Marvel Strike Force Nova Trials Guide

Introduction

The Marvel Strike Force Nova Trials Guide is here, as the Nova Trials event returns, giving players another exciting opportunity to unlock one of the game’s most powerful and sought-after characters, Nova. As a versatile and strong hero, Nova plays a key role in many different aspects of gameplay, offering incredible value in both offensive and defensive teams.

But his importance doesn’t end there—he is also a critical requirement for unlocking Black Cat, one of the most highly anticipated characters in the game, through the upcoming Dark Dimension VI.

Whether you are a new player just starting to explore the trials or a seasoned veteran aiming to conquer this event, this guide will provide key insights and strategies to help you maximize your performance, increase your score, and earn the valuable rewards Nova Trials has to offer.The Nova Trials follow a similar structure to the popular Horseman Scourges, where players are challenged to build and optimize specific teams designed to conquer a series of progressively tougher nodes.

Each node presents unique difficulties, often requiring players to make adjustments in their team compositions, strategy, and overall approach.

To succeed, it’s essential to understand the core mechanics of the event and how to adapt your lineup accordingly. The event’s difficulty ramps up quickly, so a well-thought-out strategy will ensure that you can tackle the various challenges ahead, while maximizing the rewards at each stage. Whether you’re looking to unlock Nova for the first time or competing to climb to the top of the leaderboards, having a clear game plan is crucial.

By prioritizing strong and synergistic teams that fit the event’s requirements and ensuring they are properly geared, leveled, and equipped with the right abilities, you’ll dramatically improve your chances of success. Focus on strategic team selection, efficient resource allocation, and skillful execution to progress smoothly through the event and earn the coveted rewards, setting you up for long-term success in future challenges.

Understanding the Nova Trials

The Nova Trials event is structured around a series of progressively challenging nodes, each with escalating difficulty levels that require players to carefully assemble teams that meet specific trait requirements for each challenge.

This event features 10 difficulty levels, catering to a wide range of player progression and providing opportunities for everyone, from newer players to veterans, to engage with the event in a way that suits their roster’s strength and development. It is important to choose the right difficulty level to ensure that you can progress without encountering insurmountable obstacles.

While lower difficulty levels, such as 4 and 5, offer a more manageable entry point for newer players or those with less developed teams, higher difficulty levels (7-10) demand more significant investments in terms of character development, strategic planning, and resource management. As the difficulty increases, players will need to focus on enhancing their teams, prioritizing synergies, and ensuring that key characters are geared and leveled appropriately to meet the challenges ahead.

In addition to completing the nodes themselves, the Nova Trials event features milestones that reward players with valuable resources, such as Nova shards, gear, and other essential items, once certain point thresholds are reached.

These milestones provide extra incentives to push forward, allowing players to earn rewards that significantly enhance their progression. The ultimate goal for many players is to reach the 1.35 million point milestone, which grants enough Nova shards to unlock a 4-star version of Nova, along with much-needed gear tier 18 materials that are crucial for progressing with other characters.

Reaching this milestone is a key accomplishment for players who are aiming to unlock Nova and strengthen their roster. For those who already possess a 7-star Nova, the focus shifts to achieving the 1.9 million point milestone on difficulty 9, which provides Nova orbs and additional gear tier 18 materials, offering further opportunities to enhance Nova’s potential and improve your overall roster strength. To maximize the rewards available in the event, it is essential to properly manage team composition, allocate resources effectively, and progress strategically through the event’s difficulties.

By doing so, players will be well-positioned to hit these significant milestones, ensuring they can unlock Nova, strengthen their teams, and gain valuable materials that will support their success in future challenges.

Scourges/Pacts

Similar to the Scourges in the Horseman events, Pacts in the Nova Trials play a significant role in shaping the battlefield, impacting both your team and the enemies. Each Pact is associated with a point modifier tied to its difficulty, and activating more Pacts can boost your final score, but it comes at the cost of increasing the challenge. To succeed in the Nova Trials, understanding the effects of each Pact and strategically deciding which ones to activate is essential. Let’s break down each Pact to maximize their impact on your run.

