Annihilators | Marvel Church (2024)

Introduction

Shaking up the Arena Meta and joining the MSF fray are the new cosmic characters – Thanos (Endgame), Gorr, and Gladiator. Together with Ultimus and Silver Surfer, they are forming the Annihilators team. This team is heralding a new Era in MSF where characters will have higher base stats, will rely less on stat boosts from their Passive abilities, and overall will have simpler and more digestible kits and abilities.

Each of the new Annihilators will bring a strong mechanic to the game; most of them can be used in all game modes, while some will be locked behind Arena. One of the most interesting and likely most impactful ones will be the ability to remove Safeguard with Thanos (Endgame).

Team Members

(left to right)

• Gladiator
• Ultimus
• Silver Surver
• Thanos (Endgame)
• Gorr

Utility

• Arena
• one of the future Trials

The main focus of this team will undoubtedly be Arena, where they will be used on both offense and defense. Newer or midgame players will be able to utilize the whole team, while endgame players will have to replace Silver Surfer and Ultimus with Mythic characters if they want to compete for the top Arena Ranks.

Annihilators were also announced to be one of the teams used for a future Legendary character.

While on paper, Annihilators are an Arena team, they can also be used to some extent in other game modes, and while they won’t topple any meta Crucible or War teams, they will be a perfectly decent team, mainly thanks to their unique abilities which, if used properly, will be very valuable.

Thanos (Endgame) and Gorr will be excellent picks for Cosmic sections of Dark Dimensions. Gladiator can also be considered for that, and while usually, pre-taunt Protectors don’t perform as well in Dark Dimensions, if you take in Gorr and Thanos, having Gladiator too will be beneficial. Silver Surfer and Ultimus can also be decent picks for Dark Dimension, although Surfer is expensive and shares a unique with Apocalypse so he can be skipped.

Team Placement & Turn Order

Gladiator is a pre-Taunting Protector, and since targets will focus on him early on, it’s best to place him in a corner to mitigate any potential splash damage. There are 2 options as to who we can place next to him – Thanos or Ultimus. On one hand, Thanos has a great Passive ability that triggers when he falls below 50% Health, and if we want that to happen as quickly as possible, having Thanos next to Gladiator is a good idea. Alternatively, we can place Thanos in a different spot, while Ultimus can be next to Gladiator. Ultimus, as long as his Passive is maxed, has a 60% Block Chance and high Health, so any Splash/Chain damage won’t hurt him as much as the others, especially if you have him built up high. Gorr will be in the other corner, with Surfer in the middle and Thanos between them.

Silver Surfer also has a lot of Health and a good self-sustaining mechanic, so if he’s bigger than Ultimus he can go next to Gladiator. Otherwise, the center spot is great for him since enemy AI prefers to target the center. Considering that early on Thanos will have fewer Yellow/Red Stars, it might be better to keep him safe and far from Gladiator.

Turn Order:

1. Gorr
2. Silver Surfer
3. Thanos (Endgame)
4. Ultimus / Gladiator

Gorr is the fastest character on the team and will take the first turn unless there are enemies who Spawn or gain Taunt before any Annihilators can take a turn because in that case Ultimus will gain bonus Speed Bar and will end up going first. In a prolonged battle, Silver Surfer will also gain bonus Speed, so after his first turn he will already have more Speed than Gorr and will take turns more often. If there are no Taunting characters, Gladiator and Ultimus share the same Speed Stat, so it will be a coin flip in terms of who takes the last turn.

Iso-8 Classes

• Thanos (Endgame) – Striker/Raider
• Gorr – Raider/Striker
• Ultimus – Raider/Striker
• Gladiator – Fortifier
• Silver Surfer – Raider/Skirmisher

Thanos (Endgame) – will benefit from an attacker Iso, like Striker or Raider. Due to a high Health stat and since his Striker attack can rewind the Speed Bar of enemies, even if it’s not by a lot, Striker seems like the better option for him. That said, Raider is a very strong alternative since his Special and Ultimate will hit multiple targets, and that can deal a lot of damage if he Crits, as well as apply tons of Vulnerable effects.

