You’ve been waiting to jump into the Tokyo 2099 map. You’ve got your team ready. Then, it happens. The progress bar for Marvel Rivals stuck at 99 percent, mocking you while you stare at a frozen Spider-Man or Iron Man. It’s frustrating. It's actually a bit of a rite of passage for NetEase games at this point, but that doesn't make it any less annoying when you’re just trying to grind some ranked matches.
Most people think their internet died. Usually, it didn't.
This specific hang-up isn't just one thing; it’s a collision of how Steam handles file unpacking, how NetEase’s "Ignite" engine initializes shaders, and sometimes, just plain old server-side handshake failures. If you’re seeing that 99% mark on a download, your PC is likely struggling to reorganize "chunk" files. If it’s happening on the splash screen when you launch the game, you’re looking at a different beast entirely.
What’s Actually Happening During That 99 Percent Hang?
Let’s talk about the download side first. When Steam or the Epic Games Store says you're at 99%, it doesn't mean you're still downloading data. You've likely finished the "fetching" part. Now, the client is "Patching." Marvel Rivals uses a high level of compression to keep the initial download size manageable. Once those files are on your drive, they have to be moved, unpacked, and verified.
If you are on a traditional Hard Disk Drive (HDD), this is where your journey ends for a while. Seriously. This game is heavily optimized for NVMe SSDs. On an old mechanical drive, the disk usage might spike to 100%, causing the UI to freeze. It looks stuck. It isn't. It’s just working through a massive queue of file operations.
Then there’s the "Initial Loading" stuck at 99. This is the one that happens after you click play. The game is likely compiling shaders. This is a process where the game translates the visual instructions into a language your specific GPU (whether it’s an RTX 4070 or an older GTX 1060) understands. If your CPU is pegged at 100% during this, it's just doing its job.
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Wait.
Sometimes "wait" is the only real fix. I’ve seen players on Reddit and the official Marvel Rivals Discord report that waiting upwards of five to ten minutes eventually pushes the bar to 100%. But if you've been sitting there for half an hour, something is definitely broken.
Dealing With the "Shader Cache" Nightmare
Shaders are the bane of modern PC gaming. In Marvel Rivals, if the shader cache gets corrupted—which happens a lot after a hotfix or a GPU driver update—the game gets confused. It tries to load a file that doesn't quite match the new version. The result? You guessed it. Marvel Rivals stuck at 99 percent while the engine loops an error in the background that you can't see.
How to Force a Refresh
One of the most effective ways to bypass this is to wipe your DirectX Shader Cache. You can do this through the Windows "Disk Cleanup" tool. Just make sure "DirectX Shader Cache" is checked. When you relaunch the game, it will be slow—it has to rebuild everything—but it often clears the "99% hurdle" that was previously blocking you.
Another weirdly common fix involves the "Saved" folder in your AppData. Navigate to %LOCALAPPDATA%\MarvelRivals\Saved\. Delete the Crashes folder and the Config folder (though keep in mind this resets your settings). Sometimes the game tries to load a previous session's state that is no longer valid, causing the hang.
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The Steam Deck and Linux Complication
Marvel Rivals uses Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC). For those playing on Steam Deck or Linux via Proton, the 99% hang is often the anti-cheat failing to initialize. If the EAC splash screen doesn't pop up or finishes but doesn't hand off the "all clear" to the game client, you’re stuck in loading limbo.
Check your Proton version. Often, switching to "Proton Experimental" or a specific "GE-Proton" build resolves the handshake issue. If the anti-cheat can't talk to the server, it won't let the game finish loading the main menu assets. It’s a security gate that refuses to open.
Network Handshakes and Ghost Sessions
Sometimes the problem isn't your PC at all. It's the server. NetEase runs a complex infrastructure to handle the massive influx of players during peak hours. When you're Marvel Rivals stuck at 99, your client might be waiting for a "Ready" signal from the regional server.
If the server is under heavy load, that signal gets delayed. Or, worse, you have a "ghost session." This happens if your game crashed previously and the server thinks you’re still logged in. When you try to log back in, the server sees two of you and doesn't know which one to prioritize, hanging the loading bar at the very end.
The DNS Trick
I know it sounds like "voodoo" advice from 2005, but changing your DNS to Google (8.8.8.8) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) actually helps. It's about how your PC resolves the address for the NetEase login servers. If your ISP’s DNS is slow or has cached an old IP for the game server, your client will hang at 99% while it waits for a connection that will never come.
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Is Your Firewall Being Too Aggressive?
Marvel Rivals needs to open several ports to communicate with both the anti-cheat servers and the matchmaker. If your Windows Firewall or a third-party antivirus (like Bitdefender or Norton) flags the MarvelRivals-Win64-Shipping.exe as suspicious, it might block the final network "check" that happens at 99%.
Try adding the entire game folder as an exclusion. Don't just disable the firewall—that's a security risk. Just tell it that Marvel Rivals is a trusted friend.
Actionable Steps to Get Back Into the Fight
If you are staring at that 99% bar right now, follow this sequence. Don't skip steps just because they seem simple.
- Give it 10 minutes. Seriously. If you’re on an HDD or a slower CPU, shader compilation takes time. Go grab a drink.
- Check Disk Activity. Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc). Look at your Disk usage. If it's at 100%, the game is still moving files. Do not close it.
- Verify Game Files. On Steam, right-click Marvel Rivals > Properties > Installed Files > Verify integrity of game files. This fixes the "99% download" hang 90% of the time.
- Clear the Shader Cache. Use the Windows Disk Cleanup tool as mentioned earlier.
- Toggle Your VPN. If you use one, turn it off. If you don't use one, try a free trial of one. Sometimes your specific routing to the game server is just broken, and a VPN bypasses the "bad" node in the network path.
- Update Your Drivers. NetEase works closely with NVIDIA. If there's a "Game Ready" driver for Marvel Rivals, you need it. Old drivers are the primary cause of shader compilation freezes.
If none of that works, the issue is likely a widespread server outage. Check the official @MarvelRivals X (formerly Twitter) account. They are usually pretty quick to acknowledge when the login servers are having a meltdown.
Usually, the fix is just patience or a quick file verification. The game is massive, the assets are dense, and the engine is demanding. Give your hardware a second to breathe, and you'll be back to picking Magneto or Luna Snow in no time.