Ethan Krause, Author at Hard Drive

Rebel TV Critics Secure Leaked Blueprint for Disney+ Series ‘Death Star’

Posted on October 9, 2022 by Jason Herbert

LOS ANGELES — A rebel TV critics association was able to secure the scripts for the unannounced Disney+ series DEATH STAR, which heads of LucasFilm and Disney believed was the ultimate weapon to destroy the entire streaming wars competition.

“We thought critics were no longer of any concern to us — they’ve been praising whatever we release for years — and yet now they plan an attack,” scowled Disney CEO Bob Chapek, his pale and wrinkly face covered mostly by a dark hood. “Whoever is responsible will be made to disappear. We will treat them the same way we did Solo, and they will never be mentioned again.”

Whispers around the industry point to the creators of Disney+ series Andor being responsible for the leak. Although there is no credible evidence, those close to the situation suggest that a rebellious critic may have sacrificed their Hollywood life in order to get their hands on early storyboards for the secret series.

“These bastards are milking their IP more than a thala-siren,” explained a critic who wished to remain anonymous, but admitted to being a former Disney writer until a run-in with a powerful executive forced him on the run. “Luckily the show has a fatal flaw that we’re able to exploit — an exposed plothole that, if fired upon by an expert critic, would cause the entire series to explode from within. It’s our time to fight back and restore the balance of IP and original properties to the mediaverse.”

As of press time, however, despite the rebel group’s ability to shut down the production of DEATH STAR, sources within Disney have revealed that the company plans to just rebuild the show again — this time even larger.

Overwatch 2: Best Support Heroes (Healers) Tier List

Posted on October 8, 2022 by Amy Eastland

Overwatch 2 has just recently been released, and there have been a lot of changes across the different classes. One of the classes, support, has had a new hero added just before release. Her name is Kiriko, and she functions more or less as a DPS-healer hybrid. Because of these changes, it’s meant that a lot more experimentation has been allowed to happen, and players have been allowed to find new healers and support heroes to enjoy that they may not have enjoyed in Overwatch that they now enjoy in Overwatch 2.

Overwatch 2 Best Healers: S Tier

Moira

Moira is one of the top-tier healers in the game, as not only can she heal with two forms of healing through her biotic energy. She can either expend it to heal allies or extract it using biotic grasp and damage others with her secondary fire. She also has her orbs, which can damage or heal depending on whether you use the yellow or purple orb. Because of this, she is a very powerful hero. She can phase through existence which can aid her to avoid abilities and attacks. Her ultimate can heal and damage at the same time, so it can be very useful to use at the right moment.

That being said, her heals can run out when using the biotic energy, and won’t fill a tank’s full health bar.

Ana

Ana is a fantastic healer with a lot of strong heals and works well as a primary healer due to the strength of her heals. To be able to play Ana, though, you have to be able to aim and snipe both your teammates and the enemy. She also has a very handy grenade that can disable the enemies’ healing while being able to increase the potency of teammates’ healing.

Ana has the ability to change the playing field with her sleep dart too, as it can stop an ulting Genji from killing the entire team and protect everyone in the long run, allowing the team to continue pushing safely. Not only this, but her ultimate is incredibly strong if she uses it on the right person. If they are nano-boosted and use their ultimate in conjunction they could wipe out their entire team and push to victory very easily.

One of the key problems with Ana is her having to focus on sniping. It means she may not be focused on the space around her, and it’s very easy to take her out because of this. It is hard to play Ana and have enough spatial awareness of everything going on around you while continuing to snipe everyone.

A Tier – Overwatch 2 Best Healers

Lucio

Lucio is a well-loved healer, and for a lot of reasons. His mobility helps him have a lot of map control, and due to his abilities it allows him to have AoE heals which can nicely top off his team as a secondary healer whilst someone else is the primary healer.

Not only this, but he can use his sound wave to potentially knock heroes off the edge of the map which can be a life-saving mechanic. His ult can also be powerful and shield players in clutch situations.

Although he has a variety of great abilities, his heals aren’t the strongest so only use him as a secondary healer for the best results.

Mercy

Whilst being one of the most mobile healers in the game, she has a lot of flaws that makes her an A-tier healer rather than an S-tier. Her heals are incredibly strong, and she is great at healing tanks, more so than the rest. However, she has experienced a lot of reworks and nerfs over the years which have carried over to Overwatch 2. She can fly in any direction which makes her incredibly mobile and hard to catch. However, she is incredibly squishy, and reviving as Mercy can be one of the hardest tasks to carry out. Depending on where the dead teammate is, it may be in a very precarious position where Mercy risks dying to save another team member.

