Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: How To Unlock Thanos, The Toughest Challenge In The Game

‘The Black Order’ trial is one of the most difficult challenges in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, and it’s one of the most important. Why? Because completing these bonus Rift Challenge, which only appears after you’ve completed the game once, unlocks the final character for your hero roster — Thanos himself. The giant purple power-hungry tyrant is by far the most powerful character in the game, and unlocking him is a huge pain.

The Lv. 65 recommendation is a joke. Even with four Lv. 100 characters, this is a tough fight. To help you make it more manageable, I’m going to offer a series of tips and tricks that you really ought to know before going into the battle. It’s all about planning and preparation here — the fight itself is so chaotic, it’s difficult to use any one single strategy. So, here’s what you need to know to win.

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How To Unlock Thanos | Black Order Trial Guide

Before attempting to fight the Black Order, I recommend being at least Lvl. 80 for all of your heroes. It helps to be even higher, but in my experience, this fight is possible with characters at or around that level.

NOTE: If you’re really, really struggling — try jumping online and getting help there. Friendly players will join you with their Lv. 100 heroes. They can carry you through the fight and make it much, much easier.

For the ‘Defeat The Black Order’ mission, you need to complete the story mode at least once and unlock the bonus Rift. You also need to complete the game on the ‘Superior’ difficulty you unlock.

Completing the game on ‘Superior’ difficulty unlocks another difficulty level — ‘Ultimate’ difficulty.
This also unlocks something for all your characters — a fifth AP upgrade slot for all your abilities.

It’s very, very important that you complete the game twice and enhance your characters even more. Nothing in the game indicates that you’ll get a fifth AP slot for your powers, which can be upgraded in the Team menu. And doing it will make your life much, much better.

I also recommend playing the final ‘Omega’ Rift that unlocks with ‘Ultimate’ difficulty. These extra rifts give you huge AEP rewards — those are very, very important.

You need AEP to fill in your AEP nodes in the Lab. If you fill all of the nodes and unlock the Special Nodes, you’ll unlock a bonus fourth crystal slot.

Both of those upgrades are critical for maximizing the power of your current heroes. Even if they’re lower level, they can be enhanced a lot. If you’re using the same group of heroes the entire time, you can easily reach Lvl. 90+ just while working on the AEP nodes.

Now, let’s get down to the actual battle strategy.

Taking On The Black Order – Battle Tips

To take on the Black Order, you need a strategy. In this battle, you have to fight Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Supergiant, Cull Obsidian, and finally Thanos himself. Only three of the Black Order will appear at the same time. Use that to your advantage.

To make this battle much, much more manageable, I recommend defeating two of the three — start with Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive, then weaken the remaining three (Ebony Maw, Supergiant, and Cull Obsidian) until you can defeat all three with an Extreme Attack. At last, you can defeat most of them with this single angle and weaken the remaining one, making him or her easy to defeat.

Whatever you do, it’s better to try and defeat all of them so you can focus entirely on Thanos himself. Thanos adds so much chaos to the battle, it’s very difficult to manage if you’re fighting two other villains while also attempting to dodge his attacks.

And that’s my strategy for defeating Thanos and finally, finally unlocking him. I’ll update this article with any further thoughts and revelations as I work on completing the ‘Ultimate’ difficulty level, but having Thanos on your side mikes life much easier!