Keep reading to get an overview of matchmaking, competitive mode, and the balance changes we’re making for Season 3, a preview of what you can expect from the next patches, and more information on the return of the Overwatch World Cup! Season 3 also introduces Workshop mode with new automated moderation tools alongside various accessibility improvements. Let’s begin!
New Control map, Antarctic Peninsula
The Control mode gets its first Overwatch 2 map in the icy Antarctica! We’ve already visited the main Ecobase structure: Antarctica, as seen in the film In march of Mei, but the Antarctic Peninsula station is a tundra full of stories yet to be told. This snowy Control map features unique vistas, including a breakwater vessel and an underground drilling station. With numerous secondary roads and elevated vantage points above the busiest zones and objectives, we’re eager to see how the meta will evolve in this frozen battlefield!
Theme of Asian mythology and Kiriko’s mythic model
Overwatch has often explored and celebrated the existing cultures of the world, as is evident from our hero roster drawn from Korea, Japan and China. We are thrilled to announce that the Season 3 theme will explore Asian mythology! This season features some of the most exotic models ever, several of which are connected to the game universe in ways we’re certain will be adored by anyone.
Complete the Battle Pass Premium to unlock the legendary Kiriko Amaterasu model, inspired by various Japanese deities, with thematically customizable options for moon, sea, and storms. Our concept artists had a great time designing the visual effects for this model, which includes a themed headpiece and a new look for Kiriko’s Fox Spirit.
More rewards, more frequent
Season 3 will improve the first two by offering even more rewards, even just to access and play. Expect an additional 10 degrees of rewards on the free path and a full 1,500 credits to spend as you like in the Hero Gallery. We’ve added another 500 credits to the premium path too.
We have made almost all the epic and legendary models previously available in Overwatch available for purchase, 300 in total, in the Hero Gallery, via Overwatch Coins or credits. We have also lowered the price of those legendary models from 1,900 credits to 1,500.
In total, we will offer four models obtainable externally through the Battle Pass via game events and provide players with a major boost for other items obtainable this season. Among these is a Lucky Medal of Gold for simply accessing between the 7th and 20th of February to celebrate the Overwatch World Cup, a Player Icon Hanzo Cupido for accessing during the upcoming Ultra Valentine event, and a legendary OW2 model obtainable later in the season through our franchise collaboration. We will share more details on how players can obtain each model and other rewards in the vicinity of the event’s release.
Also, we’ll be giving out the first five reward levels of the Season 3 Battle Pass simply for logging in during the first week! Stay with us for the Twitch Drops throughout the season to support our streamer community and earn even more cosmetic items we’ve saved for you. In March, you can expect the return of the Pachimarzo Challenge, which includes even more rewards! You can find more information about these events and exact dates below.
LoverWatch, the dating simulator (13–28 February), and the Ultra Valentine event (14–28 February)
Love is in the air! The Ultra Valentine event starts on this year’s Valentine’s Day, featuring a limited-time 4v4 Hanzo mode and themed support challenges to help you earn two epic models along with other rewards. Also don’t miss LoverWatch, the dating simulator, launching for the first time in Overwatch 2 on February 13!
LoverWatch is a text-based dating simulator non canonico in which players will be able to choose between two potential dating paths: Mercy or Genji. You will be presented with dialogue options to interact with your chosen hero and will also receive assistance from Cupid himself (suspiciously similar to Hanzo). Unlock the secret ending and obtain a better highlight reel from the themed match!
Once available, you can play LoverWatch on the site, available only via web browser. The game experience will be available until 28 February in Korean, Japanese, Spanish, German, French and English. The expected playtime is 30 minutes.
One Punch Man Collaboration (7 March - 6 April)
One hundred planks! One hundred crunches! One hundred bends! And finally, ten kilometres of running! Every single day of the year! We are pleased to announce that we have collaborated with the Japanese anime One Punch Man, our first collaboration between a major IP and Overwatch 2, to bring new models and cosmetic items into the game during this season! Together, we have created a series of cosmetic items inspired by the acclaimed anime, including the Doomfist Saitama model. We will reveal each item before the release on 7 March, one of which is a legendary model obtainable through themed challenges.
