Overwatch 2 Season 6 patch notes: Release date, new Support Hero, Story Missions, Flashpoint, more

The Overwatch 2 Season 6 update brings a huge wave of new content. Here’s a comprehensive overview of what players can expect from Overwatch 2 Season 6, including the new Invasion mode, the new Support Hero, and the full patch notes.

The long-awaited Overwatch 2 Season 6 is finally here and has introduced not only a new Support Hero, but a couple of new game modes, maps, and more.

The Overwatch 2 devs have been very vocal when it comes to communicating with the player base and providing updates surrounding new content. While the announcement that Overwatch 2’s PvE Story Mode has officially been scrapped certainly resulted in major disappointment, there is a lot to look forward to in Season 6. Here’s everything about Overwatch 2 Season 6, Invasion update:

• Overwatch 2 Season 6 release date
• Overwatch 2 new Support Hero Illari Season 6
• Overwatch 2 Season 6 Hero balance changes
• Overwatch 2 Season 6 Flashpoint mode & new maps
• Story Missions announced for Overwatch 2 Season 6
• Overwatch 2 Season 6 Patch notes
• Overwatch 2 Season 6 Bug fixes

Overwatch 2 Season 6 release date

Overwatch 2 Season 6 officially arrived on Thursday, August 10, 2023. This means that the Season 5 Battle Pass has expired and there is a new track full of rewards for players to work through.

#Overwatch2: A Look Ahead ✨

Join us as we share more details about everything we have planned for 2023, including new events, PvE, new Heroes, new maps, & more.

👀 https://t.co/FEyTC2p7eL pic.twitter.com/lGd1uABbfN

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) May 16, 2023

Overwatch 2 new Support Hero Illari in Season 6

With the roadmap Blizzard tweeted out on May 16, 2023, it revealed that Overwatch 2 Season 6 will be bringing a new Support Hero to the game after Season 4 brought Lifeweaver. This new character is called Illari, and was officially revealed via Overwatch 2’s Invasion launch trailer.

Here are Illari’s confirmed abilities in Overwatch 2:

• Solar Rifle (Primary Fire): Long-range auto-charging rifle.
• Solar Rifle (Secondary Fire): Medium-range healing beam that consumes solar energy.
• Outburst (Ability 1): Launches you in the direction you are moving, knocking back enemies. Hold jump to go higher.
• Healing Pylon (Ability 2): Deploy a pylon that heals allies.
• Captive Sun (Ultimate): Fire an explosive ball of solar energy. Enemies hit are slowed and explode after taking significant damage

Introducing Illari ☀️

Light up the battlefield as the newest Support Hero in #Overwatch2: Invasion, NOW LIVE ✨ pic.twitter.com/bHZA7L9xSZ

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) August 10, 2023

Overwatch 2 Season 6 Hero balance changes

Just like in every update, it is expected in Overwatch 2 Season 6 that the development team will make certain adjustments to both the Heroes that have been prominent in the meta for a while and those that are less frequently chosen.

Check out the list of Hero changes that the devs implemented in Season 6 of Overwatch 2:

• Armor health damage reduction is now additive with other sources of damage reduction and has a maximum cap of 50%. Developer Comments: Armor damage reduction was multiplicative with damage reduction from abilities, creating situations where certain heroes were much more difficult to damage than intended, since they were bypassing the damage reduction cap. This change will smooth out some of the extreme spikes in survivability.

TANK

• D.VA Developer Comments: Once D.Va’s mech was destroyed, there was a window of time where the pilot could be damaged or killed before the player fully had control over their character. With this change, D.Va can no longer be damaged by things like explosions or melee attacks before the player fully transitions control from the mech to the pilot.
  • Boosters: Cooldown reduced from 4 to 3.5 seconds.
  • Eject Mech: Pilot is now damage immune for 0.4 seconds while ejecting.
    
• DOOMFIST Developer Comments: Doomfist is performing well overall but tends to have more deaths on average compared to other Tank heroes. Lowering the Seismic Slam cooldown will reduce downtime in his ability rotations and translate into more survivability due to the increased mobility and potential for generating overhealth more often with his passive ability. Additionally, Power Block will now always reduce explosive damage from a projectile stuck directly to Doomfist, even though normally you have to face the direction of the incoming damage to block it.
  • Seismic Slam: Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds.
  • Power Block: Now reduces damage from stuck projectiles.
    
