Overwatch 2 Hero Mastery mode adds five new Heroes to the challenge, starting with Lucio

Hero Mastery Mode in Overwatch 2 offers a unique chance to either learn a new Hero or showcase your talent at a couple favorites in a PVE environment. However, given the fact that you’re tasked with completing objectives on a tight timer, I’m not going to call that low stakes. Even though it is a PVE environment, the pressure is still on.

Initially, Mercy, Reinhardt, and Tracer were available to play, giving a little taste of the experience for players who specialize in each role. Sojourn and Winston joined the fray thereafter. In Season 8, Lucio was added to Hero Mastery Mode, followed weekly by Mei, D.Va, Echo, and Genji.

There are multiple levels of Mastery Mode challenge for each hero, so when you five star the first one, you still have more to go. There are leaderboards for each course, so also on the line? Eternal glory. As with most of these fun new modes, there are also Challenges to complete, though this time, most of the rewards are just scads of Battle Pass XP.

My first go at the mode felt a little weird and disjointed. I didn’t know what my objectives were, exactly, or where to find them, really. I chose Mercy, and there’s an assortment of both teammate bots to heal and res, and antagonist bots you can shoot at, making for an extra bit of confusion. But this type of course the kind of thing where you’re intended to muddle your way through at first, figuring out the most efficient way to complete the course via a few repetitions. It is a fun change of pace from regular games, and I’d venture that it would be really nice to learn some of the tricks of the more quirky heroes in a lower stakes environment like this one. However, I do find it ironic that you can’t advance your account progression much by playing this mode, despite both being weighted around the concept of skill and mastery.

Initially Hero Mastery Mode was going to have an endpoint like most of the other quirky Arcade play modes. However, the mode was so popular, now it’s a permanent feature, with new Heroes being added from time to time. I’m excited to completely ruin the day of a bunch of bots.

Initially published September 7, 2023. Updated January 2, 2024.