Taking on board these Marvel’s Midnight Suns tips can give you a helping hand as you try to best the opposing Hydra soldiers in card-based tactical combat, as well as provide pointers for making friends out of your superhero companions and exploring your way around the Abbey base. There are a lot of different systems at play in Marvel’s Midnight Suns, covering combat, RPG, and exploration, so it can be hard to keep up with everything while you're being bombarded with tutorials. With these tips we aim to give you a solid grounding in combat to significantly improve your chance of achieving victory, while also explaining the most significant mechanics and upgrades so you're making the best use of your time at the Abbey. With that in mind, here are eight tips for Marvel’s Midnight Suns to get you started.
1. Team composition matters
For the best heroes and team compositions, see our Marvel's Midnight Suns characters guide.
Your team composition is hugely important to emerging victorious at the end of missions. When putting together your team of three, it’s essential that you have at least one character that can generate Heroism and another character that can use a lot of it. Heroism is a crucial resource as it allows your heroes to use some of their most powerful Heroic and Combo cards that can deal massive damage and really turn the tide of battle.
Doctor Strange and Nico Minoru are good for generating Heroism, while Captain Marvel and Ghost Rider are excellent at using it to fuel their most powerful attacks. However, you’ll also want to have some status effects in the mix too, so make sure all your characters have a good mix of cards with things like Knockback, Taunt, Mark, Bleed, and more to make life harder for your enemies and easier for your heroes – The Hunter, Blade, Iron Man, and Spider-Man are all great at applying various status effects.
2. Use environmental attacks whenever possible
Combat encounters will be filled with all sorts of objects that can be used to deliver environmental attacks or turn the tables on your enemies, ranging from launching a box at an enemy’s head to blowing up an exploding barrel. These attacks cost Heroism instead of Card Draws, so you can use them whenever you want on your turn, so long as you have Heroism points – if you have leftover Heroism and still have your Move available after you've played your cards, try to reposition a hero so that they can use an environmental attack.
Many hero Attack cards also have the Knockback status effect, which you can use to launch enemies into various objects, and even other enemies, to cause extra damage. Some of these add status effects – for example, knocking an enemy into a fuse box will stun them, preventing them from acting on their turn. Doing as much as possible with your turns and seizing every opportunity is key to gaining and holding the upper hand in Marvel’s Midnight Suns, so make sure you don’t forget to use the environment to your advantage!
3. Use Card Redraws often and don’t save cards for too long
Redraws are great for getting rid of unwanted cards but you should also use them on some of your best ones. While it can be tempting to hold onto particularly powerful cards, waiting for the perfect opportunity to use them, it can often be better to take a risk and use one of your two Redraws to get something else that you can use immediately or have ready for your next go. Doing something is always better than doing nothing in Midnight Suns and you have two Redraws per turn, so you may as well use them. Be brutal with the cards in your hand and swap out your favorite ones if they can’t be used effectively, or at all, on your current turn or the next.
4. Get into a routine
Since each day of Marvel’s Midnight Suns has day and night periods with different activities available, it's good to get into a routine and check things regularly. At the start of your day, everyone is awake and active, so use this opportunity to check the map and Superlink to see who wants to speak to you and if you’ve got any new messages. You should then head over to the Forge for several things: first, study any Artifacts to increase your Research Level, then start a research project if possible, and finally analyze any Gamma Coils for new cards. With that out the way, head over to CENTRAL to open Intel Caches and send heroes on Hero Ops, then go to the Yard and start a sparring session to train up a hero and complete any necessary card upgrades.
If you do a mission or another task, you’ll be skipped ahead to night. Since everyone is unwinding and ready to go to sleep, you can’t use the Forge, the Yard, CENTRAL, or the Mirror Table, so this is your time to socialize with your team through Hangouts or Club Meetings, or explore the Abbey in search of more Mysteries. Then you can go to sleep and start a new day. Make sure you don’t neglect either day or night aspects as hanging out with your team can be just as important as sorting out upgrades.
5. Spend time exploring the Abbey
One objective involves looking for four Marvel's Midnight Suns Elemental Rods scattered around the Abbey Grounds.
During both day and night periods, you can freely explore the Abbey and its grounds. There are all sorts of things you can find, such as crafting ingredients, collectible items like diary pages and tarot cards, Arcane Chests, and new challenges and puzzles to explore further into the Abbey Grounds. You might also find mission items for Mysteries or gifts that you can give to heroes when you hangout to try and get even more Friendship XP.
As you explore the Abbey itself, you’ll also spot glowing orbs on the ground of different colors. Make sure you collect these are they give you small amounts of Attack, Skill, or Heroic Essences or even Credits. Furthermore, inspect any equipment that you find around the Abbey, use Words of Power in the grounds, and even pet the devil dog, Charlie, to gain Arcane Knowledge and increase your Arcane Level - the Library regularly has new books to read, so visit often. The higher your Arcane Level, the better your rewards from Arcane Chests are too. Although you won't be able to open those chests without finding some Marvel's Midnight Suns Arcane Keys first, so get exploring!
6. Hangout with heroes to improve your Friendship Level
Hangouts might seem like they exist as an excuse to interact with the other heroes, but they are very important as they’re the main way you’ll increase your Friendship Level with the individual heroes. Increasing your Friendship Level with a particular hero gets you exclusive gameplay benefits and cosmetic rewards for that hero, so it’s not something to ignore. During Hangouts, it’s important that you pay attention to the dialogue that ensues as you can get more Friendship XP for having a good conversation with the hero, and even more for giving them a gift they like. Bonus tip: heroes you take on missions are more likely to be available for Hangout afterwards!
Marvel's Midnight Suns Friendship Levels for individual heroes also all contribute to your overall Team Friendship Level for the entire Midnight Suns. Increase the Team Friendship Level and you’ll unlock more rewards, such as powerful Hero Combo ability cards which deal a lot of damage.
7. Get the War Games upgrade for the Forge first
Once you’ve played enough of Marvel’s Midnight Suns to have access to the Forge and Research, make sure you get the War Games project started as soon as possible, which massively improves Gamma Coil analyses. Once the project has been completed the following in-game day, you’ll be able to buy the Foundry upgrade – it costs 50 Credits to instantly install, so save your Credits too. The Foundry causes Gamma Coils to now yield four card choices (up from three), and lets you keep two cards, instead of one. This really helps you unlock and upgrade cards for your heroes early on, allowing you to improve your card decks for combat.
8. Make time for general missions
After a few hours of playing, you’ll unlock general missions at the Mirror Table. These are combat encounters away from the main story that task you with completing a particular objective. They’re especially useful for getting resources needed to improve cards, install new upgrades for the Abbey, and get cosmetics for heroes. General missions are also not led by the Hunter, so you can take any three heroes in your squad to try out new abilities and level them up.
If you’re running low on Credits and desperately want to fund some sparring sessions or upgrades for the Forge and the Yard, then some general missions will award Credits. We also completed a mission that had an objective to open crates and doing so awarded varying amounts of Essences necessary for upgrading cards. Although, if you’re after new cards and upgrades for your heroes, seek out the general missions that award Gamma Coils and Intel Caches.
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