Gorr – is similar to Thanos in that both Striker and Raider can be a good option for him. Striker can be great for Gorr because all enemies killed by him won’t be able to revive; that’s why having the Striker Iso attack can be beneficial since it’s another opportunity for him to eliminate someone. On the other hand, Raider will allow Gorr to deal more damage because his attacks deal Piercing damage, and Crits will be more dangerous. Having the Raider class will also allow him to apply more Vulnerable effects since his Special and Ultimate will hit multiple targets.

In a full Annihilators team, you can interchange Striker/Raider classes between Thanos and Gorr until you find the option you prefer most. In our opinion, having Thanos as Striker and Gorr is Raider will be the optimal solution. Although there is also the possibility of having them both as Strikers, while Ultimus and Surfer are Raiders. This should provide enough Vulnerable effects for both of them to exploit.

Ultimus – As long as he is maxed out (2-3 Diamonds, Gear Tier 18/19, Ultimate ability maxed), Ultimus will be great at dealing a lot of damage. His Red Stars and Diamonds are not too expensive, so the investment will pay off. In that case, he’s better as a Striker or Raider.
Striker is a great option for him since he will have high Health and high Damage stats, meaning that his Iso-8 attacks will deal a lot of damage. His Striker attack also has a chance of applying an Ability Block (same as his Basic), but the chance is fairly low – 30%
Raider might be a better choice for him if you intend to use him as an anti-tank character. His Ultimate can deal a lot of bonus attacks (as many as there are positive effects on the target), and as a Raider, his Ultimate will end up having a higher damage potential, thanks to increased Crit Chance and Crit Damage.

Gladiator – the most optimal Iso Class for him is Fortifier. Gladiator has a lot of essential Passive effects that only remain active as long as he has more than 50% Max Health, so having more Barrier on him from the Fortifier class will help keep him above 50% for longer. Once Gladiator has more Stars/Red Stars or even Diamonds, he can be almost any Class.

Silver Surfer – is an ideal option for a Raider Class, his Special and Ultimate can hit multiple targets, and his Basic attack while good, does not justify having him as a Striker. All of his attacks deal Piercing damage, which will have a higher potential with increased Crit Chance and Crit Damage from the Raider Class. Alternatively, he can be a Skirmisher to be able to apply his negative effects with more ease and to better balance the team.

Team T4’s

Essential

• Thanos (Endgame) – Passive, Ultimate, Special
• Gladiator – Passive, Ultimate, Special
• Gorr – Ultimate, Special
• Ultimus – Ultimate, Special
• Silver Surfer – Passive, Ultimate

Thanos, Gorr, and Gladiator are the 3 Annihilators that will be a mainstay in Arena for months, and as such, we can upgrade all of their abilities to Max to make sure we have the best time in Arena. Ultimus and Silver Surfer, on the other hand, will mainly be used in other Game Modes, and we can be more selective with them or even ignore them entirely.

Thanos

Both Passive and Ultimate are absolutely essential and must be upgraded first. These are the abilities that can reduce the cooldowns of all positive effects on enemies, essentially removing Safeguard from them.

Special – is a great upgrade as well, it will apply Stun+Trauma to the primary target for 2 turns (instead of 1) ensuring that the enemy target will be useless for a long while. This upgrade will also increase the amount of Chain attacks Thanos will perform to 5 (up from 3)

Gladiator

Passive – will allow Gladiator to spawn with Safeguard and Immunity (on top of already having Taunt). Additionally, this will apply Defense Up for 2 turns to the Annihilator team (instead of 1). This is essential since having the Safeguard/Taunt/Immunity/Defense Up combo on Spawn will allow Gladiator to be an incredible Protector in all game modes.

Ultimate – other than adding more damage to the attack, it will also add new effects for the ability depending on Gladiator’s Max Health. If he is at or above 50%, this ability will reduce the Speed Bar of the primary target by 50%. And if the Health is below 50%, Gladiator will generate 3 Ultimate Ability Energy for himself.

