the grappling hook to reposition quickly, either offensively or defensively. His playstyle revolves around controlling the battlefield through careful positioning and managing cooldowns effectively.
Turret Mode is best used to secure chokepoints or when surrounded by enemies. Keep track of flanking enemies, as the turret leaves your back exposed.
Save Kraken Impact for clustered enemy formations, such as during payload pushes or objective contests. Proper timing can result in devastating team wipes. Another ult worth noting is Namor’s, which pairs well with Winter Soldier to disrupt the enemy team.
Combine your abilities for maximum efficiency: Grapple to high ground, follow with Tainted Voltage to slow enemies, and finish with Kraken Impact. This playstyle ensures you make the most of Winter Soldier’s abilities.
Managing cooldowns is key to ensuring sustained damage. Switch between weapons when one is running low, as alternate weapons reload automatically. Use abilities like Cryo Grenade to control enemy positioning and create openings. Always have an escape route planned using your grappling hook.
Turret Mode’s high damage output can be tempting, but staying in it too long makes you an easy target. Exit if enemies focus you.
Avoid wasting abilities like Cryo Grenade or grappling hook on minor threats. Managing these abilities is critical to success.
Monitor enemy divers such as Spider-Man, Hawkeye, or Black Panther, as they can quickly close gaps and exploit your positioning.
Winter Soldier, also known as Bucky Winter Soldier Barnes, was once Captain America’s closest friend. Presumed dead during World War II, he was captured by Hydra and turned into a brainwashed assassin with a cybernetic arm. After regaining his memories, Bucky gets back on the path of redemption, joining the Avengers and the New Marvel Knights to protect the innocent.
Winter Soldier’s story is one of resilience and redemption. As a Hydra operative, he executed covert missions and assassinations that haunt him to this day. Now, he fights to make amends for his past sins. In Marvel Rivals, Winter Soldier’s abilities reflect his tactical nature. Kraken Impact symbolises his destructive power, while the grappling hook highlights his agility and resourcefulness. Groot can also use his abilities to complement Winter Soldier’s effectiveness in a team comp.
The news streamed in from all over the world. The people in charge were calling it the Timestream Entanglement — a sudden disruption in the fabric of space and time that had sent chaos rippling across countless realities. The heroes of Earth had assembled to face the crisis head on. Not all of them had survived.
"...entire world is in a state of mourning for Steve Rogers, the beloved hero known as Captain America, who was struck down earlier this week when..."
"About damn time," a security officer in a Hydra uniform grunted, cracking a smile as he watched the satellite feed in the monitor station of the hidden Arctic base where he was stationed.
The officer switched the channel to see another news report discussing the theory that Victor von Doom, the ruler of the European nation of Latveria, was behind the Timestream Entanglement.
"Should've been us..." the security officer muttered, looking up at the large, red Hydra logo hanging proudly on the wall. He shook his head in disappointment. He had devoted his life to helping Hydra destabilize the world. And now, some Super Villain in a metal suit had beaten them to the punch. Still, he thought, there would surely be plenty of opportunities for Hydra to benefit from the world's new status quo. And the top-secret experiments being performed on the lower levels of this base were merely the beginning of what was to come...
The officer stood and began his patrol, exiting the monitor station and walking across the hangar to an open bay door. He gazed wistfully out at the snow-swept landing apron beyond.
"Another peaceful night on the edge of nowhere," he said to himself. But he had no idea how soon his words would be proven wrong.
Without warning, a squad of soldiers clad in white Arctic combat gear emblazoned with Hydra's red and black logo, came running toward the door. Before they could reach the safety of the hangar, they began to drop to the ground, one after another, each one with an arrow in their back.
The remaining soldiers turned, their weapons raised, as a hooded figure leapt through the snowy night sky toward them. The twin katanas in his hands flashed in the moonlight, shining brighter than the frost-covered landscape.