Kiriko

Kiriko is the newest support to join the roster. Like Moira, she has two weapons of choice. She can heal with talismans, but her heals are very weak and can be difficult to get used to which is why she isn’t as high on the list. Despite this, she has very useful supportive abilities, such as her Swift Step which allows her to teleport to an ally and can give her the opportunity to heal in clutch situations. Not only this, but her Protection Suzu can be great against certain ultimates as it allows allies to be cleansed of certain effects and become invulnerable temporarily.

However, due to her incredible DPS power with her kunai, she is an A tier. Her kunai deals critical damage, which makes her DPS very strong for a support. Her ultimate is also pretty powerful, as it allows increased movement speed, attack speed and cooldowns of allies who follow the Kitsune she has unleashed.

B Tier – Overwatch 2 Best Healers

Baptiste

Baptiste is a great healer for a lot of his abilities, but whilst his heals can be strong, they have a very long cooldown. This can be detrimental considering a lot of the time tanks will need continuous healing to be able to be on the frontline. He has other abilities that allows him to mitigate damage such as his Immortality Field, but sometimes it simply isn’t enough. However, if he teams with another strong healer and effectively uses Amplification Matrix, it can allow for really strong heals across the board. His projectiles are also good at healing, but not the most accurate and serve better for AoE healing.

Overall, Baptiste is a good well-rounded healer and has some good DPS too, but doesn’t always serve the situation.

Brigitte

Brigitte is a strong support as she counts as a baby-tank and has a bit of crowd control to go with it. She is very aggressive and can stand up to most of the DPS and tanks of the group if she is played right. Her heals are useful and frequent, but they don’t last long. If she is played aggressively, her damage heals other allies. The main problem with Brigitte is that she can be very situational as a healer, and is dependent on the rest of the team she is working with. She is dependent on the different tanks and the other healer she is working with to be able to work at her best. This is why she fits into the B category. Whilst her heals are good, if played on the backline or constantly dying on the frontline, Brigitte doesn’t get much of a chance to show off her true strength as a support.

Overwatch 2 Best Healers: C Tier

Zenyatta

Zenyatta is the worst healer on the list at the moment. Whilst he is consistent, his heals are very weak as a support. They can stay on the ally as long as they are alive, but they take a long time to fill the full health bar, so it doesn’t give enough time to heal other allies who are in need of health. It is a hard balance for Zenyatta. He can make the enemies take more damage using his Orb of Discord while dealing damage with his primary fire. His ultimate is the best part of his kit, as during a clutch moment he can use Transcendence to keep everyone safe and alive by healing everyone to full and making them invulnerable for a time.

Overall though, Zenyatta is the weakest pick of the bunch, simply due to the slow speeds of his healing.

Japanese Version of “How I Met Your Father” to Be Named “How I Met Your Mother: Shippuden”

Posted on October 8, 2022 by Brad Waters

NEW YORK — Following reports that How I Met Your Mother’s sequel series How I Met Your Father isn’t sitting well with audiences in Japan, a slew of changes has been announced to localize the show and make it more palatable to Japanese audiences.

“The people of Japan love Ted Mosby-san!” said Yusuke Fujiwara, the show’s Japanese localization director. “But these new characters aren’t appealing to us. We can’t change the scripts, but there are other things we can do to get people watching and hope to draw them in from there.”

Viewership and retention have been down for the show across the board compared to its predecessor. When asked what else will be changed about the show to remedy this aside from just the title, Fujiwara explained the new differences.

“Adding Shippuden to the title and changing it back to How I Met Your Mother is only the start; we also have a new opening! Gone is the minimalistic 10-second reel of photographs over some chirpy acapella, now the opening theme is a 3-minute banger from famed J-rock band Uverworld,” he said. “It’s a real scorcher — a J-rock anthem — and it’ll be playing over lots of stylized shots of Sid, Valentina, and the gang looking contemplative whilst they sit at the edges of lakes underneath starry skies. We’ve got Sophie and Jesse looking up seriously straight into the camera, eyes up, eyebrows down kind of stuff, there’s sword swipes and explosions going on in the background. It’s awesome.”

“Everything else about the show is pretty much exactly the same, though,” he added.

One cast member reached out to discuss the changes being made to the show in Japan, but wished to remain anonymous.

