Overwatch season 1 is just around the corner, and no, you haven’t traveled back in time. During the recent Overwatch Spotlight stream, game director Aaron Keller announced a rebrand, so it’s just Overwatch again, and annual seasons built around an ongoing story (so expect a new season 1 every year). This initial Overwatch season 1 is a big one, too. Blizzard is launching five new heroes — a tank, two damage heroes, and two support heroes, including the chaotic Jetpack Cat.
Below, we break down when Overwatch season 1 and its new heroes release in your time zone and what Blizzard has in store.
What time will the new Overwatch heroes and season 1 release in your time zone?
Overwatch season 1 and the Overwatch heroes both go live on Tuesday, Feb. 10, at 11 a.m. PST. Here’s what that looks like elsewhere around the world.
- 11 a.m. PST on Feb. 10 for the west coast of North America
- 2 p.m. EST on Feb. 10 for the east coast of North America
- 4 p.m. BRT on Feb. 10 for Brazil
- 7 p.m. GMT on Feb. 10 for the UK
- 8 p.m. CET on Feb. 10 for central Europe
- 4 a.m. JST on Feb. 11 for Japan
- 5 a.m. AEDT on Feb. 11 for the east coast of Australia
What to expect from Overwatch season 1
A lot. The major new addition is a set of five heroes, enough to form a full team.
- Domina (tank)
- Anran (damage)
- Emre (damage)
- Mizuki (support)
- Jetpack Cat (support)
Some have the potential to change the meta in ways that favor specific team compositions, like with Anran’s secondary fire attack, which increases damage to burning enemies (useful in teams with Ashe or Mauga). Others, like Jetpack Cat, who can remain airborne permanently and drag allies and enemies around, might shatter the meta entirely. If you’re keen to see how Anran plays before the season starts, her hero trial runs until 10:59 a.m. PST on Feb. 10, and you can select her in training mode during the trial as well.
Every hero is getting a sub-role passive based on their intended combat style. Flanker, for example, is a sub-role for damage characters including Tracer and Echo, and it lets them recover more health from healing kits. Ana, Baptiste, and Lucio fall under the Tactician support sub-role and can store excess ultimate charge. And so on.
Blizzard is also running an Overwatch vs. Talon seasonal event, where you can earn loot boxes and other rewards by contributing to one team — or turn coat and contribute to the other as well, once you’ve maxed out what you can earn on one side. It’s a five-week event with new missions every week, and the rewards are:
- 75 base loot boxes
- 12 epic loot boxes
- Seven legendary loot boxes
- Nine new voice lines
- 31 2D cosmetics
- Two weapon charms
- One of two faction-themed legendary Echo skins
- Exclusive new rare, epic and legendary titles
A few updates are headed to Stadium mode as well. Vendetta will be playable once the season goes live, and Blizzard is improving the hero builder, so it’s faster and easier to put together a functioning build and easier to tell what items and powers do at a glance.
And there’s a handful of new mythic cosmetics planned for the season.
- Celestial mythic skin for Mercy
- Star Shooter mythic weapon skin for Juno
- Mei’s first (as-yet unnamed) mythic skin
Along with a Hello Kitty collaboration:
- Cinnamoroll (Kiriko)
- Pompompurin (Mercy)
- My Melody (DVa)
- Kuromi (Widowmaker)
- Keroppi (Lucio)
