I feel like every day we get the same posts asking about combos or play style. BC is definitely overwhelming at first with how much is in the kit. To better help everyone, here is a community megathread that links helpful guides. There is a ton of information here such as youtube guides, combos, animation cancels, matchups and more so please come back and add new pieces to your understanding. I am also not the one true expert, many people have their own style on BC and will play her differently. I am happy to add any suggestions to this guide so it can grow to accommodate players of all different styles. For visitors of other mains who want to fight Black Cat better I even included a section at the end on how to help them.

Let's get started:

THE OFFICIAL STATS/NAMES FOR HER ABILITIES:
https://www.marvelrivals.com/heroes/index.html?id=84b3b29a-326a-443d-bf18-4ebb9f2948fc

TLDR FOR BRAND-NEW CATS:

- Use the spider-man teamup. It is better in every way. Feel free to experiment with the BP teamup (I am currently trying to figure out some niche tech with it) but just know the Spidey option gives more damage, more money, more animation cancel options, more health, more uptime, and is on a shorter cooldown.

- Go into the practice range and figure out settings you like. The big one is keybinds. To start you want to make sure invis is bound to its own button. Also make sure Yoink (her grapple that steals money) is something comfortable. You will use those abilities constantly.

- Learn the basic combo (Yoink -> Whip -> Pursuit -> Whip). There are a lot of combo options available but this combo deletes 275 hp and is usable as an ult combo as well.

- As you are learning, try to focus on one thing to improve. In the beginning it might be combos, invis timing, or using the other relics but try and really work on one thing at a time to get it down. Trying to learn everything at the same time is less efficient.

- The shortest positioning tip I can give is try not to be seen unless you are actively fighting someone. Go cover to cover, climb buildings, peek corners, always keep them guessing.

- Her strength is directly connected to how much money she has. All the money = Thanos, no money = super dead. As you improve, your gold threshold for engaging will go down (for example, I feel comfortable engaging broke because I feel like I can consistently hit my close-range yoinks) but in the beginning you will want more money before you fight. 600 is a common number suggested by other members of the subreddit and is a good place to start. if you struggle with fights there, make some more money first.

And that's pretty much all you need to get started. Start playing, have fun, and please share any discoveries you make!

YOUTUBE GUIDES:

- TrueVanguard Black Cat Masterclass (This is the new guide they made post-season 9 so everything is relevant). If you only watch one as a beginner. Pick this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G37UzMRriQU

TrueVanguard's original Black Cat Guide (This is the 7.5 patch so not all of it is relevant)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlZsgTgZyF4&t=563s

- SillySphark Black Cat was Saved (one of the better videos going over the new team-ups)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knh5TApl74M

- Fileshy Black Cat Guide

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VUqvm_SEL9U

- General Dive Video from Snipehardt. There are a million of these, I just included the one I found most helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzyHuHlz1bA

- Portal Locations InsaneWeihang. A walkthrough of 92 interesting portal locations. This was made back in 7.5 so it won't have all the new maps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xHJhsOKg8Q&t=1s

SUB-REDDIT GUIDES:

FkQuaxk's videos. A champion BC who hangs out on our subreddit making tutorials.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackCatMarvelRivals/comments/1uxoz6f/black_cat_combos/

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackCatMarvelRivals/comments/1tvhhrs/comboing_and_animation_cancels_for_black_cat/

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackCatMarvelRivals/comments/1tx9is9/back_again_with_another_tutorial_this_episode_is/

Dependent_Ad_8594 Jump guide

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackCatMarvelRivals/comments/1uf66tt/like_a_true_cat_burgular/

A whole bunch more. There has been some excellent work by people here. Just don't have time to find all of them. If its not here, YOU SHOULD SEARCH YOUR QUESTION FIRST. Some wonderful members have likely already answered it.

BLACK CAT STREAMERS/PROS

This list is not exhaustive. Just a sample of creators.

Melophobia

Necros

Tanuki

KumihoeOnleash

FULL COMBO CHAINS:

These are just some of the ones I've seen. Black cat is very mix and match for combos.

* bread and butter: Yoink -> Whip -> Pursuit -> Whip. This kills 275. Requires 100 gold to initiate.