• RAMATTRA Developer Comments: Similar to Doomfist’s Power Block change, Ramattra’s Block ability will now always apply damage reduction to projectiles stuck directly to him. His Annihilation ultimate ability was being generated slightly too quickly for how impactful it can be, so we are increasing its ultimate cost.
  
  • Block (Nemesis Form):Block now reduces damage from stuck projectiles.
  • Annihilation: Ultimate cost increased 12%. Block now reduces damage from stuck projectiles.
    
• SIGMA Developer Comments: Sigma has always had somewhat floatier movement controls than most heroes in order to match his character movement animations. However, this led players to feel like his Tank role passive ability wasn’t reducing the amount he would be knocked back since it took him longer to stop than other tanks. We’ve now adjusted this to the standard hero movement values to make the gameplay interactions feel more consistent.
  • Base movement ground deceleration increased to match standard heroes movement.
    
• WINSTON Developer Comments: Winston’s Tesla Cannon ranged attack had a decently long charge time relative to the damage it deals. These adjustments will make it more responsive to charge and fire, which can be useful for situations such as finishing off low health enemies attempting to flee, or poking at enemies before leaping in. This comes at the cost of taking a longer time to recover after firing, which in some cases will be weaker as a burst-damage combo with Jump Pack and primary fire.
  • Tesla Cannon: Secondary fire charge time reduced from 1.2 to 1 second. Secondary fire recovery time increased from 0.5 to 0.75 seconds.
    

DPS

• BASTION Developer Comments: There are several small tuning adjustments to Bastion here with the goal of improving overall effectiveness, as Bastion’s weakness of being a large and immobile target has proven tough to overcome, even with such powerful damage potential.
  • A-36 Tactical Grenade: Maximum explosion damage falloff reduced from 70% to 50%. Detonation time reduced from 0.5 to 0.35 seconds. Recoil adjusted to recover more quickly. Projectile size increased from 0.2 to 0.25. Impact damage increased from 15 to 30.
  • Configuration: Recon. Reload time reduced from 1.5 to 1.2 seconds.
  • Configuration: Assault. Transforming into Configuration Assault now repairs 50 armor health.
  • Configuration: Artillery. Targeting state movement speed increased from 20 to 25 meters per second.
    
• CASSIDY Developer Comments: Even with the powerful and reworked Magnetic Grenade, Cassidy has still been underperforming, so we are reverting his maximum health back up to 225, having his gun damage falloff reach its full reduction sooner, and restricting the maximum range on magnetic grenade to help solidify his position as a close-to-mid range damage dealer.
  • Base health increased from 200 to 225.
  • Peacekeeper: Peacekeeper damage falloff range rescaled from 25-45 meters to 25-35 meters.
  • Magentic Grenade: Projectile now has a maximum travel time of 1.5 seconds. Slow amount reduced from 30 to 25%.
    
• HANZO Developer Comments: Despite being conceptually strange, this gameplay mechanic felt good and fluid to use as Hanzo. However, it often resulted in some frustrating behavior for enemy players that can be alleviated without impacting Hanzo’s overall effectiveness too significantly.
  • Storm Bow: Arrow draw progress is no longer preserved while wall climbing.
    
• SOLDIER: 76 Developer Comments: Soldier: 76 became much more deadly after his last round of changes so we are reverting the Helix Rocket explosion damage to lower his burst damage. We are also increasing his Tactical Visor ultimate cost to help account for his overall increased damage output, both during the ultimate and leading up to it.
  • Helix Rocket: Explosion damage reduced from 90 to 80.
  • Tactical Visor: Ultimate cost increased 10%.
    
• SOMBRA Developer Comments: EMP frequency is a little too high given its relative power so we are increasing its cost. It will now also deal the usual percentage of max health damage to Lifeweaver’s Tree of Life ultimate instead of treating it like a barrier and destroying it instantly.
  • EMP: Ultimate cost increased 15%. No longer destroys Lifeweaver’s Tree of Life.
    
