So, you’re staring at a 98.2% completion rate in Lego Marvel Super Heroes and you've got no clue where that last gold brick is hiding. It’s frustrating. Truly. You’ve flown through the Helicarrier, smashed every trash can in Manhattan, and yet, the platinum trophy or full gamerscore remains just out of reach. Most people think a Lego Marvel heroes walkthrough is just about finishing the story levels, but honestly, that’s barely 25% of the actual game. The real meat of the experience—and where most players get stuck—is the messy, chaotic open-world hub and those specific character-ability gates that the game doesn't always explain clearly.
Manhattan is huge. It’s not just a backdrop; it’s a giant puzzle box. If you're trying to navigate this without a plan, you're going to spend three hours flying around as Iron Man just looking for a red brick that’s actually underground in a vent you didn't see. We need to talk about the sequence of operations because the order in which you tackle these tasks determines whether you’re having fun or just doing digital chores.
Why Your Initial Story Run is Only the Warm-up
Don't sweat the collectibles during your first pass of the 15 main story missions. Seriously. Just don't do it. You literally cannot get everything on the first try because the game is designed with "Free Play" in mind. You'll see a silver shiny object and realize you don't have a character with explosives yet. Or you'll see a golden door and realize Human Torch isn't in your party. It's a waste of time to restart levels over and over during the initial campaign.
Basically, just blast through the narrative. Enjoy the weirdly charming voice acting—shout out to Nolan North’s Deadpool—and get familiar with the mechanics. The real Lego Marvel heroes walkthrough begins the moment the credits roll for the first time. That’s when you unlock the ability to hot-swap characters in the Manhattan hub.
Once the story is done, your first priority isn't the side quests. It’s unlocking a "Magneto" type character and a "Telepath" like Jean Grey or Professor X. Magneto is essential because those metallic blue objects are everywhere, and he’s one of the few who can move them. Without him, you're essentially locked out of about 15% of the world's secrets.
The Red Brick Economy: Working Smarter
Let’s talk about the Stud Multipliers. If you aren't prioritizing the x2, x4, and x6 Red Bricks, you’re playing on hard mode for no reason. These bricks are located in the Deadpool bonus missions. To even enter these missions, you need a certain number of Gold Bricks. It’s a loop. You collect Gold Bricks to unlock the mission, play the mission to get the Red Brick, and then use that multiplier to buy everything else in the game.
💡 You might also like: Why The Walking Dead Game Telltale Still Hurts After All This Time
Finding the Deadpool Missions
You’ll find these scattered across the map, usually marked by a small Deadpool icon. One of the earliest ones you can grab is "Tabloid Tidy-UP" at the Daily Bugle. It’s simple, but it gets you started. The most important one, honestly, is the x10 multiplier. It’s expensive—millions of studs—but once you have it, money becomes irrelevant. You’ll be a billionaire in ten minutes of gameplay.
A lot of players make the mistake of buying every character they unlock immediately. Stop. Save your studs. Buy the multipliers first. It’s basic math. If you spend 150,000 studs on a random Hydra agent early on, that’s 150,000 studs that isn't going toward a multiplier that would have turned that same amount into 1.5 million later.
Navigating the Manhattan Hub Without Getting Lost
The map is a mess of icons. It’s overwhelming. You’ve got Stan Lee in Peril, Gold Bricks, Character Tokens, and races.
Here is the secret: Start from the top and work down. Begin with the SHIELD Helicarrier. Clean out every single brick and token on that ship before you ever touch the ground. It’s a contained environment. It feels good to see that area "cleared." Once you're on the ground, divide the city into districts. Treat Chinatown differently than the Financial District. If you just fly toward the nearest icon, you’ll end up zig-zagging across the map, which is a massive time-sink.
Those Annoying Races
We have to talk about the flight controls. They’re... not great. Especially on older consoles or the initial PC release. Flying through rings can be a nightmare if you're using a character like Thor or Iron Man who has a lot of "drift" in their movement.
Pro tip: Use a character with a smaller hit-box or more precise hovering for the tight races. Silver Surfer is generally considered the "Gold Standard" for flight challenges because his board handles much more sharply than the flying suits. If you’re struggling with a ground race, don't use a slow van. Find a fast motorcycle or, better yet, use a character like Spider-Man who can zip around, though a fast vehicle is usually required for the specific "vehicle" race triggers.
