Overwatch 2’s Illari removed from Competitive following infinite ammo bug

Nathan Warby
Illari firing weapon in OW2

The Overwatch 2 January 9 update brought a significant buff to Support Hero Illari, however, she has since been temporarily removed from Competitive matches due to a bug that gives her unlimited ammo.

Overwatch 2 Season 8 has been a big one for Blizzard’s hero shooter so far, with new Tank Mauga making his debut and the Lunar New Year 2024 event still to come. The devs have also been keeping the game refreshed with regular updates, balancing the many characters along the way.

The latest of these arrived on January 9, bringing a host of changes to a number of popular Heroes, such as Orisa and Sombra. Season 6 Hero Illari was also handed a buff, which included increasing her Solar Rifle’s ammo from 14 and 16.

However, the change seems to have caused a bug with Illari in Overwatch 2, as she has been temporarily removed from Competitive Play.

According to the Known Issues section of the Blizzard forums: “Illari has been disabled for Competitive Play as we investigate an issue with her ammunition not resetting correctly.”

The ammo reset bug allows Illari to fire an infinite number of times without reloading, despite the UI showing the correct magazine size of 16. Once players go past what should be the maximum number of shots, the ammo counter in the bottom-right of the screen moves into negative numbers, as shown in the clip above.

This essentially allows Overwatch 2 players to repeatedly spam Illari’s primary fire, with ‘mL7’ later posting they had reached “-1000” without having to pause. However, although Illari has been temporarily removed from Competitive matches, she is still available in Quick Play.

Blizzard haven’t confirmed when Illari will make her return to Overwatch 2 Competitive, but since they’re actively working on a fix, it shouldn’t be too long before she’s added back.

For more on Overwatch 2, be sure to check out everything we know about Season 9, as well as the player count in 2024.

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About The Author

Nathan is a Senior Writer at CharlieIntel. He’s an expert in EA Sports FC, Call of Duty, and Overwatch, as well as superhero games, including Marvel’s Spider-Man. With a master's degree in Magazine Journalism from Nottingham Trent University, he worked as a Trainee Reporter for Derbyshire Live before moving into games media, with bylines at Dexerto, Cultured Vultures, and more. You can contact Nathan by email at [email protected].