Power Cosmic (25 Points): This Pact is arguably the most critical one to activate. It activates all Cosmic Crucible abilities throughout your run, providing a huge advantage for teams like Masters of Evil, as many of their abilities are greatly enhanced in Cosmic Crucible. It also benefits New Warriors, especially on City Hero nodes, as it activates their unique synergies, boosting their damage output and survivability. However, be aware that some enemy teams, like War Dogs on Node 3, also benefit from Cosmic Crucible abilities, so it’s important to assess the strength of your New Warriors. If they are underdeveloped, consider deactivating this Pact to avoid giving your enemies too much of an advantage.

Supernova (15 Points): This Pact offers a significant advantage, especially for teams that rely on Striker characters. Strikers gain Barrier equal to 5% of their Max Health at the start of their turn and +1 Ability Energy on enemy death. This can create a snowball effect, allowing characters like Shang-Chi, Cloak, Dagger, Red Hulk, and Dormammu to spam their ultimate abilities if they can consistently secure kills. This makes it a powerful choice for teams that can leverage these benefits effectively.

Bio-Charged (10 Points): This Pact causes all Bio characters to spawn with full Speed and Energy bars, which can be both a blessing and a challenge. It makes Red Hulk a formidable force on Global Bio nodes, enabling him to take full advantage of his abilities. However, it also empowers enemy bio characters on Nodes 2, 4, 5, and 7, making them significantly more dangerous. If you activate Power Cosmic, you can manage these threats more easily. The key to success with this Pact is to use teams like Masters of Evil, New Warriors, Gamma, and Eternals on the appropriate nodes to counter these empowered enemies.

Avenging X-Factor (10 Points), Masters of Spider-Verse (10 Points): These Pacts primarily benefit the enemy teams by granting specific traits to certain characters on spawn. For example, Avenging X-Factor grants the X-Factor trait to City Hero characters, while Masters of Spider-Verse gives Mutant characters the Bionic Avengers trait. This enhances enemy synergies, making these nodes more challenging and requiring you to carefully plan your team composition to counteract these synergies effectively.

Evasive Maneuvers (10 Points): When a character dies, their Bio allies gain Evade. This Pact can be advantageous for teams like Rebirth, as Captain Carter can revive fallen allies, potentially making them a strong choice on Global Bio nodes. However, the overall benefits are situational and might not outweigh the potential disadvantages of other Pacts. It’s important to evaluate whether the risk of enabling enemies with Evade is worth the potential upside of using this Pact.

Man Vs. Machine (10 Points), Snake Eyes (10 Points), On The Offensive (10 Points), Bio-Armor (10 Points): These Pacts offer mixed effects that can benefit both your team and the enemies, depending on the situation. For example, Snake Eyes increases Critical Hit Damage for your team but also increases Critical Hit Chance for enemies. This can be useful for teams like X-Factor, but detrimental against high-crit enemies like Gambit. Evaluating your team’s composition and the enemy’s strengths will help you decide which of these Pacts will provide the most strategic advantage.

Warp World (15 Points), Power Dynamics (15 Points): These two Pacts are generally best avoided. Warp World flips positive and negative effects when a character’s health drops below 50%, creating unpredictable situations that are hard to manage. Power Dynamics inflicts Trauma on your characters when they clear negative effects, severely hampering their performance. These unpredictable and restrictive effects can easily turn the tide in favor of the enemy, so it’s best to avoid them if you want to maintain control over the battlefield.

Overall, the key to success in the Nova Trials is to focus on activating Pacts that provide the most consistent benefits to your strongest teams while minimizing the advantages given to enemies. Prioritize Power Cosmic and Supernova for their game-changing effects, strategically use Bio-Charged to bolster your Bio characters, and carefully consider the implications of other Pacts based on your roster and the specific node requirements. By doing so, you can maximize your score and increase your chances of earning valuable rewards.

Team Recommendations

The Nova Trials present various node restrictions that require careful planning and strategic team composition to succeed. Each node in the event has unique challenges, and optimizing your team based on these restrictions is key to achieving high scores and maximizing rewards. Below, we will dive into recommended teams and synergies for each node type, ensuring you are well-prepared for every challenge.

City Heroes Nodes
New Warriors are highly recommended for the City Hero nodes. Their synergy is significantly enhanced by the Power Cosmic Pact, which activates their Cosmic Crucible abilities, boosting their performance. Key characters for this team include Cloak and Dagger, whose ultimate abilities deal substantial damage and apply valuable debuffs. When combined with Supernova, these characters can frequently use their ultimates, making them formidable.