Character Synergy and Ability Gates
You’re going to run into things you can’t break. It’s inevitable. Here’s a quick cheat sheet of what you need for a "Universal Team" when you're exploring Free Play:
- Fire/Heat: Human Torch (for melting gold Lego).
- Explosives: Iron Man (Mark 6) or any character with "bomb" capabilities (for silver Lego).
- Power/Strength: Hulk or Thing (for green handles).
- Electricity: Thor or Storm (for charging generators).
- Magnetic: Magneto (for those shimmering blue objects).
- Telekinesis/Mind Control: Jean Grey or Invisible Woman.
- Claws: Wolverine or Black Panther (for the switch boxes).
- Sensory: Spider-Man or Iron Man (for the "spidey-sense" areas).
Most people forget that some characters have multiple abilities. Iron Man is basically a Swiss Army knife. Use him for 90% of your traversal and puzzle-solving, then swap to a specialist only when necessary.
🔗 Read more: How to Choose Your Favorite Pokemon Without Regretting It Later
The Stan Lee Problem
Stan Lee is in peril. In every level. In every corner of the city. There are 50 of him.
Finding Stan Lee is the hardest part of any Lego Marvel heroes walkthrough because he’s often tucked behind multi-stage puzzles. You might need to use a sensory power to find a grapple point, then use a character with freeze powers to stop a leak, then use a telepath to move a lever. If you miss even one Stan Lee, you can't unlock the Stan Lee playable character (who, by the way, is the best character in the game because he has almost every power).
Check the "In-Level" tracker. If you’re in Free Play and the bottom of the screen shows a greyed-out Stan Lee head, he’s still there. Usually, he’s hidden in the second or third sub-section of a level. In the "Doctor in the House" level, for example, many people miss him because he’s tucked away in a corner during the final boss transition. Look everywhere. Behind the camera. Up in the rafters.
Dealing with Glitches and Soft-Locks
Let’s be real: Lego games can be buggy. Sometimes a gold brick won't appear, or a character quest-giver won't talk to you. If a mission seems broken, the "turn it off and on again" rule applies, but with a twist. Travel to the Helicarrier and then back down to the city. This forces the hub to reload its assets.
There’s a well-known issue with the "Ghost Rider" race where he sometimes fails to spawn. If that happens, stop trying to find him. Go complete a different side mission, then come back. The game’s scripting sometimes gets "stuck" if too many world events are happening at once.
Common Misconceptions About 100% Completion
A lot of players think they need to buy all the DLC to get 100%. You don't. The base game’s 100% metric is tied specifically to the core 150 characters and 250 Gold Bricks. The DLC adds to the total, but it doesn't move the goalposts for the main achievement/trophy.
🔗 Read more: Car Company Tycoon Free: Why Everyone is Obsessed With This Niche Sim
Another big one: "The Bonus Level."
To reach the final secret level (the Lego New York City interior), you need a massive amount of gold bricks. People often think it’s just another story mission, but it’s actually a "total destruction" mission where you have to collect a million studs in a confined space. It’s a great way to cap off the game, but don't expect a complex narrative there. It’s a victory lap.
Actionable Steps for Your Completionist Run
If you want to finish this game without burning out, follow this specific rhythm. It’s the most efficient way to handle the workload.
- Finish the Story: Don't stop for anything. Just get to the end.
- Unlock the "Flyers": Make sure you have a flying character available at all times for the hub.
- The "Big Four" Characters: Focus your stud spending on unlocking Magneto, Jean Grey, Liberty (for gold), and a character with claws (like Wolverine).
- Red Brick Hunt: Go directly to the Deadpool missions in the SHIELD Helicarrier rooms. Get the multipliers.
- Free Play Cleanup: Go back through the levels in order. Use a guide for the Minikits because some are hidden in ways that defy logic.
- The Manhattan Sweep: Grid out the city. Do all the races first to get them out of the way, then do the combat challenges, then the puzzles.
The key to a successful Lego Marvel heroes walkthrough isn't speed; it's organization. This game is huge, and it’s easy to feel like you’re making no progress. But once those multipliers kick in and you start seeing your stud count hit the billions, the rest of the cleanup feels like a breeze. Just keep an eye out for Stan Lee—he’s always getting into trouble in the most inconvenient places.
Go get those bricks. Manhattan isn't going to save itself, and those gold bricks certainly aren't going to jump into your inventory on their own. Focus on the multipliers first, and the rest will fall into place.