Deadpool has arrived in Marvel Rivals as the most mechanically complex hero the game has ever seen. He can fully switch between three distinct roles during a single match: Vanguard (Tank), Duelist (DPS), and Strategist (Healer). This guide covers everything you need to know about playing Deadpool effectively, from his core mechanics to strategies for each role and team compositions.
What Makes Deadpool Unique
Every other hero in Marvel Rivals locks into a single role for the entire match. Deadpool refuses to play by those rules. He can adapt to whatever your team needs by swapping roles whenever you return to spawn.
This flexibility comes with significant complexity. Deadpool has three complete kits layered on top of one another, each with different secondary abilities, health pools, and battlefield functions. His base weapons and passive abilities stay consistent across all roles, but his secondary attacks, utility abilities, and ultimates transform completely based on which version you select.
In competitive modes, this creates a unique drafting situation. Opponents can only ban one version of Deadpool per ban phase. Even if your enemies ban Duelist Deadpool, you can still play Vanguard or Strategist versions. You'd need three separate bans to completely remove Deadpool from a match.
Health Pool Differences by Role
Your survivability changes dramatically based on which role you choose:
Core Mechanics for All Roles
Before diving into abilities for each role, you need to understand the universal mechanics that define Deadpool's gameplay regardless of which version you play.
The Dual Weapon System
Deadpool always has access to two weapon sets that you can swap between freely using the Shift key:
Dual Desert Eagles (Guns): These twin hand cannons provide ranged pressure and let you deal damage from a safe distance. Each magazine holds 30 shots before requiring a reload. In Strategist form, shooting allies with these guns directly heals them.
Kick@$$ Katana (Swords): Switching to melee unleashes combo attacks for close range burst damage. In Strategist form, striking enemies with katanas sends healing waves to nearby allies.
Healing Factor Passive
Deadpool regenerates health automatically while out of combat, letting him disengage from fights and re enter without relying on Strategist healing or health packs. This passive works identically across all three roles.
When Deadpool takes heavy damage that would kill him, he can also briefly become invincible and rapidly heal. This effectively gives him a second life similar to Wolverine's resurrection mechanic.
Style Meter and Ultimate Charging
Most heroes in Marvel Rivals charge their ultimates passively over time. Deadpool works differently. He builds a Style Meter by dealing damage and landing abilities successfully. When the Style Meter reaches "S" rank, Deadpool can unleash his ultimate ability.
The Upgrade System (Progression Book)
Deadpool earns XP during matches by dealing damage to enemies. When your XP bar fills completely, you can press the F key to open the Progression Book, a comic book style menu where you select one ability to upgrade.
Upgraded abilities gain buffed effects, faster Style Meter generation, and gold visual effects that indicate the ability has been improved.
You can also earn bonus XP beyond normal damage by landing the final hit on enemy eliminations and taking selfies with fallen enemies (press F when prompted after a kill).
The selfie mechanic serves a dual purpose. While taking photos with defeated enemies, Deadpool becomes completely invincible. Skilled players can time this invulnerability to negate incoming burst damage or even waste enemy ultimate abilities.
Bunny Hop Movement
Deadpool has access to a double jump ability that varies slightly by role but follows similar principles across all versions. The basic double jump deals damage if you land on an enemy's head, and the cooldown resets if you successfully bounce off an enemy, ally (in some roles), or wall.
Bunny Hop provides vertical mobility that many heroes lack. Bouncing off enemies grants Bonus Health, and cooldown resets allow for extended aerial engagements. You can also use it to rapidly generate Style Meter in certain situations.
Vanguard Deadpool: The Disruptive Tank
Vanguard Deadpool focuses on space control and disruption rather than traditional damage soaking like other tanks. His 500 HP health pool combined with Healing Factor makes him deceptively difficult to kill when played correctly.
Vanguard Abilities
Magical Unicorn Shield (Right Click with Guns)
Deadpool throws a plush unicorn toy forward. When it lands, the toy generates a spherical shield bubble that blocks enemy projectiles and abilities. Upgrading this ability creates a significantly larger bubble with approximately 400 hitpoints worth of protection.
