Technologies
Ultron, Jeff-nado and New Tactics Mode: There’s a Lot Riding on Marvel Rivals Season 2.5
The midseason update adds a new strategist to the roster and brings an experimental autobattler mode to Rivals.

Marvel Rivals season 2 is approaching its midseason update next week, and today we got our first glimpse of some of the changes coming to the game.
The Marvel Rivals Season 2.5 update is a much-needed refresh for Rivals, which has struggled with declining Steam player numbers all season (not the full picture, but currently down to about one-third of the average players compared with January) and a player base that’s grown increasingly frustrated with one another.
What’s the cure for all this? Adding one of the most-anticipated new heroes and also leaning full bore into the zaniness by letting Storm and Jeff the Landshark team up to create a Jeff-nado.
Here’s what we learned about the Marvel Rivals season 2.5 update from today’s developer vision video.
Marvel Rivals season 2.5 start date
Season 2.5 kicks off next Friday, May 30, UTC. We don’t have an exact start time, but for these major season updates the game tends to go offline in the middle of the night ET/PT and come back online in the wee hours of the launch date.
New hero: Ultron
Officially announced at the start of season 2, Ultron joining the roster as a strategist might have been the most well-known «secret» that Rivals has been hiding since launch. If you’d asked me last year which role Ultron was most likely to slot into, I would’ve guessed duelist or vanguard, but a free-flying strategist with unique healing mechanics is a welcome change of pace for the role.
Ultron’s video preview shows us a strategist who can leap in the air to escape divers and who has an attack range to take on enemy fliers. This could make him a great counter-pick to certain enemy comps, but we’ll have to wait for his full kit details to know for sure.
I’d love to see more strategists with unique mechanics like Loki’s clones or Invisible Woman’s shields — as much as I enjoy the shoot-to-heal strategist gameplay, I think the game’s in a better place when there’s more variety in the roster. So I’m likewise glad to see that Ultron’s ultimate isn’t another variation of «big heals in a circle» like most strategists’ ultimates — instead Ultron shoots a series of rapid-fire beams that heal allies and damage enemies.
It’s no Loki Doppelganger, but it’s something different.
New map: Arakko
As usual, the midseason update adds a new map alongside the new hero — this time, we’re getting Arakko, the former sister island of Krakoa (season 2.0’s new map), which has been mechanized by X-tron, the version of Ultron that was reborn through Krakoa’s resurrection chamber. The map appears to be a payload map — convoy or possibly convergence — with heroes escorting the objective toward a lore-relevant destination.
A bunch of new team-ups and balance changes
The Rivals midseason patch is surprisingly hefty according to the latest developer vision video. The game is adding six new teamups, including a new one between Iron Man and Ultron, as well as two new team-ups for Jeff — the aforementioned Jeff-nado, plus the ability to use Venom’s symbiote to shoot healing tendrils onto (into?!) allies. Luna Snow can also give Hawkeye a stunning ice arrow, Rocket and Peni power up each other’s deployable abilities, and Punisher gives Black Widow’s rifle a piercing upgrade.
In exchange, season 2.5 will say goodbye to four previous team-ups, including the notorious Symbiote Bond wherein Venom players gave Spider-Man and Peni Parker an extra damage burst to help melt your backline. Also leaving are Luna Snow and Jeff’s ice combo, Hawkeye and Black Widow’s afterimage team-up and Ammo Overload for Rocket and Punisher. In addition, Iron Man will no longer benefit from a team-up with Hulk (though Namor still does).
Rivals devs also addressed the current metagame, framing it as a «rock-paper-scissors dynamic» among mobile dive compositions (Cap, Iron Fist, Human Torch), wall-and-brawl comps (Groot paired with other mid-to-close-range heroes like Thing, Winter Soldier and Mister Fantastic) and triple-strategist compositions. It doesn’t feel like the fairest analogy, as the devs pointed to both of the latter comps as countering the high mobility comps, rather than being a true (theoretical) rock-paper-scissors where each composition is strong against one alternative and weak to another.