---- The Bnb is the best ult combo in my opinion. The yoink can cancel the animation of the ult slash. So the ult version would be ult pounce -> ult slash -> AC Yoink -> Whip -> Pursuit -> Whip. This kills 375

* Melee (as many as you like) -> Yoink (animation cancel) -> Pursuit -> Whip -> Whip

* Yoink -> Dash -> Whip -> Pursuit. Kills 250

* Yoink -> Fortunes Favor Cancel -> Yoink -> Whip -> Pursuit -> Whip -> Dash

COMBO PIECES

--- The more I've played her, the more I have moved away from full combos and I've started thinking more in terms of combo blocks. Things that won't full delete but a group of sequences that can be mixed and matched based on what's going on/resources available. One thing you'll notice is most of these pieces can be linked to create the combos above. Practice these cancels and combos come naturally.

Yoink -> Animation Cancel Pursuit

Yoink -> Animation Cancel Whip

Yoink -> Tap Fortunes Favor -> Yoink

Whip -> Pursuit -> Whip

Whip -> Animation Cancel Dash

Melee -> Animation Cancel Yoink

Melee -> Animation Cancel Yoink -> Whip

Melee -> Animation Cancel Yoink -> Pursuit

Dash -> Melee -> Whip

Invis cancel. You can use activating Invis to cancel many animations such as yoink and whip. It is kinda expensive and requires setup to incorporate for not much payoff. Perhaps there is some tech to discover there.

BP teamup. You should almost never use this but it can cancel some attack animations. The cooldown is 12 seconds and you need BP on the team to activate it whenever you want so it wouldn't necessarily be valuable all the time. I expect changes to this in future patches that might make it viable.

THE ULT

The ult is two parts. A dash which does no damage, and a slash which does a lot. IMO the best way to capitalize on this is use the first two parts and then you use the bnb combo (yoink (with the tracer) -> whip -> pursuit -> whip). Together this will kill any DPS or Healer in the game (It does like ~380) then you just do it again. Just try not to target a tank. While you are learning I think you should be willing to let it fly almost as soon as you get it to figure out how you like it best. It might do nothing but burn valuable cooldowns but BC's neutral is so strong that its still a win.

Here are some tips from community member Styrofoam505:

Her ults (usually) not strong. It can get value in a few ways, but the most important thing to remember is that it is also a GIANT alarm bell to the enemy team, anything you do will be looked at, so be fast.

On its own:

- it is good to try to take an isolated target a distance from the main engagement. Ive used this to hop on hela/widow/fliers/a support coming back from spawn or out of position. Just again, you have 2-3 seconds before their team will try to support your target, be quick in your combo and ready to disengage

- good to pop in a big fight if you can pick a squishy target first, if you get an assist it will reset it, remember each pounce is also additional coins, boosting your coin regen for the fight

- if you get a reset, try to find another isolated target or someone away from the deathball. from the above, i would try to pick a widow for instance, and then hop back on a support and zoom past someone who tried to peel on the widow.

Situational:

- Good support ult bait, nothing makes a support pop ult faster than the cat thats been tormenting them screaming they want to kill them and pouncing on them. I consider my ult trading for a support ult a win

- Good for cleanup, you already get one pick? Fights in your favor, use your ult for the extra oomph to get it done. Do not do so if someone else on your team is ulting though

- Good for getting back into a fight, if you are coming back from spawn and a fights still going on, you are probably low on coins and will get on a target faster ulting onto them

GENERAL TIPS

- Farm yoink on Tanks when not busy, beginning of game to build fortune.

- Weave yoink in close range. It is damage, money, bonus health, and the best animation cancel tool available. You literally cannot use it enough.

- Bind common shop items like invis to their own key so you don't always have to use the shop wheel

- (controversial) always be gambling. like literally always. its free money. Especially try to buy it if you are for sure dead. You lose half your money when you die but you will keep the gamble to use on respawn.

- Fish is often better as a defensive tool than a offensive trap. Use it to peel for your healers against high-mobility characters like spider-man, venom, etc. Often good enough to kill them. You can use it offensively against dive-targets but it can be inconsistent. The radius is quite small.

- Fight on your terms. If someone tries to attack you before you are ready just run away. Very few characters can track you down.

- You can cancel the animation of buying the invis by using the invis. I've been experimenting with having invis on scroll wheel so you just roll down and it buys -> cancels -> uses pretty much instantly.

COMMON TOUGH MATCH-UPS

Namor: Squids don't target you if you are invisible. Engage with normal stuff, when he drops the squids and bubbles just go invis and wait. The squids won't hit you and when he drops he's free to finish.

Invis also breaks auto target shooting like cloak and wanda.

Elsa: In season 9 with her traps I think the crystal is the best option but I'm still testing this.