In a ballet of flashing steel, the mysterious assailant managed to wipe out the entire Hydra detachment, including the security officer. The first stage of his mission complete, the invader pulled down his hood to reveal the face beneath. It belonged to Clint Barton, the Avenger known as Hawkeye.
As he entered the Hydra base, stepping over the unconscious Hydra soldiers, he tried to get a sense of his surroundings as quickly as possible. There was no time to waste. Someone was waiting for him.
"Hang in there, Bucky," Hawkeye said. "The cavalry's here."
Soon...
After navigating his way into the depths of Mount Erebus, Hawkeye entered Hydra's Super-Soldier Lab. Nine cylindrical glass tanks filled with fluid, each connected to a computer terminal via huge conduits, bubbled and glowed ominously. On the wall, screens cycled through human anatomical diagrams, energy equations, and images of decaying, mutated cells.
Hawkeye stepped closer to the glass tanks, his dual blades in hand, ready for anything. He surveyed the tubes one-by-one, finally stopping at the final tank, which had a label that read "CANARY".
"Jackpot," he said with a grin.
Inside, partially concealed by the thick, glowing fluid, was the man that Hawkeye had been sent to retrieve. James "Bucky" Buchanan Barnes. The assassin known as the Winter Soldier. Before he could begin to set his friend free, though, a shadow unexpectedly passed behind one of the other tanks. Hawkeye looked in that direction, sword at the ready... He paused...
...but nothing...
"Hmm." he muttered. "Nobody home."
He began to sheathe the swords, returning his attention to the Winter Soldier's tank... but instead he pivoted at the last second, parrying as an unseen figure nearly took his head off with a steel-gauntleted fist.
A Hydra Super-Soldier emerged from the shadows. Seven-feet-tall, teeth bared, flesh twisted, madness in his eyes. He bellowed as he charged toward Hawkeye.
Hawkeye dodged and counterattacked, jamming one of his katan into a joint of the Super-Soldier's mutated arm. Quickly realizing that his swords couldn't penetrate the Super-Soldier's dense flesh, Hawkeye changed tactics, trying to stay out of the Super-Soldier's reach and get enough space to use his weapon of choice: his bow and arrows.
As Hawkeye acrobatically bounded towards the other side of the lab, the Super-Soldier dislodged the katana jammed in his arm and threw it aside with tremendous force. The spinning blade shattered the glass of one of the holding tanks, sending glowing fluid splashing everywhere. The attached computer began to short out in a shower of sparks.
Hawkeye was too busy surviving to notice that something in the shattered tank had begun to move. He finally got enough space to raise his bow and notch an arrow, but the Super-Soldier was already on top of him. Hawkeye had nowhere left to go...
As the Super-Soldier swung his enormous fist down toward the archer, a mass of tentacles entangled the brute's arm. The startled Super-Soldier tried to struggle free, but the tentacles were too strong. With a sudden pull, the Super-Soldier was sent sailing through the air, smashing against the wall. Eldritch energy surged through his massive frame, and he slumped to the floor, a lifeless husk.
Hawkeye scanned the room for the source of the tentacles. He was thankful for the save, but not entirely sure that he was ready to discover what new horrors had been unleashed.
There, standing in the shattered tank, dripping with glowing fluid, stood the Winter Soldier. But something had changed about him. Where his cybernetic arm should have been was the same writhing mass of squid-like appendages that had just made quick work of Hydra's experimental enforcer.
Hawkeye stared in astonishment, for once speechless.
"You sure make a lot of noise," the Winter Soldier said as he stepped out of the tank.
"Didn't mean to interrupt your nap," Hawkeye retorted, doing his best to mask his shock and concern with humor. Lowering his bow, Hawkeye retrieved his katana from next to the shattered tank and sheathed it.
"Come on," he said, clearly uncomfortable as he put a hand on his old friend's shoulder — the one without the mass of squirming limbs extending from it. "We'll find a way to fix this. You'll be okay. We just need to get you out of here."
"Not yet," the Winter Soldier replied. "There's something I have to do first."
"What we have to do is go back up to the landing platform," Hawkeye said.
