Marvel Rivals Age of Ultron: beat the PvE mode on Hard and unlock the free Ultron skin

The PvE mode Path to Doomsday: Avengers Age of Ultron closes its doors on August 27, 2026 at 09:00 UTC, that's 11 a.m. Paris time. So there's a little over two weeks left to grab Ultron's epic Avengers: Age of Ultron costume, which can only be obtained one way: completing the mode on Hard difficulty at least once.

The mode has been live since July 30, 2026 at 09:00 UTC and the August 7 patch 9.5 didn't touch it. Two details worth knowing before you queue up: it's unavailable on PS4 (Steam, Epic Games Store, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S only), and Hard difficulty stays locked until you've cleared a full run on Normal.

This isn't a mode that's hard to understand, it's a mode where you die from silly mistakes. Here's a breakdown of the tiers, the order in which to buy upgrades, and the run plan to follow.

How to launch the mode and what it contains

From the home screen, open the Playlist, go to the Rivalry tab, select Path to Doomsday: Avengers Age of Ultron then the difficulty. A run is played with four players against waves of Ultron Sentries, with seven fixed heroes: Captain America, Hulk (Bruce Banner), Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Scarlet Witch.

These seven heroes don't use their PvP kit. Their abilities have been reworked for the mode and, above all, they grow stronger over the course of the run through upgrades purchased between tiers. A Hawkeye fully invested in Piercing Arrow fires continuously, like a machine gun.

The breakdown noted by the community counts eleven tiers: increasingly larger waves in the Avengers Tower, a first confrontation with Ultron at the seventh tier, then a second, much more vertical area and a final battle that's noticeably tougher. Normal and Hard share exactly the same progression; what changes is the number of enemies and the damage they deal. On Hard, an elite will kill you in one hit if you've neglected your health.

All the rewards, and how many runs to expect

The practical consequence is rarely spelled out: the costume drops on the very first run in Hard, but the seven titles require a Hard win with each of the seven heroes. To grab everything, count on eight runs at minimum — one on Normal to unlock the higher difficulty, then seven on Hard, one per character. The three numerical challenges (3,000 enemies, 10 waves, 15 upgrades) fall into place along the way on their own, no need to farm them separately.

Once the run is finished, the rewards aren't automatic: open the dedicated section in the missions window and claim them by hand. It's the classic end-of-event trap, when the window disappears along with any uncollected content.

Upgrades: your health points are a damage stat

Between each tier, you choose two upgrades. The mode reuses Blood Hunt's mechanic in a much simpler form, and this is exactly where a Hard run is won or lost. The most common mistake is stacking flat damage bonuses.

Two upgrades form the core of the system: Max Health +80% and Damage +6% per 100 Max Health. The second converts your health pool into damage. In other words, boosting your HP isn't a defensive choice: it's the mode's best damage multiplier, and incidentally the only way to survive an elite's charge on Hard. Take the first one once, then stack the second up to four times.

The recommended priority order:

• Skill Enhancements (the golden upgrades, which directly boost a skill): always first, regardless of the hero.
• Max Health +80%: once, early.
• Damage +6% per 100 Max Health: up to four times.
• Attack Speed +80%: one to three times depending on the hero — essential on Hawkeye, Hulk and Black Widow, skippable on Thor.
• Next Attack Damage +250%: take it as soon as it appears.
• Restore 8 Health on enemy defeat: your only reliable healing once the waves get dense.
• Reduce Skill Cooldown, Critical Hit Rate +30% and the damage bonuses against nearby or distant enemies: as filler, once the previous boxes are checked.

Two situational upgrades are worth a detour: +1,000 Health on Wave start, excellent on fragile characters since it also feeds the HP-to-damage conversion, and Fatal damage triggers invincibility, which lets you keep attacking for thirty seconds after a fatal hit. The latter is almost mandatory on Thor.

The tiers that make runs fail

The first tier serves as a warm-up. The real problems start afterward, and they're always the same.

• Tiers 2 and 3: ranged shooters and flying drones arrive. Melee heroes clear the ground, ranged heroes take down the drones as a priority, otherwise no one hits them. Elites appear here: their charge kills in one hit, so you need to sidestep as soon as the animation starts, never retreat in a straight line.
• Tiers 4 and 5: the area opens up and you get attacked from the front, left, and right. Kamikaze drones take priority over everything else, even in the middle of a pack of enemies. Ranged heroes should back up against the starting door to cut off one angle.
• Tier 6: the big eye-drones enter the scene. They deal much more damage than anything around them and must be the number one target every time they appear. Once they're down, the tier becomes very manageable again.
• Tiers 8 to 10: attacks come from all 360 degrees. Melee characters position themselves at enemy entry points to stop them before they scatter, while ranged characters stay in the center to cover every angle. Target order: eye-drones, then regular sentinels, then elites — whose fiery attack severely punishes anyone who stays stuck to them.

The two fights against Ultron

The seventh tier's fight comes down to a single mechanic: the targeted laser. When Ultron locks onto you, there are three valid responses — raise a shield if your hero has one, break line of sight behind a pillar, or keep circling around him so the beam doesn't stay latched on. Outside of this phase, stay mobile and aim for the head: the boss presents no other difficulty at this stage.

The final showdown is a different beast entirely. The arena is made up of several platforms connected by springboards, and Ultron spends most of the fight in the air: staying on the ground means taking hits without ever fighting back. The real threat comes from the turret wall on the opposite side, the one decorated with Ultron's face: it unleashes volleys of lasers every few seconds, and each shot can kill you outright. Position yourself so you keep this wall in your field of view while attacking the boss — it's the only way to anticipate the volleys.

Ultron also reuses his targeted laser here, to be handled exactly as in tier 7, and intermittently drops drone bombs: as soon as they fall, disengage immediately, even if it costs you three seconds of damage. The rule of this fight is patience — a run almost always fails because a player wanted to squeeze out a few hundred extra points of damage.

Which hero to pick for your Hard run

For a first Hard run, a team of Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Hawkeye and Captain America covers the essentials: two sources of area damage, one source of single-target damage for elites and the boss, and a character able to absorb the laser. The most grueling runs are the ones that line up three melee heroes, unable to deal with the flying drones from tiers 4 to 6.

What to do before August 27

Take advantage of being in the theme to swing by Times Square: the photo zone set up in front of the Avengers store immediately grants 100 Units for a simple group photo with the NPCs, within the same window as the mode. Be careful, though, not to mix up the two attractions on the square: since August 7, the giant screen projection has switched to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, with its own spray up for grabs, also until August 27.

The math is simple. If you only want the costume, one evening is enough: one Normal run, one Hard run, and you're done. If you're aiming for all seven titles, you have seventeen days left to fit in eight runs, saving Thor for last — he's the character that demands the most discipline, and it's best to tackle him once you've mastered the boss's mechanics. And if you're playing on PS4, don't bother waiting for a patch: the mode isn't planned for it, and the Ultron costume will leave without you.