When Did The Thing Come Out in Marvel Rivals?
The Thing came out in Marvel Rivals on February 21, 2025, with version 20250221, the patch that opened the second half of Season 1 (Season 1.5, Eternal Night Falls). He arrived together with the Human Torch, which finally put all four members of the Fantastic Four in the game. He plays as a Vanguard, the tank role.
When was The Thing released in Marvel Rivals?
He came out on February 21, 2025. NetEase announced the date on February 17 in a post titled “Human Torch and The Thing Join the fight on Feb 21st!”, and the version 20250221 patch notes confirmed it on the day: “The Thing and Human Torch are ready to rock out and flame on!”
The timing wasn’t random. Season 1 (Eternal Night Falls) launched in January 2025 with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman, and NetEase split the season in two. Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm were the headline of the second half, so Marvel Rivals players got the whole family about six weeks after the first two arrived.
| Detail | What the official posts say |
|---|---|
| Release date | February 21, 2025 |
| Game version | 20250221 (Season 1.5) |
| Released with | Human Torch |
| Role | Vanguard |
| Launch costumes | Trench Coat, First Family |
| New map in the same patch | Empire of Eternal Night: Central Park (Convergence) |
What time did The Thing come out?
The first half of Season 1 closed on February 21, 2025 at 8:00 UTC, according to NetEase’s Dev Talk Vol. 10, and Season 1.5 started that same day. In practice that means The Thing went live during the February 21 update on all platforms at once. There was no separate PC and console date.
What else came with The Thing in the Season 1.5 update?
Quite a lot, honestly. Version 20250221 was one of the bigger mid-season patches of 2025, and The Thing was only the most visible part.
- Human Torch, with his own Negative Zone Gladiator and First Family costumes.
- A new Convergence map, Empire of Eternal Night: Central Park.
- The Midnight Features II season event and the first round of Season 1.5 Twitch Drops.
- On PC, NVIDIA DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation for RTX 50 cards, plus AMD Radeon Anti-Lag 2.
- An account deletion option under Settings, which players had been asking about for a while.
Ranked changed too, and here’s the bit people still argue about. Dev Talk Vol. 10, published February 10, said ranks would drop four divisions at the start of the second half (Diamond I to Platinum II, for example). The patch notes released on February 21 said the opposite: “In S1.5, players will retain their ranks from the end of S1.0.” The patch notes are the later document, so that’s what happened. Season rewards also started requiring at least 10 Competitive matches from Season 1.5 onward.
Is The Thing a good pick now?
He’s still in the game and still getting balance attention, which is a decent sign. The most recent change at the time of writing came in the version 20261009 balance post for Season 10.5: when The Thing picks the team-up with Invisible Woman, the Unbreakable Forces cooldown drops from 20 to 15 seconds, and the damage needed to trigger its healing falls from 150 to 125. So his Fantastic Four synergy is the direction NetEase is pushing in October 2026.
Is he worth learning? That depends on whether your group actually runs Invisible Woman. To be fair, a tank that leans on one specific partner is a harder sell in solo queue. If you want to see how tank picks fit into a climb, our Marvel Rivals ranks guide explains the ladder, and the Season 2 team-ups breakdown shows how the Fantastic Four team-up was trimmed in 2025 (cooldowns went from 20 to 25 seconds back then).
Is The Thing free in Marvel Rivals?
He wasn’t sold as a paid hero. The February 2025 patch notes list him as new content for all platforms, and his paid items were costumes, not the hero himself. Costume prices vary by bundle. Check the store.
For the exact wording, the official version 20250221 patch notes are still online. Need the short answer once more? The Thing in Marvel Rivals came out on February 21, 2025, as the Season 1.5 hero. Collecting costumes? Our free Marvel Rivals skins list shows which costumes you can earn without paying.
FAQ
When did The Thing come out in Marvel Rivals?
The Thing was released on February 21, 2025, in version 20250221, the Season 1.5 update. He launched on the same day as the Human Torch.
What season was The Thing added to Marvel Rivals?
He was added in the second half of Season 1, Eternal Night Falls, which NetEase calls Season 1.5.
What role does The Thing play?
The Thing is a Vanguard, the tank role. NetEase lists him under Vanguard in its balance posts.
Which costumes did he launch with?
The patch notes list two launch costumes for The Thing: Trench Coat and First Family.
Did ranks reset when The Thing came out?
No. A dev post on February 10, 2025 announced a four-division drop, but the February 21 patch notes stated that players kept their ranks from the end of Season 1.0.