Place this shield aggressively to claim space, not passively behind your team. One effective tactic is throwing the shield just behind the enemy frontline, isolating their tanks from their backline support while you apply pressure.
Hazardous Hijinks (Right Click with Katanas)
A forward dashing slash with three charges. Each hit on an enemy refreshes the cooldown and launches you in your chosen direction, allowing for extended combo chains. This ability knocks down enemies on hit, and you can continue chaining even if you yourself get knocked down.
Use this as your primary tool for sticking to targets in close quarters and farming Style Meter rapidly.
Deadpool in Your Area (E Ability)
Activating this taunt creates an area of effect around Deadpool that deals continuous damage to enemies within range, disrupts enemy vision with visual clutter, drains Deadpool's own HP as a cost, and grants increased attack speed for both guns and katanas.
The attack speed boost transforms your Desert Eagles into a full automatic turbo mode. Try activating this ability, then immediately swapping to guns to maximize DPS output.
With upgrades, this ability also provides Damage Reduction to allies within the area. Enemies who remain in the taunt zone too long have additional portions of their screen blocked.
Bunny Bounce (Space)
The Vanguard version of the double jump bounces off enemies or terrain to deal damage and reset cooldowns. During The Big Test ultimate, the cooldown also resets when bouncing off walls, enabling near constant aerial pressure.
Vanguard Ultimate Abilities
Deadpool has two ultimates as a Vanguard, determined by which weapon you're holding when you activate it:
The Ban Hammer (Gun Ultimate)
Select an enemy to taunt while gaining Bonus Health and Healing Over Time. The targeted enemy suffers continuous damage throughout the duration. If they miss any ability during the effect, they take extra damage and Deadpool gains additional Bonus Health.
This ultimate is devastating against players with inconsistent aim or those prone to panic firing abilities.
The Big Test (Sword Ultimate)
Initiates a challenge where Deadpool must hit a certain number of enemies with indicated abilities within a time limit (approximately 12 seconds to hit 5 enemies). During this state, Deadpool gains minor speed boost, healing over time, Bonus Health for himself and surrounding allies, extra charges of Hazardous Hijinks, and Bunny Bounce cooldown resets on walls.
Successfully completing the "Jackpot" challenge by hitting enough enemies grants greatly increased speed and healing, and resets your Healing Factor cooldown for near immortality.
Upgrading this ultimate adds even more Bonus Health and causes additional hits after Jackpot to grant Bonus Health to Deadpool and nearby allies.
Vanguard Upgrade Priorities
For Vanguard Deadpool, focus your upgrades on shield duration and size for better space control, Bunny Bounce functionality for improved mobility and resets, and Deadpool in Your Area for the ally Damage Reduction buff.
Duelist Deadpool: The Burst Damage Assassin
Duelist Deadpool sacrifices durability for damage output, sitting at only 250 HP but gaining high burst potential and abilities that reset on hit. This role focuses on eliminating priority targets quickly through aggressive combos.
Duelist Abilities
Headshot! (Right Click with Guns)
Deadpool removes his avatar icon and throws it forward. The icon spins in place, slashing anyone near its thrown location, then returns to Deadpool.
With upgrades, you can catch the returning avatar and throw it up to two more times in quick succession. On the third throw, the icon explodes in a small area of effect for massive damage. This creates substantial teamfight value when you can consistently catch and rethrow the projectile.
Hazardous Hijinks (Right Click with Katanas)
Similar to the Vanguard version but starts with only two charges instead of three. Each hit refreshes the cooldown and launches you in your chosen direction.
Upgrading this ability removes the cooldown entirely as long as you continue hitting opponents. The slashes no longer combo in the traditional sense. Instead, they allow Deadpool to bounce off hit targets into the air for repositioning and continued pursuit.
Deadpool in Your Area (E Ability)
The Duelist version taunts enemies and deals continuous damage while disrupting their vision, but instead of attack speed, Deadpool gains Damage Reduction. This survivability buff is crucial given the Duelist's lower health pool.