Special – will clear all Barrier on all enemies and will add an additional effect depending on Gladiator’s Health. If he is at or above 50% – he will clear all positive effects from all enemies (instead of 2 random positive effects on all enemies). And if the health is below 50% – he will apply 3 Regeneration to all Annihilator allies for 2 turns (instead of 1)

Gorr

Ultimate – will slightly increase the damage dealt to all enemies and will apply Safeguard to the Annihilator allies for 2 turns (instead of 1)

Special – will apply Ability Block for 2 turns to the primary target and Heal Block for 2 turns to all secondary targets, instead of doing that for 1 turn.

Ultimus

Ultimate – ability is one of the main reasons Ultimus is a great plug-and-play character (alongside great stats and a fairly open kit). And while the upgrade will only increase the damage of the attack, Ultimus can perform a lot of bonus attacks, (as many bonus attacks as the enemy has positive effects) so even a small damage boost can end up significantly increasing the final damage output.

Special – will copy and clear all positive effects from each target to self (instead of random 2), excluding Stealth and Taunt.

Silver Surfer

Passive – on Spawn, Surfer will gain Defense Up for 3 turns, but most importantly, he will reduce the Resistance of all enemies by 50% if they have Heal Block. This works in tandem with his Ultimate ability, which can apply Heal Block to all enemies early on in the battle.

Ultimate – will clear Immunity from all enemies and will apply Heal Block to them for 2 turns. Clearing all Immunity is already worth the upgrade, but applying Heal Block will also synergize well with the Passive upgrade.

Recommended

• Gorr – Passive
• Silver Surfer – Basic, Special
• Ultimus – Passive, Basic

Gorr

Passive – will allow Gorr to Spawn with a 20% Barrier. While not essential, it will still increase the mitigation and survavibility of Gorr.

Silver Surfer

Basic – will transfer all positive effects from the target to Surfer, or all negative effects from Surfer to the target. This is a great upgrade to have because Surfer can get bonus Speed and will end up taking a lot of bonus turns, meaning that he will use his Basic often, and with his high Damage and Health, this Basic can be pretty disruptive in battles.

Special – will offer a decent boost to damage and will apply Disrupted for 2 turns (instead of 1) to the primary target. A well-placed Disrupted effect can be very valuable so applying it for 2 turns is a good thing to have, not to mention that the damage boost will be decent. But this ability can be one of the last ones to max out and only if you have spare T4 Ability materials.

Ultimus

Passive – will add a 20% Block Chance to all non-Minion Kree allies (up from 15%). But most importantly, Ultimus will gain +10% Block Chance per each non-Kree Minion ally. This means that with the full Annihilators team, Ultimus will gain a total of 60% Block Chance. His Health stat is already pretty high, and with this upgrade, he will be negating even more damage, which will allow him to survive for longer.

Basic – on top of adding more damage to the attack, this will allow Ultimus to Mind Control 1 target to hit an ally. This is a good upgrade but a luxury one, so do this only if you have plenty of T4 Ability Materials.

Red Stars & Diamonds

It is recommended to have all new members (Gladiator, Gorr, Thanos) at 7 Red Stars, this is easily doable if you open up Elite Orbs during the initial release window of these characters (when they have a 10x drop rate). And if luck wasn’t on your side, their Red Stars will be added to the Elite Store 3 Months after their initial release, where they can be purchased using Silver and Gold promotion credits.

You could also get Red Stars for Silver Surfer from the Incursion Campaign, node 7-7, although you will be limited to 6 Red Stars from that node and you will have to purchase his 7th Red Star in the Elite Store using Gold Promotion Credits:

Ultimus is a Mythic character and as such he will require Dark Promotion Credits to max out his Red Stars, but the price is not too expensive. All players will have 5 Red Stars from his Dark Dimension, and to get the last 2, we will only need to spend 2,250 Dark Promotion Credits. Ultimus is also a perfect character to have at high Diamonds 2-3. Getting 2 Diamonds on him will only cost 360 Dark Diamond Credits, while 3rd Diamond will cost another 600 Dark Diamond Credits. Ultimus will not be used in an endgame Arena, and his main utility will be as a plug-and-play in other game modes like War or CC. If you are competitive in those game modes, it is a good idea to get Ultimus to 3 Diamonds.

