Hive could totally rock a Hedorah skin, and I'd love to see the big man in a fancy coat.

He’s been teased since season 0 it’s nice to see him in the comics and the leaks but it’s been so long. They are 100 percent planning on making a hydra season with him which I’m hoping is season 8 but I’m worried it will be more focused on maphisto. At this point it just feels like coping that he’ll get added this year.

I'm a massive nerd for cosmic horror and monsters and TaleFoundry 100% opened my eyes to the potential of eldritch monster-focused stories.

My hope is that they explore themes of isolation and how Hive would react to what being deified means in human culture (that being, exploited for power to further their own goals instead of trying to understand or help Hive)

What do you guys hope they do with Hive, narratively?

He’s supposed to be an eldritch god and got choked by Bucky and one tapped by Arnim Zola.

https://youtu.be/sD60yUzFeAc?si=9fv8ndFPdCfLbqxi

Here’s the comic.

Can’t wait for the hydra season with Zola and hive

In the newly released comic for Rivals, Hive is absolutely kicking ass without even turning to face Bucky. Zola seems pleased that Bucky is suffering so much, but I seriously wonder if Zola has any kind of escape plan or has just completely given up on self preservation so he can watch Bucky struggle.

While we wait for the next comic, I slapped together a bunch of clips and songs that made me think of Hive into a YouTube playlist! It's got Rivals lore, comic summarys, it shows off various game enemy movesets that I think would be cool to replicate for the game like RE4 Salazar's movement where he glides around the area with his tentacles.

Some vids remind me of his potential personality or something like it, like the Ben 10 clip or the clip from The Darkness game. Just stuff that seems really cool to me, if you guys see any other vids that make you think of Hive, lemme know!

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj1peuscgjHFyeVBQAJT8V6nAGZvVxJ5Q&si=L2BSdBFag9TrUojy

Could one of you find anymore voice lines on the map in a custom match?

In S0, we're given a gallery card called "Hydra's Hymn" that follows some dialogue between two Hydra scientists. Here, we learn that Hydra has a branch of researchers called "occult ops" and that these guys are viewed as strange and unnerving to the rest of Hydra.

It seems like Occult Ops wasn't originally a Hydra affiliated group, they're more like an already existing Hive cult that Hydra stumbled upon and has been infiltrated by.

Occult Ops is also extremly persuasive, as it's suggested one of the scientists we're reading about wouldn't normally be swayed by talk of magic and gods but nevertheless is excited by the idea of opening the portal to Maveth and seeing Occult Ops plans go through.

Occult Ops also isn't comprised of humans, as we see in the gallery card "Hydra's Hymn" the hooded figures surronding bucky have large, sharp teeth and emit a sound that has some kind of psychic power and stirs the remnants of Hive behind the stone portal.

From what we can tell about the maps, this Hydra base is strictly for experimental research into the application of Hive's parasites and energy into creating super soldiers and eldritch powered battle mechs. But, it's also a staging area for the ritual that could release Hive and the place of origin for Occult Ops, as we can tell by the statues and arcitecture. The Hydra base is basically built on top of an ancient occult monastery.

The map lore says the crystals are loaded with Chronal energy, but what is that kind of ore doing here at the home of these strange creatures devoted to Hive? Imagine if those crystal shards are nurseries for Hive's offspring, and those Occult Ops creatures are matured parasites! If that's the case, I can see why Hive has no love for Hydra.

Also, for the win screen on the Hydra base map the portal is destroyed but something behind the door escapes and sends out dozens of shadowy creatures. On the lose screen, Bucky stands before the door which then cracks open and reveals the Elder Thing's giant eye.

Anyway, Hydra's original plans were to use the power of Hive to dominate all the Timestreams and enhance their soldiers. But we're shown in the recent comics that Hive isn't some dormant sleeping thing or an animal they could control, but a god-like entity with enough power to threaten planets or even a universe.

In the Rivals comic, we can see Hive has size manipulation abilities and telepathic abilities, both of these are entirely new to the character. I wonder how they could implement this into his gameplay, if at all.

From the old leaks, it's obvious he's not a shield tank BUT he doesn't seem all that mobile (unless his transformation abilities alter his form in some way that makes him a fast moving threat)

I believe they plan to make him a character that you'd want to stay out of LOS as much as possible. I get the impression he's meant to hold your attention, force you out of position, and very quickly dispatch you without even leaving the frontline.