“I heard there was a show that was really big in Japan before with ‘Shippuden’ in its name so I figured I’d check it out to see what all the fuss was about,” the actor who definitely wasn’t Josh Peck said. “But I didn’t really get it… why was Kaguya the final villain instead of Madara? She was barely built up at all! And don’t even get me started on Neji’s death. That just didn’t make any sense. Sorry, I know this doesn’t have anything to do with the show I’m on, but I’m just so hurt and confused.”

At press time, Fujiwara said that he expects How I Met Your Mother: Shippuden to easily hit 30 or 40 seasons so long as they include a good amount of filler arcs.

Critics Concerned Greta Gerwig’s Barbie Will Inspire Violence Amongst Young Men

Posted on October 8, 2022 by Walker MacDonald

LOS ANGELES — Critics and fans have begun to voice concerns that Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Barbie adaptation could inspire violence in young men, as the source material has proven time and again.

“Look, I’m glad my son’s finally getting into something besides Fortnite for a change,” said local mother Noelle Hamel. “But I’m worried he’s being drawn to it for the wrong reasons. Today, he’s watching Margot Robbie rollerblading in a mini skirt. Tomorrow, he could be ripping the heads off of women and scribbling all over their bodies with crayons. It’s a clear and slippery slope.”

New York Post critic and culture editor Alysha Clement shared this sentiment in an interview just earlier this week.

“Now is not the time to give impressionable young men in this country the idea that women are playthings,” said Clement. “Filmmakers today need to consider the cultural implications of their work. Barbie is quickly becoming a symbol of aggression for the disenfranchised Western male. It evokes in them an innate craving for destruction, violence and the need to strap helpless women to cherry bombs before throwing them into neighborhood mailboxes. We’re practically on track to create an entire generation of Sids from Toy Story, but like for people.”

Jason Hamel, avid cinema enthusiast and son of Noelle Hamel, expressed his excitement for the forthcoming film.

“Oh man, I can’t wait! It’s gonna rule,” said an excited Hamel. “I’m really interested to see how they approach such sensitive subject matter. It’s no small feat to deal with one of the most damaging creations in recent history. The impact is incalculable, like, its cultural effects are still being felt to this day.”

Upon further clarification, it established that Hamel had, in fact, not confused the film at hand with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, saying “Are you serious? I’m 32. Why would I be seeing anything else? C’mon.”

At press time, it was confirmed in a statement from both Greta Gerwig and co-screenwriter Noah Baumbach that they’re aware of the potential dangers surrounding the film and will commit to social awareness in their next children’s franchise adaptation; Easy Bake Oven.

“We promise to ensure that the oven is not suggested to be used for nefarious purposes.”

Everything Overwatch 2 Has Gotten Right So Far

Posted on October 8, 2022 by Mark Roebuck

Nothing.

Looking for more hard hitting journalism? Check out our article Everything We Know About Elder Scrolls 6!

Chris Pratt Debuts Pitch-Perfect Mario Impression in Interview Just to Fuck With You

Posted on October 8, 2022 by Camden Brazile

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Star of the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie, Chris Pratt, shocked Mario fans by debuting a pitch-perfect Mario impression just to fuck with you.

“It’s-a me! Mario! Wa-hoo!” said Pratt in a staggeringly perfect Mario dialect before shifting back to his regular monotone. “That’s right. I can do it. It’s not even hard for me, I’ve always been able to do it. I just do not want to. Why am I choosing to use my regular speaking voice, and dialing back any emotion or inflection? Fuck you. That’s why. Go fuck yourself, I hate you. My Mario voice is just for me.”

Pratt went on to explain that his role in the Nintendo-backed film was due to his pristine imitation of the famed Italian plumber.

“When [Illumination] cast me, they didn’t even know it was the star of Guardians of the Galaxy, they just thought they were getting a perfect Mario voice that would work for scale,” a grinning Pratt said. “When I showed up, they were incredibly surprised, but I assured them I would stay true to the character’s iconic voice. When I got in the recording booth, however, I flat out refused to do anything but my phoned-in regular voice, completing my master plan. I’m in breach of contract, being sued for millions, and will likely never work again, but it was worth it, because you’re pissed off. Fuck you. Bitch.”

At press time, sources at Illumination reported that Luigi fans will still be delighted by Charlie Day’s impeccable voice impression of a slightly-panicked Charlie Day.

How to Level Up Overwatch 2’s Battle Pass Quickly

Posted on October 7, 2022 by Richard Tammaro

With the switch to free-to-play, Overwatch 2 has introduced a Battle Pass progression system. This new system includes all the pros and cons you would expect from a Battle Pass, including the possibility of being left behind when the season ends and you can no longer unlock all the cool rewards. So, how do you gain Battle Pass Levels fast?