Having Diamonds on Silver Surfer is a luxury; he can be ignored, and if you get lucky and pull his Diamonds from an Orb – even better. It is worth mentioning that he will be good at high Diamonds so if you have spare credits, it’s okay to upgrade him, He’s just not as essential to the team.

Once you can max out the Yellow/Red Stars on new Annihilators (Thanos, Gorr, Gladiator), having more Diamonds on them will be highly recommended since they are Arena characters. First and foremost, make sure Gladiator has at least 2 Diamonds, then you can work on Diamonds for Gorr and Thanos.

Farming Locations

• Silver Surfer – Doom War Campaign, Node 1-9; Blitz Store
• Ultimus – Dark Dimension III

On Spawn Buffs

Everywhere:

• Entire team – Defense Up (2 turns)
• Gladiator – Safeguard, Immunity, Taunt (all for 1 turn)
• Silver Surfer – Defense Up (3 turns)
• Gorr – Barrier for 20% of his Max Health, 1 Charged

Team Mechanics

Annihilators are an incredibly strong team in Arena, where enemies can’t manipulate Speed Bar (on themselves or the Annihilator team), can’t apply Exposed, Trauma, Slow, or Vulnerable to the Annihilators. Enemies also can’t get Immunity, and even if they have Safeguard, that can now be removed thanks to Thanos’s ability to reduce the duration of positive effects. All of that will make them extremely good in Arena, but some of those key aspects are lost once we start using Annihilators in other game modes where they will be more susceptible to losses either because they will be outmatched in terms of Speed, or because the Annihilator characters can’t use their necessary abilities at the right moment. This team will still be fairly strong and it might be in the top 5 or even top 3 of the best MSF teams, but they won’t be unbeatable.

Thanos (Endgame)

Thanos is an impressive Brawler, who also has some exceptional control and supportive abilities, like a 2-turn Stun or an ability to remove Safeguard from all enemies. His high Health and Damage stats will allow him to be a threat, especially considering that most of his attacks hit multiple targets. Moreover, Thanos can also serve as the Energy battery, supplying any allies with a lot of energy, not just his Annihilator teammates.

Basic will deal damage and apply Heal Block for 2 turns and 2 Bleed for 1 turn, but it will also reduce the Speed Bar of the primary target by 5%. He then will repeat this attack once. His follow-up attack (Iso-8/Assist/Counter) can also reduce the Speed Bar, so if he’s a Striker and uses his Basic on a target with Vulnerable, he will end up rewinding the target by a total of 15%.

Special offers both supportive and offensive functionality. First, he will apply Barrier for 15% of his Max Health to all allies, making him great as a plug-and-play option too. Then he will hit the primary target for damage and will apply Exposed, Trauma (2 turns), and Stun (2 turns). After that Thanos will chain to 5 adjacent enemies and apply Offense Down for 2 turns to them. Counterattacks will break this Chain. This ability has a very low cooldown, meaning that it can end up providing a lot of control and support, especially in game modes where battles last longer than 5 minutes.

Ultimate has a unique mechanic that can remove Safeguard. First, Thanos will clear all negative effects on self and will gain Offense Up, then he will attack all enemies dealing Piercing Damage, and reducing the duration of all Positive effects by 2 turns (if a positive effect has a duration of 0 it expires instantly, including Safeguard). On top of that, this also will apply Defense Down and Heal Block for 2 turns and the attack ignores Defense Up.

First, the combination of Offense Up, Piercing Damage, and ignoring Defense Up on enemies will allow Thanos to deal quite a lot of damage with this ability. On top of that, it can remove all positive effects from all enemies (as long as they have a duration of 2 turns or less) The only downside of this ability is a long cooldown (7 turns) and that he can’t use it on his first turn unless he gains more energy from an ally.

Passive is the most impressive part of his kit. The first time Thanos drops below 50% Health he will do the following:

• Clear all negative effects on self and all Annihilator allies.
• Reduce the duration of all positive effects by 5 on all enemies (Any positive effect that has a duration of 0 expires instantly, including Safeguard).
• Attack all enemies for 400% Piercing + 30% Drain.
• This attack gains +1,000% Extra Focus.
• This attack is Unavoidable and cannot be Blocked or counterattacked.

