Key takeaways
- Dates: Halloween: Night of Illusions runs from October 29, 2026, 09:00 UTC to December 31, 2026, 09:00 UTC. That's 63 days.
- What it is: an escape-room style puzzle event with five rooms. It's not a PvP or PvE mode.
- Rewards: Gallery Cards, Units, Sprays, emotes "and more". The event screen shows two Gallery Cards and 100 Units under room 05.
- Store: six items from October 30, 02:00 UTC (still the evening of October 29 in the Americas), including Marvel Tōkon costumes for Iron Man and Storm.
- Fixes: eight, and no balance changes.
- No rush: ranked and the November events come first.
Marvel Rivals Night of Illusions went live on Thursday, October 29 at 09:00 UTC, in NetEase's Version 20261029 patch, with no server downtime. Five rooms. A witch that a very confused man thinks is called "4". A grinning villain in a spiked hat.
When does it end? What does it pay out? We wrote this about two hours after launch and nobody at VersaciBoosts has finished it yet, so there are no puzzle answers here. Just NetEase's own words and what they mean for your week.
What Night of Illusions is
NetEase's Version 20261029 patch notes sum it up: "Explore 5 mysterious rooms, solve a multitude of puzzles, and claim limited-time rewards including rare Gallery Cards, Units, Sprays, and more!" The story, word for word, because it matters later:
A mysterious man, fixated on an unknown witch, mistook the number "4" on her person for her actual name. Driven by this obsession, he attempts to sacrifice four "monsters" to complete a summoning ritual. A small animal, an ancient beast, and an old friend successively fall victim to the sacrifice. But Elsa Bloodstone, driven by her monster hunter's instinct, has stepped into this bizarre house and is beginning to unravel the horrifying truth behind this Night of Illusions...
It's a Halloween event with its own screen, not a PvP or PvE match mode. Solo or co-op, how long a room takes, a timer? NetEase hasn't said, and we aren't gonna guess. NetEase hasn't limited it to any platform either. Marvel Rivals is free to play on PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), PlayStation and Xbox.
NetEase's GuangGuang promised "a thrilling, suspenseful, interactive puzzle experience" for October 29 back in Dev Vision Vol. 22 on October 7. The Season 10.5 roadmap filed it under October 30. The 29th it was.
Night of Illusions start and end times
NetEase only gives UTC. Fine for the UK, kinda annoying for everybody else, so here's the start and end converted:
| Time zone | Starts Thu, Oct 29 | Ends Thu, Dec 31 |
|---|---|---|
| UTC | 09:00 | 09:00 |
| US Eastern | 5:00 AM EDT | 4:00 AM EST |
| US Pacific | 2:00 AM PDT | 1:00 AM PST |
| UK | 9:00 AM GMT | 9:00 AM GMT |
| Central Europe | 10:00 AM CET | 10:00 AM CET |
| Japan | 6:00 PM JST | 6:00 PM JST |
Why does the US end an hour earlier on the clock than it starts? Europe left summer time on October 25, and the US leaves it on November 1, three days in. Same 09:00 UTC, different hour in New York.
In the Americas the event closes in the early hours of December 31, so treat December 30 as your last full day. That's 63 days in total, and it outlasts the other Halloween and Path to Doomsday events.
The five rooms on the event screen
NetEase's Night of Illusions post on X calls it "a spooky escape room challenge" and shows the in-game event screen in a 5-second video. We went through it frame by frame.
The screen has the title "Halloween Night of Illusions", an info button, a shorter version of the story and a START button. There are five room cards, pinned up like photos. In the middle grins the villain: spiked black hat with a red band and a round "4" badge, red suit, smoke curling from his mouth, a door marked "4" over his chest, reaching out at the viewer.
| Room | What the card art shows | Reward icon shown |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | An old dentist-style chair in a dim room (highlighted, no lock) | Unnamed small icon |
| 02 | A heavy door with a number keypad (padlock) | Unnamed small icon |
| 03 | A dinosaur skeleton (padlock) | Unnamed small icon |
| 04 | A red room with a chair and a broom-like staff on the floor (padlock) | Unnamed face icon |
| 05 | A corridor of green fog and a door marked with a big "4" (padlock) | Two Gallery Cards and 100 Units |
Only room 01 has no padlock, which points to the rooms opening one after another. What opens them? Clearing the one before? A date? NetEase hasn't said. Our advice: open the event screen, check which rooms are open, and plan from there.
Night of Illusions rewards
Between the patch notes and the X post, the reward types are Gallery Cards, Units, Sprays and emotes, plus "and more". The only amount shown anywhere is the 100 Units under room 05. The other icons look like sprays or similar but go unnamed, and no total has been published.
The clue in NetEase's Halloween costumes (our reading)
Who's the mysterious man? Who's the witch? NetEase doesn't say, but two costumes from earlier in October fit them a little too well. Everything below is our reading, not something NetEase has confirmed.
Mister Fantastic - Mr. Malignance (Midnight Monsters), revealed October 13: "With my final creation now complete, the ritual has begun!" And: "he awaits the grand return of his beloved on the battlefield." We put the reveal video next to the event art: same black hat with a red band, same red suit, same huge grin.
Invisible Woman - Unseen Weaver (Fate Witches), revealed October 12: "We Fate Witches tend the threads of destiny from the shadows, hidden from mortal eyes. But that one... he was simply too fantastic."
Our reading: the witch is Sue Storm as a Fate Witch, and the "4" on her is the Fantastic Four logo, which the obsessed man takes for her name. The man running the ritual is Reed Richards in his Mr. Malignance look. It fits pretty neatly. The animal, the beast and the old friend we won't guess at. Room 03's dinosaur skeleton is as far as the official art goes.