• TORBJÖRN Developer Comments: We are continuing to add power into the Rivet Gun, as the previous changes didn’t quite make up for the turret damage decrease. In addition, we are also improving the Forge Hammer swing speed so that it is more effective to repair a turret while it is under fire.
  • Weapon swap time reduced from 0.5 to 0.4 seconds.
  • Rivet Gun: Primary fire recovery time reduced from 0.55 to 0.48 seconds.
  • Forge Hammer: Swing recovery time reduced from 0.75 to 0.6 seconds.
    

Support

• ANA Developer Comment: Ana’s damage breakpoint change has proven too effective overall given her long range so we are reverting it back to its previous value. We are also increasing the size of unscoped projectiles when firing at enemies (her projectiles have always had a larger size for allies) which should help them land more consistently against close-ranged threats.
  • Biotic Rifle: Damage and healing per projectile reduced from 75 to 70. Unscoped projectile size increased from 0 to 0.1.
    
• BRIGITTE Developer Comment: Brigitte’s overall effectiveness and survivability have been high relative to other heroes, so we are reducing the Barrier Shield health. We’re also slightly adjusting the ultimate cost of Rally, as it has become more effective after its rework.
  • Barrier Shield: Barrier Shield health reduced from 300 to 250.
  • Rally: Ultimate cost increased 6%.
    
• KIRIKO Developer Comment: Protection Suzu now rewards more deliberate usage by increasing its healing when cleansing negative effects. It will no longer knockback enemies, as it wasn’t particularly important to its overall design and was there to provide feedback for the impact. These Kunai changes will make the weapon damage output more consistent and reduce some of the disparity between landing critical hits or not.
  • Protection Suzu: Knockback removed. Healing reduced from 50 to 40. Now heals for an additional 30 health when cleansing a negative effect.
  • Kunai: Damage increased from 40 to 45. Recovery time reduced from 0.55 to 0.5 seconds.
    Critical damage multiplier reduced from 3 to 2.5x.
    
• LIFEWEAVER Developer Comments: The Tree of Life outputs substantial healing but often doesn’t provide enough value for an ultimate ability. To increase its utility, any overhealing done via the Tree is now converted to overhealth. Thorn Volley’s spread is now less random, with half the projectiles having a smaller base spread to promote better mid-range consistency. Life Grip now has a longer mobility lockout duration to prevent accidental cancels by the affected ally using a movement ability immediately after the pull being started. Finally, we are supplementing Lifeweaver’s survivability with an increase to his overall health pool by converting some of it to shield health in order to account for the large petal hit volume on his back, as well as increasing the healing done by Rejuvenating Dash.
  • Base health reduced from 200 to 175. Base shield health increased from 0 to 50.
  • Thorn Valley: Reduced spread for one of the two Thorn Volley projectiles fired per shot by 25%.
  • Rejuvenating Dash: Healing increased from 25 to 50.
  • Life Grip: Mobility lockout duration increased from 0.45 to 0.75 seconds.
  • Tree of Life: 50% of Tree of Life’s overhealing is now converted into Overhealth – up to 100 maximum Overhealth.
    
• LÚCIO Developer Comment: In order to help bring Lucio’s survivability more in line with the rest of the Support heroes, Crossfade self-healing during Amp It Up is now a more effective survival option for Lucio.
  • Crossfade: Secondary fire damage boost reduced from 30 to 25%.
    
• MERCY Developer Comment: Damage amplification effects have been an often discussed topic lately, and Mercy has been performing strongly at all skill ranks. We’re reducing the potency of Mercy’s damage boost beam but want to make sure it stays powerful enough to feel like an effective and interesting gameplay choice, as making the decision between healing or damage boosting is core to Mercy’s gameplay.
  • Caduceus Staff: Secondary fire damage boost reduced from 30 to 25%.

CO-OP MODE HERO UPDATES

With the introduction of Overwatch 2: Invasion Story Missions, there’s specific hero balance changes for multiple heroes to ensure players have a continuous challenge when playing in co-op modes like Story Missions and Event Missions.

• Heroes no longer passively gain ultimate charge over time.
• Ultimate costs increased in co-op game modes.