Still, the developers are shaking things up in season 2.5 with balance changes, and the result is that Strange and Magneto are getting buffed while Groot, Cap and Emma Frost get hit with nerfs. Mobility-focused duelists Iron Fist, Human Torch and Psylocke are getting nerfs while Punisher, Storm and Squirrel Girl will receive «modest» buffs. The only strategist mentioned in the dev vision video’s upcoming balance tweaks was Luna Snow, whose ult charge gets another nerf, offset by a «mild boost» to her other abilities.
I’m a little worried about some of these changes on paper. Targeting overperforming heroes is fine, but buffs to heroes like Punisher and Squirrel girl feel risky. I’m not a fan of buffing «noobstomper» heroes into relevance, but I’ll wait until I see the details and how things feel in the game before I actually panic. It’s also a bit perplexing that Rivals devs seem focused on increasing ult charge requirements for Luna Snow instead of just making it last less than an eternity.
Other changes: New tactics mode, emoji
Perhaps the biggest surprise in the season 2.5 announcement was the addition of a new experimental mode called Ultron’s Battle Matrix Protocol. It’s an autobattler that lets you choose a team of six heroes, enhance their abilities, and unleash them against opposing teams. I have zero experience with autobattlers like Teamfight Tactics of Hearthstone Battlegrounds, but it was as fun watching a massive Venom looming over the battlefield as it was seeing a Namor with six (I counted) active turrets.
The game is also introducing emoji, finally allowing you to nonverbally express your disdain for the teammates begging for healing while Spider-Man and Iron Fist treat you like a punching bag.
Technologies
Anthropic Launched New Claude 4 Gen AI Models. Here’s What They Do
The models can now use tools like web searches during extended reasoning tasks.

The latest versions of Anthropic’s Claude generative AI models made their debut Thursday, including a heavier-duty model built specifically for coding and complex tasks.
Anthropic launched the new Claude 4 Opus and Claude 4 Sonnet models during its Code with Claude developer conference, and executives said the new tools mark a significant step forward in terms of reasoning and deep thinking skills.
The company launched the prior model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, in February. Since then, competing AI developers have also upped their game. OpenAI released GPT-4.1 in April, with an emphasis on an expanded context window, along with the new o3 reasoning model family. Google followed in early May with an updated version of Gemini 2.5 Pro that it said is better at coding.
Claude 4 Opus is a larger, more resource-intensive model built to handle particularly difficult challenges. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said test users have seen it quickly handle tasks that might have taken a person several hours to complete.
«In many ways, as we’re often finding with large models, the benchmarks don’t fully do justice to it,» he said during the keynote event.
Claude 4 Sonnet is a leaner model, with improvements built on Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet model. The 3.7 model often had problems with overeagerness and sometimes did more than the person asked it to do, Amodei said. While it’s a less resource-intensive model, it still performs well, he said.
«It actually does just as well as Opus on some of the coding benchmarks, but I think it’s leaner and more narrowly focused,» Amodei said.
Anthropic said the models have a new capability, still being beta tested, in which they can use tools like web searches while engaged in extended reasoning. The models can alternate between reasoning and using tools to get better responses to complex queries.
The models both offer near-instant response modes and extended thinking modes.
All of the paid plans offer both Opus and Sonnet models, while the free plan just has the Sonnet model.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for May 23, #446
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 446 for May 23.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.
Today’s NYT Strands puzzle has a humorous title, and if you understand the reference, you’ll know what words to look for. If you need hints and answers, read on.
I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.
If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.
Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far
Hint for today’s Strands puzzle
Today’s Strands theme is: The musical fruit
If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: There are magical ones in fairy tales.
Clue words to unlock in-game hints
Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:
- REEK, GADS, PLAY, PLAYS, PITA, DIAL, FALL, PALL, PALLS, FALLS, GENIE, BEEN, LACK, DENY, NILL.
Answers for today’s Strands puzzle
These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:
- FAVA, NAVY, BLACK, GREEN, PINTO, KIDNEY, CANNELLINI
Today’s Strands spangram
Today’s Strands spangram is BEANSALAD. To find it, start with the B that’s three letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.
Technologies
The Marvel Rivals Auto Battler Is a Natural Evolution of Hero Shooters
Move over Teamfight Tactics. Marvel Rivals’ new limited-time mode is the perfect addition to the auto battler genre.

