Piecing Together Marvel Puzzle Quest: Medusa

Make way for royalty people! Medusa’s about to rock “Marvel Puzzle Quest” using her luscious locks to entangle her enemies and serve up some serious pain.

We had a chance to talk to D3 Go! Producer Josh Austin about the Queen of the Inhumans and everything she’s got in store for the common rabble who dare disturb her rule.

Marvel.com: Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans, may be my favorite member of the Royal Family outside of Black Bolt. Why’d we get Medusa over say Gorgon, or Karnak, or some of the young guns like Flint or Naja?

Josh Austin: Medusa won the Marvel NOW! Poll that we conducted over the summer and the players really wanted her [so] we were more than happy to add the Queen of the Inhumans to the roster! Who knows what the future holds for Gorgon, Karnak, Flint and/or Naja in “Marvel Puzzle Quest,” but any character is possible. Besides, she’s a queen and we already added the king, so let’s start at the top.

Marvel.com: Concentrating her abilities on just her prehensile hair feels like it’d be too easy. What’d the team focus on to make the Queen come to life?

Josh Austin: Medusa was designed as a great support character that when used well can cause a lot of damage while healing the team. Her hair shakes things up on the board generating health, causing damage, gaining additional AP or swapping random tiles and stealing any swapped enemy special tiles.

Marvel.com: Ok let’s talk about her abilities. Mind breaking them down for us?

Josh Austin: Medusa’s first ability, The Resolute Queen, is a Yellow Passive (0 AP). No matter the situation, Queen Medusa protects and leads her people with unwavering loyalty and determination. Whenever an Attack, Protect, or Strike tile is matched, if it was a friendly tile, it gives a burst of health to the team. If it was an enemy tile, it gains AP in Purple, Blue, or Green.

Medusa’s second ability is another Passive called Entanglement and this one is Red (0 AP). Medusa sends her hair out to grab and whip opponents. Every turn, if one does not exist, the player can create a Countdown tile that deals damage every turn. If the tile gets destroyed, it creates two strength Attack tiles.

Medusa’s last ability is called Hair Meddle and costs 10 Purple AP. Medusa’s hair wriggles its way through enemy defenses, causing chaos and confusion. The ability swaps 16 pairs of random tiles, stealing any swapped enemy Strike tiles; upgrades add Protect, Attack and even buffing stolen tiles.

Marvel.com: From what I can tell she’s all about wrecking the opponent’s tiles and making sure they can’t play their game. Getting rid of Falcon/Captain America’s Protect tiles, Blade’s Strike tiles, using Thing’s protect ability against him—that sound like a fair assessment?

Josh Austin: Definitely! She will be able to turn the battle around if the player feels overwhelmed with a ton of enemy Special tiles on the board. She would have been great against the Mindless Ones in the Doctor Strange event earlier this month!

Marvel.com: On paper she sounds a lot like Loki, shaking up the board and taking control of special tiles. What sets her apart from characters like the God of Mischief and Doctor Octopus?

Josh Austin: Loki’s ability just moves around colored tiles and Doc Ock will destroy enemy strike tiles, but Medusa will steal any tile that is touched by her hair transforming it from an enemy tile to a friendly tile. While Loki and the good doctor provide utility, Medusa brings it in spades.

Marvel.com: Looking at her kit I’m really liking her with Carnage, who’ll be giving us friendly and enemy attack tiles to play with, possibly giving us AP and healing in a good cascade. Who else benefits from the help of the Queen?

Josh Austin: The popular choice here seems to match Medusa with Quake and Kamala Khan. The combination of Quake negating some damage while Kamala Khan heals along with Medusa’s healing ability can be pretty fun, but of course adding Carnage in there with all the tile creation is a great choice too!

Marvel.com: When do we get to recruit the Queen?

Josh Austin: Medusa will be available starting on December 1 and she will be featured in Hearts of Darkness event scheduled for the same day. Medusa’s Vault will start on Sunday, December 4 and go through December 9 with the Venom Bomb event and finally the Medusa PVP event will be titled the Big Bangs Theory and go from December 8 through December 12.

Pick up the Queen of the Inhumans here and stay tuned to Marvel.com for more “Marvel Puzzle Quest” news and interviews!