Both costumes sit in Pop & Win until November 13, 02:00 UTC, alongside Deadpool - Nurse-Pool, and prices aren't published outside the game. Our Marvel Rivals Halloween skins guide covers all three, plus the free Rocket Raccoon - Trash King.
New in the store on October 30: Marvel Tōkon and Celestial Soldier skins
The store items arrive later than the event. Six items arrive October 30 at 02:00 UTC. In the US that's Thursday evening, 10:00 PM EDT or 7:00 PM PDT, so NetEase's X posts say "Available: October 29 at 7 PM PT". In Europe it's early Friday: 2:00 AM GMT, 3:00 AM CET.
| Item | Leaves the store |
|---|---|
| Winter Soldier - Celestial Soldier Bundle | November 27, 02:00 UTC |
| Winter Soldier - Celestial Soldier Emoji Bundle | No end date given |
| Winter Soldier - Celestial Soldier Chroma Iris Nebula/Pipe Nebula and Ultimate Ability VFX | No end date given |
| Storm - Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls Bundle | No end date given |
| Iron Man - Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls Bundle | No end date given |
| Storm - Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls Ultimate Ability VFX | No end date given |
Winter Soldier's new skin, shown in NetEase's Celestial Soldier reveal, is what the October 7 roadmap called "Celestial Messenger". Our advice if you want it: buy the bundle before November 27, 02:00 UTC. That's Thanksgiving evening in the US, 9:00 PM EST or 6:00 PM PST on November 26. Easy to miss.
What's Marvel Tōkon? It's a 4v4 tag-team fighting game by Arc System Works, published by PlayStation and out on PS5 and PC since August 6, 2026 (Steam page). NetEase's Iron Man and Storm post describes the new skins as costumes inspired by Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls. NetEase hasn't announced any other link between the games, such as shared rewards or account linking. It hasn't posted prices outside the game either.
Every fix in the October 29 patch
Version 20261029 has no hero balance changes. Eight fixes, one of them about a cape:
| Hero or area | What was broken (now fixed) |
|---|---|
| Gorr the God Butcher | Could sometimes fly out of the map casting Shadow Harvest right after generating a Black Berserker |
| Rogue | Left arm clipped through her cape walking backwards in her X-Men '97 Season 2 costume |
| Black Cat | Her Fatal Weaver costume's overhead icon vanished during Binding Ties, her Team-Up with Spider-Man |
| Black Cat | 'Q' still triggered her Ultimate's second phase after the Ultimate was bound to another key |
| Invisible Woman | Other abilities didn't always break stealth entered with Veiled Step |
| Times Square | Players from Times Square who picked "One More Round" couldn't get back there after that match |
| Store | After every Pop & Win was done, the secondary navigation bar could slide off-screen if the Store title had no subtitle |
| Moon Knight (Blood Hunt) | His Ankh-specific build with no Traits set sometimes stopped him placing an Ankh |
The Invisible Woman fix is the one to know. Our explanation: using another ability after Veiled Step should now reveal her every time. Playing her? Don't count on staying hidden while you cast. Playing against her? Expect to see her when she does.
What NetEase hasn't announced yet
As of the morning of October 29 (UTC), NetEase hasn't said:
- how rooms 02 to 05 unlock
- if it's solo or co-op
- how long a room takes, or if there's a time limit
- the full reward list, or amounts beyond the 100 Units under room 05
- whether rewards can be missed
- which hero you control in the rooms (the story names only Elsa Bloodstone)
- who the mysterious man and the witch are
- prices for the October 30 store items
- whether the Marvel Tōkon costumes are limited-time
- what time Season 11 starts on November 13
That's a lot of blanks for day one.
A plan for the rest of Season 10.5
Sixty-three days is a long window, and most of the other events end in November.
NetEase hasn't tied Night of Illusions to Competitive, so ranked is the real deadline. The Season 10.5 Gold reward, Jeff the Land Shark - Razor-Tooth (Season 10.5 patch notes), needs 10 ranked matches this half-season and Gold or higher when it ends. That's been NetEase's rule since Season 5, and our guide on how the half-season Gold costume works explains it. If you'd rather a booster plays Competitive to the rank you choose, a Marvel Rivals rank boost is available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.
Our advice, in order:
- Ranked, if you're short of Gold or of your 10 matches, before Season 11 starts on November 13.
- All Hallows' Glow and its free Rocket Raccoon - Trash King, by November 13, 09:00 UTC.
- Path to Doomsday - Avengers: Endgame, by November 26, 09:00 UTC. Our Avengers: Endgame mode guide has the session times and the free Captain America costume.
- Night of Illusions, by December 31, 09:00 UTC.
NetEase hasn't given a start time for Season 11, but the date is Friday, November 13. Yes, Friday the 13th. A couple of things to read before then: our Marvel Rivals Season 10.5 overview covers what's known about Season 11's two heroes, and Marvel Rivals ranks and season reset has every rank plus a reset calculator. For the rest, see our Marvel Rivals boosting services, played by One Above All players on PC, PS5 and Xbox.
Frequently asked questions
When does Marvel Rivals Night of Illusions end?
December 31, 2026, at 09:00 UTC: 4:00 AM EST, 1:00 AM PST and 10:00 AM CET. In the Americas, December 30 is the last full day.
Does Night of Illusions give free Units?
Units are on NetEase's reward list, and the event screen shows 100 Units under room 05. No other amounts are published.
Who is the villain in Night of Illusions?
NetEase hasn't named him. Our unconfirmed reading: he matches Mister Fantastic - Mr. Malignance, down to the hat, the red suit and the grin.
When do the Marvel Tōkon Storm and Iron Man skins come out?
October 30, 2026, at 02:00 UTC, which is 7:00 PM PT on October 29.