Blizzard bends on Overwatch 2 battle pass, makes next hero easier to unlock for free

Ramattra in Overwatch 2.
(Image credit: Blizzard)

Overwatch 2's newest hero, Ramattra, is a little easier to earn for free than Season 1's Kiriko.

"After reviewing data for Season 1, we're moving Ramattra into Tier 45 of the Battle Pass and making a few more weekly challenges easier to complete," game director Aaron Keller wrote today on Twitter.

When Overwatch 2 launched, its first new support hero, Kiriko, was locked away on tier 55 of the free battle pass. Unlocking her for free required continuously completing daily and weekly challenges for XP. While it didn't take tremendously long to climb up the tiers, it still took many players a few weeks to get that far on their own (groups get a 20% XP bonus).

Moving Ramattra to tier 45 isn't a massive change, but if you don't want to pay 1,000 Overwatch Coins ($10) for the premium battle pass to get him immediately, the daily and weekly challenge grind will be a little shorter now.

You still can't buy the latest hero through the in-game shop. Blizzard has said that Sojourn, Junker Queen, and Kiriko, however, will all be available to buy for Overwatch Coins if you missed unlocking them before. Alternatively, you can complete hero challenges, which require you to win games, to unlock them, similar to how the new player experience works. Overwatch 1 owners can still pick up the last three new heroes for free just by logging into Overwatch 2 before the end of Season 2 in February.

Overwatch 2's second season, which launches tomorrow, brings a new battle pass with buckets of cosmetic rewards across 80 tiers, including a mythic-quality, customizable Zeus Junker Queen skin. A handful of heroes will receive substantial balance changes, including Doomfist, Bastion, Sojourn, and Kiriko. The new season also comes with a new payload map set in the Shambali Monastery where both Ramattra and Zenyatta have their roots, and will drop a new Battle for Olympus game mode.

Associate Editor

Tyler has covered games, games culture, and hardware for over a decade before joining PC Gamer as Associate Editor. He's done in-depth reporting on communities and games as well as criticism for sites like Polygon, Wired, and Waypoint. He's interested in the weird and the fascinating when it comes to games, spending time probing for stories and talking to the people involved. Tyler loves sinking into games like Final Fantasy 14, Overwatch, and Dark Souls to see what makes them tick and pluck out the parts worth talking about. His goal is to talk about games the way they are: broken, beautiful, and bizarre.