In YouTuber Christopher Odd’s latest Marvel’s Midnight Suns gameplay showcase, Doctor Bruce Banner’s Hulk is finally shown off. Hulk is the 13th and final unlockable character on Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ base roster, and fans can hopefully expect Odd to feature the game’s Season Pass characters in future gameplay showcases of their own. Hulk is the last character to be unlocked in Marvel’s Midnight Suns and actually leads directly into the game’s final combat mission, leaving little time for players to befriend Banner or learn the ins-and-outs of Hulk’s card abilities.
Knowing the Hulk, fans can rightly assume that his abilities deal with damage above all else. The fascinating part of this gamma-irradiated monster is that he is nigh-invulnerable, and balancing that in Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ tactical gameplay means that he has to have certain weaknesses that he may not exhibit otherwise. Players face Hulk as a Fallen villain multiple times throughout the game, where they are unable to KO him and must simply survive his onslaught for several turns. As a playable character, however, Hulk is much more oriented around a risk-reward balance.
Hulk Takes Damage to Deal More Damage in Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Gameplay strategies for Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Hulk revolves around a Rage meter. Each time Hulk sustains damage, he earns a bar on the Rage meter, increasing his offense. However, using Hulk’s attack and heroic cards consumes a bar of Rage. This effectively means that Hulk players will want him to take a fair bit of damage before they consider using his attack or heroic cards for an optimal damage output with as much Rage as they can spare before his health drops too low. Fortunately, Hulk’s “Always Angry” skill card replenishes a large amount of health at the cost of Rage as well.
Overhealing Hulk with “Always Angry” is also recommended because it will increase Hulk’s maximum health, and upon upgrade, this skill card will also increase Hulk’s maximum Rage meter by one. This does not allow Hulk to dish out the damage he has reserved, but it can go a long way in an elaborate mission where Hulk’s increased health and Rage are worthwhile investments.
Hulk’s Taunt is All the Rage in Marvel’s Midnight Suns
In order to help supplement his Rage meter with reliable damage sustained, Hulk has Taunt options that steer enemies toward him. Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Taunt status effect is normally not paired with high damage, but Hulk is an exception that makes Taunt a significantly impactful effect to have.
Players do not need to worry about solely taking incoming damage—Hulk’s Seismic Slam heroic card, for example, deals a ton of damage while applying Taunt to each enemy in an area. Not many characters have cards that affect Stun properties, either, but Hulk’s Thunderclap heroic card applies Stun to enemies in a line that also get hit by Knockback, and Hulk’s Mighty Blow heroic card offers Forceful Knockback and additional damage if the targeted enemy already has Stun applied.
Finally, Hulk’s Marvel’s Midnight Suns Legendary heroic card, titled Worldbreaker, is incredibly and appropriately powerful. The Legendary heroic card damages every enemy with Forceful Knockback, and it is capable of gaining one bar of Rage for each KO before it Exhausts.
Hulk’s Strength Makes Up for Having Hardly Any Screen Time in Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Unfortunately, players will only be getting the most out of the Hulk in missions following the story’s conclusion unless they wish to go out on a number of general combat missions before they conclude the narrative. As a result, it would seem Hulk is more designed for the game's endgame content and New Game Plus mode. Hulk is hardly meant to be a character players level up at all before they head into the final mission. That said, neither Hulk nor Bruce Banner is not available for friendship in the Abbey, meaning he gains no progressive passive abilities.
This is quite regrettable since he is an interesting character in either alter ego, and even considering how late into the game players unlock him, players can continue leveling up other heroes and inviting them to havens after the narrative concludes anyway. Instead, Hulk is unable to be injured in combat missions, which makes him readily available at full strength in any combat mission players need him for, especially if he is given a combat mission bonus through daily sparring at Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Abbey grounds.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is available now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, with PS4, Switch, and Xbox One versions coming later.