Overwatch 2 season 4’s new battle pass, skins, and Starwatch mode revealed

Overwatch 2 season 4 starts on April 11, bringing new support hero Lifeweaver to the game and kicking off a new space opera-themed battle pass. In a new trailer for the season, Blizzard lays out what players can expect in terms of new skins, new gameplay modes, and new in-game challenges — plus one big change to support hero Brigitte, who’s getting a shield upgrade this season.

New hero Lifeweaver will be added to the roster and included as part of the Overwatch 2 battle pass in season 4. Players who pay for the premium season 4 battle pass will unlock him immediately; others will have to wait until they reach level 45 in the battle pass.

Players will also be able to experiment with Lifeweaver in a new arcade mode called BOB and Weave. The mode stars Lifeweaver and Ashe’s robotic butler BOB, and will be a variant on 3v3 deathmatch. Everyone plays as Lifeweaver, and each team will get a single BOB that call be pulled around the map using Lifeweaver’s Life Grip ability. BOB and Weave will run in Overwatch 2 through April 25.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Season 4 will also see the return of the Battle for Olympus mode, which runs May 23 to 29.

Overwatch 2 season 4 battle pass

This season’s pass will include new cosmetics for characters like Hanzo, Lifeweaver, and Sigma, who will receive this season’s Mythic-tier skin. Players can also earn skins for Lifeweaver and Symmetra through in-game challenges.

Naturally, Blizzard will also sell plenty of Overwatch 2 skins, including Omnic looks for Junkrat and Roadhog, and a Pinocchio-inspired look for Zenyatta. Elsewhere in the trailer, we see a skin for Tracer that gives her a vaporwave style and a skin for Echo that appears Hajime Sorayama-inspired.

The premium battle pass will also include skins themed after a new mode, Starwatch. Players can unlock Space Prince Lucio, Extraterrestrial Winston, Infinite Ace D.Va, and Seer Mercy.

Starwatch mode

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Overwatch 2 season 4 will also introduce a new game mode called Starwatch: Galactic Rescue, which is a 4v4 mode set on Horizon Lunar Colony, a map that was removed from the general map rotation due to the Assault mode going away for Blizzard’s sequel. Starwatch will also have its own space opera-inspired skins that appear to be Warhammer 40,000 and Star Wars-adjacent.

Players will battle it out in Starwatch mode as one of two factions: The Watchers and the Infinite Empire.

Season 4 balance changes

Brigitte is getting a big change in a new balance update: Her shield will get much, much wider when she uses her ultimate ability to rally her teammates. Additionally, “Brigitte now gains a fixed amount of recoverable armor and powers her shield up with increased size and health, along with the ability to stun,” Blizzard says. “So, when you hear her battle cry, get ready for some wild brawls.”

Blizzard says it’s also making “small changes to Sigma, Reinhardt, and Cassidy focusing on pulling back their lethality a little bit.”

The developer is also reverting changes related to Mercy. The Overwatch team said in an update:

While our goal was to make her healing more engaging when saving low-health allies, her sustainability shifted from her mobility to being able to stay alive through her passive and Valkyrie, making her not as fun to play or play against. We’re reverting these changes, with a slight adjustment to how guardian angel works to keep her boosted jump under control.

What’s next?

Finally, season 4 will extend into Pride Month, and it looks like flags will fly in Overwatch 2 starting June 1.