There’s a lot of utility here and this ability is even better in Arena because Thanos and all Annihilator allies can’t get Trauma in Arena meaning that we can’t prevent him or Annihilators from having the negative effects cleared by applying Trauma. The damage and Drain from the passive attack can also allow Thanos to heal back to full Health, depending on how many enemies are left.

To top it off, enemies can’t gain Immunity in Arena so Annihilators will be able to easily apply any manner of negative effects to them.

There is one more big thing – Once per any turn, when an enemy with Exposed is attacked, Thanos will generate 1 Ability Energy to 2 random allies or himself that were not at full energy at the start of the current turn. Thanos can apply Exposed with his Special, which he uses on his first turn, and after that, he can start generating ability energy for all allies. So even if they have long Cooldowns, they might be able to use their Ultimates nearly every turn (similar to Vahl, if you used full Bifrost in Raids)

Gladiator

Gladiator is a pre-taunt Protector who can Spawn in with Safeguard, Immunity, Taunt, and Defense Up. This alone makes him the best pre-taunt character and someone who will have a long shelf-life in MSF. He also has a lot of supportive abilities, like massive Healing or applying Safeguard, although it only affects Annihilators. He also has an If/then mechanic with his Health that will have a different effect depending on whether he has more or less than 50% Health.

Basic will attack the primary and adjacent targets for damage. If Health is above 50%, then he will apply Offense Down for 2 turns to each target. And if Health is below 50%, then his attack will gain Drain +25%, which, depending on how many targets he hits, can allow him to get his health back up to above 50% mark. Considering his kit, we nearly always want him to have more than 50% Health, so this basic should be used strategically.

Special will clear all Barrier from all enemies, which is a very useful ability to have, so it’s already a good start. Then, this will also flip all negative effects on Gladiator and all Annihilator allies and will apply Safeguard for 2 turns to self and all Annihilator allies.

After that, he will attack all enemies for damage. If Gladiator has more than 50% Health, then this attack will clear all positive effects from all enemies. And if the Health is below 50%, then he will apply Immunity for 2 turns, and 3 Regeneration for 2 turns to self and all Annihilator allies.

This attack is Unavoidable and cannot be blocked or counterattacked.

Gladiator will use this ability on his first turn and while his Speed is slightly above average, plenty of enemies will take their turns before him. But the ability is balanced well and has an offensive or defensive value depending on where his Health ends up before he takes his turn. The cooldown is on the longer side (5 turns) so in an average 2-3 minute battle he may not use it often, especially if he doesn’t have Thanos (Endgame) as an ally. (Although the original Thanos can also provide bonus ability energy to Gladiator)

Ultimate is heavily a supportive ability. Once used, it will heal Gladiator for 50% of his Max Health and will heal all Annihilators for 40% of Gladiator’s Max Health. It will also deal damage to a primary target and the attack will gain +30% Crit Chance.

If his health is below 50% Health (before he uses the ability), then Gladiator will gain Barrier for 30% of his Max Health and will generate 3 Ultimate Ability Energy to himself. If the Health is above 50%, then he will reduce the Speed Bar of the primary target by 50% and will gain Taunt and Immunity, both for 2 turns.

Apart from the On Spawn Taunt, this is the only way for Gladiator to apply Taunt to himself again, the big heal he does with this ability will also ensure that he will be able to take a few hits before reflexively losing Taunt. And if his Health is already above 50% Max, he will reduce the Speed Bar of an opponent by 50%, which is quite significant and can save hte battle at times.

Passive is no less impressive and is even better in Arena. First, he will gain Safeguard, Immunity, and Taunt on Spawn, although just for 1 turn. But he will also apply Defense Up to all Annihilator allies for 2 turns. As a plug-and-play this essentially means that he will always Spawn with Safeguard, Taunt, Immunity, and Defense Up combo, which will make it tough to get through him for almost anyone.

He also has a grace mechanic – on any turn, if he’s below 50% Health, he will heal himself for 5% of his Max Health. And once he drops below 30% Max Health, he will Gain Regeneration and, if he has Taunt, he will slip into Stealth instead. Not only will this allow him to survive, but it will also ensure that he can get back to 50% quickly because he will heal even on the enemy’s turn.