Firestar is also highly effective, especially with Power Cosmic, as her ultimate delivers heavy Area of Effect (AOE) damage, weakening the enemy team significantly. While Deathpool is a strong Cosmic character, she cannot be used in City Hero teams, making her unsuitable for these specific nodes. Supplemental characters that can support the New Warriors team include Shang-Chi, who rewinds enemy turn meters and exploits positive effects, Squirrel Girl, who provides healing and clears negative effects, She-Hulk, known for her tankiness and damage output, Ghost-Spider, who can spread negative effects, Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes), who offers a mix of damage and support, and Ms. Marvel (Hard Light), another effective option in City Hero nodes.

Global Bio Nodes
For the Global Bio nodes, Gamma teams are a reliable choice due to their durability and synergy. The Bio-Charged Pact spawns all Bio characters with full Speed and Energy bars, helping Gamma teams quickly start their abilities. However, this also empowers enemy Bio characters, so it’s important to plan accordingly.

Key characters for this team include Red Hulk, whose ultimate ability can wipe entire waves of enemies, especially when paired with Supernova, and Hulk, a solid tank with exceptional durability. Abomination also shines in this setup, with his ability to stun and taunt enemies, providing valuable crowd control. Supplemental characters include Brawn, who offers healing and sustainability, She-Hulk, who benefits from the Bio-Charged Pact and offers solid damage output, and Captain America, a versatile character capable of tanking damage or dealing decent damage depending on the ISO-8 class.

For another strong Global Bio option, Rebirth teams offer great durability, aided by revives. The Evasive Maneuvers Pact further enhances their survivability. Key characters in Rebirth teams include Captain Carter, whose revive ability ensures the team stays durable, Captain America, who provides tanking and taunt abilities, and Brawn, who contributes healing and support. Red Hulk can also be added for his powerful ultimate and synergy with Bio-Charged, while Leader offers strong damage and crowd control.

Cosmic Nodes
For Cosmic nodes, Eternals are an excellent choice due to their high damage output and durability. Thanos can help feed them energy, increasing their effectiveness even further. Key characters for this team include Icarus, whose ultimate ability and chain of basic attacks make him a formidable attacker, and Sersi, who can dispel positive effects and apply debuffs, making her an invaluable asset. Other Cosmic characters to consider for these nodes include Kang, Vahl, Nova, Hela, Strange, and Silver Surfer, all of whom provide strong synergies or high damage potential.

Masters of Evil/Quicksilver/X-Factor Nodes
The recommended strategy for these nodes is to use Masters of Evil with Quicksilver replacing Absorbing Man. The Power Cosmic Pact plays a crucial role in enhancing the team’s overall damage and utility. Kang is the primary damage dealer, and a well-developed Kang can carry the team through these challenging nodes.

In Node 2, focus on quickly eliminating high-threat targets like Kate Bishop, Black Bolt, and Kestrel. In Node 6, prioritize disrupting Thor and eliminating Gambit to reduce enemy damage output. For Node 10, use ability block and stuns on high-priority targets like Dazzler, Archangel, Gambit, and Rogue to control the fight. While X-Factor teams are an option, Masters of Evil with the Power Cosmic Pact will generally be more effective.

Unrestricted Nodes
Flexibility is key in these nodes. You can use characters that won’t be needed in restricted nodes, such as those from Horsemen, Symbiote, or other powerful teams. Node 1 offers a great opportunity to charge up Deathpool’s abilities for use in later nodes or to set up Red Hulk’s ultimate for the first Global Bio node.

By carefully considering the node restrictions, team synergies, and the impact of Pacts, players can assemble powerful teams capable of overcoming the challenges posed by the Nova Trials. With the right strategies and roster management, players can maximize their rewards and unlock Nova while navigating these challenging trials.

Tips and Strategies

Conquering the Nova Trials requires a strategic blend of team composition, Scourge/Pact selection, and node-specific tactics. To maximize success, it is essential to approach each aspect of the trials with careful planning and an understanding of the available resources and challenges.

When selecting the difficulty level, choose one that aligns with your roster strength. There’s no need to jump into the highest difficulty if your teams are underdeveloped; it’s more beneficial to comfortably clear a lower difficulty and secure consistent rewards. Players should prioritize reaching the 1.35 million point milestone to secure the 4-star Nova and valuable gear tier 18 materials. For those with a 7-star Nova, the 1.9 million milestone on difficulty 9 should be the target for Nova orbs.

