Marvel Rivals Elders’ Chessboard Event Explained: How to Get the Iron Spider Skin FAST

Hello, Rivals! Elias here, your boots-on-the-ground expert at RivalSector.com.

Season 5, “Love is a Battlefield,” is finally live, and the servers are buzzing. I have already been trading blows with the new Ragin’ Cajun, Gambit, and let me tell you, he is going to shake up the meta. The new Times Square hub is also a fantastic touch for just chilling between matches.

But I know why you are all really here. You saw the event tab, you saw the grand prize, and you want that skin.

The big new event for this season is the Elders’ Chessboard. When I first saw the name, my mind started racing. Were we getting a Marvel auto-battler? A new tactical LTM (Limited Time Mode)? The name suggested something complex.

Well, I have just logged in, I have dug through all the official rules, and I am here to give you the complete breakdown. It is not what you might think, and I have already found the secret to completing this entire event with almost zero stress. Let’s dive in.

What is the Elders’ Chessboard Event?

First, let’s set expectations. The Elders’ Chessboard is not a new, complex game mode. You will not be strategically placing heroes on a literal chessboard.

Instead, this is Season 5’s primary free mission-based reward track. It runs alongside the premium “Grand Garden Adventure” battle pass, but this event is 100 percent free for all players.

The “chessboard” theme is pure narrative flavor. It ties into the new season’s story, where cosmic big-wigs like the Grandmaster and the Collector are meddling with Gambit and Rogue’s honeymoon. We are the “pawns” on their cosmic board, and our matches are their entertainment.

The entire event is broken down into 8 “pieces” total. Think of these as 8 separate bundles of missions. According to the official rules, you must finish all the missions of one piece to unlock the next one. It is a simple, linear progression. You complete tasks, you advance along the track, and you claim rewards, with the grand prize waiting at the very end.

It is a straightforward “play to earn” system, but this one has a few special rules that make it one of the most player-friendly events I have ever seen in Marvel Rivals.

The Two Golden Rules You MUST Understand

I have analyzed the official event page, and it all boils down to two critical rules. Understanding these will completely change your approach to this event.

Golden Rule 1: The 24-Hour Time-Gate (and Why It’s a Good Thing)

The first and most important rule is this: A new “piece” (mission bundle) unlocks every 24 hours.

This means you cannot log in on day one and no-life the entire event in a single 12-hour gaming session. To even access all 8 mission bundles, you will have to wait for them to unlock sequentially over 8 days.

Now, I know some of you grinders might groan, but hear me out. This is a massive “W” for the player base. It is the exact opposite of FOMO (Fear OfMissing Out). Why? Look at the event duration.

The Elders’ Chessboard event runs from November 14, 2025, until January 16, 2026.

That is two full months. You have over 60 days to complete 8 small sets of missions that are time-gated over just 8 days. You can take a week off, come back, and catch up with no problem. This design respects your time and removes all the pressure. You just log in, see what your new piece is, and knock it out.

Golden Rule 2: The ‘Practice VS. AI’ Secret Weapon

This, my friends, is the expert tip you come to RivalSector for. This is the key to finishing the event with zero stress.

Rule 4 on the event page states: “Unless otherwise stated, missions can be completed in Quick Match, Competitive, Arcade, or Practice VS. AI mode.”

Read that last part again. Practice VS. AI mode.

This is a complete game-changer. You do not have to sweat in your ranked matches, trying to get 50 eliminations while your team is getting rolled. You do not have to fight your own teammates for the healer role in Quick Match just to complete a “Heal 50,000 damage” mission.

You can simply queue up for a “Practice VS. AI” match, turn your brain off, and farm these missions against easy bots. This is, without a doubt, the fastest and most efficient way to clear every single mission bundle.

• Need “Get 100 eliminations”? Lock in Scarlet Witch or Iron Man in a bot match and just spam your abilities into the enemy team.
• Need “Heal 75,000 damage”? Go Peni Parker or Adam Warlock and just follow your AI teammates around.
• Need “Block 30,000 damage”? Pick The Thing, find the bots, and just hold your shield up.
• Need “Use your Ultimate 15 times”? Pick a hero with a fast-charging ult like Peni and you can farm this in one or two bot matches.

This “AI loophole” turns what could have been a month-long grind into a casual, 15-minute-a-day task for 8 days.

The Grand Prize: That Stunning Iron Spider Skin

So, what is all this work for? The rewards along the track will be the usual fare, like currency, banners, and player icons. But the grand prize for completing all 8 pieces is the legendary Spider-Man – Iron Spider Costume.

I have to be clear: this is not some simple recolor. This is a top-tier, full-model-swap skin.

This is the iconic red-and-gold armor that Tony Stark built for Peter Parker, made famous in the Civil War comic storyline. And yes, it has the three mechanical spider-arms, or “waldoes,” protruding from the back. They are fully modeled and animated, and they look incredible when you are web-zipping across the map.

This is a skin that many other free-to-play games would charge 20 or even 25 dollars for in the cash shop. NetEase is giving it to us completely free, just for playing the game. It is an absolute must-have for any Spidey main, and frankly, it is so good that it is worth getting even if you never play him.

My Strategy: The 8-Day Checkmate Plan

So, let’s put this all together. We have 8 mission bundles, time-gated over 8 days, and we can do them all in Practice VS. AI.

This makes our strategy simple:

1. Log in each day for the next 8 days.
2. Check the new “piece” (mission bundle) that unlocked.
3. Queue up for one or two Practice VS. AI matches.
4. Select the hero that best completes those missions (like a Vanguard for a “block” mission or a Duelist for an “elim” mission).
5. Clear the missions in 15-20 minutes.
6. Repeat for 8 days.
7. Claim your Iron Spider skin.

We do not know the exact missions for all 8 pieces yet, but they always follow a predictable pattern. I have built a table to show you what this 8-day plan will likely look like and how to cheese it.

My Predicted 8-Day AI Farming Plan

Final Verdict: This Event is a Massive W

So, to summarize, the Elders’ Chessboard is not a complex new mode. Instead, it is a fantastic, player-friendly, and completely free mission event.

The designers have perfectly balanced this. They respect our time with a two-month duration and a casual 8-day time-gate, and they have given us the ultimate gift: the ability to complete everything in Practice VS. AI mode.

My final advice is simple. Do not stress about this event. Do not feel pressured to play for hours. Just log in, play a couple of bot matches to clear your daily piece, and in 8 days, that god-tier Iron Spider skin will be yours. This is a perfect start to Season 5.

What do you think of the Iron Spider skin? Is this the best free event Marvel Rivals has given us so far? Let me know your thoughts in the comments on rivalsector.com. For more hero guides, patch note breakdowns, and everything else you need to dominate this new season, make sure you stay locked to our full Marvel Rivals category!

I will see you on the battlefield. Elias, signing off.