Marvel Strike Force Hawkeye Guide - Theria Games

Overview

Hawkeye is a versatile Hero, Global, Skill, and Controller class character in Marvel Strike Force, tagged with S.H.I.E.L.D., Wave I – Avenger, and Avenging Asgard. As highlighted in this Marvel Strike Force Hawkeye Guide, he is relatively easy to farm, with his shards available in campaign missions, specifically in Heroes 6-9 and Villains 1-9. Additionally, his shards can be obtained through the Arena store, making him an accessible character for players looking to enhance their teams early in the game.

Hawkeye is unlocked at two stars initially, which makes him accessible early in the game. As a Controller, his abilities are designed to control crowds and debuff enemies, making him effective in disrupting opponent strategies. His Omega Tier status comes from his unique ultimate ability, his ease of acquisition, and his flexibility in fitting into a variety of teams. Notably, Hawkeye provides a group-wide blind effect and can also remove buffs, which gives him an edge in controlling the flow of battle and limiting the effectiveness of enemy characters.

Abilities

Hawkeye in Marvel Strike Force has a set of abilities designed to deal significant damage while providing utility in controlling enemies. His abilities include three active skills and one passive.

Deadeye

Level: 1

Damage: 90

Concussion Arrow

Level: 1

Damage: 100

Airburst

Level: 1

Damage: 50

Shot in the Dark

Level: 1

Damage: 60

Deadeye (Basic): This ability targets the primary enemy with 250% unavoidable damage, increases Hawkeye’s critical chance by 15%, and deals 20% piercing damage. At level six, the damage remains at 250%, but the critical chance bonus is reduced to 10%.

Concussion Arrow (Special): Hawkeye attacks the primary target and adjacent enemies, dealing 150% damage. This skill also has the utility of clearing one to two positive effects from the primary and adjacent targets and reduces the primary target’s speed bar by 10%.

Airburst (Ultimate): This ability targets all enemies with 190% unavoidable damage. At level seven, it adds a blind effect to all enemies. There’s a 50% chance to apply blind to two additional enemies, enhancing its control potential.

Shot in the Dark (Passive): This passive skill gives Hawkeye a 50% chance to attack an enemy with stealth, dealing 200% unavoidable damage and removing the stealth from that enemy, ensuring his ability to counter stealthy opponents.

Iso-8

To enhance the overall effectiveness of Hawkeye’s basic attacks, the Raider ISO-8 class is the ideal choice. This class significantly boosts his critical damage, allowing his basic attacks to hit even harder and deal more substantial damage to enemies. As a Skill-based character, maximizing his damage output is crucial, and the Raider class provides the necessary critical damage boost to make his attacks more impactful, especially in longer battles where every attack counts. His high critical chance, combined with the Raider ISO-8’s enhancement, turns him into a formidable threat capable of dealing massive damage.

Alternatively, if the goal is to focus on ensuring that his debuffs—particularly the blind effect from his ultimate ability—are applied consistently to enemies, the Skirmisher ISO-8 class can be a great choice. This class increases Hawkeye’s ability to land debuffs, ensuring that key control effects, such as his blind and debuff removal, are reliably placed on enemies, even if they have evade or resist abilities. By prioritizing debuff consistency, you give Hawkeye the ability to shut down enemy teams more effectively, as blind significantly reduces their ability to land successful attacks, particularly on critical turns.

This duality of options—between focusing on maximizing damage or improving debuff application—gives players flexibility depending on the desired role Hawkeye plays in their team. Whether you want him to be a damage dealer who hits hard and fast or a control character who reliably applies debuffs, both ISO-8 classes allow Hawkeye to excel in different ways. The ability to choose between Raider and Skirmisher means that players can tailor Hawkeye to suit their specific team needs, making him even more versatile in various scenarios.

Synergies

Hawkeye has a number of strong synergies with several characters in Marvel Strike Force, significantly enhancing his overall effectiveness and versatility in battle. One of his best synergies comes with Black Widow, who provides a Speed Up to all Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. allies. Since Hawkeye shares these tags, he benefits immensely from her Speed Up, receiving a consistent Assist Now every time Black Widow activates this ability. This not only boosts his damage output but also helps him take more turns and contribute more frequently to controlling and damaging enemies. By having Hawkeye attack multiple times, this synergy helps him maximize his overall impact during fights, particularly against tougher foes in modes like Raids and Alliance War.

Additionally, Captain America offers a valuable synergy with Hawkeye by increasing his block chance as an Avenger ally. This boosts Hawkeye’s durability and provides him with extra survivability, helping him last longer on the battlefield and take less damage, especially when fighting teams that focus on applying debuffs or dealing heavy burst damage. Captain America’s presence can make Hawkeye more resilient and harder to take down, ensuring he can continue applying his control and debuff abilities while staying in the fight.