Overwatch 2 Battle Pass Explained

First, let’s examine the new Battle Pass system in a bit more depth. Overwatch 2’s Battle Pass will last for 63 days and features 80 tiers with both free and premium tiers. Each tier requires 10K XP to complete, meaning a total of 800K XP is required to complete all 80 tiers. The rewards vary from player icons, Hero voice lines, and newly introduced charms to Hero skins and even some Heroes. Of course, the premium tiers include more rewards than the free tiers and at a cost of $10 USD, include a 20% XP increase for the season; however, both tiers include ways to unlock any new Heroes.

As for leveling up fast, there are three main ways to gain XP for the Battle Pass:

Utilizing Queue Priority

You may notice before searching for a game that you can earn additional XP for playing specific roles. This is only true in game modes that include role queue. Basically, to help fill games, Overwatch 2 has reimplemented a reward system that existed in the original Overwatch. When not enough players are queuing for a specific role, the game will reward you additional XP for playing that role and completing the match.

Completing Matches

Completing matches is the most obvious and abundant way to rank up. There is no limit on how much XP you can earn in a given day or week by completing matches, but it is important to note that you’ll only be gaining small amounts per match. The amount gained will fluctuate based on your performance and if you win or lose; however, these fluctuations are minor in the grand scheme of finishing every tier.

Completing Overwatch 2 Battle Pass Challenges

Completing Challenges is the most lucrative and fast way to level up. There are four separate sets of challenges that reward Battle Pass XP available in Overwatch 2: Daily, Weekly, Seasonal, and Lifetime. Pay attention to the descriptions of Challenges as some are restricted to only progressing in certain game modes.

Daily Challenges, as the name implies, replenish every day. You will be given a random set of 6 Challenges. Every Daily Challenge awards 3,000 XP and some are easier to complete than others, so it is recommended to focus on whatever Challenges are the easiest/fastest to complete first.

Weekly Challenges reset at the beginning of each week. You will be given a set of 11 random Challenges to complete. Each Weekly Challenge awards 5,000 XP and if you are lucky, it is possible for Weekly Challenge tasks to overlap with Daily Challenges so you can stack Challenge completions. A common example is a Daily Challenge to win 1 match and a Weekly Challenge to win 10 matches.

Seasonal Challenges are not as rewarding per task as Daily or Weekly Challenges; however, there are a whopping 41 of them available to start Season 1. These Challenges are generally hero/map-specific and require more work, but should be easily accomplished before the end of the season by avid players. Most will net you 500 – 1,000 XP per completed Challenge, except for two of them. Experienced Competitor and Veteran Competitor reward 3,000 and 5,000 XP respectively.

Lifetime Challenges are the last category and unlike the previously mentioned Challenge types, rewards additional cosmetics along with XP upon completion. With that in mind though, the cosmetics are the primary reward here and the XP feels like an afterthought. At launch, there are 25 Lifetime Challenges to complete and each rewards a measly 500 XP.

Overwatch 2: How to Play Ana (Abilities, Skins & Changes)

Posted on October 7, 2022 by Paulo Kawanishi

Overwatch 2’s supports are many and Ana stands out among them thanks to her capacity to not only maintain her teammates alive but also respond to enemy attacks as well as deal damage. She is a more active type of healer, since Ana uses a sniper rifle to shoot allies to keep them alive or to take down annoying enemies. Her kit can be powerful although she is not the easiest support to play with. Here is a complete guide on how to play Ana in Overwatch 2.

Ana’s Abilities

Ana’s kit is simple since it gravitates around shooting allies and enemies, but it’s effective in many situations. On the other hand, how well you will perform playing her depends on whether you have good aim or not.

In case you’re considering choosing her to play as a healer, you should understand how her healing functions. Ana uses her Biotic Rifle to shoot allies in order to heal them. In contrast with other healers present in the game, Ana does healing over time (HoT). In other words, whenever she shoots a teammate this character will receive a small quantity of healing over a short period of time.

Her Biotic Rifle has another function. If you shoot an enemy with it, instead of healing it, you’re going to deal damage over time (DoT). Although it will work similarly to the healing process, Ana can be quite lethal with her shots considering an average character (Soldier: 76 for example) may die after getting hit by two to three darts.

Remember that if you hold the Secondary Attack button, you can aim using Biotic Rifle’s scope!

Because Ana’s healing/damaging capacity is directly connected to her Primary Attack, her abilities are more focused on filling some gaps.