Now, the most important parts of his kit are tied to him being at or above 50% Health. First, if he has 2 Annihilator allies and has 50% Health or more, Gladiator and all allies cannot have Vulnerable or Exposed applied to them. This is an incredible passive effect because having Vulnerable and Exposed can be devastating against some enemies. But it does come at the cost of having 2 Annihilator allies present. In Arena, this will prevent Mephisto from applying Exposed to your allies, which will often be Mythic characters instead of Silver Surfer or Ultimus, even though Ultimus is technically Mythic too.

In Arena, he does even more:

• Annihilator allies and Gladiator cannot gain Slow
• When Gladiator is at 50% Health or above, enemies cannot fill or reduce Speed Bar for themselves, allies, or enemies.

Immunity to slow can be of great value but Annihilators themselves don’t have any abilities that can apply slow, so they would have to rely on plug-and-play allies, like Apocalypse. However, since most other the battles in Arena will be against Annihilators as well, it will be possible to apply Slow only after enemy Gladiator dies.

The same goes for Speed Bar manipulation since both sides will have Gladiator and the battles will often be decided by the simple fact of who can take out or drop the opposing Gladiator to below 50% Health faster.

While these abilities don’t do much in mirror matches, they prevent older teams from being able to win against Annihilators, solidifying them as the new Arena Meta.

Gorr

Gorr is the Controller on the team that can clear Charged from enemies with all of his abilities, his Special and Ultimate can also clear Revive Once, while his Ultimate can even clear the Battlefield Effects from the enemy side (Nova’s and Mephisto’s Battlefield Effects, etc).

Basic, apart from Clearing all Charged from the primary target, will also deal Piercing damage and will apply Offense Down for 2 turns. The follow-up attack will also clear Charged, which makes him a great Striker. And he has increased Focus from his Passive, so once Gorr is built up not a lot of enemies will be able to Resist this.

Special Will attack the primary and adjacent targets then it will apply Ability Block for 2 turns to the primary target and Heal Block for 2 turns to all adjacent. This attack will clear Charged and Revive Once from all targets it hits. This attack cannot be dodged or blocked

Then, Gorr will also clear Stun and Ability Block from all Annihilator or Symbiote allies.

This special has a low cooldown, and Gorr has a great speed stat, meaning that he will likely get to use this ability more than once in any fight. He can use this turn one.

Ultimate can also be used on his first turn. If any enemies have Charged, Gorr will fill his Speed Bar by 20%. Then, he will attack all enemies dealing Piercing damage and clearing all Charged, Defense Up, Revive Once, and Evades. This will also clear any Battlefield effect on the enemy side and is Unavoidable and cannot be blocked.

After that, Gorr will apply Safeguard for 2 turns to self and all Annihilator allies.

This is an impressive ability because it can be used on Gorr’s first turn which will make him a great option as a plug-and-play in a lot of battles where enemies have Revive Once, Charged, or even Evades.

Passive will apply 20% Barrier on Spawn to Gorr. This can improve his mitigation because out of all Annihilator’s Gorr’s Armor is the lowest and his Health is second lowest, so he can often be the first target of your opponents and having some Barrier increases his chances of survival.

Gorr also has a Charged mechanic. On Spawn, he gains 1 Charged and then he gains an additional +1 Charged on any enemy death. When he has 4 or more Charged, he passively attacks the most-injured non-summoned enemy, ignoring Stealth and Taunt, with his Special Ability. (the ability level of this Special is capped at the level of this Passive). This essentially means that the attack will apply Ability Block for 1 turn (instead of 2), will still clear all Charged, but will not clear Revive Once, will deal less damage, but will still clear Stun and Ability Block from Annihilator allies.

So, while all of the damage and an Ability Block from this passive attack can be good, the most useful part of it might end up being clearing Ability Blocks and Stuns from his Annihilator allies. This essentially means that Gorr needs to be one of the first targets we need to take down when facing Annihilators (unless it’s not in Arena and we use characters who can apply Trauma). That said, we’ll still need to get through Gladiator’s Taunt to reach Gorr.