"Gotta go down before we go up, Clint," the Winter Soldier responded. "And I'm gonna need your help. Please."
Hawkeye was taken aback. The Winter Soldier wasn't one to say "please." He could tell that this — whatever it was — was important to Bucky. It was enough to make Hawkeye push down his instinct to get the hell out of Hydra Town.
"Well..." Hawkeye said with a sigh, "I guess if it was easy, anybody could do it..."
Hawkeye followed the Winter Soldier into a vast space, with lines of giant robot-like vehicles in various stages of construction. As they crossed an elevated catwalk that traversed the room, they heard shouting and the thudding of boot heels rapidly approaching. Hydra was on their trail. Wherever they were going, they would have to move fast.
Reaching a heavy door, they entered a chamber with a vaulted ceiling supported by pillars at least a hundred feet tall, each carved to look like a horrific monster. A portal yawned on one wall, with ancient energy radiating from it. Something was trying to come through from the other side.. and even though Hawkeye could see it, his brain couldn't process what the hell it was.
The Winter Soldier approached an altar near the portal and climbed on top of it. Hawkeye followed reluctantly. The Winter Soldier extended his tentacles into the carvings on the altar, each one naturally sliding into the ancient stone grooves, as if they had been carved ages ago for this very moment.
Fragmented memories flooded the Winter Soldier's already fractured mind. He relived the day he first infiltrated Hydra's secret base, getting as far as the Hive chamber. He had tried to destroy it then, but failed. Hydra soldiers overwhelmed him and tore off his cybernetic arm. Before he knew what was happening, he was sealed inside a glass tank, tiny nubs of tentacles growing from his shoulder socket, his teeth bared in a permanent scream.
Snapping back to reality, the Winter Soldier steeled himself, realizing what he had to do. Hawkeye glanced nervously from Bucky to the mass of Hydra soldiers that had just forced their way into the chamber.
"You'd better make this quick, Buck," Hawkeye said.
"Clint..." the Winter Soldier responded, gazing back at the portal behind him. Tentacles strangely similar to his own had begun to break through the membrane between realities. "How sharp are those swords of yours?"
"Sharp enough to cut down an entire Hydra army," Hawkeye said proudly. But his face dropped as he realized he had no idea what his friend was about to ask him to do. "Why?"
"We have to close that portal," the Winter Soldier said. "And let's face it... I can't exactly wear this thing to the next Avengers cookout anyway..."
Hawkeye glanced at the Winter Soldier's bizarre new arm and took a deep breath. He had come here to save his friend, not to cause him more pain. But this was Bucky's call... and it wasn't like the guy hadn't lost an arm before...
"Fine," Hawkeye said after a long pause. "Say when."
As the creature emerging from the portal wrapped its tentacle around the Winter Soldier's waist, the altar began to glow. It was almost as if a circuit had been completed, and the Winter Soldier was the conduit. Mystical power coursed between the altar and the portal, overloading Bucky's body with energy and agony.
"When!" the Winter Soldier screamed.
With a single clean slice, Hawkeye's blade severed the entire bunch of tentacles just below Bucky's shoulder, releasing a huge shockwave of energy, knocking both heroes and their Hydra pursuers to the ground.
A rumble echoed through the chamber, deep cracks forming in the surrounding walls, pillars beginning to topple. Then, for a moment everything fell silent... until the portal surged with energy and the monster coming through it howled in pain, retreating back to the other side.
When the dust cleared, Hawkeye and the Winter Soldier pulled themselves to their feet. With a quick survey of the room, reality set in. They had succeeded in stopping whatever was happening down here, but they had also cut off any escape routes in the process.
"Guess you shouldn't have come after me..." the Winter Soldier said.
"Don't say that," Hawkeye replied. "I was just doing my job."
"You were a hell of a soldier, Clint..." Bucky said, ready to accept the inevitable as the pillars shifted and rubble began to rain down towards them. The chamber was about to collapse and Hawkeye and the Winter Soldier knew full well that this mission would be their last.