One of Ana’s abilities is the Biotic Grenade and this is meant to compensate for the slow healing she has as well as help deal with enemies. By using this ability, Ana throws a grenade that heals and amplifies the healing received in the players hit by it. At the same time, hitting enemies with it will not only damage them, but the Biotic Grenade also prevents their healing.

The second ability Ana has at her disposal is the Sleep Dart. Using it makes Ana shoot a dart that puts the enemy player to sleep for some seconds, preventing them from using skills and moving. This ability’s goal is not to deal damage since its efficiency in this matter is quite low. However, you can interrupt some ultimates from other characters by hitting them with a dart. Keep in mind that the effect of the dart ends upon hitting an attack on the sleeping character.

Ana’s ultimate is called Nano Boost. Once used, Ana shoots a boosting dart to an ally, increasing their damage and reducing the damage taken by them. Even though this is not an extremely powerful ultimate that can mitigate the enemy team’s attacks, it can be fundamental in helping your team to take an objective or wiping enemies off the map.

In terms of passive abilities, Ana hasn’t much to offer. She comes with her Passive Role ability Support, a trait that makes her automatically heal herself over time. This ability triggers after some seconds without taking damage. This is a good passive to have, so support characters can prioritize healing teammates.

Overwatch 2 Ana Changes

Compared to other characters, Ana hasn’t suffered any major change in Overwatch 2. The Support Passive Role ability has been added to her kit and the amount of ammo she has was increased by 3 rounds, but besides that, she’s still the same from the previous version of the game. Her skills have gone through minor tweaks that made Ana a little less powerful and demand players to be more intentional when using her abilities.

This is what changed in Ana’s kit:

Ana’s Sleep Dart cooldown is fifteen seconds.
The effect of Biotic Grenade was reduced from four to three seconds.

Ana Strategy and Team Composition

Playing Ana demands players to know where to position themselves and how to prioritize when a skill should be used. Ana is a quite squishy character, so you must always try to stay in the backline of your team while you heal your teammates and hit some enemies. After all, choosing Ana over other healers means that you will be looking for opportunities to damage enemies. If this is not what you’re looking for, consider other healers.

Since Ana is a sniper and her healing potential depends on you hitting shots, she is a character with a high skill ceiling. The fact she also eventually needs to use the scope to reach farther enemies or allies in a fight makes Ana a very vulnerable character for enemies whose goal is to finish the team’s backline. So, it’s important to take cover inside a house or on higher ground. By doing so, you’ll be capable of offering support to your team without taking too much risk.

Another important aspect of playing Ana is to know when to use her skills and which teammate should be boosted with your ultimate. First, the Sleep Dart is extremely powerful. Look for situations such as an attack from the enemy team to take their tank down. Did you see a teammate being pulled by Roadhog’s hook? Shoot him with it and save your friend. Keep your eyes open for when some ultimates that you can cancel with her Sleep Dart. Soldier: 76, Cassidy, Genji, Roadhog, and Pharah are just some examples of whom you can save your Sleep Dart for.

On the other hand, Biotic Grenades are great to save your team from a combo or for moments in which you see Ana’s healing won’t do the job by itself. Since it works as an area-of-effect healing skill, prioritize using it when more than two teammates are closer.

Ana’s ultimate is not difficult to use, but you should always consider who is the best option to capitalize from it. The general rule of thumb is to boost a tank, such as Reinhardt, Roadhog, or Zarya, and damage dealers, such as Genji and Soldier: 76.

Considering all these aspects of how to play Ana, the compositions she works the best are always with another support that can quickly provide the party with a big quantity of healing. Mercy, Moira, and Lúcio are great options because their healing is more potent. Having fast characters in your party like Genji and Tracer that are supposed to flank the enemy team, can be hard for less experienced players. However, with good communication and practicing your aim, this is not an impossible scenario.

Overwatch 2 Ana Skins

As of the time of writing this guide, Ana has 20 different skins to be unlocked. Keep in mind that not all of them are always available, since Overwatch 2 has a considerable number of skins from seasonal events.

Overwatch 1 – Automatically unlocked

Overwatch 2 – Automatically unlocked

Rare (75 credits)

Citrine
Garnet
Peridot
Turquoise

Epic (250 credits)

Ghoul – Seasonal event
Merciful
Shrike
Tal – Seasonal event

Legendary (1900 credits)

Cabana
Corsair – Seasonal event
Captain Amari
Horus
Mummy – Seasonal event
Night Owl – Seasonal event
Sniper – Seasonal event
Snow Owl – Seasonal event
Wadjet
Wasteland

Now that you learned all the basics about Ana, have fun playing her!

