Summary
Overwatch 2’s Season 12, New Frontiers, looks to take players on a trip among the stars. With the introduction of the game’s newest shining support hero,the space Martian Juno, and a battle pass filled with ancient Egyptian elegance and cosmic wonders, there’s plenty of interstellar excitement to be found. The Mythic Anubis Reaper Hero Skin and the Mythic Midnight Sun Ana Weapon Skin also add exciting new exclusive skins to work towards with battlepass levels.
That’s not all though. The new season throws players into anew and fast-paced game mode Clash, and two thrilling new maps based on fan-favorites from the originalOverwatch. With so much to do and see, let’s take a look at the most exciting changes in Season 12.
1New Character: Juno
The New Space Martian Support
Landing on Earth, the new Martian Support hero Juno crashes intoOverwatch 2with an assortment of incredible new abilitiesset to shake up the meta for good. With her burst weapon, Juno delivers justice in the form of punishing blows to enemies and rapid-fire healing for teammates. That’s only the start of her epic kit. Her secondary fire locks on to allies to heal, and directs homing missiles towards those that get in her way.
A double-jump and glide make her feel slightly akin to Kiriko and Mercy with fluid, agile movement. She also with the added bonus of a temporary Lucio-esque speed boost through her Hyper Ring, which allies can make use of too. It’s all neatly topped off by an ultimate destined for destruction, hailing from the skies with a gigantic healing and damage boosting ray for a devastating push forwards.
2Battlepass
Epic New Skins & Emotes To Unlock
With another new season comes yet another epic Battlepass, this time centered around the themes of ancient treasures and cosmic delights. Through 80 tiers of rewards, players can unlock five stunning and unique legendary skins, all delivering on something different in their appearances.
There’s a Wizard Of Oz-inspired Dorothy Ashe skin; a formally dressed Captain Sigma; a gold-ladened Bast Doomfist; a Japanese-folklore-inspired Oni Ana; and a blue-skinned Thoth Illari. This may be the most impressive battlepass yet. The Ultimate Battle Pass also adds a rich purple Heist D.Va skin and gold-plated Aset Echo Legendary skin. Of course, other emotes, stickers, mythic prisms and more can also be earned as players progress, giving an incentive to grind.
3Reaper Mythic Skin
Devastate With The Dark New Skin
The star of this new Battlepass and Season 12 is the Mythic Anubis Reaper skin, displayed in theSeason 12 trailerwith multiple color schemes and a carefully detailed design. The options are a destructive dark red and black, ominous blue and gray, haunting blue and white, and a traditional green and red. Reaper delivers on some of the coolest color combinations that have been seen so far.
The other customizable choices make the skin stand out even more, switching up the masks he dons with an Anubis wolf mask, a long pointed snout, a small half-face wolf mask, and an open-skull revealing his decrepit skin underneath. Even his ultimate looks different, smothering enemies in a sandstorm-like haze that replaces his usual black mist.
4Mythic Ana Weapon Skin
The Second Ever Mythic Weapon
The first-everMythic Weapon skin was added for Reinhardtin Season 11, giving his main weapon three levels of effects. Season 12 now introduces the second installment of a Mythic Weapon for the support hero Ana. It seems that Blizzard wants to offer fans variety each Season between a unique weapon or character skin.
While yet to tease any visuals of the appearance of the weapon, the title of the weapon being Mythic Midnight Sun gives fans a clue to what to expect. Perhaps it will lean into the dark and gold tones of the Anubis-based stylings of this season’s battlepass. As the perfect add-on to her previously released Mythic Skin, Ana will be the first character that can wield both a customizable character skin and weapon at once.
5New Game Mode: Clash
Get Into The Action With Fast-Paced Fun
The new game mode Clash is set to redefine how everyone playsOverwatch 2, delivering a quicker-paced style of play than ever before. Teams compete in a ruthless fight to win over capture points, which players ofOverwatch’s previous Assault mode may find familiar.
With dynamic spawns close to the action and easy to navigate map routes, this new flavorsome mode is designed for players to spend their time in the fights, rather than walking back to objectives. Allowing for new strategies, team comps and high-level plays, Clash is set to be the next exciting thing forOverwatch 2.
6New Maps: Throne of Anubis and Hanaoka
Redesigns of Fan-Favorite Maps For Clash
Along with the new Clash game mode,Overwatch 2is also bringing in two new maps to explore. These take players on a nostalgic journey with much-loved reworks of the Assault maps, Temple of Anubis and Hanamura.
The Throne of Anubis shows a different side to the original Temple of Anubis, going inside the all-important throne room. Story elements are present too, allowing players to discover the dangerous AI that caused the Omnic Crisis, sealed away in the Throne. New discoveries also await players in Hanaoka amid the beloved pink cherry blossom trees of Hanamura, as players learn of the secrets of Shimada Castle.
7Balance Changes
Buffs and Nerfs Across the Board
Shaking up Season 12 with some changes across all characters, it’s safe to say that there will be plenty of newfound meta team comps along the way. Mobile heroes currently dominate. Characters like Soldier with his ease and speed, or Lucio with his speed boost and dynamic plays, have been seen a lot.
While the specifics of the upcoming patch notes and changes are unknown, it has been noted that the team are doing a pass across the board to reduce the health of multiple damage and support heroes. This should the likelihood that these characters will remain on top so much.
8Lifeweaver Changes
A New Way To Play Is Coming
Since Lifeweaver’s launch, the support character has gone through multiple tweaks and changes. His Life Grip offers temporary invulnerability while pulling players out from awkward locations, and his Petal Platform gives teams verticality and safety for ults. It’s clear there’s a lot ofgreatness to workwith, though he still ultimately needs a switch-up.
While there are few details on the exact changes being made, Lifeweaver is definitely getting a notable update to improve the quality of his Petal Platform, as well as working on how it can be played against and countered. New changes to his main Healing Blossom and Rejuvenating Dash are also set to be implemented.
9Returning Arcade Gamemodes
Mirrorwatch, April Fools, And More
Keeping gamers busy with new ways to play, theOverwatch 2team have announced they’ll be bringing back some of the fan favorite game modes of the last few years. By getting to re-experience the thrills of the April Fool’s mayhem with alternate silly voicelines, googly-eyed characters, and wacky changes to characters like shrunk characters, mega knockback and switched controls, players can enjoy a slice of this hilarity for more than just a few weeks.
Also returning is the much-loved (and non-canon) Mirrorwatch, a mirrored take on theOverwatchuniverse where the Talon baddies swap over to the good side and vice versa. With 5v5 role queue, players can choose from a handful of characters, like Mercy with her powerful rocket launcher, or Doomfist with a Reinhardt-like shield. These quirky new abilities almost feel like entire character re-works, which will breathe a breath of fresh air.
10New Hero Mastery
Get Good at Pharah and Zarya
While sometimes overlooked, the PvE based game mode Hero Mastery has added a lot ofunexpected fun toOverwatch 2. This mode creates dedicated timed levels where new and returning gamers can learn how to play each hero individually. Plenty take it upon themselves to beat these stages with the highest scores and best times, making it a speedrun-esque challenge in the community.
With new levels introduced for characters Pharah and Zarya, players can learn how to master the sometimes tricky flight and missiles of the aerial mastermind Pharah, or perfect the technical skills of Zarya’s bubbles. With the incentive to learn as players gain star rankings per stage, it’s easy to want to play just one more to get it right.
