Overwatch 2 is the sequel to the popular team-based shooter game Overwatch. It features a diverse cast of heroes with different abilities and roles. In this article, you will learn about the Overwatch 2 characters, including:
- The new characters that join the roster
- The returning characters that come back from Overwatch
- The changed characters that have new or modified abilities
New Characters in Overwatch 2
Overwatch 2 introduces six new characters to the game. They are:
| Name | Role | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Illari | Support | A mysterious hero who can manipulate time and space with portals, slow motion, and rewind |
| Cassidy | Damage | A gunslinger who can shoot revolvers, fan the hammer or use a lasso to pull or escape |
| Kiriko | Damage | A ninja who can throw shurikens, dash, turn invisible, or summon a shadow clone that explodes |
| Lifeweaver | Support | A scientist who can fire needles that heal or damage, deploy a healing drone, or unleash a swarm of nanobots |
| Ramattra | Tank | A warrior who can swing a mace, throw a shield, charge, or activate runes that grant different effects |
| Sojourn | Damage | A former Overwatch agent who can fire a railgun, slide, launch herself into the air, or activate an overclock mode |
Returning Characters in Overwatch 2
Overwatch 2 also brings back 21 of the original characters from Overwatch. They are:
| Name | Role | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Ana | Support | A veteran sniper who can heal or harm with her biotic rifle, grenade, dart, or nano boost |
| Bastion | Damage | A robot that can switch between recon and sentry modes, self-repair, or launch a remote-controlled mine |
| D.Va | Tank | A former pro gamer who pilots a mech with fusion cannons, boosters, defense matrix, or self-destruct |
| Echo | Damage | An advanced AI who can mimic the abilities of other heroes with her sticky bombs, glide, focusing beam, or duplicate |
| Genji | Damage | A cyborg ninja who can throw shurikens, dash, deflect, or unleash his dragon blade |
| Hanzo | Damage | A master archer who can fire arrows or storm arrows, leap, or summon spirit dragons |
| Junkrat | Damage | A demolitionist who can fire grenades, concussion mines, steel traps, or rip tires |
| Lucio | Support | A DJ who can switch between healing and speed songs, amp them up, fire sonic projectiles, boop enemies away, ride on walls, or drop the beat |
| McCree | Damage | A cowboy who can fire a revolver or fan the hammer, throw a flashbang, roll, or activate his deadeye |
| Mei | Damage | A climatologist who can freeze enemies with her endothermic blaster or frostbite ability, shoot icicles, create ice walls, or cryo-freeze herself |
| Mercy | Support | A medic who can fly towards an ally or an enemy with her guardian angel ability, heal or boost damage with her caduceus staff or blaster, resurrect allies, or activate her Valkyrie |
| Moira | Support | A geneticist who can heal or harm with her biotic orbs and grasp abilities, fade into the shadows or unleash her coalescence beam |
| Orisa | Tank | A robot who can fire a fusion driver, deploy a protective barrier, launch a halt orb, fortify herself, or activate her supercharger device |
| Pharah | Damage | A soldier who can fire rockets, fly or hover with her jetpack, fire a concussive blast, or launch a barrage of rockets |
| Reaper | Damage | A mercenary who can fire shotguns, wraith form, shadow step, or unleash his death blossom |
| Reinhardt | Tank | A knight who can swing a rocket hammer, fire a fire strike, deploy a barrier field, charge, or activate his earthshattering shockwave |
| Roadhog | Tank | A criminal who can fire a scrap gun, throw a hook, use his take-a-breather ability, or unleash his whole hog stream of shrapnel |
| Sigma | Tank | A scientist who can fire hyperspheres, use his kinetic grasp ability to absorb projectiles and gain shields, deploy an experimental barrier, use his accretion ability to hurl debris or activate his gravitic flux ability to lift and slam enemies |
| Sombra | Damage | A hacker who can turn invisible, use her translocator device to teleport, hack enemies or health packs, or activate her EMP blast that hacks all enemies and destroys all barriers and shields within its range |
| Symmetra | Damage | An architect who can fire a photon projector that fires energy balls or beams place sentry turrets that fire lasers, place a teleporter device that allows instant travel, or use her photon barrier that blocks incoming damage |
