Marvel Rivals has spawned enough surrounding work that the ordering question comes up constantly.

Short answer

It exists, it is official, and it is not required to understand the game — but it does fill in the parts the game only gestures at.

Assets circulated online are often ripped rather than released, which affects what you can legally do with them. Fan work is frequently better than official work and is not the same thing. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it.

What is fan-made

Licensed soundtracks are the most likely part to be missing from a re-release. Official art books contain material that never appears in the game itself. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. Release order and chronological order are different, and both have their advocates.

Adaptations take liberties, and the interesting ones take them deliberately. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. Canon status is decided by the developers rather than by the adaptation's writers.

Where to find it legitimately

The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.

  • Check whether something is official before treating it as canon.
  • Expect licensed music to be missing from re-releases.
  • Prefer the in-game option over an external tool when both exist.
  • Play first if you mind spoilers — adaptations rarely respect them.
  • Buy from the publisher's own store where one exists.
  • Write down what you changed, so you can undo exactly one thing if it goes sideways.

Whether it is worth your time

There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. Everything below is framed around the current state of Marvel Rivals rather than a launch-week impression. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see.

Where it fits with the game

The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of.

The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters.

What exists officially

If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Marvel Rivals is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work.

Where people go wrong

  • Ignoring the platform-specific note and then wondering why the steps do not line up.
  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.
  • Changing five things at once and then not knowing which one helped.
  • Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.

Rivals FAQ

Why do other guides describe this differently?

Most were written for an earlier version and never revisited. Compare the steps against what your build actually shows.

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

Do I need it to understand the game?

No. It adds background rather than filling gaps the game leaves open.

Where can I get it legally?

Publisher stores and licensed platforms carry all of it. Anything circulating as a free file is a rip.

Bookmark it if you like, but honestly, once you have done it once you will not need to come back.