Return of the Pachimarzo Challenge (21 March - 4 April)
Pachimarzo is back with a limited-time gameplay mode featuring confirmed kills, along with a flood of rewards, including an epic model, six Pachimarzo player icons, a luck charm, and a postcard! Obtain a Roadhog Pachimari player icon simply by logging into the game during the event and then complete themed challenges to earn the Roadhog Pachimari epic model before the event ends on April 4.
Balance, matchmaking and general improvements
The patch notes for Season 3 will be published later today. Join us on Twitch at 21:00 CET to dive deeper into the balance changes coming this week. We’ll be joined by lead hero designer Alec Dawson and A_Seagull, to discover together who’s been nerfed, who’s been buffed, and what these changes mean for you. In the meantime, here’s a quick summary of the most significant changes:
- All tanks' health total will be lower in any game mode that doesn't feature role queues, to balance those heroes' power in game modes where the same hero can appear multiple times per team. Tank health values will remain unchanged when playing in any mode with role queues enabled.
- The maximum charge of Ultra preserved at the hero's switch has been reduced from 30% to 25%.
- Mercy is being nerfed and much of the support heroes are receiving minor balance changes.
- Inflict damage to enemies with Ramattra’s Ultra, which now slows the timer’s duration rather than completely stopping it.
We’ve also made several general improvements to matchmaking and competitive mode, as described in our recent article. Here’s the summary:
- The matching system will be updated so that individual roles from both teams have similar ranks. For example, both tanks should be matched with each other at a more similar rank than before, and the same applies to the other roles.
- The competitive rank will be updated every 5 wins or 15 losses.
- We are updating the interface in the mid-season patch of Season 3, so progress on the leaderboard update is always available.
- Also, with the mid-season patch, players and players in the Top 500 leaderboard will see their position update after every match instead of after 5 wins or 15 losses.
Following this, with Season 4, we will remove the level reset and level decay, having realised that this is a frustrating experience and a source of problems for players and players. We want to continue improving the matchmaking and competitive mode experience, so please keep sending us feedback!
Overwatch World Cup celebrations
Everything is ready! All 36 participating countries for the Overwatch World Cup have been announced and now selections for the Competition Committee are underway. Follow Overwatch and Path to Pro on Twitter for updates; these channels will reveal the final committee and the player groups. Visit the newly launched website to learn how to get involved and discover the World Cup Trial, the Jolly Card Challenge that will allow additional teams to apply, as well as the Season 3 leaderboard challenges! We’ll provide more details about the OWWC throughout the year, including how and when you can follow it.
Return of the Workshop and moderation tools
Season 3 brings our advanced Workshop tools back to the forefront for custom game creators and creators. In doing so, we also want to ensure that custom games remain safe and enjoyable for everyone. That’s why we’re implementing a new moderation technology that will automatically remove any custom games with inappropriate titles or content, and may apply account restrictions or actions against users who create and publish such content. If you see an inappropriate custom game, report it! You can find more information in our recent Defensive Matrix Update.
Streamer mode and accessibility improvements
From Season 3, we are also introducing streamer protection, which players and players can enable or disable via the Social options in the Settings menu. Streamer protection allows you to hide your BattleTag and those of your gaming companions, the chat, replay codes, and the amount of time spent waiting in queue, while also letting you set a delay before the game begins searching for you to join a match. To learn more about the streamer mode, always check the recent Defensive Matrix update.
Also, within the Settings menu, we have made some accessibility improvements, listed here:
- Improvements to subtitle options to allow scaling of text, character portrait icons, speaker names, text color changes, background color changes, and subtitle previews.
- Added the option to resize the mouse cursor on PC.
- Added a setting to select custom colours for the formation and alerts in the interface, previewable before saving to aid setup.
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