Characters killed by Gorr cannot be revived and Gorr gains +250% Focus for each Annihilator ally. So even at low stars, he will be effective at clearing Charged, as long as he has his full team or at least a few Annihilator allies.

When Gorr has Charged, he cannot gain Bleed. In Arena, if Gorr has Charged, all Annihilators cannot gain Bleed. Gorr also lowers the Assist Chance by 100% in Arena.

Immunity to Bleed and lowering the Assist Chance in Arena essentially makes great Arena characters like Old Man Logan or Ghost Rider (Robbie) outdated, allowing the Annihilators to reign supreme.

Ultimus

The big bad of MSF – Ultimus is coming back into the spotlight after years of being a low-tier character. His kit and abilities were always fairly decent and he only lacked in stats, but the recent rework made sure to rectify that, transforming Ultimus into a top-tier character deserving of the Mythic tag. Ultimus has a versatile kit that can steal positive effects from enemies, apply Ability Block to them with his Basic attack, mind control enemies, and generate Speed Bar for allies.

Basic is pretty powerful and deals a mix of normal and Piercing damage, then it has a 50% Chance to apply Ability Block and Defense Down to the primary target. Once maxed, it will also Mind Control 1 enemy to attack the primary target. There’s a lot of value packed into this Basic and even his follow-up attack (Iso-8/Assist/Counter) can apply Ability Block, although it’s only a 30% Chance.

Special will hit the primary and adjacent targets dealing Piercing damage. Then Ultimus will copy and clear all positive effects (excluding Stealth and Taunt) from each target he hits to himself.

After, he will apply Regeneration to self and adjacent allies and an additional Regeneration to all Annihilator allies.

Ultimate is the calling card of Ultimus because of the damage potential it has, even if it affects only 1 enemy. Ultimus will start by flipping Offense Down on himself, then he will apply +1 Offense Up, ensuring his attack will hit hard. After, he will attack the primary target for damage. For each positive effect on the target, Ultimus will deal one bonus attack and will flip a random positive effect into a negative one.

Finally, Ultimus will apply Ability Block and Defense Down to all enemy Protectors and will flip 3 negative effects into positive ones on self and all Kree and Annihilator allies.

If the enemy target had a lot of positive effects, Ultimus could easily eliminate that target, even if they were at full health prior to his attack. This assumes that the Ultimus you’re using is maxed out. Getting his Red Stars to 7 is not too expensive, you get 5 from his Dark Dimension and to purchase 6 and 7 you will only need additional 2,250 Dark Promotion Credits. His Diamonds are also tremendously cheap, you will need under 1,000 Dark Diamond Credits to get all 3 Diamonds for him and it’s fair to say that it is a good investment, as he can be good in all game modes.

Passive greatly improves his Block Chance. He gets a standard +20% Chance and a bonus of +10% for each non-minion Kree ally, meaning that in a full Annihilator team, he will have a total of 60% Block Chance. Paired with high health, this will make him quite durable. But this is not even the best part of his Passive.

When an enemy gains Taunt, Ultimus fills his Speed Bar by +30%. Considering the value of his Ultimate ability, this allows Ultimus to be used as an anti-protector weapon (especially since protectors often gain a lot of positive effects)

Add to that the fact, that when Ultimus kills a target, he will fill the Speed bar of all non-kree allies by +15%, and we get a deadly combination.

Passively, Ultimus also provides +20% Max Health and +20% Block Chance to non-Kree Minion allies. And, in Arena, he lowers the Resistance of all enemies by 20%.

Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer is the least impressive member of his team and will often be the first to be replaced, but that doesn’t mean that he’s any bad. He boasts high Health and Damage stats, at least when compared to all other characters that were released before Annihilators. His abilities can prove very useful by removing Immunity from all enemies, applying Ability Block, or transferring positive/negative effects with his Basic. He also boasts a high Speed stat and can increase that Speed passively, making prolonged fights against him dangerous.

Basic will deal piercing damage to the primary target. If Silver Surfer has any negative effects, he will transfer all of them to the primary target, and if he has no negative effects, he will steal all positive effects from the primary target instead.

