When Marvel Rivals Season 1 launched last week, a whole host of updates came with it. There were new heroes and some much-needed nerfs and buffs, but there was also something else that went unmentioned in the patch notes: asset hash checking. This prevented client-side mods from working in Marvel Rivals.
NetEase considers modding a no-go. Despite a whole host of mods being available for players to use and download, it is a bannable offense alongside botting or cheating as it also uses unauthorised third-party software. So it was only a matter of time before NetEase got wise to all the Marvel Rivals mods available on Nexus Mods. But it turns out there is a way to bring your favourite mods back if you're willing to put everything on the line.
Instead of just putting your files into a mod manager and loading them into Marvel Rivals, now you need direct access to the game's .pak files. One player has even put together a helpful tutorial in case you need some guidance with this (via Dexerto). Some people may use this to just mod Luffy into the game as Mister Fantastic or so they can wear Jeff's skin when playing Iron Fist, but those aren't the only reasons to use mods.
A few players found that using mods to help with optimisation was a game-changer. While Marvel Rivals has improved a lot since its launch, it's still a little patchy in some areas. I've experienced some annoying FPS drops, enemy players randomly turning invisible, and cluttered maps breaking my games. One mod for performance-boosting fixed stuttering and helped your game look cleaner at lower resolutions. Unfortunately, while that may have worked to help game performance before NetEase effectively disabled mods, it will probably only make things worse now.
Another way to get around the modding ban is with another mod that effectively lets files be read as pre-unpacked. However, one of the side effects of using this is that the process could hurt your SSD and make your performance even worse in Marvel
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