| Torbjorn | Damage | An engineer who can fire a rivet gun that fires rivets or molten metal, build or upgrade a turret that fires at enemies, throw an armor pack that grants armor, or activate the molten core ability that increases his fire rate and damage and allows him to fire globs of molten metal |
| Tracer | Damage | A pilot who can fire pulse pistols, blink, recall, or stick a pulse bomb |
| Widowmaker | Damage | A sniper who can fire a widow’s kiss rifle or sniper, use her grappling hook to swing to a location, use her venom mine that releases poison gas, or activate her infra-sight ability that allows her and her allies to see enemies through walls |
| Winston | Tank | A gorilla who can fire a tesla cannon that hits multiple enemies, use his jump pack to leap and land with a shockwave, deploy a barrier projector that blocks incoming damage, or activate the primal rage ability that increases his health, damage, and jump pack cooldown and allows him to knock enemies away |
| Wrecking Ball | Tank | A hamster who pilots a mech with quad cannons and grappling claws switches between roll and mech modes and uses the adaptive shield ability that grants him shields based on the number of nearby enemies or activates the minefield ability that scatters proximity mines around him |
| Zarya | Tank | A soldier who can fire a particle cannon that fires a beam or an explosive charge, project a barrier on herself or an ally that absorbs damage and increases her energy level, or activate her graviton surge ability that pulls enemies towards it and deals damage over time |
| Zenyatta | Support | A monk who can place an orb of harmony on an ally that heals them over time or an orb of discord on an enemy that increases the damage they take from all sources, fire orbs of destruction that deal damage at long range or charge them up for a rapid volley of orbs, or activate his transcendence ability that grants him increased movement speed and damage output as well as healing himself and his allies in a large radius around him |
Changed Characters in Overwatch 2
Some of the Overwatch 2 characters have more significant changes than others. They are:
- Brigitte: She is now a tank hero instead of a support hero. She can deploy two repair packs at once instead of one. Her barrier shield covers more area but has less health. Her rally grants armor instead of speed.
- Junkrat: He now has a passive ability called Scrap Collector, which allows him to collect scrap from fallen enemies and use it to upgrade his abilities. He can upgrade his frag launcher, concussion mine, steel trap, or rip-tire. He can also use his ultimate to switch between his normal mode and his upgraded mode.
- Mei: She now has a new ability called Frostbite, which allows her to freeze herself and an enemy in a block of ice, dealing damage over time and preventing them from escaping. Her endothermic blaster has a longer range and a faster freeze rate, but a lower damage output.
- Mercy: She now has a new ability called Guardian Angel, which allows her to fly towards an ally or an enemy, healing or damaging them respectively. Her resurrect has a longer cooldown and requires line of sight, but can be used on multiple allies at once. Her Valkyrie grants her unlimited ammo and increased fire rate for her blaster, as well as increased healing and damage boost for her staff.
- Reinhardt: He now has two charges for his barrier field, allowing him to deploy two barriers at once or switch between them. His earthshatter creates a shockwave that travels along the ground and walls, stunning enemies in its path. His rocket hammer has a secondary fire that allows him to swing it in a wide arc, hitting multiple enemies in front of him.
- Soldier: 76: He now has a new ability called Tactical Visor, which allows him to lock onto an enemy and fire his pulse rifle with perfect accuracy for a short time. His helix rockets have a shorter cooldown and deal more damage, but have a smaller blast radius. His pulse rifle has a higher fire rate and magazine size, but a lower damage output.
- Zenyatta: He now has a new ability called Harmony Orb, which allows him to place an orb on an ally, healing them over time. His transcendence grants him increased movement speed and damage output, as well as healing himself and his allies.
Conclusion
Overwatch 2 is an exciting game that will introduce new characters, bring back old ones, and change some of them in interesting ways. The game will also feature new modes, maps, missions, stories, and more. Overwatch 2 is expected to be released in late 2023 or early 2024. Until then, fans can look forward to more updates and reveals from the developers.
