Season 3 of Overwatch 2 will launch later today (February 7), and Blizzard has now released all of the Overwatch 2 content, including the release schedule. These include a text-based Loverwatch Dating Sim for Valentine's Day, a One Punch Man collab, the return of Pachimarchi and the Overwatch World Cup, and more.
- Related Reading: Overwatch 2 Map Pools to Be Removed in Season 4 Due to Lack of Maps and Poor Player Reception
New Antarctic Peninsula Control Map
In Overwatch 2, Control gets its first new map in the form of cold Antarctica! The Antarctic Peninsula station is a mythological tundra with many other stories to be told. This snow-themed Control map highlights some interesting features, including an icebreaker ship, an underground drilling station, and numerous flank routes.
Kiriko Mythic Skin and Asian Mythology Theme
Overwatch has long studied and celebrated real-life cultures from across the world, as shown by the roster of heroes from Korea, Japan, and China. Asian Mythology will be the theme for season three, featuring some of the most unique skins to date with special lore connections.
Complete the Premium Battle Pass and you'll unlock the Amaterasu Kiriko Mythic skin, inspired by various deities in Japanese mythology, with customizations you can mix and match to customize the moon, the sea, and storms.
More Rewards, More Often
Season 3 will improve upon the previous two seasons by offering even more rewards just for logging in and playing. On the free track, there will be ten additional levels of rewards, as well as 500 Credits to earn and spend as you please in the Hero Gallery.
The Hero Gallery has now added over 300 epic and legendary event hero skins from the original Overwatch, both of which will always be available for purchase with Overwatch Coins or Credits. The price of these Legendary skins has been reduced from 1900 credits to 1500 credits.
Outside of the Battle Pass, four earnable skins will be available at in-game events this season, as well as a gold medal weapon charm for logging in during our upcoming Ultimate Valentine's event and an earnable Legendary OW2 skin later in the season from the IP collaboration.
In season three, all players will receive the first five free tiers of rewards for signing up during the first week of the season, as well as participating in Twitch Drops throughout the season to support the streaming community and win more fun cosmetics. In March, players may look forward to the returning PachiMarchi event, which will be announced later this month.
Loverwatch Dating Sim (Feb. 13-28) and Ultimate Valentine's Event (Feb. 14-28):
This year's Ultimate Valentine event will kick off on Valentine's Day with a Hanzo 4v4 Limited Time Mode and Support-themed challenges that can earn you two earnable epic skins, among other rewards. Don't miss out on the Loverwatch dating simulator, which launches on February 13!
Loverwatch is a non-canon text-based dating game that allows players to choose between two possible dating paths: Mercy or Genji. Players will be presented with dialogue options to interact with that hero, and will be assisted by Cupid, who looks suspiciously like Hanzo. Unlock the secret ending, and you'll earn a POTG Highlight!
Loverwatch will be available on a web client only when it is live. The game will be available until February 28 in Korean, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, and English. The whole playthrough lasts approximately 30 minutes.
Collaboration on One-Punch Man (March 7 – April 6):
Every single day! Blizzard is collaborating with Overwatch 2 on its first-ever major IP collaboration to bring One-Punch Man skins and cosmetics to the game this season! One item is a Legendary skin that's earnable through themed challenges.
PachiMarchi is back in stores on March 21 and April 4, with a new set of songs.
PachiMarchi is back with a new limited-time Kill Confirmed game mode and a ton of rewards, including an epic skin, six PachiMarchi player icons, and a name card! Complete themed challenges to earn an Epic Pachimari Roadhog skin before the event ends on April 4.
Changes in Life: Balance, Matchmaking, and Quality of Life
The complete patch notes for Season Three will be released later today. Players can watch an in-depth discussion of the Hero balance changes that will be implemented later this week on the Overwatch 2 Twitch at 12:00 P.M. PT.
- The health totals for all tanks will be lower when playing any game mode that does not have a role queue to address the relative power of those heroes in game modes where there can be multiple of the same hero on the same team. Health totals will remain the same for tanks when playing any Role Queue enabled game.
- Maximum ultimate charge retained when swapping heroes is reduced from 30 to 25%.
- Mercy is receiving nerfs, and most supports have received minor balance changes.
- Damaging enemies with Rammatra’s ultimate now slows the duration timer down instead of pausing it entirely.
According to a recent blog, a variety of quality-of-life improvements have been made to matchmaking and competitiveness.
- The matchmaker will be updated so that roles on both teams will be similarly ranked. For example, mirroring tanks should more often have similar ranks than before, and likewise, for each respective role.
- Your competitive rank will update with every 5 wins and 15 losses.
- In the mid-season patch for season three, the UI will be updated so information about your progress towards a competitive update will always be viewable.
- Also, beginning with the mid-season patch, Top 500 Leaderboard players will see their Top 500 leaderboard rank updated after every match rather than every 5 wins and 15 losses.
Blizzard will remove rank resets and rank decay in Season 4, causing concern among some players.
Overwatch World Cup Celebration: What Happened?
The start is announced, and the competition committee selection process for Overwatch World Cup is now underway. Follow Overwatch and Path to Pro on Twitter for live updates as the final committee and player rosters are revealed through these channels. Check out the new web experience for more information about upcoming World Cup trials, the Wild Card Challenge, and the season three Leaderboard Challenges!
Workshop Returning & Moderation Tools:
Season three will bring back advanced workshop tools for custom game creators to use. In doing so, the aim is to ensure that custom games remain safe and enjoyable for all players. As such, a new moderation technology is being introduced that will automatically remove custom games that have inappropriate titles or content, as well as issuing restrictions or actioning accounts of those who create and post them.
Improvements to Streamer Mode and Accessibility
Starting in season three, Streamer Protection will be available to all players in the Settings menu. Streamer Protection can hide your Battletag and the Battletags of everyone in your matches, your chat, your replay codes, and the amount of time you have been in queue.
A number of accessibility improvements have also been included to the Settings menu, as shown below.
- Improved Subtitles Options to allow for text scalability, character portrait icons, speaker name, text color changes, background color changes, and subtitle preview.
- Added the ability to change the mouse cursor size on PC.
- Added a setting to select custom colors for Group and Alerts in the UI, which can be previewed before saving for easier setup.
In the comments below, tell us what you think of Overwatch 2 Season 3's new content and balance changes. Congratulations on your journey to victory!