Silver Surfer has long cooldowns and will end up using his Basic often, especially if the fight drags on. On top of that, his Speed will keep increasing which will allow him to take turns more often, this can result in him hitting a lot of enemies with his Basic attacks and clearing all of their positive effects.

Special is fairly simple. It will hit the primary and adjacent targets with Piercing damage. Then he will apply Disrupted to the primary target for 2 turns and Defense Down to all adjacent targets for 1 turn. This attack cannot be counterattacked.

Ultimate is his best ability and he can use this on his first turn. He will start by clearing all Immunity from all enemies, then will attack them dealing piercing damage. This also will apply Heal Block for 2 turns to all targets.

This attack will clear all Charged, all positive effects and will apply Ability Block for 2 turns to the primary target. It cannot be blocked or counterattacked.

Passive On Spawn, Surfer will gain Defense Up for 3 turns. On any turn, he can heal for 5% of his Max Health. On Surfer’s Turn, he gains +15% Speed (up to 45% Max).

After just 3 turns, Silver Surfer’s Speed will go up from 126 to 182, which will make him incredibly fast, allowing him to take a lot of bonus turns and disrupting the normal flow of battles.

When a non-summoned ally dies, Surfer gains Offense Up, and while he has Offense Up his attacks ignore Defense Up. He also lowers the resistance of all enemies with Heal Block by 50%, this works well with his Ultimate, which applies 2 turns of Heal Block.

Silver Surfer can also passively gain +50% Resistance and if there are any Villain Cosmic enemies he gains an additional +50% Resistance. He also gains +50% Focus and if he has 1 or more Hero Cosmic allies, he gains an additional 50% Focus and provides all allies with +50% Focus.

Combat Tips & Tricks

If we are competing for the top Ranks in Arena, our team will consist of only the 3 new Annihilators. With them, we will end up using Mephisto, Apocalypse, Super Skrull, or other legendary characters. Newer/midgame players can safely use the full team until they unlock Apocalypse or other Mythics.

At first, using Apocalypse with your Annihilators will be one of the best ways to get through Gladiator’s on Spawn Taunt because Gladiator won’t get Safeguard when the battle starts. And the main goal of all battles will be to eliminate Gladiator and Gorr quickly.

Gladiator has a lot of bonuses active when he’s at or above 50% Max Health, meaning that the first thing we need to do is to ensure that he drops below 50%. But he won’t stay at that mark for long so unless he has Heal Block, it’s best to eliminate him promptly. If he does have Heal Block (or better yet – Heal Block and Stun) then we need to target Gorr immediately. Gorr can clear Ability Block and Stun off Annihilators and he has the lowest Health and Armor, making him an easier target.

As for Thanos, it is best to ignore him at first because if we deal too much damage to him, he will fall below 50% Health which will trigger his Passive, and that will clear all our Positive effects. So we can Stun or Ability Block him after Gorr is gone and leave Thanos for last, focusing on other targets instead. This is a bit of general advice on how to counter the team, but Arena will add in a lot more variables and we will be detailing how to overcome those on this page: Arena Meta

As for the team as a whole, there are a few more tips we can share. Focus on hitting the enemies with Exposed (which Thanos can apply), this way Thanos will generate a lot of ability energy for your team and you will be able to use their Specials and Ultimates even more often. This might not be as impactful in short battles, but in modes like Dark Dimension, it can be invaluable.

Try to leave kills for Ultimus, because when he eliminates someone he will fill the Speed Bar for all of your allies. If the target has Revive Once or if any enemies can revive targets, it is best to eliminate them using Gorr, because he prevents revives. Gorr’s Special can also clear Ability Block and Stun from his Annihilator allies, so it can be a good idea to save that ability if you know an enemy is about to apply any of the above to you. All of Gorr’s abilities clear Charged, even his Striker attacks, so it is often beneficial to target enemies with Charged if there are any.

Lastly, in some cases, we may want to position Thanos next to Gladiator, so that he gets hit by splash/chain damage more often, which will trigger his Passive faster. However, if there’s a risk that he dies too quickly it is best to keep him safe in an opposite corner.

If you have any questions about Annihilators or need any help with MSF feel free to reach out to us via our Discord:

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