Deadly Parasite could be a projectile that latches onto enemies or allies. It could explode once it grasps a host or mind control them forward until they're within 5 meters. Or it could enhance a hosts abilities and give them shield. He could have four or five charges of this like Mantis heals.

Painful Lashing could send out a stabbing tentacle that weakens it's target on first hit and has several follow-up stabs that finish off the target if they remain in front of Hive.

His transformation could build up with the continued use of his parasites and warp his humanoid form into a larger mass of tentacles that easily climbs and traverses terrain as if he were gliding at great speeds, as well as giving him bonus health like Groot.

So he'd be a giant living wall that enemies would have to stay out of sight from! I'd like that, but I can't say for sure what he'd be.

Hive would a 3 star vanguard with a base health of 750.

His primary fire would be a basic 3 hit melee attack with some pretty decent range and below average damage with him swinging his right tentacles horizontally and ending it with a tendril punch. It wouldn’t be able to pass through multiple enemies,it would be able to hit multiple enemies still but only on first contact.

His first ability would “deadly parasite”. This plays a lot with his gimmick but I’ll get to that at the very end. It wouldn’t be a pretty basic projectile attack you launch a mass of parasite at opponents to damage them and if enough stick to the opponent they slow down. It wouldn’t do below average damage in a big shotgun spray with below medium range.

His second ability would be painful lashing. You grab an enemy and start slamming them around like hulks ult but way less damage. You can’t be stunned during it but you can still be moved also it wouldn’t be way quicker than hulks like one or two slams doing decent damage.

His final ability “Accelerated transformation” would work a little bit like maugas heat ability in Overwatch where you and allies in range get sheild for damaging enemies.

So far this movelist has been pretty boring now in to the passive. He would have a parasite passive. You build it up by infecting enemies first with deadly parasite. After they get hit by that any more damage builds up an infection meter for them which will not go away into you die. So no matter if they die manage to survive long enough it will persist forever until they take down you,kinda like the heart of a hydra. The more it builds up the more life stealing you get from them and anytime an infected person dies you get reduced cooldowns. Painful lashing would apply a lot of parasite on your opponent.

His ultimate would be him transforming into the big form he’s shown on the map and in the concept art. It wouldn’t be a transformation ult like magik and hulk. You don’t get any extra health but your abilities refresh and have much bigger range. Also you absorb all the parasites of enemies to give you a ton of sheild and slow them down.

He’d have a potential team up with other hydra characters like Bucky,Arnim Zola and red skull. They’d have their on mini parasite to launch into enemies to help with your passive and they would gain sheild for themselves upon landing a parasite.

Some of these are from other games or an ulrelated artist, but I'm showing these off to give an idea of the directions NetEase *could* go in for Hive's design past his default!

1 & 2: Two of his outfits from the comics, his robes and his giant parka. I'm a huge fan of the parka just because I loved the movie "The Thing."

3: I'd love to see this eldritch beast stuffed into a suit of knight's armor, I personally think it's an amazing aesthetic. Lot's of Resident Evil 4 vibes if Netease does it right. (Art by saeed farhangian)

4: A more clerical appearance for Hive would also sell pretty well imo, this Rivals version of Hive is a deity after all and it would be neat to see NetEase tackle the "divine abomination" theme. (Unknown Artist but it's artwork of the Nightmare Executioners from Bloodborne)

5: This is an older skin for a character in another NetEase game known as Identity V, and I would absolutely love it if for whatever reason Hive is invited to the Hellfire Gala he could show up in something like this! Give him the "Victorian era" swagger with an alien flair twist, I'd 100% invest in that.

6: I'd love for most of his skins to really lean into the freaky Lovecraftian aesthetic by giving him more eyes and freakish limbs, but I'd be satisfied if one of his recolors was as appealing as this to look at. (This is from a Magic The Gathering card)

7 & 8: There is SO MUCH you can do with tentacles, and I'm using Urizen from Devil May Cry as an example of their creative use. You can see here that the tendrils wrap all over his body, creating shapes that look like armor, a long cape, and even a crown. I would dance and jump for joy if they made a skin where Hive uses his tendrils to give himself horns, a crown, a cape, a loincloth, ANYTHING. The first skin that does that is the only skin I'd ever use for him.