Our first post-launch Super Hero, Kate Bishop, is on her way with her bow, arrows, and a stylish sword in her arsenal. Our Marvel’s Avengers WAR TABLE Deep Dive covered Kate’s kit and gave an overview of her role in the continued narrative. If you missed it, you can watch it below!   

Today, we’re talking about the specifics of getting into the new Operation, how the introduction of Kate affects the Avengers Initiative, and expanding on combat with tips & tricks to master her unique style.   

When you first boot up the game after the Kate patch is installed, you’ll be greeted with a bright purple window on the left of the starting screen that will start Kate’s Operation. If you miss this, don’t fret! You can always start the Operation in the Avengers Initiative as well.   

You don’t need to have completed the Reassemble Campaign to begin Operation: Taking AIM, but we highly suggest you do as Kate’s story takes place after Kamala’s and assumes you know what happened.   

The Setup  

Taking AIM is a new story with a new Super Hero that takes place in the existing world of Marvel’s Avengers. Kate Bishop – who first appeared in Young Avengers #1 –  is a master archer and skilled gymnast. Missing since A-Day, she resurfaces after her investigation into Nick Fury’s disappearance results in her mentor Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) going missing as well. As she unravels the mystery behind the sudden appearance of time-warping Tachyon Rifts, she uncovers a twisted new plan from AIM, which pushes her to work with the Avengers once again.   

The first Mission takes place in SHIELD Substation Zero by talking to Maria Hill. You won’t start off playing as Kate since there’s some narrative to unravel first, but rest assured you’ll shortly recruit her into the Operation.   

Every Mission in Operation: Taking AIM can be played multiplayer with any character in your roster. If you choose to play through a mission as one of the core six Heroes, Kate will join you as an AI companion.   

As we’ve talked about before, Operation: Taking AIM is just the first part of the Hawkeye “double feature” that will conclude with Clint Barton’s Operation Hawkeye – Future Imperfect early next year. We’re super grateful for the excitement surrounding the Future Imperfect sneak peek, have been watching your reaction videos and can’t wait to share more details with you!   

But back to Kate!   

Kate is a trained and dedicated warrior, always aware of her body and the environment around her. She’s constantly scoping a room or location for possible routes of entrance or exit. Kate is most comfortable when using her bow and over time it’s become a natural extension of her body. She prefers ranged combat and is deft at quickly moving to a firing distance when need be. However, if engaged in close combat, she has been trained in multiple forms of martial arts. Her goal in close combat is always to incapacitate as quickly as possible and then move back to ranged combat.   

Here’s a look at some of Kate’s unique combat skills.   

Kate’s Kit:   

• Tranquilizer Arrow: Quickly switch to the bow and fire an arrow that applies the Snared debuff. While affected by the debuff, enemies have reduced impact resistance, making them easier to interrupt.   
• Demolition Blast Arrow:  Enabled after any Signature or Power Attack, fire an arrow that attaches to surfaces with a time delayed, proximity explosive that launches targets into the air when detonated.   
• Warp Arrow: Fire an arrow that teleports the wielder on impact. Teleporting to the arrow creates a quantum explosion that deals damage to all nearby enemies, launching them into the air. The teleport effect can also be triggered while the arrow is in flight.   
• Blade Dancer’s Strike: A melee combo move that breaks through enemy defenses, slamming them into the ground and leaving them vulnerable to additional attacks.   
• Blink: Teleport towards nearby ledges or poles. Teleporting to a pole will trigger a swing, while teleporting to ledges will trigger a quick vault over or onto nearby ledges.   
• Smoke Screen Arrow: Perform an evasive bow attack, firing an arrow that creates a cloud of smoke and inflicts additional Stun damage to enemies inside the smoke   
• Decoy: Throw a miniature hologram projector that displays a hologram of the wielder, distracting enemies from attacking actual Heroes. Through an infusion of quantum energy, the projector can create actual Quantum Arrows that it shoots at nearby targets, providing additional offensive support.      

Challenge Card  

In addition to all these exciting new skills, Kate also comes with a fresh Hero Challenge Card. Hero Challenge Cards allow players to earn Resources, Units, Credits, and Cosmetics for completing in-game challenges   

Each Hero Challenge Card has a free and unlockable premium track with 40 Tiers of rewards. Rewards are earned via Challenge Points by completing daily and weekly challenges. Kate’s premium hero card track can be unlocked at a cost of 1,000 credits – which many of you have already earned through completing the free cards of the six starting Heroes!   

Tips & Tricks  

Before we wrap up, check out some tips & tricks from our dev team to ensure you’ve got the edge as Kate.      

• Intrinsic Energy Management: Kate’s short-range teleportation uses up Intrinsic Energy, which means she can only use it a finite amount of times. Make sure you don’t use it all up before diving into a horde of enemies or you’ll have trouble parrying or teleporting away.   
• Close Combat: If enemies get up close to Kate, don’t feel pressured to switch to her sword. Using Scatter Show Arrows up close deals a significant amount of damage! Scatter Shot Arrows are also excellent for applying status effects to large groups of enemies.   
• Breaking Shields: Bomb arrows work well against enemies with shields – give it a try!   
• Airborne: Launch enemies into the air with the heavy combo or Demolition Charge Arrows, then juggle them with the Razor Arrows or Quantum Blitz and Strike skills.   
• Extra Damage: Parrying with Quantum Shift and following up with Quantum Arc is a good way to setup enemies for additional combat damage.   
• Critical Damage: The Disruptor Arrow and Perfect Draw are two key skills in maximizing critical damage.   
• Taking/Making Space: Blink Dash is an excellent way to close the distance to a target for melee attacks, or to create some space to take aim and attack with arrows.   
• Quick Ground Coverage: In addition to being an amazing combat tool, Warp arrow has great utility. You can use it to reposition, cover ground fast or get yourself out of harm’s way.      

We can’t wait for you to get your hands on Marvel’s Avengers: Kate Bishop – Taking AIM. Be sure to tag us in your Kate screenshots, Kate combos, and any other Kate content really!   

See you online!