Overwatch 2 is set for a big shake-up with the launch of Season 15 on February 18, with Blizzard introducing a new Perk system that will see players augmenting their heroes’ existing abilities in powerful, and potentially game-changing, ways.
As detailed by Blizzard during its Overwatch 2 Spotlight livestream, Perks will come in both Major and Minor versions. Over the course of a match, players will earn XP and eventually be able to select between two Major and two Minor Perk options to augment their playstyle. Minor Perks will come fairly early in a match and will boost specific abilities, but not change how they fundamentally function, Blizzard said.
Major Perks, however, are another story. Blizzard said these Perks are about adding new abilities or shifting a hero’s core gameplay loop, and described obtaining it as “a big moment” that can “totally change how you approach an engagement.” It gave an example of a Major Perk for Reaper giving him a secondary fire option that can deal good damage at mid range, or the return of Hanzo’s Scatter Arrows as a Major Perk option for that hero. Perks are per hero, so swapping to a different one in the middle of a match will require players to earn the Perks again, even if they had already earned Perks on a previous hero. However, swapping back to a hero that had their Perks unlocked already won’t require players to earn them again.
Though Perks sound similar to the scrapped talent system that was meant to play a big role in Overwatch 2’s now-canceled PvE Hero Missions, lead game designer Alec Dawson in an Xbox Wire blog post said the idea behind Perks has existed since early last year and came together more fully in the last six months. He said the team went through various stages of trial and error before landing on the current incarnation of the system. Originally, players received specific Perks automatically over time, and while they did provide a power boost, they didn’t change the core gameplay or give players options. That led to Blizzard landing on the current system where players get to choose how to build their hero over the course of a match.
“Every decision–whether it was deciding how powerful perks should be, creating trade-offs, or ensuring balance across heroes–was made to keep the core Overwatch DNA intact,” Dawson said. “We spent a lot of time debating scenarios where ‘less is more,’ striking the delicate balance of giving players fun Perks without making things chaotic or unfair.”
Overwatch has always had an element of hero-based MOBA games like DOTA 2 or League of Legends, and the Perk system seems to go further into that territory. In fact, Overwatch 2’s new Perk system doesn’t sound all that different from how talents work in Blizzard’s own MOBA Heroes of the Storm. In that game (which even features numerous playable Overwatch heroes), players level up their characters over the course of a match and get to choose between talents that augment their abilities in significant ways or grant them new ones entirely.
Having players make important decisions about their hero in the middle of a match could potentially be a problem, so Blizzard designed two ways for players to select Perks mid-game. One method allows players to hold down Alt on PC (or Up on the D-pad for console players) and then left/right click (or left/right bumper on console) to choose between Perks, while the other allows for Perk selection with a single button press.
“Muscle memory and familiarity will build over time, but these options ensure you won’t feel overwhelmed in those clutch, intense moments,” Dawson said.
Perks are just one way Blizzard is mixing things up with Overwatch 2 in 2025. Blizzard is also bringing back loot boxes, a feature from the original Overwatch that was removed as part of the free-to-play transition into Overwatch 2, as part of Season 15. It’s additionally introducing a wild new round-based, third-person game mode called Stadium that looks to draw inspiration from games like Valve’s still-not-technically-out Deadlock and even Counter-Strike.
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