Marvel Rivals has been a breath of fresh air for the hero shooter genre, combining popular comic book characters and chaotic third-person shooter action to create epic team fights that keep me coming back for more.
Fast-paced combat is the name of the game in Marvel Rivals, which is why it could come across as a confusing development that the next limited-time mode launching in Marvel Rivals Season 2.5 is a form of auto battler (also frequently referred to as auto chess).
Ultron’s Battle Matrix Protocol is an experimental mode launching on June 6, where six players will draft teams of heroes to go head to head with their opponents’ drafts. You’ll be able to support your AI teams while the new hero Ultron (also debuting in season 2.5) is chipping in extra healing and damage to the fight.
Aside from the fact that it’ll be cool to stage your own version of Marvel Comics’ Secret Wars, is the decision to add an auto battler to Marvel Rivals (which has previously released limited-time modes that mostly tracked with the shooter’s core gameplay loop) really all that far out of left field? I don’t think so.
Why is Marvel Rivals getting an auto battler mode?
The new mode is similar to multiplayer online battle arena spinoffs such as Dota Auto Chess and League of Legends’ Teamfight Tactics. I think drawing the line from a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) to auto battler is easy for most people.
MOBAs are strategy games first and foremost, where players pick and choose items to craft builds that will help them win their lane, while also contributing to big team fights. Players need to work together to overwhelm the other team and push them back to their spawn.
MOBAs and auto battlers are both about team synergy, positioning and picking the right upgrades, so it’s not surprising to people when characters from a game in one of these genres appear in another.
There are many people that wouldn’t associate hero shooters with MOBAs in the slightest. Games like Marvel Rivals have a high ceiling for very different mechanical skills — especially aiming. But hero shooters are also complex strategy games that share many of the same fundamentals as a MOBA.
Putting together a viable team composition with strong character is the most important part of a hero shooter — and Marvel Rivals takes this to another level with the strongest team-up abilities that require multiple heroes to activate.
An auto battler will allow people to experiment team compositions that don’t often get played in real Marvel Rivals’ matches, and could even help the community find new experimental hero combinations that have the potential to shake up common ways people play the game.
In Ultron’s Battle Matrix Protocol, as the auto battler mode is called, players will be able to put together balanced teams, lock in the risky GATOR strategy (which is nightmarishly similar to Overwatch’s GOATS meta) or fall back on triple support with brand new upgrades that change how the game works.
Absurd power scaling might look like Overwatch 2’s Stadium mode
There’s a clear rivalry between Overwatch 2 and Marvel Rivals, since they’re the two biggest hero shooters on the market right now. Blizzard’s hero shooter is entering its ninth year of life with flagging interest, but its solid fundamentals have been a high bar for Marvel Rivals to hurdle.
Both games have been trying out bold new things — Overwatch 2 recently shipped the MOBA-like Stadium mode that lets players augment popular abilities and take powerful passives as they fight in a flurry of different objectives in a best of seven gauntlet.
Ultron’s Battle Matrix Protocol in some ways feels like NetEase’s response to Blizzard’s big success with Stadium mode. You might not have quite as much influence on the outcome of each battle, but this serves as a proof of concept for Marvel Rivals’ hero power scaling.
This new mode also lets players pick passive abilities that buff certain roles as well as more powerful hero-specific upgrades that drastically alter the course of a fight, so the snowballing power of a Stadium match is very much emulated here.
In the Season 2.5 developer vision video, we got a look at what some of the upgrades will look like.
Venom can grow into a hulking monster after devouring enemies with his ultimate ability, Hela cuts a swath through the playing field with a field of flying daggers, Psylocke zips around her ultimate ability’s area of effect at twice her normal speed and Namor summons many more squid turrets to attack his enemies.
It’s safe to assume that every character in the game will have some kind of special power unlocked in the later rounds of an Ultron’s Battle Matrix Protocol match. This definitely isn’t NetEase reheating Blizzard’s nachos, but I do think it’s indicative of a broader shift toward making hero shooters feel a little bit more chaotic and unrestrained.
Game balance is important, but one of the biggest draws of this genre is that each character is a unique power fantasy you can’t find elsewhere. I can’t imagine such in-depth upgrades were designed for a one-and-done mode, so it’ll be interesting to see where they might show up next.
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