Overwatch 2: How to Play Sombra (Abilities, Skins, & Changes)

Posted on October 7, 2022 by Eliot Lloyd

Overwatch 2 is finally here, bringing a small, albeit meaningful, mechanical rework for everyone’s favorite hacker, Sombra.

Sombra has a fairly unique playstyle for Overwatch. Being one of the only heroes that can utilize permanent stealth, she’s great at finding unique angles of attack for flanking or seeking out-of-position enemies to isolate and murder.

She used to function as a disabler, hacking her enemies to deny access to their abilities, but this has been toned down in her rework to refocus her kit towards bopping enemies harder.

Who is Sombra?

Born in Mexico as Olivia Colomar, she was orphaned during the Omnic Crisis. A naturally skilled hacker, she joined the gang Los Muertos, using her skills to hack the government on their behalf as part of their social revolution.

She became so renowned that she attracted the attention of Talon, the terrorist organization driving much of the background conflict in Overwatch’s story. Agreeing to work for them, she now uses her hacking skills for their sketchy goals. Well, when she feels like it.

Overwatch 2: Sombra Weapons and Abilities

Machine Pistol – a short range automatic weapon.

As basic as you can get. Sombra’s machine pistol leaves a lot to be desired compared to other heroes. On its own it does moderate damage, but the spread and mid-range damage falloff makes it unreliable at distance. Making the most of her pistol requires the use of her signature abilities; Stealth to get in close and Hack to boost her damage.

Stealth – become invisible and move quickly. Cooldown: 6 seconds.

By far the most noticeable aspect of Sombra’s kit is that your enemies don’t notice her at all. Stealth renders her completely invisible to enemies, allowing her to position herself without all the nasty business of getting shot at.

Be warned though, whilst you’re within 4 metres of an enemy or you’re hacking them, you will be visible. Taking or dealing damage will also completely drop Stealth, putting it on cooldown.

Hack – hold to hack. Hacked enemies cannot use abilities briefly, and can be seen through walls. Hacked health packs spawn faster but can’t be used by enemies. Taking damage interrupts the hack attempt. Cooldown: 4 seconds.

If you thought Hack was important before, it’s now the cornerstone of playing Sombra effectively. Upon successfully hacking an enemy, Sombra will disable their ability usage for one second, and apply the hacked status for ten, enabling her reworked Opportunist passive to increase her damage.

Without Hack, Sombra’s damage isn’t usually enough to kill someone before the enemy team notices and collapses on you. If you use it right you can make some choice eliminations on the squishier enemies. Also, with the new, lower cooldown you can Hack more often. If an enemy manages to survive long enough then feel free to Hack them again to mess with their abilities.

Don’t forget to hack health packs too! It’s a great denial tool if used on them behind enemy lines, and speeding up a health pack’s respawn can get you back into the fight much quicker.

Translocator – throw a beacon, then press again to teleport to it. Cooldown: 6 seconds.

Sombra’s get out of jail free card. Proper usage separates the good Sombra players from the dead Sombra players. Since the enemy team can destroy the beacon, you want to place it somewhere out of the way, preferably close to a health pack. This ability demands knowledge of the map if you want to use it efficiently, as placing it too far from the action means you end up spending most of the game running back into the fray.

For those who like to live on the edge, you can also save the beacon for traversal. You can throw it a reasonable distance, allowing access to normally out of reach places for someone that can’t climb walls or fly. Just keep in mind that the cooldown begins from the moment you throw it, if you teleport right away you’ll need to wait a few before being able to activate it again.

Ultimate: EMP – deals damage equal to 40% of all nearby enemies health, hacking them and destroying barriers around you.

This is the big one. Being able to wipe 40% off of a group of enemies is nice, but coupled with the hack and barrier destruction it’s one of the stronger initiates in the game, assuming your team is ready to take advantage of it.

Try not to use this when you’re alone or there’s only one or two enemies. It works best if you wait till the enemy team has grouped and a skirmish is about to take place, letting you catch them off guard. A well timed EMP will make the enemy team go into full panic mode, just be wary that it will end your stealth and put it on cooldown.

Passive: Opportunist – you detect critically injured enemies through walls, and deal 40% more damage to hacked enemies.

This is Sombra’s new bread and butter mechanic. With her crowd control abilities nerfed considerably, her hack now functions primarily as a way to buff her damage through Opportunist. This takes her normally middling damage output and puts it on the higher end. Just remember you still need to be pretty close if you want to actually hit people with her machine pistol.