With upgrades, the ability melts enemy HP more quickly and provides even stronger Damage Reduction. Enemies who remain in the zone too long have their UI partially hidden, including their health bar and ultimate meter.
Bunny Hop (Space)
The standard double jump that deals damage when landing on enemies and grants Bonus Health. Cooldown resets when bouncing off enemy heads or walls. Unlike Vanguard, this version doesn't interact with allies.
Duelist Ultimate Abilities
Skill Issue (Gun Ultimate)
Select an enemy to taunt. Every time that targeted enemy misses an ability or attack during the duration, a small version of Deadpool appears and hits them for damage instances.
With upgrades, enemies continuously lose HP regardless of whether they miss, and missed abilities cause additional damage plus a Vulnerability debuff for a short time.
Pop Quiz! (Sword Ultimate)
Deadpool enters a state of increased speed and self healing but must hit five enemies within 10 seconds using indicated abilities to unlock the "Jackpot" bonus. Successfully completing the challenge grants a massive speed and healing buff for a short duration.
Upgrading adds a damage boost to the base effects. Achieving Jackpot also resets all ability cooldowns except Healing Factor, enabling devastating follow up plays.
Duelist Upgrade Priorities
For Duelist Deadpool, focus your upgrades on Hazardous Hijinks for the infinite dash chains on hit, Headshot! for the explosion combo on the third throw, and Kick@$$ Katana for guaranteed critical stabs after Bunny Hop.
Duelist Core Combos
Your primary damage loop as Duelist Deadpool involves engaging with Hazardous Hijinks dashes to close distance, activating Deadpool in Your Area for damage reduction, chaining Katana left clicks with Hazardous Hijinks for continuous damage, using Bunny Hop to stomp enemies for Bonus Health and guaranteed critical stabs (when upgraded), and swapping to guns to throw Headshot! for ranged burst when enemies try to disengage.
Strategist Deadpool: The Hybrid Support
Strategist Deadpool provides sustained healing while remaining more durable than most support heroes at 350 HP. He functions as a hybrid support who stays close to the frontline rather than healing from the backline.
How Strategist Healing Works
Before you can play Strategist Deadpool well, you need to understand how his healing actually functions:
Gun Healing: Shooting allies with the Dual Desert Eagles directly heals them on impact. This is your primary method for healing distant teammates.
Katana Healing: Hitting enemies with melee attacks sends healing waves to nearby allies. This means you must actively engage in combat to heal your team. You can't heal by swinging at allies with swords.
Strategist Abilities
Bouncing Bobblehead (Right Click with Guns)
Deadpool throws his avatar like a boomerang. The projectile damages enemies along its path while healing allies it passes through, then returns to Deadpool.
With upgrades, catching the bobblehead allows you to throw it two more times in quick succession. On the third throw, it explodes for large area healing to allies and damage to enemies.
Healing Hijinks (Right Click with Katanas)
A forward dash that slashes enemies while unleashing waves of healing to nearby allies. Use this for mobile healing, dashing through combat while keeping your team alive.
Upgrading allows bouncing movement similar to Tankpool, chaining dashes between positions and maximizing healing output across your team.
Deadpool in Your Area (E Ability)
Creates a healing zone for allies while dealing continuous damage to enemies and disrupting their vision. This is your most powerful area healing tool.
With upgrades, allies within the zone also receive a damage boost for a short time, making this ability valuable for both healing and damage amplification during teamfights.
Healing Hop (Space)
The double jump deals damage to enemies but provides a short burst of healing when bouncing on allied teammates. Cooldown resets when bouncing off walls, enemies, or allies.
Strategist Ultimate Abilities
Pwnage Pound (Gun Ultimate)
Select an enemy to taunt. They take continuous damage, and if they miss any ability during the effect, they take extra damage while nearby allies gain Healing Over Time. Whenever the enemy takes damage from this ultimate, Deadpool and allies within range gain additional healing.
This ultimate is ideal for concentrated fights in small areas, as the healing rates increase with more enemies taking damage from the effect.
