Overwatch 2: Invasion is out now August 10th on all platforms including, for the first time, Steam. Invasion brings in Story Missions, new Support Hero, new game mode Flashpoint, and more. Here’s everything you need to know about the Invasion season update in Overwatch 2.
New Support Hero: Illari
Illari is the 10th Support Hero to be added to Overwatch 2. Illari gets her power from the sun, and her kit revolves around solar powered attacks and healing. Here’s how she plays:
- Primary – Solar Rifle: Illari uses a long range auto-charging rifle | Secondary Fire: A medium range healing beam that consumes solar energy.
- Ultimate – Captive Sun: Illari shoots a fire ball of solar energy that slows hit enemies and explodes them after taking significant damage. (Similar to how the Needler works in Halo)
- Tactical – Healing Pylon: Drops a pylon that heals allies (it can last however long as long as it is not shot down).
- Shift – Outburst: Launches Illari in the direction she’s moving and knocks back enemies while giving her a slight health boost. Holding the ability will cause her to jump higher.
Story Missions
Story Missions on Invasion take place in three maps: Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, and Gothenburg. Your mission is to fight back against Null Sector, a rogue Omnic group that invaded Paris at the start of their global takeover. Chronologically, this Story Mission takes place after Winston’s Recall short when he put out a call for help to band together Overwatch. So Lucio hasn’t even met Reinhardt yet and this story will follow how these heroes met each other and what happened before the invasion happened.
Each mission will take about a half hour or forty minutes depending on difficulty level and player coordination (we all have that one friend who can’t seem to stick together). I was lucky enough to have played the previous Rio de Janeiro Story Mission at Blizzcon 2019 when the original demo for that mission was available.
There have been some updates since that build but it was honestly hard to point out all of the changes since it had been so long. The two noticeable changes are that you’re allowed hero choices now and AI improvements have been made for your PvE team when you load in and are missing a player and a bot takes their place.
In order to access story missions you have to purchase the Overwatch 2: Invasion Bundle for $15. This grants you access to the story missions during the season and permanently after, 1000 Overwatch Coins (which is how much the Premium Battle Pass costs), new Sojourn Legendary skin, and permanent access to Sojourn as a playable hero for new players after completing Story Mission Challenges.
New Limited Time Event: King’s Row – Underworld
Underworld is a new co-op event that is free to play for everyone. Players will be going to King’s Row to stop Null Sector from completetly taking over the Omnic Underworld by reactivating a combat bot to help omnics escape.
The Null Sector force will be more challenging this time around in Underworld and a new support bot will be healing the big boss OR-14 attack bot you’re facing off against. There will be new challenges added to Underworld throughout the limited time it’s available. Underworld will only be availabe from August 10th to September 5th.
New Game Mode: Flashpoint
Flashpoint is the new core game mode added to Quickplay and Competitive this season. In this mode, two teams of five will face off and have to secure rotating capture points called Flashpoints. The first to three capture points will win the game. There will be five different Flashpoints randomly activated throughout the map.
The two maps available for Flashpoint are Suravasa and New Junk City. These matches are a bit quicker than Control since the capture speed is 50 seconds faster in Flashpoint. The Control capture time is 120 seconds and Flashpoint capture time is 70 seconds.
These matches should take about 8-15 minutes to complete and will be coming to Competitive queues after a few weeks of launch and balancing.
Gameplay Changes
With the new season launch, there’s a new way to warm up and practice with a new Hero Mastery mode. Hero Mastery consists of training courses that are specially designed for testing your abilities with each hero. These Hero Mastery missions will be free and have global leaderboards if you want to compete for the top spot for specific heroes.
Hero Mastery Mode will launch later into this season but you can access a brand now Practice Range right away. The Practice Range has an updated way of testing your aim and warming up with more dynamic bots, shielded bots, and customizable settings on the bots you’re testing aim and skills with.
There will also be a Hero Progression system that tracks the way you play individual heroes through different categories and level up. So players are going to be assessed for their skill in using each hero’s abilities and factors like damage done, damage mitigated, and healing done will all factor in depending on the hero’s abilities.
As you move up the levels for any heroes, you’ll earn different emblems for each of the heroes you play with for this new progression system. Progression will also be available to view on your player profile with each hero you play.
There is also a new Weekly Challenge called Making Progress that earns you 8 Progression Levels instead of additional Battle Pass XP. This challenge will reward 150 Overwatch Credits to buy items from the Hero Gallery. Overwatch: Invasion is out now for all platforms, including Steam.
Stella is a Video Producer, Host, and Editor at IGN. Her gameplay focus is on competitive FPS games and she’s previously reviewed Apex Legends, Hyper Scape, Halo Infinite Multiplayer, and Battlefield 2042. She regularly hosts and shoutcasts competitive Apex Legends and Halo Infinite tournaments when she isn’t streaming on her Twitch channel after work outs. You can follow her on Twitter @ParallaxStella.
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