Marvel Rivals Signature Bypass: What It Is, Why Mods Need It

The Signature Bypass is what lets Marvel Rivals load mods. RIVALSFPS.GG carries DeathChaos's UTOC Signature Bypass inside the app and writes it into the game's Binaries\Win64 folder when you press Install. This guide covers what the three files are, what stops working without them, why Windows usually asks for permission, and each way to take them out again.

What is the UTOC Signature Bypass in Marvel Rivals?

The UTOC Signature Bypass is a plugin by DeathChaos, published on Nexus Mods as mod 2940. It makes Marvel Rivals accept mod paks, which the game otherwise leaves unloaded. RIVALSFPS.GG redistributes it with the author's permission, so it comes inside the app instead of as a separate download. The Signature Bypass card in the app's Settings links to DeathChaos's Ko-fi for anyone who wants to support the work.

The plugin is an .asi file, and it needs something to load it. That job belongs to ThirteenAG's Ultimate ASI Loader, which is MIT licensed and installs as dsound.dll. When Marvel Rivals starts, Windows picks up a DLL with that name from the game's own folder, and the loader in turn loads the plugin from the plugins folder next to it.

UTOC is the .utoc file, the table of contents of an Unreal Engine IoStore container. A mod usually arrives as three files that share a name, a .pak, a .utoc and a .ucas, and the bypass is what lets the game mount them.

RIVALSFPS.GG does not reach into the running game to do any of this. The app's own code has nothing that reads or writes another program's memory. The plugin works from inside Marvel Rivals because the game loads it at startup.

Why mods need it

Marvel Rivals does not load a mod pak unless the bypass is in place. Without it, every pak in the game's ~mods folder stays on disk and stays switched on, and none of it reaches the game. It looks like a set of broken mods when the mods were never loaded in the first place.

That covers everything the app puts into ~mods, not only the mods you download:

• Mods you installed yourself, listed in the Mod Manager.
• Character skins in the Skin Manager. The Marvel Rivals skin mods guide covers those.
• Graphic packs, the Custom Pack and packs you import. See graphic packs and texture packs.
• Graphic Pack Settings layers, the Max FPS preset included.
• Sound mods built in the Sounds tab.
• The Map Compatibility files that a Quality preset (NVIDIA only) adds to ~mods while it is active.

Lower Render Resolution, the Quality tab's other feature, works on any graphics card and does not need the bypass, because it changes a game setting instead of adding a pak.

When the bypass is missing, the Home, Mod Manager, Graphic Packs, Skin Manager and Sounds tabs show a gold banner with an Install Bypass button. Other actions that depend on it, such as activating a Quality preset (NVIDIA only) or applying Graphic Pack Settings, stop and open a dialog titled "Install the Signature Bypass first" with the same button, then carry on once it is in.

What it installs

Pressing Install writes three files into MarvelGame\Marvel\Binaries\Win64 inside your Marvel Rivals folder. The game has to be closed first. If it is running, the app asks you to close it and offers Retry or Force close.

Other tools use that folder too, so the app is strict about what it writes there. It will not write over a .dll, .asi or .exe that it did not put there. If one is in the way, it stops, names the file, and moves it aside only if you agree (the section on a bypass the app did not install has the details). It also records the files it wrote. Removing the bypass later deletes only those recorded files whose SHA-256 still matches what was written, so a file that has changed since is left where it is, and the app tells you so.

On Home, the Signature Bypass card reads Required for all mods, with an Install button, until the files are in. Afterwards it reads v1.3 · by DeathChaos. If the bypass loading into the game is a different one, the card reads External bypass · not the one we bundle. If you copied the same files in by hand, identical to the bundled ones, the app recognizes them and shows the bypass as installed.

Why Windows asks for permission

Binaries\Win64 sits inside the game's install folder, and that folder is usually under Program Files, where Windows only lets a program write with administrator permission. RIVALSFPS.GG runs as your normal Windows user, so it tries the write that way first. Only when Windows blocks it does the app ask for more.

That is when a dialog titled "Windows will ask for permission" appears. Press Continue and Windows shows its UAC prompt. Choose Yes and the app starts a second copy of itself with administrator permission. That copy does one job: it unpacks the bypass bundled inside the app into the game's Binaries\Win64 folder, writes its result to a file and closes, with no window of its own. Press Cancel or choose No and nothing is installed. You can press Install again whenever you like.

If your game library is outside Program Files, in a folder your Windows user can already write to, the install may go through with no prompt at all. That is why this guide says Windows usually asks, not always. The same check runs for other writes into the game folder, such as switching a mod on or off, so those can ask for permission too.

The prompt lists the publisher as Unknown publisher. RIVALSFPS.GG is not code-signed, so Windows has no verified publisher name to show.

Installing RIVALSFPS.GG itself is a separate step that comes earlier. Its setup installs for your Windows user, into %LOCALAPPDATA%\RIVALSFPS.GG by default. The permission question belongs to the bypass, because that is the step that writes into the game's folder.