Final Exam (Sword Ultimate)
Activates a healing field that provides Healing Over Time to Deadpool and nearby allies. Hitting seven enemies within 10 seconds using indicated abilities triggers the "Jackpot" bonus for greatly increased healing.
Upgrading with Jackpot causes the healing aura to also grant Bonus Health and resets Deadpool's Healing Factor cooldown.
Strategist Upgrade Priorities
For Strategist Deadpool, focus your upgrades on healing output increases for your primary abilities, zone radius for Deadpool in Your Area, and Bouncing Bobblehead for the explosion on the third throw.
Complete Upgrade Reference
Here's a breakdown of all ability upgrades across all three roles:
Universal Upgrades (Apply to Multiple Roles)
| Ability | Upgrade Effect |
|---|---|
| Dual Desert Eagles | After shooting enough times, builds a thought bubble that flies toward enemies and explodes. In Strategist form, explosion also heals allies. |
| Kick@$$ Katana | Slashes can deal critical hits (stabs). After Bunny Hop on enemy, next attack is guaranteed critical for significantly more damage. |
| Hazardous Hijinks | Removes cooldown while hitting opponents. Bounce off hit targets into air. Strategist version adds healing waves. |
| Deadpool in Your Area | Improved base effects. Enemies who stay too long have UI elements hidden including health bar and ultimate meter. |
Role Specific Upgrades
| Role | Ability | Upgrade Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Vanguard | Magical Unicorn Shield | Much larger spherical shield that absorbs more damage before disappearing. |
| Duelist | Headshot! | Catch returns for 2 additional throws. Third throw explodes for area damage. |
| Strategist | Bouncing Bobblehead | Catch returns for 2 additional throws. Third throw explodes for area damage and healing. |
Ultimate Upgrades
All ultimates can be upgraded through the Progression Book, generally adding increased damage or healing values, additional Bonus Health generation, improved speed and survivability buffs, and Healing Factor cooldown resets on successful Jackpot completions.
Team Compositions and Synergies
Deadpool's adaptability allows him to fit into virtually any team composition. Rather than building around Deadpool specifically, he can select his role to complement whatever heroes your teammates choose.
Heroes That Synergize With Deadpool
Deadpool's aggressive playstyle and scaling through momentum work best alongside heroes who can match his aggression:
- Emma Frost (Vanguard) provides frontline presence that Deadpool can play around.
- Magneto (Vanguard) offers crowd control and bubble shields to protect more fragile Deadpool forms.
- Daredevil (Duelist) is an aggressive skirmisher who can capitalize on Deadpool's disruption.
- Invisible Woman (Strategist) provides additional support and protection.
- Gambit (Strategist) stacks healing well with Deadpool's support capabilities.
- Storm (Duelist) brings area denial and damage that compounds with Deadpool's buffs.
- Loki (Strategist) pairs misdirection with Deadpool's chaotic playstyle.
The Jeff the Land Shark Team Up
Deadpool has a unique Team Up ability called "Comical Chaos" with Jeff the Land Shark. When paired together, Deadpool hands Jeff a unicorn plushie with special properties. Jeff can spit the plushie forward onto the battlefield, where it continuously taunts nearby enemies and blocks their vision. Allies within range receive healing from the plushie's effect.
This Team Up works well with all three Deadpool roles, as the healing and disruption stack effectively with any version of Deadpool's kit. It's particularly strong with Strategist Deadpool for maximum healing output.
Composition Considerations
Deadpool fits effectively into triple Support or triple Tank lineups as the flexible hybrid character. His ability to provide damage, tanking, or healing depending on the situation makes him valuable for filling gaps in unconventional compositions.
When drafting with Deadpool, consider going Vanguard if your team lacks frontline presence, Duelist if your team needs burst damage or target elimination, and Strategist if your team needs sustained healing without sacrificing frontline pressure.
Countering Deadpool
Deadpool is most dangerous in late game once he has accumulated upgrades and can chain abilities together effectively. Coordinated teams can shut him down by applying pressure early before he reaches power spikes.