For Skill-Military teams, Hawkeye benefits from pairing with Red Guardian, who provides both Defense Up and Speed Up to Skill and Military allies. These buffs enhance Hawkeye’s ability to stay protected and act more swiftly, which is crucial when he’s playing a controlling role and needs to execute his abilities at key moments. His synergy with Yelena Belova further enhances his performance, as Yelena can transfer positive effects to all Skill-Military allies. This ability ensures that Hawkeye benefits from any buffs Yelena activates, giving him additional support in terms of damage and survivability.

Finally, Hawkeye fits seamlessly into a strong team composition alongside Captain America, Killmonger, Yelena Belova, and Punisher. This team offers a diverse set of synergies, with Captain America providing defense, Killmonger contributing high damage and chain attacks, and Yelena transferring buffs that enhance Hawkeye’s performance. Punisher adds extra damage and utility through his synergy with other Skill-Military characters, making this lineup incredibly effective in a variety of combat situations. With this team, Hawkeye can fully take advantage of various buffs, synergies, and strategic opportunities, creating a powerful and well-rounded group that can handle many different types of enemies across several game modes.

Counters

Hawkeye is particularly effective against certain characters due to his abilities to remove stealth and deal unavoidable damage. He excels against Black Cat and Elektra, as his passive has a chance to remove stealth, and both are considered squishy targets, meaning they can be quickly taken down once stealth is cleared.

Additionally, Hawkeye is strong against characters with Evade, such as Spider-Man, because his attacks are unavoidable, bypassing their evasion. However, characters who can remove buffs pose a significant challenge to Hawkeye, as they can nullify his control abilities. Jessica Jones, Doctor Strange, and Scientist Supreme are examples of such counters, as they can strip away the buffs, including the blind from his ultimate, rendering his attempts to control the enemy team ineffective.

Team Building

Hawkeye fits well into Skill-Military teams, where he can synergize with several powerful characters for a variety of game modes, including Raids, Arena, Blitz, Real-Time Arena, and Alliance War. One strong team composition includes Red Guardian, Black Widow, Yelena Belova, and Punisher. Red Guardian provides Defense Up and Speed Up for all Skill and Military allies, boosting the team’s durability and speed. Black Widow grants Speed Up to all allies, which enhances Hawkeye’s Assist Now ability, making him more effective in battle. Yelena Belova and Punisher contribute with high damage output and assist capabilities, further boosting Hawkeye’s performance.

Alternatively, Hawkeye can be teamed with Captain America, Killmonger, Yelena Belova, and Punisher for a different setup. Captain America can act as a reliable tank with his Taunt after a teammate is killed, providing protection for the team. Additionally, he offers double synergy with Black Widow. However, Captain America lacks healing abilities and ability blocks, which are strengths of Red Guardian. Yelena Belova can transfer one positive effect from the primary target to herself and all Skill-Military allies, adding utility to the team. Killmonger brings chain attacks and massive damage, making him a valuable offensive asset.

For substitutions, Captain Marvel or Baron Zemo can be considered in Skill-Military team lineups, offering flexibility while maintaining strong synergy with Hawkeye and the team.

Game Modes

Hawkeye is a highly versatile character in Marvel Strike Force, able to perform effectively across a wide range of game modes. Whether you’re competing in Arena, engaging in the strategic battles of Alliance War (both for offense and defense), tackling Blitz or Real-Time Arena, or taking on the toughest challenges in Raids, Dark Dimension, and Cosmic Crucible, Hawkeye has the tools to shine. His impressive crowd control and debuffing abilities allow him to influence the battlefield in multiple ways, whether he’s applying blind to disrupt enemy attacks or removing buffs to weaken opponents. These abilities make him an essential asset, especially in modes where controlling enemy actions is crucial for success.

In Alliance War, Hawkeye can provide valuable support on both the offensive and defensive fronts, helping to lock down key targets with his group-wide blind and debuff removal. In Raids, his Skill-Military team synergy enhances his effectiveness even further, as his control abilities complement those of other powerful characters like Red Guardian, Black Widow, and Punisher, creating a team that can handle high-damage enemies while mitigating threats. His role in Blitz and Real-Time Arena is equally potent, as Hawkeye can disrupt enemy teams and turn the tide of battle with his versatile toolkit, making him a great choice for these fast-paced modes.

Additionally, in Cosmic Crucible, Hawkeye’s ability to blind enemies and remove buffs provides critical control, especially when facing teams that rely on self-sustaining buffs or heavy damage. His effectiveness extends to Dark Dimension, where managing large groups of enemies and removing their advantages is key to progression. Hawkeye’s adaptability and synergy with various teams make him a key player in almost every mode, enhancing his overall value and ensuring he remains a solid choice for players looking to optimize their team compositions across the game’s many challenges.

