Thinking about maining Devil Dinosaur in Marvel Rivals? Here’s how to play him

Devil Dinosaur joined the Rivals ranks in Season 8, and has become a fairly strong main tank for all Vanguard enjoyers. What’s special about Devil Dino is that his wide hitbox makes him an easy target. Still, his kit for CC, continuous bonus health, and protective barriers that also prevent healing from going through make him a very interesting frontliner.

Here’s a guide on how to play Devil Dinosaur in Marvel Rivals with kit rundowns, combos, and playstyle suggestions.

How to Play Devil Dinosaur in Marvel Rivals

First, let’s take a look through his kit and passives.

Passive — Prehistoric Plating
Reduces critical hit damage by 50%, grants full displacement immunity, meaning Spider-Man cannot fling a dinosaur across the map, and reduces the ultimate charge enemies and allies generate by 35% when damaging or healing you.

Passive — Apex Advantage
Converts 150% of damage dealt to bleeding enemies into bonus health, up to a maximum of 150 bonus health. This effectively raises his health ceiling from 850 to 1,000 HP during sustained fighting, and up to 1,100 HP during his ultimate.

Primary — Primal Bite (No cooldown)
A slow but high-damage melee strike that applies Bleed on hit. Worth noting that the primary fire is actually a tail sweep that hits enemies behind you, not just in front. This makes it useful for catching flankers and enemies trying to get around you. Spam freely as your main Bleed applicator since it has no resource cost.

Secondary — Impact Beam (Resource-based, regenerates over time)
Devil fires a sustained energy beam from his mouth at range, applying Bleed. Hold for at least one to two seconds per target to fully apply Bleed. This is not your primary damage tool but is excellent for applying Bleed to enemies at range before closing in, and for grounding flyers like Iron Man, Storm and Human Torch.

Shift — Savage Predation (Cooldown: ~10 seconds, resets to 4 seconds during ultimate)
Devil leaps into the air and slams down, applying Bleed on landing. If he lands on or collides with an already-bleeding enemy, the ability triggers an enhanced version where he clamps down on the target, carries them briefly in his jaws, stuns them for 1.5 seconds and throws them forward. This is your main engage and CC tool. Do not use it recklessly to dive backlines as it leaves you stranded with no escape. Save it for targeting a bleeding enemy or for retreating when a fight turns.

F — Frenzied Feast (Cooldown: 8 seconds)
A rapid flurry of bites, with the fifth hit being a heavier lunge bite. All damage dealt converts into bonus health. Deals additional percentage-based damage to bleeding targets. This is your sustain engine; always activate it after Bleed is already applied to get maximum value.

E — Buddy Barrier (Cooldown: 12 seconds, lasts up to 6 seconds)
Devil places a 450 HP spherical dome around himself that blocks incoming damage. Allies inside are protected. Enemies inside are slowed and, critically, cannot be healed from outside sources. Only abilities that exclusively heal can reach allies caught inside an enemy Buddy Barrier. Use it to isolate a key target from their supports, protect an aggressive push, or block burst damage during a critical moment.

Ultimate — Devil-Beast Rampage
Devil gains a speed boost and charges forward, delivering shockwave stomps that deal damage and apply Bleed with each one. Grants 300 additional current HP, taking him to 1,100 HP during the ability. Also grants significant bonus health. All ability cooldowns are dramatically reduced while active, with Savage Predation resetting to just 4 seconds. You can use all other abilities freely during the ultimate, including Buddy Barrier and Savage Predation, making this an excellent window to run down backlines, take over domination points, or any other major push or defensive hold you need to make.

Team-Ups

Primal Punishment (with The Punisher) – Recommended
Grants Devil a new long-range projectile ability that applies Bleed on each hit. If Punisher is on the team, Devil can also let Punisher ride on his back. Punisher gains damage reduction while mounted, and both heroes share healing. Strong for safely building Bleed from distance before engaging.

Surf and Turf (with Jeff the Land Shark)
Devil gets a water beam that deals damage and heals nearby allies simultaneously. If Jeff is on the team, Jeff can climb onto Devil’s back. Both heroes gain damage reduction while linked.

You should probably run The Punisher just for the extra ranged Bleed stack as long as Season 9 team-ups are still valid. It’s extremely useful in all situations. You’re not even bothered about the pickup enhanced effects either.

Devil Dinosaur Combo and Tips

Devil Dinosaur is best played as an aggressive frontline main tank. His core loop is Bleed application into Savage Predation grabs, sustained by Frenzied Feast and Apex Advantage bonus health.

Core combo: Primal Bite to apply Bleed, Impact Beam if at range, or Punisher Team-Up ideally. When a Bleed is applied, use Savage Predation into the bleeding target to grab and throw, and Buddy Barrier to isolate and block healing. You can then use Frenzied Feast to sustain and finish off an enemy if they can’t dash out.

When you get close, keep energy in your Impact Beam to tag key targets with Bleed at range before closing in. Once they are bleeding, Savage Predation enters them to trigger the enhanced grab, throw them toward your team, pop Buddy Barrier to deny their support and finish with Frenzied Feast.

The key skill check with Devil is knowing when to use Savage Predation for disruption versus saving it as an escape. Against flyers like Hela or Scarlet Witch, track roughly when they can use their ultimate. Being in range when they go airborne means you can apply Bleed with Impact Beam and snatch them mid-air before they deal serious damage.

Devil is also a surprisingly effective anti-dive tank. If your game has heavy dive pressure, you do not necessarily need to swap to The Thing. Watch for flankers and divers. Hit them with a Bleed stack and snatch them before they escape. If they are not fully overextended, pop Buddy Barrier to ensure they die or are at least out of the fight while they regen. Either way, you are buying your team time to push or hold a defensive line.

If you need to take a point, pop your ultimate when possible, get bleeds, and then use Frenzied Feast to burst down key opponents. Chances are you’ll burn an enemy support ultimate. Regardless, all that stomping gives you bonus health, which is fine for a trade while the entire fight is stalemated over both ults.

Lastly, your melee skill is actually a tail whip. It does slightly less damage than your Primal Bite. If you bite and then track to your tail, you can press the melee key ‘V’ on PC to swing the tail. If you stagger the keys, you can potentially combo them like that to speed up the killings. It’s a bit overkill but does a lot of damage if you can pull it off.

Tank Matchups

Devil performs well into most of the popular tanks. Magneto is a great target if you can snatch him before he activates his own bubble. Venom can be pressured into popping his Bonus Health skill early, or snatched off his swing if you time it correctly. Emma Frost is a harder counter, and Groot can cause problems if he walls you off given your large model. Outside of those two, Devil generally holds his own across the Vanguard roster.

Authored by Craig Robinson

Craig Robinson is an experienced gaming and esports writer with nearly a decade of coverage experience since 2015. With a background in software engineering, he combines his journalistic expertise with a strong understanding of technical SEO and web development fundamentals. He’s passionate about covering MMO games, competitive esports, and crafting guides that help players get the most out of their favorite titles. He's been writing about gaming and esports for over 10 years, which started as for fun project during university. He has since developed his skill set, contributing to newsrooms coverage of key games and event, and blending evergreen content strategy and a solid grasp of content marketing fundamentals. His work has appeared in Esports News UK, Gamer Guides, theEscpaist, and VideoGamer, and he now contributes to Gamehub's review team. When he’s not writing, Craig can usually be found running, at the gym, or tinkering with coding projects to keep his GitHub active.

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