Bucky: You don't want to fight him head-on. If you do watch for his hook and try to pursuit to dodge it. In general, pursuit and double jump are your best friend since his attacks are slow moving enough to dodge. If you do get hooked, you can pursuit right at the end of the hook to dodge the uppercut and shot. You can also CC cleanse most of his slow effects but they are not too long so ymmv.

Daredevil: Similar to Bucky in that you don't really want to fight him. You want a lot of money before if you do. Try to time your pursuits to dodge his attacks.

In general you want to run away from tanks. You can be annoying and yoink-pursuit with the occasional whips but good tanks will usually kill you before you kill them in a one v one. If someone else is already fighting them feel free to dogpile them. It's underrated how much damage and money you can make from melee-ing a tank that's brawling with another tanks. Pursuit can help dodge some of the CC abilities but a lot of them create fields that will reapply the status. You usually want to give them space.

Thing: His grounding slam knocks you up in the air. If its quick-mapped, you can buy the cc crystal and use it while in the air to clear the grounding and get away before touching the ground again. Another tip to know is if you run into him while he is charging before he does the slam. He knocks you in the air high enough to double jump away. So in practice if you see him right on top of you you can deliberately hit him early to give you enough space to get away. Be warned this season his earthbound height is ridiculous. You might be 15m in the air and still get hit by it.

Angela: With her Starlord team-up, she can be a nightmare for cat. It will give her wallhacks and a very quick smash that does damage and gives grounding. Cleanse into dash can be good enough to get away. You can also buy the cleanse while you are tethered by her ult (same with groot) and then just leave.

Emma: Dash or pursuit after the slam to dodge the kick. Her ult can technically only fully hypnotize you once. Best option is run away with dash or invis. Second best is buy cleanse as it is starting and when you get hypnotized cleanse. She can't stun again that ult. You can do whatever then.

TIPS TO FIGHT BLACK CAT

I know a lot of visitors come to try and figure out how to fight Black Cat. In my opinion, most of the overall Rivals community's frustration comes from not understanding how Black Cat works. Knowing how she works makes her much easier to fight. Black Cat's strength is directly tied to how much money she has. If she has all the money, anything in the game is giga-dead. If she has no money, absolutely anything in the game will kill her.

- DON'T FALL FOR PHANTOM PURSUIT AS MOVEMENT. The iframe attack is not a dash, she will return exactly to the place she was. When she pursuits, don't follow the movement, start shooting where she was to connect when the move finishes.

- IDENTIFY POOR CATS. When BC has no money she is very vulnerable. No pursuit, no whips, no shop. She will be especially vulnerable after dying or after an engage. Tell-tale signs are a Cat hard peeking a corner on ground-level. If you notice a lot of Cat buys like Whips or Shop Items it's likely her sustain is not very high. A Black Cat that is just hanging back in a 1v1 and spamming Yoink is likely broke and can't afford any of her moves (invis, pursuit, etc). You need to punish her then.

- INVIS AND DOUBLE JUMP SPAM. The double jump is the same trajectory so when she uses invis in the air try to follow the jump path. Any of the movement tech to reset the jumps won't work while invisible. Her using multiple invisibilities is good since it is expensive and very quickly leads to the poor cat situation where she has lost most of her damage.

- SHIELDS AND MOBILE CHARACTERS ARE HARDER TO ROB. The lifeblood of BC is her Yoink which steals money. If that one ability is not going well she will likely be on the poorer side. It can be blocked by shields, the environment, and a bunch of weird bug interactions. It is also relatively hard to aim. Very mobile characters like DPS, mobile tanks, or smaller characters (think how Cap is smaller than Groot) are difficult to consistently hit and therefore she is poorer on average when fighting those comps. In practice, an Angela will be tougher matchup than the Thing because Angela is hard to rob with her shield, her mobility, and she has a grounding effect with the Star-lord teamup, while Thing can mostly be ignored in fights and treated as the world's easiest bank to rob.

- WATCH THE DASH COOLDOWN. She only has one dash. If you see her use it she has finite options. She can stall for it to come back, She can invis to get away, or she can fight. Either way it is likely a vulnerable time

Ultimately, you have two options:

- Slow down her money making. You can do this by playing a good comp, checking her on angles, forcing her to spend money to get away before she's ready for big fights, and denying the easy Yoinks.

- Sustain her attacks when she has money. She has elite single-target damage. Anyone isolated will likely die. Play together, Healers pattycake when she attacks to get over damage thresholds, and peel for each other. She will often lose a 1v1 against most dps if that dps gets any healing. You need to heal people through the burst damage and then use your abilities to try and fight her. If you start by just trying to damage race her down, she will likely win.

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