Additionally, being able to track injured enemies helps her stalk the targets that get away. That Pharah over there thinking she’s safe hiding behind that shop counter whilst smashing the “need healing” emote? She was as good as dead the moment you set eyes on her.

Passive: Role: Damage – eliminations grant a burst of increased movement and reload speed.

All damage heroes now have access to this passive. It’s not exactly game changing, but having it for free is nothing to complain about. Sombra should be able to make good use of this passive, assuming you can secure the kill after dropping stealth, as the bonus movement and reload speed can help you survive against their vengeful teammates.

Changes to Sombra in Overwatch 2

Although Sombra’s Overwatch 2 abilities mostly remain intact from Overwatch, Blizzard have made some minor tweaks that have major implications for how Sombra is played:

She no longer breaks stealth whilst hacking, instead she only becomes revealed temporarily.
The detection radius on her stealth has been increased from 2m to 4m.
The dropping stealth animation has been shortened by 50%.
Her Hack only disables enemy abilities for one second rather than five.
The cooldown on Hack is lower, and is no longer halved when hacking health packs.
Health pack hack duration has been reduced from 60 seconds to 30 seconds.
The hack status now lasts for ten seconds and reveals enemies to your team.
Her Opportunist passive now increases Sombra’s damage against hacked targets by 40%.
The new Role: Damage passive ability grants movement and reload speed upon enemy elimination.
Her EMP ultimate now deals damage equal to 40% of a victim’s current health. However, it no longer destroys shields.

Sombra Strategy and Team Composition

Being a damage role hero, Sombra’s not particularly resilient. Even compared to other damage dealers she suffers when under fire, relying mostly on her translocator to get out of danger. That places a lot of risk on Sombra players if the enemy team is on the ball with smashing your translocator beacon to pieces, so learning the best places in each map to throw it is essential to mastering her. Sombra’s fragility combined with her low range and self-isolating playstyle means that she requires a lot of teamwork to be effective, lest you unstealth to find five sets of guns turned on you without an ally in sight.

Always consider the state of the game before you commit to a strategy. Sometimes taking out the enemy from behind isn’t the right move. You’ll need to learn when to hang back to help and peel enemy flankers, or slip past chokepoints and start capturing the point to force the enemy team to come and stop you, giving your own team the opportunity to push.

Sombra is very team reliant, so it’s always worth considering whether she synergises with the group when playing competitively. Her EMP deals a hefty world of pain to everyone caught in it, but due to the percentage based damage it can’t land a killing blow. To capitalize on a successful EMP, heroes with strong AoE can take advantage of the disarray and help mop up the last of the enemy’s health for a nice team kill.

Heroes that have strong dive potential work especially well with Sombra since they can get into the enemy back line and help Sombra mop up. Heroes like Genji are so mobile that they’ll often be able to keep the entire enemy team on their toes whilst Sombra makes the most of the panic.

Be careful when playing with less mobile teams, especially if your tank is fairly slow. Tanks that can jump right into a fight quickly like D.Va and Winston work particularly well with Sombra since they can easily capitalize on the confusion that she causes behind enemy lines.

Sombra Skins in Overwatch 2

Sombra has 23 skins in Overwatch 2, detailed in the table below.

Skin	Rarity	Details
Overwatch 1	Common	Her default look from Overwatch 1.
Overwatch 2	Common	Her new default look for Overwatch 2.
Azúcar	Legendary	1,900 Overwatch Coins or 1,000 Legacy Credits
Los Muertos	Legendary	1,900 Overwatch Coins or 1,000 Legacy Credits
Augmented	Legendary	1,900 Overwatch Coins or 1,000 Legacy Credits
Cyberspace	Legendary	1,900 Overwatch Coins or 1,000 Legacy Credits
Tulum	Legendary	1,900 Overwatch Coins
Bride	Legendary	1,900 Overwatch Coins
Rime	Legendary	Sometimes available in the shop.*
Face Changer	Legendary	Sometimes available in the shop.*
Talon	Legendary	Sometimes available in the shop.*
Black Cat	Legendary	Sometimes available in the shop.*
Neon Cat	Legendary	Sometimes available in the shop.*
Jester	Epic	Part of the Overwatch 2 Founder’s Pack (free to Overwatch 1 owners)
Glitch	Epic	1,000 Overwatch Coins or 250 Legacy Credits
Virus	Epic	1,000 Overwatch Coins or 250 Legacy Credits
Mexicana	Epic	1,000 Overwatch Coins
Peppermint	Epic	Sometimes available in the shop.*
Oro	Epic	Sometimes available in the shop.*
Cidro	Rare	300 Overwatch Coins or 75 Legacy Credits
Incendio	Rare	300 Overwatch Coins or 75 Legacy Credits
Mar	Rare	300 Overwatch Coins or 75 Legacy Credits
Noche	Rare	300 Overwatch Coins or 75 Legacy Credits

*These skins aren’t currently available to be purchased so the prices are unknown as of yet.

