Overwatch 2 is teasing its new hero in game — with some big lore implications

Blizzard is teasing the arrival of Overwatch 2’s subsequent hero, a personality codenamed Area Ranger, for her arrival within the sport’s subsequent season. Earlier this week, alongside the launch of Overwatch 2’s new Transformers crossover, a (considerably) mysterious object appeared within the sport’s Dorado map: an empty escape pod that presumably carried Area Ranger again to Earth.

That escape pod included just a few clues concerning the identification of Area Ranger, which Blizzard teased finally 12 months’s BlizzCon. A Morse-coded message and {a photograph} taped to the within of that escape pod hints that the character could also be an previous colleague of Mei’s — or at the least somebody who is aware of Mei.

Shortly after the escape pod was found in Dorado — it’s smack dab within the attacking staff’s spawn room — gamers decoded the key message emanating from the spacecraft. It reads:

J HAS LANDED

ATTEMPTING TRANSMISSION TO RPT

AWAITING RESPONSE

“J” could also be a personality named Jiayi, who’s referenced in one in all Mei’s voice strains in Overwatch 2. On the Lijiang Tower map, Mei will typically say, “My pal Jiayi works right here. She and I had a number of enjoyable in grad college. Perhaps an excessive amount of.”

Lijiang Tower is the headquarters for Lucheng Interstellar, the Chinese language firm that constructed the Horizon Lunar Colony, the place Winston and Hammond hail from, in Overwatch lore. Lucheng Interstellar additionally seems to have been concerned in creating a Martian colony; two parachutes linked to the escape pod in Dorado bear the Lucheng emblem and the phrases “Challenge Purple Promise,” indicating a push outward to Mars.

Picture: Blizzard Leisure through gamerjive

{A photograph} of Mei and an individual who could also be Jiayi is taped to the inside of the escape pod. However Overwatch followers have additionally speculated that the “J” might consult with a distinct character, Jiayi’s daughter, provided that Jiayi would, like Mei, be in her early-to-mid 40s. The paintings we’ve seen of Area Ranger up to now signifies the brand new hero could also be youthful.

Both means, Mei attending to see an previous pal (or the daughter of her pal) could be excellent news for the character. All of her different mates are lifeless.

Picture: Blizzard Leisure

Area Ranger hails from a colony on Mars, and he or she’ll be a “extremely cellular assist hero who has fairly a little bit of vertical mobility,” the developer stated at BlizzCon 2023’s “Overwatch 2: What’s Subsequent” panel. She’ll be armed with a burst-fire sensible submachine gun and retractable shoulder-mounted missile launchers.

We don’t know Area Ranger’s true identification or what the hero’s ultimate title can be simply but. But it surely’s seemingly that Blizzard will proceed to trickle out new particulars forward of her arrival in season 12 of Overwatch 2, which ought to go dwell in mid-to-late August. When she goes dwell, Area Ranger can be Overwatch 2’s forty first hero and its ninth assist.

If Blizzard continues to supply pre-release previews of recent heroes, because it did with Mauga and Enterprise, we might also get our fingers on Area Ranger within the coming weeks, if solely to check them out.