MARVEL Strike Force has recently added the material arts master Shang-Chi to its list of playable characters. The timing is great considering that the Shang-Chi Marvel movie will be out soon, September 3 in the US, to be exact.

MSF introduced Shang-Chi with a short video on their Twitter account as well as the youtube channel. The video gives us a brief understanding of the character’s origins, powers, and in-game abilities. 

Shang-Chi’s arrival in MSF was accompanied by new events, rewards, and bonuses for the players to enjoy. As the character is not that well known yet, let’s first start with his backstory, shall we?   

Shang-Chi: Backstory   

Shang-Chi is the son of the immortal crime lord Fu Manchu; his mother, an American woman, was specifically chosen by his father for her perfect genetics. From a young age, Shanghai-Chi was trained by his father and other teachers in different forms of martial arts. He spent most of his childhood in a well-hidden ancient fortress honing his skills and learning many philosophical disciplines to become a deadly assassin.

At the time, Shang-Chi believed that his father was fighting for peace and agreed to an assassination mission. However, after the mission, Shang-Chi finally meets his mother, who reveals the truth about his father’s evil nature.

Shang-Chi is known to be a great hand-to-hand fighter and a capable gymnast; he is also proficient in different kinds of weapons. His master of martial arts and in the ways of chi, his feats are on par with the likes of Iron Fist and Spiderman. 

After defecting, Shang Chi fought alongside many of earth’s mightiest heroes and finally joined forces with Misty Knight and Colleen Wing as part of Heroes For Hire.

And that’s how MARVEL Strike Forces introduce Shang-Chi to us as a member of Heroes for Hire.

The upcoming movie might have a different backstory depending on how Marvel plans to grow the character.

Abilities and Skills

As described in the video, Shang-Chi is a quick and durable attack dealer especially effective against teams that overly rely on buffs. His main traits include Hero, City, Skill, Brawler, and Heroes For Hire. 

He can apply slow to enemies, has a lot of deflects himself, and also speed up his Hero For Hire allies. Shang-Chi can clear negative effects and stack counter attacks to maximum damage with a minimum amount of energy.

MARVEL Strike Force: All About Shang-Chi

Even at low levels(two yellow stars), he can deal a good amount of great damage to enemies. And his ultimate deals bonus damage depending on the number of buffs on the enemy. 

Shang Chi works best with the Heroes For Hire roster, boosting their Crit chances up to 35% if they have deflected. He can make Iron Fist’s ultimate attack “The Iron Fist” undodgeable, and his presence can activate Luke Cage’s taunt ability “Gaining Taunt” inward events, protecting low health members.

Here are Shang-Chi’s abilities in detail:

Basic – Pressure Point Strike

  • Attack primary target for 300% damage + apply Slow.
  • Gain +50% Extra Crit Chance if the primary target has any positive effects.

Passive – Master Martial Artist

  • When this character or any ally Crits, gain +1 Deflect up to a maximum of 5.
  • If this character has Deflect, gain +35% Crit Chance +20% Block Amount.
  • On War Defense:
  • If any HEROES FOR HIRE ally has Deflect, that character gains +35% Crit Chance and +20% Block Amount.

This works well with Colleen Wing as she always assists on defense, meaning she will get that 

+35% Crit chance.

  • On Spawn, if this character has 3 or more Heroes for Hire allies, if Health is full and not Charged, gain 2 Charged.
  • On Spawn, if this character has 4 or more Heroes for Hire allies, if Health is full and not Charged, apply +1 Charged to Misty Knight and Colleen Wing.
  • At the end of any turn, if Charged and below 50% Health, Lose 1 Charged, clear all negative effects, heal for 100% of this character’s Max Health, gain Offense Up for 2 turns, 2 Deflect, and Deathproof.
  • If Charged, always Revive on Death and gain +10% Damage, +10% Damage Reduction, and +175% Resistance per Charged.

Special – Deadly Hands

  • Energy Cost: 2/4
  • Attack primary and adjacent targets for 380% damage.
  • Clear all negative effects from self and all HEROES FOR HIRE allies.
  • Clear 1 negative effect from all other allies.
  • Gain +2 Counter, up to a maximum of 5.
  • Fill Speed Bar by 50%

Special On War Defence

  • This attack targets the most injured, non-summoned enemy and adjacent targets instead.
  • This attack ignores Taunt and Stealth.
  • Fill the Speed Bar by 75% instead.

Ultimate – Way of Fury

  • Energy Cost: 3/3
  • Attack all enemies for 450% damage + 75% additional damage per positive effect from the primary target + Reduce Speed Bar of all enemies by 10%.
  • Apply Speed Up to all HEROES FOR HIRE allies for 2 turns.
  • This attack cannot be counterattacked, blocked, or dodged.
  • On WAR DEFENSE:
  • Reduce the Speed Bar of all enemies by 20% instead.
  • 100% additional damage per positive effect from the primary target instead.

Now, with all of his abilities and especially Crit chance, Shang-Chi will be best for Raider, Skirmmiser, and Striker, depending on your style.