Overwatch 2: How Competitive Works & What’s Different

Posted on October 7, 2022 by Daniel Solomon

If you’re coming to Overwatch 2 and want folks to know exactly how good you are – whether or not you’re actually any good – you’re gonna have to dive into competitive mode, which is back again. But this time, it’s different.

Aside from the obvious shift from 6v6 to 5v5, here we cover how to unlock the competitive play, whether the Overwatch 2 competitive mode has crossplay, what has changed between games, and more.

How To Unlock Overwatch 2 Competitive Mode

While returning players who had unlocked the mode in the original game will have access to competitive play immediately, newcomers will first have to work their way through the “First Time User Experience.” This is the curated, and honestly kinda overly-long introduction to the game, and how you’ll unlock everything beyond the handful of available heroes – game modes included.

The short answer here though is that you need to win, not just play, 50 quick play matches before you’re allowed into Overwatch 2’s competitive mode. Of course, as is often the way with free-to-play games, you can just spend your way around this hurdle by buying the Watchpoint Pack.

Does Overwatch 2 Competitive Have Crossplay?

The answer here is, sort of. While Overwatch 2 is fully crossplay between PC and consoles on all other modes, there are two groupings for players in competitive mode: one for PC players, and one for console players.

That is to say, if you are on PS5, and you wanted to play competitive mode with your pal who is on Xbox, that would work. However, your PC master race buddy is gonna have to make new friends. And it’s about time they did so – what are the odds you’ll fancy a round of CS:GO any time soon?

What Competitive Modes are There in Overwatch 2?

Much like the unranked multiplayer, Overwatch 2 has a ranked Role Queue mode and a ranked Open Queue mode at launch.

You get one overall rank for playing the competitive Open Queue mode, and teams are free to pick any wild combinations of heroes that they fancy. The Role Queue however forces teams to adhere to the structure of one tank, two support, and two damage heroes – you make your choice before queuing for a match, and will receive a rank for each role.

What’s Changed For Overwatch 2 Competitive Mode?

Skill Rating is now Skill Tiers

SR has been replaced entirely by seven skill tiers, ranging from Bronze to Grand Master – the latter being, of course, the most precious of metals known to man. Each tier consists of five divisions, designated numerically, with 5 being the lowest, and 1 the highest. Perfect sense.

A demonstration of how this works in practice is that if you’re ranked Platinum 1 and go up a division, you’re now Master 5. These will only update across the season whenever you achieve either seven wins or 20 losses, whichever happens first. The first time you hit this skill tier criteria also serves as your placement matches.

Skill tiers and divisions also aren’t displayed when entering a competitive match. Instead, players can show off their titles and name cards.

KDR, FR

The scoreboard has been overhauled too – medals have been removed entirely, and you can now see your team’s stats at a glance. This includes eliminations, assists, deaths and damage output. Finally!

How Do Groups Work in Ranked Modes?

Groups in ranked matches have a few restrictions around who they let in now. Players who are ranked between Bronze and Diamond can group up with up to four other players, providing they’re within two skill tiers of their current rank. Master players are also unlimited on group size, but teammates have to be within one skill tier.

Grandmasters, however, can only group with a single other player, and they have to be within three skill divisions as them. And Top 500 players can pair with a single other Top 500 player. That one mate who’s much, much better, and doesn’t have a job? Say goodbye to playing with them in ranked.

Game Reports

Blizzard have also added game reports, which offer a deep dive into how you’ve been playing. They let you recap all the matches you’ve played this session, and give stats on your performance, match information, heroes, and what game modes you’ve been performing like that in.

Where’s My Rewards?

Your loot has seen some changes too. The seasonal commemorative icons and sprays earned as competitive rewards are gone, and in their place are unique titles for your name card. These are earned for progressing through skill tiers, and can only be used in the subsequent season.

There’s also now a cap on how many competitive points you can earn at the end of a season, determined by your highest skill tier across both Role and Open Queues. You’ll earn 15 points for a win, 5 for a draw, and need 3,000 of ‘em to unlock a golden weapon.