TANK

WINSTON

• Tesla Cannon. Secondary fire now chains up to 4 additional nearby enemies, dealing depreciating damage each chain.
• Jump Pack: Landing damage now increases while in the air, up to 250% more damage over 2.5 seconds.

ZARYA:

• Particle Barrier: Particle Barrier duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.
• Projected Barrier: Projected Barrier duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.
• Graviton Surge: Damage per second increased from 5 to 30 for 105 damage total.
• Energy (Passive): Energy degeneration rate reduced from 2 to 1.5 energy per second.
  

DAMAGE

CASSIDY

• Deadeye: Initial charge rate increased from 130 to 325 damage per second. Ramped charge rate increased from 260 to 650 damager per second.Now has a maximum damage cap of 1560 per target.

ECHO

• Focusing Beam: Damage per second increased from 50 to 85.
• Duplicate: Echo can duplicate her allies in Co-op modes. Duration increased from 15 to 20 seconds.
  Ultimate charge rate multiplier during Duplicate increased from 4x to 9x.

GENJI

• Shuriken: Damage increased from 27 to 29.
• Deflect: Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.
• Dragonblade: Duration increased from 6 to 8 seconds.

MEI

• Endothermic Blaster: Primary fire damage per second increased from 55 to 100.

PHARAH

• Hover: Jets and Jump Jet now increases movement speed by 30%.
• Concussive Blast: Explosion damage increased from 0 to 30.
• Barrage: Explosion damage increased from 30 to 35.
• Hover Jets (Passive): Maximum fuel increased 20%.

TORBJÖRN

• Deploy Turret: Turret damage increased from 11 to 15.

TRACER

• Pulse Pistols: Ammo increased from 40 to 60. Damage reduced from 5.5 to 5.
• Pulse Bomb: Explosion damage increased from 350 to 550.

SUPPORT

BRIGITTE

• Shield Bash: Damage increased from 50 to 60.
• Rally: Duration increased from 10 to 15 seconds. Rally does not increase Barrier Shield size in Story Missions.
• Inspire (Passive): Healing total reduced from 75 to 55.

LÚCIO

• Soundwave: Cooldown reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
• Crossfade: Speed Boost now also increases attack speed by 20%

Overwatch 2 Season 6 Flashpoint mode & new maps

Overwatch 2 Season 6 has brought a new core mode called Flashpoint. It is set to be similar to Assault from the original game, only this time teams will compete to capture different points around the map one after another.

Once a Flashpoint has been captured, a new one will appear elsewhere. The first team to secure three will win the match.

Overwatch 2 Flashpoint is set to arrive with two new large maps, one of which, is called Suravasa (inspired by India), and the other one is called New Junk City, which is hardly inspired by Australia

Set your sights on Suravasa 🤩

The all-new Flashpoint map launches Aug 10 with #Overwatch2: Invasion ✨ pic.twitter.com/T2jWvlYn1n

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) July 27, 2023

Here’s the list of Lighting changes for Overwatch Season 6:

Push

• New Queen Street – Dawn
• Colosseo – Morning
• Esperança – Morning

Hybrid

• Blizzard World – Night (New)
• Eichenwalde – Morning
• Hollywood – Night
• King’s Row — Night
• Midtown — Morning
• Numbani — Morning
• Paraíso — Evening (New)

Escort

• Dorado — Evening
• Havana – Morning
• Watchpoint: Gibraltar — Morning
• Junkertown — Morning
• Circuit royal – Morning
• Rialto – Evening
• Route 66 — Morning
• Shambali Monastery — Night

Control

• Antarctic Peninsula – Night
• Busan – Morning
• Ilios — Evening
• Lijiang Tower — Dawn
• Nepal — Morning
• Oasis — Morning

Flashpoint

• New Junk City — Morning (New Map)
• Suravasa — Morning (New Map)

Story Missions announced for Overwatch 2 Season 6

Those disappointed to hear that the Story Mode for Overwatch 2 was scrapped will be happy to hear that Story Missions are arriving in Season 6.

These new Story Missions will see players preventing a global invasion by the Null Sector. You and some friends can team up and take on “three action-packed missions that take place in Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, and Gothenburg—massive maps with complex objectives, and an in-depth storyline that will guide you along the way.”