Effective Counter Picks
| Counter Hero | Why It Works |
|---|---|
| Hawkeye | Long range pressure limits Style generation. Burst damage and stun trap catch Deadpool off guard. |
| Magneto | Disrupts combo chains with crowd control. Bubbles protect teammates from burst. |
| Black Panther | High burst damage eliminates Deadpool before sustain mechanics become relevant. |
| Storm | Area denial prevents melee engagement where Deadpool excels. |
| Iron Man | Flight keeps him out of melee range while dealing consistent damage from above. |
| The Punisher | Ranged capabilities deny Deadpool opportunities to close distance. |
General Counter Strategy
Focus Deadpool early in matches before he accumulates upgrades. His impact is lower before progression upgrades are secured, and he needs time and successful engagements to ramp into peak effectiveness.
Deadpool's mobility is relatively limited compared to many Duelists. While Bunny Hop provides some vertical movement, it won't get you far enough away from dangerous attacks. Characters who can maintain distance or lock down areas effectively counter his need to get close.
Strategic Tips for Effectiveness
Role Assessment Between Deaths
Deadpool's greatest strength lies in his adaptability, not any single role. Strong players reassess the match state between every respawn and adjust accordingly. If your frontline is collapsing, Vanguard can stabilize with disruption and space control. If your team lacks damage output, Duelist can punish enemy mistakes. If sustain is the problem, Strategist keeps your team in fights longer.
Managing Early Game Weakness
Deadpool starts weaker than specialists in each role by design. His true power appears once key ability upgrades are unlocked. Accept that early fights may not go in your favor and focus on farming XP through damage and final hits, taking selfies for bonus XP and invulnerability practice, and building toward your first upgrade as quickly as possible.
Ultimate Timing Considerations
Despite being able to charge your ultimate relatively quickly through aggressive play, the 45 second cooldown after each use means you can't spam ultimates. Save your ultimate for impactful moments: teamfights where the bonus effects will matter, situations where the Jackpot challenge is achievable, and defensive scenarios where the healing or survivability will save your team.
Using ultimates carelessly in minor skirmishes leaves you without this powerful tool when it matters most.
Selfie Invulnerability Technique
The Photo Shoot ability that triggers on fallen enemies gives you more than bonus XP. The invulnerability frames are a legitimate defensive tool. Time your selfies to negate incoming burst damage, waste enemy ultimate abilities, and survive situations that would otherwise kill you.
This requires practice and awareness of enemy cooldowns but can completely change fight outcomes.
Weapon Swapping Fundamentals
Never commit exclusively to guns or swords. Effective Deadpool play requires constant weapon swapping. Use pistols for safe poke and ranged pressure, and use katanas for close range damage and mobility. Swap based on current spacing, not personal preference. In Strategist form, swap based on whether you need to heal distant allies (guns) or generate area healing through combat (katanas).
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Unmatched Role Flexibility: Single hero pick fills Vanguard, Duelist, or Strategist needs
- Powerful Survivability: Multiple defensive mechanics make him deceptively hard to kill
- Scaling Through Momentum: Becomes progressively stronger throughout matches
- Ban Resistance: Opponents can only ban one version per phase
- High Complexity: Steep learning curve with multiple overlapping kits
- Early Game Vulnerability: Lower impact before progression upgrades
- Execution Demands: Mastering three kits requires significant experience
- Ultimate Cooldown Restrictions: 45 second cooldown punishes poor timing
Conclusion
Deadpool rewards players who understand match flow and willingly adapt their role to meet current needs. Playing him well means reading teamfights, recognizing gaps in your composition, and filling those gaps through intelligent role swapping.
Focus on learning one role thoroughly before expanding to others. The mechanical skills and ability timings translate between roles, making it easier to pick up additional versions once you've mastered one. Prioritize upgrade knowledge, ultimate timing, and weapon swap awareness across all roles for consistent performance.
Deadpool brings remarkable flexibility to Marvel Rivals, but that flexibility demands equally strong game knowledge to use effectively.