Players can participate in a new gaming mode, called the Cosmic Crucible in MSF, which consists of varying tournaments and rooms.
Marvel Strike Force (MSF) is a thrilling game that invites players to step into the well renowned Marvel Universe to save the world from enemies.
As the game’s name suggests, it is based on the popular franchise, Marvel. As such, you will likely experience similar superheroes, super villains, content, and storylines in this game.
Players get the opportunity to acquire and play with their favourite supervillains and superheroes as they advance in the game.
In addition to the main questline, you can play in various gaming modes. The game’s developer, Scopely recently added a new gaming mode called the Cosmic Crucible.
What are the gaming modes?
The game has a variety of gameplay modes, and each has its own rules and rewards. The gaming modes and a description of each are:
| Gaming mode | Description |
| Campaign | Players can complete the main storyline to discover Ultimus’ true intentions |
| Events | Events are time limited and they allow you to play the story from the perspective of other characters |
| Arena | You can challenge other commanders and their teams to reach a higher ranking on the Global Leaderboard |
| Blitz | This mode enables you to challenge other commanders and their teams to unlock new characters |
| Alliance Raids | It is an Alliance-exclusive gaming mode in which players can raid Ultimus to get upgrade materials |
| Alliance War | This mode allows players to form Alliances and challenge other Alliances |
| Challenges | You can defeat Ultimus’ army to get materials that can be used to upgrade your characters |
MSF: Cosmic Crucible
It is alleged that Scopely introduces new content, characters, and gaming modes to keep players interested in MSF. They recently added the Cosmic Crucible, but it has experienced some controversy.
Cosmic Crucible is a Swiss-Style tournament, where players are matched against a different player for each trial. These tournaments are part of a season, and supposedly each one has different room rules and distinct rewards.
Commanders who are on level 60 or higher will be rounded up into 8-person brackets based on their Tribunal Ratings.
The developers are calling the gaming mode’s first season the pre-season, as it is a chance for them to solve potential problems before season 1. The pre-season kicked off on 13 May 2022, and season 1 will allegedly commence a few months later.
You have to defend 6 stages, similarly to the Alliance War, each of which offers your characters bonuses or restrictions. Moreover, every season will have Global Rules that grant all the rooms certain bonuses.
Each Tournament has 3 trials that last 24 hours. You have to attack and eliminate the 6 defences of your opponent, but you only have a limited number of attacks for each room.
It is recommended that players plan their strategy carefully and accordingly before jumping into battle.
You win trials if you defeat more rooms than your opponent. To keep track of this, a Victory Point system prioritises which stage clears first.
Then it focuses on the number of offensive attempts, turn bonus, health characters, and knockouts. If there is a tie, the player with the highest TCP wins.
Rewards
It is important to note that the rewards you earn are based on your Division. The higher your placement is, the better your rewards will be.
Players can advance to the next division by achieving high rankings in tournaments, which increases their tribunal rating.
You will get Crucible Credits for every knockout in a match. Crucible Credits can be spent in the Crucible Store on items like Purple, Orange, and Teal gear pieces.
You can earn additional Crucible Credits and Elite Crucible Credits from your placement at the end of every tournament.
Should players be offensive or defensive?
If you knew the roster of the person you are facing in a round, you could have created your roster to be more focused on defence or offence.
Unfortunately, MSF players do not know which roster they will face, but you do know who you are going to face. This means that you will get the opportunity to look at the other players’ TCPs.
By looking at the other players’ TCPs, you can get an idea of the types of heroes in their roster. If you are at a disadvantage compared to the other players, you can be more offensive for a chance to earn your knockout rewards.
That being said, certain team formations perform better in offensive or defensive battles. Thus, you should carefully decide what type of battle you want to play before selecting your characters.
What teams should MSF players use?
It is important to note that the team formation you can use highly depends on the roster, as each roster differs. Some high value teams that all players should look out for are:
- Darkhold
- Eternals, Wakanda, Young Avengers, and Weapon X
- Web Warriors and New Warriors are very useful in defensive situations
- Secret Avengers and Uncanny X-Men are recommended for offensive battles
- Situational teams include A-Force, AxMen, X-Factor, Dark Hunters, Heroes of Hier, and Black Order
- AxCanny and Inhumans with NW are good hybrids