There will also be a bonus mission on King’s Row which sees players “guide a well-armed TS-1 push bot on a mission to save Iggy and the rest of the Omnic Underworld from Null Sector.”

Players can access the Story Missions through Winston’s Desk in the Missions card in the play menu, where players can explore the Story Missions hub and new Intel Database. Playing missions and completing various goals will unlock lore entries, movies, and never-before-revealed details.

Players will need to purchase the Overwatch 2: Invasion Bundle for $15 to gain access to these missions.

Overwatch 2 Season 6 patch notes

New limited time event: King’s Row- Underworld

Stop Null Sector from taking over the Omnic Underworld in this new co-op event that’s free to play for everyone! Reactivate a combat-modified TS-1 Utility Bot to aid in liberating endangered Omnics, while facing massive amounts of Null Sector forces.

Every week, we’ll be adding new challenges and ways to play this new co-op event. The King’s Row – Underworld event runs from August 10 to September 5.

Firing Range

Train your aim with an all-new addition to the Practice Range! Use targets large and small, stationary and mobile, to perfect your crosshair tracking skills. Rack up points and strive to set the high score!

Challenges

• Added a new Weekly challenge: Making Progress – Earn 8 Progression Levels. Instead of rewarding additional Battle Pass XP, this challenge rewards 150 Overwatch Credits to buy items from the Hero Gallery and counts as a challenge to earn Overwatch Coins when you complete multiple weekly challenges.
• Weekly Overwatch Coins reward requirements are updated from 4/8/11 to 4/9/12.
• Added a new set of challenges for the “Invasion” story missions. They can be found under the Lifetime tab.
• Added Player Progression challenges for all 38 heroes. Player Icons can now be earned through these challenges.
• Added Gold player title rewards to Competitive challenges.Developer Comments: We’ve adjusted the second and third tiers to 9 and 12, but expect players to complete “Making Progress” on their way to those thresholds, which should leave the difficulty to complete weekly challenges unchanged. We’ve kept the first tier requirement at 4, which should be easier to earn with the introduction of the new weekly challenge.

On Fire

• Increased minimum Blazing time to 10 seconds.
• Added a 3-second cooldown to Blazing to prevent the sound effect from playing too frequently.
• The visual effects for Blazing have been enhanced.
• Ping System
  • Changed Symmetra’s personal Teleporter pings to work like Illari’s personal Healing Pylon pings so that the waypoint UI is removed when these objects are pinged.
  • Fixed Lifeweaver pinging enemy Petal Platforms as if they belong to him.
  • Health Packs are now pingable.
• Text Chat
  • The ‘Unfiltered’ setting for all text chat channels has been removed. Players will have a choice on their chat settings between Friendly and Mature. Players that had previously set Text Profanity Filters to Unfiltered will now have applicable filters set to Mature.
  • Regardless of text chat filter settings, please continue to report those using inappropriate chat using the in-game report tool.

Competitive play updates

Top 500 Leaderboards: The number of wins required to appear on the Top 500 Leaderboard has been increased from 25 to 50 for consistency with our other Competitive game modes.

Overwatch 2 Season 6 Bug fixes

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug that could result in Competitive Titles becoming unequipped.
• Fixed an issue with splash damage being inconsistently applied to targets on ramps or stairs.
• Fixed an issue that resulted in some players Hero Unlock challenges unable to progress.
• Fixed a bug with the Challenge interface that could result in controllers unable to navigate it.
• Play vs AI – Fixed a bug with Cassidy bot that would prevent him from using his full kit once Deadeye was activated.
• Play vs AI – Fixed a bug with Ana bot only healing at regular intervals and reloading after each shot.
• Play vs AI – Fixed an issue with Torbjorn bot being unable to use his Molten Core.
• Fixed an issue with the Push mode progress indicator not reflecting team color.
• Fixed a bug with some “Best” stats not being tracked correctly in Career Profile.
• Resolved a bug with the Battlepass interface that could result in a player becoming stuck and forced to restart the client.
• Fixed an issue that resulted in the Bonus XP tag to be missing from the Role Select screen.
• Fixed a bug with abilities that reveal enemy health bars revealing health bars for all players in Deathmatch.
• Fixed an issue with High Quality screenshots displaying artifacts in its images when used in the Hero Gallery.
• Fixed a bug where the scoreboard would display large numbers incorrectly (1000 is now displayed as 1,000).
• Resolved an issue with some abilities going through the ceiling at specific spots in some maps.