After a game update

When Marvel Rivals has updated, start with the Signature Bypass card on Home. If it reads Required for all mods, or the gold banner is back in the Mod Manager, press Install again. The same three files go back in, and your mods are not touched.

If the card says the bypass is installed and mods still do not load, look elsewhere. A patch can change the packaging the game expects from a mod, and the September 3 update did. The Mod Manager marks rows packaged the old way as Outdated, with a Fix button, and Tools > Update my mods repairs them together. Pressing Launch does not repair them for you. The full checklist is in Marvel Rivals mods not working.

Antivirus and Smart App Control

Some real-time antivirus tools quarantine dsound.dll or the .asi the moment they are written. The copy itself succeeds, then the app checks the folder, finds a file gone, and stops with "Couldn't install the bypass" and support code RF-1304. Restore the file from your antivirus's quarantine, or add your Marvel Rivals folder to its exclusions, then press Install again.

The reason antivirus reacts is the shape of the thing. A DLL named after a Windows component, placed in another program's folder next to an unsigned plugin, is a pattern some malware also uses, so behavior-based scanners can flag it. The antivirus detections on record for the RIVALSFPS.GG setup, which carries these files, are machine-learning verdicts, not matches against known malware.

Smart App Control and S Mode are a different case. Both stop Windows from running unsigned code, and the plugin is unsigned, so the files install correctly and the game is then refused when it tries to load them, with a Bad Image error that names the plugin. The app checks for this. The Home card says Smart App Control or S Mode is blocking the bypass, and the Signature Bypass card in Settings explains why. For Smart App Control it offers Open Windows Security, which opens that setting's page. For S Mode it names the Windows setting to look at instead.

The app never changes either setting for you. Its notice explains that Smart App Control can only be turned back on by resetting or reinstalling Windows, so read that page before you decide.

A bypass the app did not install

Some players already have a signature bypass from somewhere else when they first open the app. RIVALSFPS.GG looks in Binaries\Win64 for loaders it did not put there. When it recognizes one by its exact SHA-256, it asks before Launch: Use the bundled bypass, or Keep mine and play. The same offer appears when the app opens. Saying no silences those dialogs, but the Signature Bypass card in Settings keeps a Use the bundled bypass button for that file in case you change your mind.

Use the bundled bypass moves the other files into Binaries\Win64\RivalsFPS-Quarantine\ and installs DeathChaos's bypass in the same step. Nothing is deleted. A quarantine.json file in that folder records each move, and you can move the files back. Keep mine is remembered for those exact files, so the dialogs at app start and before Launch stop asking about them until a different one turns up.

Two bypasses at once is the situation these checks exist for. If you press Install while another one is already installed, the app stops and asks first, because two bypasses loaded together stop Marvel Rivals from starting at all, however you launch it. That dialog offers Keep theirs, which cancels the install, or Use the bundled bypass. When the app opens, or before Launch, and finds another bypass next to its own, its dialog is titled "Two signature bypasses are loading into your game". That dialog also says two at once is the pattern behind the game's "unauthorized modification" warning on every machine RIVALSFPS.GG has been able to check. That is a reason to run one bypass, not a promise about what happens with one.

A file the app cannot identify is never moved without asking. If it sits exactly where the bundled bypass has to go, the app names it and offers to move it aside and install, and suggests you cancel if you recognize the name, because tools such as ReShade and Special K use the same file names.

How to remove it

Any of these takes the bypass out:

Uninstalling RIVALSFPS.GG does not remove the bypass by default. The uninstaller's confirmation page has a toggle, "Also undo every change made to Marvel Rivals", which is off until you turn it on. With it on, the uninstaller also takes out the packs, the bypass and the Windows tweaks, plus ReShade if the app set it up for Color Correction. Your own mods stay.

Whichever route you use, the app deletes only its own bypass files: the ones it recorded writing whose SHA-256 still matches, or a hand-copied set that is identical to the bundled files. After Disable Bypass or Uninstall, it also tells you if something it did not install is still loading into the game, and leaves that file for you to decide about. To play without mods for a while, Disable All Mods in the same Tools menu is the lighter option. The game then runs stock, and the bypass stays where it is.

Is the signature bypass bannable?

This guide cannot promise that it is safe to use, and nobody outside NetEase can. NetEase's rules for Marvel Rivals prohibit modifying the game client, and a plugin that makes the game accept mod paks is a modification. Treat it as a risk you choose to take.

What the app does is tell you about the risks it knows of and keep the off switch close. A mod on its list of ones that can get accounts temporarily banned is marked Flagged, shows why and gives a support code, and it comes out only after you confirm. The check for a second bypass above works the same way. The wider question, covering mods of every kind, is answered in Are Marvel Rivals mods bannable?

Common questions

Related guides

• Marvel Rivals mods not working
• How to install Marvel Rivals mods
• Are Marvel Rivals mods bannable?