So we just got done with this Bossfight in Contest of Champions, it was difficult, but we like how it forced a completely different play style out of us, and prompted us to use our bench warming 6 star Thor raganrok. We’re gonna go over each phase part by part, and try to explain how to beat this man down without using a ton of revives. We would not recommend spending revives on this fight unless you have reached the final phase, and are confident you can get him down with the items in your stash.

How to fight Nameless Thanos – Marvel Contest of Champions

Revives used: 2x l2 Team revives

So just to outline some of his base abilities that persist across all phases of this fight:

• Thanos cannot have his ability accuracy reduced
• Thanos’ power meter cannot be affected in any way (ie power drain, lock, leech, etc will all fail)
• Thanos cannot gain power from being struck or hitting you. He gains a bar of power slowly over 10 seconds, and will only fill his meter to the special that matches to his phase
• Thanos is stun immune below 40% health
• All of Thanos’ specials only cost a bar of power, and he will only use a special when he hits maximum power for the phase he is in
• A 2-second cutscene will commence every time Thanos enters a new phase, you can dash in immediately afterward without penalty for a free combo

Onto each phase

Below 95% health- Primeval Cocoon

• This is by far the easiest of the phases, and can be done with pretty much any of your top champions, with a few exceptions. What happens here is Thanos reflects all damage from light and medium attacks, as well as all stun effects, so you can’t parry. While the cocoon is up, you can only turn it off if you strike him with a heavy or special attack. Thanos’ Maximum power limit for this phase is 1 bar of power.
• Thanos has a 100% perfect block chance, which also works in your favour, because the fight allows you to gain power by hitting into Thanos’ block. The way to remove the cocoon is to do four hit combos into Thanos’ block, and dash out. When you have a bar of power, intercept him with your special when he dashes at you. The cocoon will then go down until Thanos uses his sp1 again, and you can hit him normally until that is the case.
• The sp1 itself is easy to evade, it’s just a beam and then a ground attack, like proxima’s sp1. Be aware that you cannot dash into him after he has used it though.
• If you find that you’ve been unable to find an opening to throw your special, and he’s almost at a bar of power again, conserve your bar and wait it out. You want to have as many seconds as you can get to pound into him.

MVPs

The absolute MVP for this part is Hyperion, as his power gain allows you to keep disabling the cocoon the moment it comes up. The stun on his sp2 also extends the time frame for you to beat into Thanos, making him the best option imo.

Any power gain champ (yes even your bloody 6 Star Mordo(accidentally stun Thanos and he can astrally evade)) works like a treat for this phase, as they can fire off specials quicker, and thus have more time to hit into Thanos.

Really any one of your top champions can nuke this phase down, but avoid champions with uncontrollable stuns, such as archangel or gwenpool. He will reflect these back into to you and kick your ass. Even domino could potentially screw you over so be aware of that.

Below 65% health- Ruthless Pandemonium

• Very much harder than phase 1 but still doable for the average player. What happens here is your controls are inverted, and the only way to change them back is to perform a combo on Thanos, ending with a light attack. Be aware for inverted controls that your dash and dodge controls have changed around. This ca be hard to get used to and may require a few practice runs.
• Thanos’ Maximum power is now two bars, and he resets to one every time he uses an sp2.
• At the end of the cutscene and when Thanos has used an sp2, immediately dash in (swipe the direction you would usually dodge) and perform a 5 hit combo, ending with a light attack. This undoes the inverted controls and gives you another window to hit into him normally.
• Be aware that Thanos has a permenant safeguard while in this mode, which means he can’t lose more than 0.5% of his health per hit (about 2,500 health). As a result champions like Corvus, of which are just raw damage on contact hits, are not very useful here.
• Thanos cannot Miss attacks and has true strike whilst inverted controls are active, so champions like Quake and ghost are not viable either
• Your light attack and block controls are not affected by inverted controls, so once you’ve dashed in don’t tap the opposite side of the screen to finish the combo
• The sp2 is considerably harder to evade that the sp1. It inverts controls straight away, similarly to Emma frost’s specials. First a beam will come at you, which you can just block if your not comfortable evading it. Then Thanos will send out a mass of projectiles, most of which will be fake, but two of which will be real and cause damage to you. You can block these but they deal a lot of damage through block, and push you too far back to dash in and remove inverted controls once the special is over.
• To determine the real projectiles, look for an orange glow, which stands out distinctly from the blue projectiles. You must ignore any projectiles without the orange tinge, and dash back accordingly when they come at you (remember inverted controls are up). When the special is over immediately dash in at Thanos to get your combo, as he is quick to recover. It helps if he is up against the wall, as your character has less distance to dash before he recovers.
• This phase may take a while to get used to, but don’t be disheartened, because it only costs 9 energy to come back in and try again.