Scourge and Pact selection plays a significant role in the trials. Power Cosmic is essential as it significantly boosts teams like Masters of Evil and New Warriors, particularly on City Hero nodes. However, be mindful that enemy teams may also benefit from Cosmic Crucible abilities.

Supernova is another highly recommended Pact, as it enables Striker characters to repeatedly use their ultimate abilities, giving your team a significant edge. Bio-Charged can be beneficial for characters like Red Hulk, but it also empowers enemy bio characters, so counter teams must be used strategically to manage these threats. Avoid using Warp World and Power Dynamics, as their effects can be unpredictable and often work against you. The remaining Pacts should be chosen based on your roster’s strengths and the specific challenges each node presents.

In general, utilize Node 1 as a staging ground, preparing Red Hulk’s ultimate ability for the first Global Bio node or charging up Deathpool’s abilities. Make sure to maximize the use of Striker characters and activate Supernova to leverage their ultimate abilities. Prioritize eliminating high-threat enemies, such as Kate Bishop, Black Bolt, Kestrel, Gambit, and Rogue, as quickly as possible to minimize damage and maintain control of the fight.

Disrupt enemy turn meters with characters like Shang-Chi, Kang, and Ultron to keep the enemy from acting freely. Exploit weaknesses in enemy teams by using characters like Sersi, who can dispel positive effects and apply debuffs to weaken the opposition. It’s also essential to conserve your abilities for critical moments—don’t waste powerful attacks on low-health enemies and instead save them for key targets or upcoming nodes.

For Masters of Evil Nodes (2, 6, 10), using Masters of Evil with Quicksilver replacing Absorbing Man is highly effective. The Power Cosmic Pact is vital for this team, and a well-developed Kang can carry the team through these challenging nodes. In the City Hero Nodes (1, 3, 7), New Warriors should be your core team, with Power Cosmic and Supernova significantly boosting their performance.

Adding characters like Shang-Chi and Squirrel Girl provides additional support for these nodes. When tackling Global Bio Nodes (4, 8), decide between using Gamma or Rebirth teams based on your roster’s strengths. Bio-Charged can be advantageous, but be prepared for enemy Bio characters to be empowered as well. For Cosmic Nodes (5, 9), Eternals are a strong choice, especially when paired with Thanos to feed them energy. Depending on your roster, Kang, Vahl, Nova, Hela, and Infinity Watch can also be viable options.

By combining these strategies with a thorough understanding of your roster, the available Scourges/Pacts, and the specific challenges of each node, you can increase your chances of success in the Nova Trials and earn valuable rewards.

Conclusion

The Nova Trials present a formidable challenge in Marvel Strike Force, requiring meticulous planning and strategic execution. Understanding the nuances of each node restriction, optimizing team compositions, and leveraging the right Scourge/Pact combinations are crucial to maximizing success. By prioritizing the 1.35 million and 1.9 million point milestones, players can unlock a 4-star Nova, Nova orbs, and acquire valuable gear tier 18 materials. A well-developed Kang is a cornerstone of any successful run, particularly for the challenging Masters of Evil nodes. Investing in key characters like Red Hulk, Shang-Chi, Cloak and Dagger, and the Eternals will pay dividends throughout the trials and in various other game modes.

The effectiveness of each Scourge/Pact combination is critical. Power Cosmic and Supernova are generally considered essential for enhancing your team’s abilities and damage output, while Warp World and Power Dynamics should be avoided due to their detrimental effects. Players should experiment with the remaining Pacts to determine which ones best complement their roster strengths and team compositions.

Adaptability is key to navigating the trials successfully. Be prepared to adjust your strategies based on the specific enemies encountered, the RNG of the game, and any unexpected challenges. Don’t hesitate to reset nodes if necessary, especially when facing difficult opponents or unfavorable situations.

Above all, remember that the Nova Trials are a test of skill, strategy, and perseverance. By approaching them with a well-informed plan and a willingness to adapt, players can overcome the challenges and reap the rewards of unlocking and empowering Nova, a valuable asset in the ever-evolving landscape of Marvel Strike Force.