The wait is over and Season 15 is now live for all Overwatch 2 players. This season kicks off a new year into the hero shooter, bringing new features like Perks and several quality-of-life adjustments.
Now that the patch notes are also live, we have gathered them here so you can read in detail all the changes the new update has brought.
Release date
Overwatch 2 Season 15 came out on Tuesday, February 18th at 11:00 AM PT (7:00 PM GMT).
The season will be available for around eight weeks, with a midseason patch dropping in the middle to add all the remaining content for the second half of the season.
Patch notes
Here are the complete patch notes for Overwatch 2 Season 15 that were posted on the game's official website:
Loot Boxes are back
- Starting in Season 15, you can earn up to three Loot Boxes every week by completing up to 27 games each week with wins counting as double.
- Starting in Season 15, you can earn a free Legendary Loot Box in the free track of the Battle Pass and an additional two Legendary Loot Boxes in the Premium Track of the Battle Pass.
Loot Box
- Every Loot Box draws from a curated collection of Overwatch and Overwatch 2 cosmetic items.
- Each box will drop four items when opened. The items you get are now randomly selected at the time of box opening.
- Loot Boxes will prioritize giving you items you don't already own.
- If a Loot Box can't avoid giving you any items you already own, the loot box will instead grant progress towards a bonus Loot Box.
- At the start of each season, any unopened boxes from previous seasons will be automatically opened and all items dropped from them are added to your collection.
Drop Rates
On average, each rarity has the following chances of dropping per one Loot Box opened.
- Legendary: 5.1%
- Epic: 21.93%
- Rare: 96.26%
- Common: 97.97%
Guaranteed Drops
- A Legendary item is guaranteed to drop within 20 consecutive box openings.
- An Epic item is guaranteed to drop within five consecutive box openings.
- At least one Rare item or better is guaranteed to drop in every box.
Legendary Loot Box
Each Legendary Loot Box is guaranteed to contain at least one Legendary item.
Drop Rates
On average, each rarity has the following chances of dropping per one Legendary Box opened.
- Legendary: 100%
- Epic: 21.93%
- Rare: 96.26%
- Common: 97.97%
Competitive Play Updates
Skill Rank Reset
- The highest Ranks (Master, Grandmaster, and Champion) have been tuned to include a higher percentage of the player population once players are well calibrated.
- Given the addition of Perks and the tuning of higher Tiers, this reset is designed to put players on an even playing field and give them a chance to climb even higher than ever before.
- All ranks in Role Queue and Open Queue in Competitive Play have been reset to Unranked and all players will need to complete their respective 10 placement matches for each role.
Competitive Rewards
- Galactic Weapon Variants can now be unlocked with Competitive Points, allowing you to reach for the stars while you rank up.
- Jade Weapon Variants join Gold Weapon Variants as Legacy Rewards.
- Legacy Rewards can be purchased with Legacy Competitive Points.
- Competitive Weapon Charms will be awarded to players in Platinum and above in Season 16 based on your performance in Season 15.
- End-of-season titles for Competitive Role Queue now include the role the rank was achieved in. Examples include Champion Tank, Champion Support, Champion Damage, and Open Queue Champion.
Competitive Point Conversion
- All Competitive Points earned in the 2024 Competitive Year have been converted into Legacy Competitive Points.
- Competitive Points can now be manually converted into Legacy Competitive Points when purchasing Weapon Variants.
Ranks on Portraits
- Competitive Hero Portraits return to Competitive Play with Overwatch 2's Rank icons, giving players that share their gameplay new opportunities to show off their skill.
Map Pool
- Clash Maps Hanaoka and Throne of Anubis are removed from the Competitive Play pool.
- All players can still play on all Escort, Hybrid, Control, Push, and Flashpoint maps.
General Updates
Voice Lines
- Refactored ultimate voice lines to allow custom player-specific voice lines instead also being heard by opponents.
- Mode-specific ultimate lines are now enabled to play game-wide for players with relevant skins equipped (ex. Warlock Ashe, Greek Gods skins, etc).
- Custom ultimate lines are now enabled for several Mythic skins, with more to come in future patches.
- Previously unused custom ultimate lines are now available for several other skins.
Emotes
- Emotes can now be cancelled mid-animation shortly after they are activated.
Introducing Perks
- Perks are now enabled in Quick Play and Competitive modes.
How to gain Perk progress
- Perk progress is gained by dealing damage, securing eliminations, and healing your allies. • Throughout the match, the rate at which you gain Perks will gradually increase. • When you eliminate an enemy who is at a higher perk level than you (full level), that elimination is also worth more Perk progress.
Swapping Heroes
- When you swap heroes, your new hero will be set to level 1 with zero perk progress.
- Your progress will be saved on any heroes that you play throughout the round though. So, if you played Tracer to Level 3 and got her Major Perk, when you switch back to Tracer you will be at Level 3 with your perks equipped.
Selecting Perks
There are multiple options available to select your perks into fit your personal play style.
- Standard Selection: Hold down Left Alt on keyboard or up on the directional pad for controller, then aim at the left or right perk or press your shoulder buttons on controller to select.
- Quick Selection: You can also set your own bindings to select your perks without bringing up the Perk selection user interface, which is great for once you've really gotten your perks down and don't need the menu.
- You can also bind your perk selection to be a toggle instead of holding by default.
Celebrate In Our Perked-Up Event
- For season 15 only, players can earn up to an additional 10 loot boxes each week by completing up to 15 games with wins counting as double.
- Challenges for Loot Boxes reset every week, so any loot boxes not earned in that week are missed out.
We have the full list of perks here for anyone wanting to give them a read before jumping in.
Bug Fixes
General
- Fixed a bug where players were unable to rename highlights when saving them.
- Fixes a bug where Voice Line Icons would sometimes appear over prestige tiers in the battle pass.
- Fixed a bug where the Drives Signature VFX would sometimes extend off the nametag.
- Fixed a bug where the final score would sometimes not appear in ranked games.
Heroes
- Fixed a bug where Hazard's Jagged Wall projectiles would not respect barrier.
You can check out our Twitch Drops page to see which rewards are available at any moment for watching Overwatch 2 streams.
If you want to stay up-to-date with all the news about Overwatch 2, don't forget to bookmark the site and follow us through our social media pages.