Tier Placement

Hawkeye is classified as an Omega Tier character in Marvel Strike Force due to the power and versatility of his abilities, especially his ultimate. His ultimate ability not only provides a potent group-wide blind, but it also disrupts enemy plans by potentially causing them to miss crucial attacks or use their ultimates at inopportune times. This makes him a formidable controller on the battlefield, capable of turning the tide of battle in his team’s favor.

Additionally, Hawkeye is easy to farm, making him an excellent character to unlock and invest in early, which is especially valuable for newer players looking to build a strong team without the need for excessive resource investment. His versatile nature allows him to seamlessly fit into almost any team composition, whether he’s acting as a utility character to control enemies or as part of a damage-dealing setup. One of his standout features is his ability to remove buffs from enemies, such as Defense Up or Regen, which can be crucial in countering tanky or self-sustaining characters like Luke Cage or Thanos.

His skillset allows him to debuff multiple enemies at once, not only reducing their effectiveness but also ensuring that your team can deal with them more efficiently. The unique group-wide blind he can apply forces enemies to miss critical attacks, especially when used strategically in combination with other control-focused abilities. This blend of crowd control, debuffing, and unavoidable damage makes him not just a versatile character but a valuable asset in Raids, Arena, and Alliance War, as well as other game modes where controlling the flow of battle is key.

How to Use

Hawkeye is a highly strategic character in Marvel Strike Force, offering several ways to disrupt and control the battlefield. His ultimate ability is particularly valuable for disrupting enemy attacks by applying the blind effect, causing enemies to miss their attacks or waste their ultimates at inopportune moments, giving the player a significant advantage. His special skill is also useful for clearing buffs such as Defense Up, Regen, and Taunt, which can remove key defensive advantages from enemies like Luke Cage who relies on these buffs to protect himself. Additionally, Hawkeye’s passive ability is effective at clearing stealth from enemies like Elektra, who often starts matches in stealth, allowing Hawkeye to target her more easily.

In Doom Raids, it’s important to pair Hawkeye with Kestrel, as having Kestrel’s special ability ready for the second node helps enhance the team’s effectiveness. Hawkeye’s ultimate also allows for solid control over enemies like Doom and Polaris, limiting their impact in battle. In Cosmic Crucible, he can serve as a counter to Super Skrull, especially when the enemy team doesn’t have on-spawn buffs, as Hawkeye can easily remove them and neutralize Super Skrull’s synergies. With a decent speed rating of 116, Hawkeye can act relatively quickly, allowing him to use his abilities strategically in the flow of combat.

Common Mistakes

When using Hawkeye in Marvel Strike Force, there are several common mistakes to avoid to ensure his effectiveness in battle. One mistake is investing too many resources early on. As an older character, it’s important to assess whether Hawkeye fits your current team needs before committing significant resources to him. Another mistake is using his special ability when there are no positive effects to clear. Hawkeye’s special is designed to remove buffs like Defense Up, but using it when there are no buffs to clear results in a wasted turn and missed opportunity for better control.

Additionally, not prioritizing targets correctly when using his ultimate can limit its effectiveness. It’s essential to choose enemies that will benefit most from being blinded or disrupted, especially high-damage or control-focused enemies. In Doom Raids, it’s crucial to have Kestrel’s special ability available for the second node, as this can help maximize the effectiveness of your team, including Hawkeye. Lastly, failing to ability block Cersei in the Masters of Evil team composition can lead to negative consequences, as her abilities can turn the tide of battle if left unchecked. Proper target prioritization and ability management are key to making the most of Hawkeye’s skills.

Alternate character builds and team comps

There are several viable team compositions and character builds for Hawkeye in Marvel Strike Force that can suit different playstyles and game progressions. For Skill-Military team variations, a strong alternative to the Red Guardian-led team is one that includes Captain America, Killmonger, Black Widow, Yelena Belova, and Punisher. Captain America acts as a tank with Taunt after a teammate’s defeat, while Killmonger provides chain attacks and high damage output, though he lacks some synergy abilities.

If you need substitutes, Captain Marvel or Baron Zemo can work well within the Skill-Military lineup, offering solid damage and utility. For beginner players, a team including Quake, Yondu, Hawkeye, Captain America, and Crossbones can provide a balanced mix of offense and defense. As you progress, the New Avengers team is a solid choice for Avengers-related content, especially when compared to the Wave 1 Avengers.

For more advanced compositions, you can explore a Masters of Evil team, especially if you’re focusing on Nova and Kang, with Ultron, Kang, and Titania complementing Hawkeye. In Cosmic Crucible, you can pair Hawkeye with Fury, Kestrel, the Eternals, and Omega Red for a well-rounded team capable of handling various challenges. For Blitz, it’s recommended to form teams with characters of similar power levels to ensure a more competitive edge. Lastly, for the early game, focusing on a team with Tangled Web, Ghost Spider, Captain America, Gambit, Hulk, and Sinister Six can provide a solid foundation as you work toward unlocking more powerful characters.