Happy War for Wakanda Week!

We hope you enjoyed our newest Marvel’s
Avenges WAR TABLE featuring the King of Wakanda, Black Panther.

Read on for the highlights and more
details on what you can expect when you dive into our Marvel’s Avengers
Expansion, available now as a free update to anyone who owns the base game.

STORY & WORLD

To ensure our original War for
Wakanda story does justice to such an important hero, our talented
narrative team enlisted the help of well-known writer and Black Panther expert
Evan Narcisse, author of the Rise of the Black Panther Marvel
comics. Evan was particularly inspired by past Black Panther storylines,
including Who is the Black Panther (2005), The
Deadliest of the Species & Power (2009-2010), Black
Panther – Long Live the King (2017), and A Nation Under Our
Feet& Avengers of the New World (2016- 2018).

In collaboration with Evan, the writing
team felt it important to ensure this was a story with Wakanda at the center,
although it takes place within a larger Avengers universe. As many of you know,
Wakanda is a sovereign African nation and the most advanced civilization on
Earth. Its technological advancement is fueled by Vibranium, a precious
material found only in a meteor that crashed on Earth centuries ago. The
kingdom is ruled by King T’Challa the Black Panther, and in War for
Wakanda, T’Challa is faced with an unprecedented invasion that will not
only put his strength to the test as the Black Panther, but as a king, a
leader, and a brother.

This invasion is led by a familiar foe to
fans of Black Panther – Ulysses Klaue. A rogue scientist with a dark secret and
a darker grudge, Klaue has assembled an army of mercenaries equipped with
deadly sonic technology, bankrolled by one of the world’s most sinister
organizations. Klaue launches sonic fracking towers across Wakanda to extract
the Vibranium from the ground, a devastating process that corrupts the
Vibranium and creates clusters of deadly poisonous shards.

This is how the Avengers get involved
in War for Wakanda. After the A-Day disaster, Wakanda closed its
borders and cut off all communication with the outside world. After the
dangerous corrupted Vibranium starts to appear across the globe, the Avengers
travel to Wakanda to offer their help to King T’Challa.

The new Expansion unfolds in the jungles
of Wakanda – a new Biome – and showcases both the rich and amazing history of
this ancient, unconquered African country but also the futuristic technology of
contemporary Wakanda. At the center is the Wakandan capital Birnin Zana, where
our new Outpost is located. It features King T’Challa’s throne room from where
he rules, and the command center where all important decisions regarding the
country’s security take place. Shuri’s lab houses the nerve center for
Wakanda’s Kimoyo network. The spiritual annex is located on the lower floor,
where Zawavari aids the royal family in the ways of mystical powers.

The Wakanda mission design is built on the
same foundation as Marvel’s Avengers, but with new objectives and
an extra focus on dangerous traversal, exploration, and puzzles. Almost all War
for Wakanda content is multiplayer-enabled, apart from the
introduction mission, where Black Panther is introduced and celebrated as a new
unique hero.

CAST & CHARACTERS

T’Challa – voiced by the incredibly
talented Christopher Judge of God of War and Stargate fame
– is joined by a phenomenal cast who bring his most trusted advisors and
dangerous adversary to life.

Princess Shuri – played by Erica Lutrell
from Dishonored, Westworld and Apex
Legends is the head of technological development in Wakanda. She does
not agree with T’Challa’s approach to dealing with Klaue, and the War
for Wakanda exposes the fragility of T’Challa and Shuri’s
relationship. It sets up a series of confrontations that will test their bond.
Even if they all find a way to come together, it may not be enough to stop the
growing threat to Wakanda and its people.

Okoye – played by Debra Wilson from Star
Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – is the captain of the King’s guard and the
voice of truth for T’Challa. Zawavari – a mystic who has a fraught relationship
with the royal family – is played by Dave Fennoy, best known from the Walking
Dead games.

Last but not least, Steve Blum leads the
invasion into Wakanda as Ulysses Klaue.

To get the Wakandan accent right, our team
worked closely with Beth McGuire, the dialect coach from the Marvel
Studios’ Black Panther movie. Beth has had multiple coaching sessions
with each of the key actors to ensure that the accents are properly delivered.

GAMEPLAY

On to gameplay, as we know you’re all
eager to traverse through the jungles of Wakanda with the King. Black Panther’s
combat focuses on his cat-like agility and the unique Vibranium technology of
Wakanda. In addition to the below, other skills can be unlocked to power up his
sprint, evade, and finishers. Here is a look at his custom moves:

• Out of My Sight (Signature Attack): Out of My
  Sight is Black Panther’s Signature Attack, which can be charged with
  intrinsic energy to perform the Kinetic Slash, a spiraling uppercut. From
  this move, Black Panther can branch in and out of the Spinning Strike
  Light Combo.
• Pounce (Power Attack): Pounce
  from the ground or the air to grab enemies and unleash a flurry of claw
  strikes.
• Intrinsic: The
  Intrinsic meter is super important for Black Panther. You’re going to want
  to prioritize blocking and parrying to store kinetic energy, which can
  then be released in a Percussive Blast.
• Percussive Blast: Black
  Panther’s Percussive Blast unleashes all your stored energy in a large
  kinetic burst that knocks away nearby enemies and boosts Black Panther’s
  melee damage for a short time.
• Panther’s Parry: Perform
  a parry just before an enemy attack connects, to turn their attack into a
  blast of kinetic energy that knocks them back and staggers nearby foes.
  Enemies who have recently been parried are easier to interrupt with
  attacks.
• Devastating Daggers: Black
  Panther can construct daggers made of energy and Vibranium which can be
  thrown at enemies, near or far.  His basic daggers will embed into
  targets making them more vulnerable to      melee
  damage.  They’re a great way to weaken an enemy before unleashing a
  barrage of melee attacks.
• Kimoyo Beads: The
  Kimoyo Beads can target enemies or allies and provide either detrimental
  or restorative abilities to their targets. The beads can be upgraded to
  provide additional support or offensive capabilities such as armor against
  attacks, destroying incoming projectiles, shooting enemy targets or
  dealing damage over time.
• King’s Mercy: The
  assault heroic King’s Mercy is a Vibranium spear that can pin multiple
  targets and deal out large amounts of damage. The spear can be customized
  to explode on contact or create multiple smaller spears for rapid fire.
• Bast’s Chosen: Black
  Panther’s Ultimate calls upon the power of the Panther Goddess Bast to
  summon a spectral panther to charge through your foes and empower Black
  Panther with energy from the Ancestral Plain, boosting defensive
  capabilities.  Unleash supercharged attacks without expending any
  intrinsic energy. Bast’s Chosen can be customized to revive downed heroes,
  weaken nearby enemies, and even summon spectral warriors to fight
  alongside.

Black Panther is a fully unique hero with
the same number of skills and gear as the rest of the Avengers, and will have
around 40 outfits, as well as a full suite of emotes, takedowns, and nameplates
for the marketplace.

ENEMIES

Wakanda will release with several new
enemies. The main villain is Black Panther’s nemesis from the comics, Ulysses
Klaue. We’re bringing a new sonic rendition of him to life based on his iconic
comics look. As mentioned, Klaue’s story is linked to Wakanda, and the
Expansion will explore our all-new origin story for the character.

We’re excited to announce the legendary
comic villain Crossbones as Klaue’s head lieutenant. Crossbones, aka Brock
Rumlow, is a sociopathic super-mercenary who works for the highest bidder and
he’s ready to lead the invasion of Wakanda. Crossbones is a formidable foe and
has an impressive arsenal at his disposal, including an impenetrable shield
that makes him immune to many of Black Panther’s attacks. Klaue also brought
with him a team of mercenaries that have a variety of Vibranium and sonic
powered weapons and should pose a real challenge for Black Panther and the
Avengers.

We’re also introducing a new menace: the
arachnid-like Crawlers. They come in different variants, including smaller
sized Scout Crawlers and large Hunter Crawlers.

UI Update

Also dropping tomorrow is a UI Update with
popular changes requested by our community! Some of the biggest updates are
related to the new unified character page. It contains everything associated
with a hero in one easy to navigate space. Here, you can manage your gear,
cosmetics, emotes, and takedowns, as well as view hero and challenge card
progress; so you can get back to the action more quickly.

This update also includes commonly
requested improvements for managing a hero’s loadout including: more easily
comparing items, locking your favorite gear for safety, and dismantling
multiple items at once. Direct access to your Locker from anywhere adds an
extra layer of convenience. This only scratches the surface of the UI
improvements our team has crafted for you in this update! Be sure to give us
feedback once you check it out so we can continue refinements in the future.

MARKETPLACE

Phew – that was a lot! There is so much to
be excited about in our first Expansion for Marvel’s Avengers, and
we can’t wait for you to jump into the game.

As for the Marketplace, starting with the
release of War of Wakanda we have temporarily reduced the price of most our
outfits. Legendary Outfits are discounted to 900 Credits, Epic Outfits are
discounted to 700 Credits, and Rare Outfits are discount to 500 Credits.

As a gift at launch, we’re also including
T’Challa’s Damisa-Sarki Outfit in the Marketplace for free this week. The
Damisa-Sarki Outfit for Black Panther is a reinterpretation of Jack Kirby’s
drawing of Black Panther and how he first appeared in the comics back in 1966.
We wanted to ensure one of T’Challa’s outfits had a cape. We know you did, too!
You can learn more about the inspiration behind Black Panther’s outfits in
our recent blog.

If you are looking for additional Black
Panther cosmetics, you’ve got options! You can earn outfits, emotes and
nameplates by completing Daily and week Hero Challenges to progress his hero
card. If you activate the Black Panther Challenge Card for 1000 Credits, you’ll
be able to earn more cosmetics as rewards for you progress.

The “Protector of Wakanda” Bundle will
also hit the marketplace at launch, which includes The Strategist outfit, the
Muscle of Wakanda takedown, and a Black Panther nameplate, and a bonus 3-day
Hero Catalyst, which offers up a XP boost for players looking to level up
quicker. The outfit, takedown and nameplate are all discounted for the purchase
of this bundle, and Hero Catalyst is included at no additional charge.

Lastly, Captain America’s iconic outfit
inspired by Marvel Studios’ The Avengers is available in the
Marketplace this week! We also updated the rarity on all of the MCU-inspired
outfits to Exotic Rarity.

We can’t wait to see you roam the Jungles
of Wakanda as the Black Panther. As always, be sure to provide us your feedback
and share stunning snapshots with us online!