Maps:

• Junkertown: Fixed a bug with a fuel tank whose collision did not match the model.
• Lijiang Tower: Fixed an area of the map that would cause Immortality Field to self-destruct.
• Midtown: Fixed areas in the map that could allow players to become stuck.
• Paraíso: Fixed locations that were missing collision.

HEROES

Ashe:

• Fixed a clipping issue with Ashe’s rifle that could occur when aiming down sights.
• Fixed an issue with BOB not playing the correct animations for the full Hack duration.

Baptiste

• Fixed a bug with the Immortality Field device negatively impacting Aim Assist on consoles. Bastion
• Fixed a bug with the cooldown for Configuration : Assault not being properly reduced in some instances.

Cassidy

• Fixed an issue with the Flashbang victory pose causing Cassidy’s leg to become distorted.
• Fixed a bug with melee being cancelled if used right after Deadeye.
• Resolved an issue with Magnetic Grenade that prevented Cassidy from receiving elimination credit if used on a flying or falling target.

Junker Queen

• Fixed a bug with Rampage not correctly showing as disabled when disabled by some abilities.

Junkrat

• Fixed an interaction with Lifeweaver’s Petal Platform and Junkrat’s Total Mayhem that would result in the bombs left from Junkrat’s death falling through the platform.

Kiriko

• Kiriko should be able to target crouching allies and allies under low ceilings more consistently now.
• Kiriko should more consistently appear at the same elevation as her target (instead of way above them).
• Swift Step should more consistently keep Kiriko inside map bounds and not result in the player stuck inside the environment when she teleports.
• Using Swift Step while on moving platforms (including payloads, cars, and boats) should no longer fail to move Kiriko towards her target.
• Fixed an issue that could cause visual artifacts on Kiriko’s skin when customizing Kiriko’s Mythic skin.

Lifeweaver

• Fixed a bug that made it possible for players to hide inside the Tree of Life.
• Fixed a bug with Tree of Life blocking usage of Petal Platform if Tree of Life confirmation input is set to Ability 3 Release.
• Fixed a bug with Lifeweaver’s flower not changing colors with skin selection.
• Fixed an interaction that allowed Lifeweaver to cancel melee’s animation when combined with Petal Platform.

Lúcio

• Fixed a bug with his Crossfade VFX being applied to his feet instead of his hand.
• Fixed a bug with Bard Lucio’s strings becoming stretched after respawning.

Moira

• Fixed a bug with Moira’s Fade not displaying correctly for Spectators.

Orisa

• Fixed a bug with Fortify not correctly ignoring the Slow applied by an enemy Orisa Terra Surge or Mei’s Deep Chill.

Pharah

• Fixed a bug with the Mission Complete highlight intro missing sound when you have some skins equipped.

Reinhardt

• Fixed an interaction with Charge and Brigitte’s Shield Bash that could result in Brigitte receiving the full pin damage at first contact instead of being pinned.

Sombra

• Fixed an interaction with Translocator and Petal Platform that allowed players to get out of the playable space.


Widowmaker

• Fixed the missing sound effects on the ‘I see you’ highlight intro when certain skins were equipped.

Winston

• Fixed an interaction with Winston’s Shield Generator and Tracer’s Pulse Bomb that could result in damage not being mitigated if the bomb was placed inside the top of the barrier.

Zarya

• Fixed an interaction with Earthshatter that could result in Zarya getting zero charge if a bubble was active

That’s all we currently know about Overwatch 2 Season 6. If you’re interested in more Overwatch guides, check out some of our others below:

Best Overwatch 2 PC settings | Overwatch 2 crossplay | Is Overwatch 2 free-to-play? | How to get Golden Guns in Overwatch 2 | Best Overwatch 2 Heroes | Who is the most popular Overwatch 2 Heroes | How to check your rank in Overwatch 2 | Is Overwatch 2 split-screen? | How to spectate matches in Overwatch 2