MVPs

Damage over time champions. Your nick furies, gwenpools, archangels and dominos can all get around the safeguard and deal considerable damage if you have mastered the inverted controls. Champions like ghost and Corvus who rely on raw damage hits will suck here. Hyperion is also brilliant for this phase, because the stun from his sp2 allows for more time to hit into Thanos between Thanos’ sp2.

• Be aware that Thanos becomes stun immune at 40%, so do not parry him, and begin to get your intercept game on.

Below 30% health- Warmonger’s Imperative

• this is by far the most complicated and difficult phase, and requires mastery of intercepting to get right.
• so what happens is Thanos goes unstoppable for the first 5 seconds of the phase, and his maximum power increases to three bars. The unstoppable is a buff so it can be nullified by cap iw.
• when this phase starts, Thanos begins to place armour breaks on you. The closer you are to him, the faster they pile on. This is a good thing though, as we will explain below.
• you need to be able to tank Thanos sp3, which you can do in one of three ways:

Gwenpool: Her duped ability allows her to tank specials, so as long as you are not getting hit, you can eat infinite sp3s.

Champion with the #avenger tag: A champion with this tag can take no more than 15% of their health as damage when Thanos activates the sp3. And no, sparky is (unfortunately) not an avenger

Intercept Thanos- intercepting him provides any regular champion with a safeguard buff, meaning that you lose no more that 20% health on the next hit you receive (ie the sp3) you can intercept him while the unstoppable is up to remove it, but I’d advise against this as a mistake puts you instantly in the bin. This is also the only way to deal damage to Thanos (coming to that) you have 10 seconds to intercept him, and only 5 if you count time it takes for unstoppable to expire.

• Thanos s indestructible and resists all forms of damage while this phase is up. His unstoppable is refreshed every time he uses an sp3. The only way to remove the indestructible and deal damage to him is to intercept his dash attack. Well timed intercepts or backdraft intercepts work real well here.
• Everytime you intercept him, all the armour breaks on you get transferred to him for 1-2 seconds, allowing you to deal damage. They will transfer back to you when this timer is up. This means that the longer you have survived, the more armour breaks you transfer to him, and the more damage you deal when you intercept him. If you have an sp3 to hand, use it during this window. Its damage will be massively bolstered.
• be aware that once he uses an sp3 you will be backed against the wall. Try the nc switch Trick to have him wait out the unstoppable, or if your feeling really uncomfortable at dexing against a wall, use a special (preferably sp3) to get some space.
• armour breaks applied to Thanos by your champion’s abilities have no effect (sorry medusa users)
• this whole ordeal is incredibly difficult, and can make the last 30% extremely painful, much more so than last year

MVPs

Gwenpool- for reasons mentioned above, she is a great option to prevent Thanos killing you with his sp3, and will save your ass if you fail to get an intercept in the time limit. Iceman’s ice armour will not work here as the armour breaks in this process will remove it.

Hyperion- if you know how to intercept this guy can sp3 his way to victory in the short time frames on intercepts. As the armour breaks increase, his sp3 damage becomes ridiculous

Any avenger (not hulkbuster)- since the armour breaks do the damage dealing for you, even a bpcw can get in on the action. Our 6 Star Thor raganrok came into action here and he put in work. Avengers also give you several failsafes to fall back on, because they gain a class advantage after 10 seconds, as well as only taking 15% health as damage from a Thanos sp3. The avenger has to be a decent level though (don’t carry in 3 Stars unless you like causing mental fatigue to yourself)

Any champion with a big sp3- domino, havok, etc can all utilise the armour breaks further if you can survive to an sp3, and basically end the fight the moment they reach it.

Quake- a more niche option but a good quake and bake player can avoid the unstoppable and then perform a shallow intercept off the wall.

Do not bring ghost for this phase, as she can’t phase while armour is broken.

Well that’s about it. This is one tough ass event quest and I’m surprised the rewards haven’t been buffed (550k health cmon). Enjoy the winning feeling though and have a good one when you get Thanos down, and don’t forget to practice practice practice.

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Thanks and credit to user redshaw_01 for help creating this guide.

Don’t miss our other Marvel’s Contest of Champions Guides:

• Act 6.1 Completion Guide – Marvel’s Contest of Champions
• Realm of Legends Guide – Marvel’s Contest of Champions
• 3 New Mastery Builds – Marvel’s Contest of Champions
• Masteries Guide – Marvel’s Contest of Champions