Suddenly, the ancient portal began to glow again. Bucky and Clint braced for the worst, not knowing what horrors might come through it this time. But neither of them could have possibly prepared for what they saw next.
A round, metallic object launched through the portal at tremendous speed, ricocheting through the chamber. Chunks of falling debris shattered into tiny pebbles that sprinkled down upon the heroes harmlessly.
"What the —?!" the Winter Soldier gasped. He was completely shocked, but also moderately annoyed by the fact that, once again, this world wasn't done with him quite yet.
A figure burst forth from the mystical gateway, lunging forward and catching the metal disc in midair. He used it to effortlessly deflect a huge stone a split second before it could crush the bewildered heroes below. The stone didn't even make a dent in his brightly polished red, white, and blue shield.
"Bucky," Captain America said, landing on the chamber floor and extending his hand to his former partner. "It's been too long."
Both Hawkeye and the Winter Soldier stared in awe, fighting through the pain and exhaustion to try and process what they were seeing. Wasn't Cap supposed to be... dead...?
"Sorry I missed your funeral, old timer..." the Winter Soldier said.
"Sorry I went to your funeral," Hawkeye chimed in. "Clearly, you didn't need one."
"I'm... not the Steve Rogers you knew..." Cap said, trying to find the words to explain. "It's a long story. One even I don't fully understand yet. And one that we unfortunately don't have time for at the moment. My friends in Wakanda were able to hijack and redirect this portal's energy signature to open a gateway of their own, but there's no guarantee how long they'll be able to keep it open..."
Hawkeye and the Winter Soldier looked at each other and shrugged. This was far from the weirdest thing that had happened to them today. And they were willing to wait for the full story if it meant they could get out of Hydra's house right now.
"I was pretty sure we were gonna die down here," Hawkeye said.
"Wasn't about to let that happen," Cap said confidently. "Nobody gets left behind."
"Glad you're not dead, Steve," Bucky said, collapsing into Cap's arms. "Umm... I think I'm gonna need a hand..."
"Looks like you need more than that, Buck..." Cap said, looking at the oozing stumps on the Winter Soldier's shoulder.
"You know arms," the Winter Soldier said, forcing a grin. "Easy come, easy go."
"Can't say the same about partners," Cap said back.
The Winter Soldier looked over at Hawkeye, nodding at the man who had rescued him. Hawkeye nodded back knowingly.
"Couldn't agree more..." the Winter Soldier said.
Moments later, in a crackle of energy, the heroes stepped out of the portal. They weren't anywhere near Hydra's frozen base. That was instantly clear. In fact, it didn't even look like they were on Earth anymore. The strange chronal energies of the Timestream Entanglement ripped across a star-filled sky as they gazed in disbelief at the spaceport of a futuristic city. If this was Wakanda, it certainly wasn't the one that Bucky and Clint knew.
As the portal closed behind them, the heroes were greeted with a Wakandan salute from the Black Panther himself. Cap raised his hand to his forehead, offering a salute of his own. Hawkeye and the Winter Soldier remained silent and still, trying to assess their new situation.
Shuri, the sister of the Black Panther and the brilliant mind behind some of Wakanda's most impressive inventions, stepped forward and offered a box to the newly-arrived heroes. Clint took the container and held it with both hands as Bucky flipped open the lid with the one he had left. Inside was a cutting-edge cybernetic arm.
"I was told you might need this," Cap said, "so I called in a favor."
Bucky picked up the arm with his good hand and snapped it into place. It was a perfect fit.
"And now, I'm going to need a favor from you..." Cap said.
The Winter Soldier didn't know what Captain America was about to ask him, but he wasn't about to say no. Whatever came next, he would be there 'til the end of the line.
Mastering Winter Soldier in Marvel Rivals requires practice and a deep understanding of his unique abilities. By honing your positioning, leveraging synergies, and avoiding common mistakes, you can turn him into a battlefield powerhouse. Channel the indomitable spirit of the Winter Soldier and lead your team to victory!
