An air-dashing Ryu? Invisible health bars? Regenerating Hyper meter? Something’s definitely different about the matches inside our upcoming Heroes & Heralds mode, which arrives soon as free DLC for Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. In preparation for its impending release, we’d like to spend the week discussing the various aspects of this free add-on, which range from online and offline modes to elaborate character customization. There’s a lot of great new content in here, so let’s get to it!

First off – what is Heroes & Heralds mode? A sizeable update that adds a deep, customizable new angle to online and offline play. Each time you begin, you choose a faction – either noble Heroes or silver-colored Heralds of Galactus – and engage in a series of battles with the opposing side. Online battles pit you against human opponents, while the offline mode has you scrapping with AI teams.

But there’s more to it than simply choosing teams – the real meat of Heroes & Heralds mode is the acquisition of Ability Cards that give your team all kinds of new powers. These abilities range from basic alterations (like a speed boost) to game-changing, combo-enhancing powers (like invisibility or the ability to pass through projectiles). Even better, said cards are based on classic Marvel and Capcom characters, so each and every one acts as a tiny cameo from someone you know! We’ll go into card specifics later this week, complete with descriptions of their powers and the aforementioned artwork featuring dozens of beloved characters.

Heroes & Heralds is a standalone mode, and does not introduce Ability Cards into other areas of online play. That said, you can still hop into Training mode and try out your decks before taking them into the online or offline Heroes & Heralds mode. Find three cards that work best together (or suit your play style best) and see what happens!

Above: Create a deck of three cards and go to town!

Here’s how the posts will break down:

Tuesday: A look at the online mode of H&H
Wednesday: Scrap with AI teams to perfect your H&H decks
Thursday: A card spotlight on three beloved Capcom characters
Friday: We’ll end the week with a look at three Marvel ability cards
Monday: Three more Marvel characters receive an up-close examination
Tuesday: Closing out our week of coverage with three more Capcom cards

See you tomorrow for more. Until then, this thorough trailer should help recap the general topics we touched on today: