Ultimate EX St. Marcus Mars Guide: Best Build & Strategy in OPBR

How to Play EX Marcus Mars Your primary job is to sneak around and capture flags to give your team the advantage—you are not a fighter. Mars' entire kit revolves around two major stacking mechanics that you need to prioritize at the beginning of every match: The Defense Buff: Mars gains up to a 70% defense boost simply by attacking enemies. His Skill 1 has a long movement distance and leaves a trail of fire that constantly damages anyone chasing you. Spamming this multi-hit skill is the fastest way to max out your defense early on. The Power Gauge (Immortality): Every time you hit an enemy, you gain a power gauge stack (up to 5). Each stack serves as an extra life. If you get defeated, you instantly revive by consuming a stack. When you capture a flag with at least 3 Power Gauge stacks, you leave behind a Firewall. This wall damages enemies and protects you from one-shot skills during those crucial 5 seconds after securing a flag. The Skill 2 Capturing Gimmick Mars' Skill 2 is his best tool. Normally, it's an invincible forward-moving dash that deals percentage damage and knocks enemies down. However, when you start capturing a flag, this skill transforms into a spammable gust of wind that ignores obstacles (like Whitebeard's or Uta's walls) and knocks down defenders while you maintain the capture. Best Medal Sets and Stats for Mars Because both of Mars' skills deal percentage damage, building Attack stats on him is completely useless. Whether you have 0 Attack or 1000 Attack, your skills will do the same damage. Always prioritize HP and Defense. HP is slightly better in the current meta because units like Zoro have skills that completely ignore your defense stat. Recommended Medal Sets Since Mars has great built-in Skill 1 recovery but zero Skill 2 recovery, your medals must focus on getting his invincible Skill 2 back as fast as possible while boosting capture speed. The Doflamingo Set (Best Overall): Pair the Dressrosa Doflamingo medal (reduces Skill 2 cooldown when HP is above 70%) with a secondary Doffy medal or Event Law medal. This grants double capture speed tags and vital Skill 2 cooldowns. The Kuma/Bonney Set: Shares Captain, Royalty, Warlord, and pilot tags. Gives maximum Skill 2 cooldown reduction and maximum capture speed without any HP conditions. The Robin Set: A very accessible set utilizing two Robin medals and one other from the same arc. Gives a passive Skill 2 cooldown reduction and a solid 20% capture speed. Best Support Tags To maximize Mars' survivability and utility, structure your support units around these tags: Great Swordsman (Zoro/Oden): This is massive. A maxed Swordsman tag grants a 15% Skill 2 cooldown reduction every time you capture a flag. Grand Line: Crucial for reducing damage from blue enemies (which includes your hardest counters). Runner: Increases your base HP and ensures you fill the treasure gauge more when you capture a flag. Matchups: Who to Fight and Who to Avoid Mars is incredibly strong against characters who rely on raw one-shot damage without revive-nullification, like S-Hawk/Nujuro, Roger, or Whitebeard. However, he has some incredibly harsh counters. Avoid these characters at all costs: Zoro & Sanji: They completely bypass your Power Gauge revives. They are designed to counter characters that rely on immortality mechanics. Run away immediately. Kuma & Bonney: Kuma's teleporting punch deals increased damage to Runners and Gorosei, and his skills also bypass HP recovery upon defeat. S-Snake: Her flames block your damage, she removes your hard-earned defense buffs on hit, and your wind-gust skill won't push her off the flag.