Overwatch’s shift from a retail game to a free-to-play one has had both its costs and benefits. The hero shooter has a much lower barrier to entry now, but the shift away from purchasable loot boxes to pricey skins and battle passes that disappear after a season ends has added an element of FOMO that’s far worse than it used to be. As such, if you missed out on a season or just couldn’t grind to the end of a battle pass, you might miss out on a cool skin or cosmetic for your favorite hero, unless you lucked out and found it in a loot box on the battle pass or during an event. Now, Blizzard is making it easier to get cosmetics on previous battle passes that you might’ve missed in what seems to be part of a larger push toward alleviating some of the game’s notorious grind.
Battle passes are getting revamped in Overwatch’s fourth 2026 season, which launches today and includes new tank hero D.Mon. Rather than having to grind through all 80 levels of a linear battle pass from the outset, you’ll be able to choose from one of several tracks so you can prioritize the cosmetics you want first. For example, if a battle pass track initially would have included a skin you wanted at level 80, requiring hours of playtime to reach it, you’ll now be able to start on a smaller track that will get you the skin you want faster. This is a good change for people who don’t play the game every other day (like me), as it means you won’t have to make Overwatch your second job just to get one skin at the very end of the battle pass. All players will have to complete the initial track of battle pass levels; then it will become more open-ended.
That’s how you’ll unlock things in the future, but Blizzard has also announced plans to “unvault” previous battle passes from seasons that have come and gone. This will arrive in Season Four’s midseason update in September, and allow you to unlock the rewards on previous “select” battle passes without any sort of seasonal time limit. Another change Blizzard is adding is the ability to “hack” one of the Legendary skin slots in each battle pass to swap it for one of a selected group of Legendary skins, so you could maybe use this to get a skin you missed from a previous season. With all these changes taken together, it looks like Overwatch is taking strides to cut out some of the FOMO that has plagued the game for years.
Fans are excited because it means cosmetics that have been taunting them in the Hero Gallery from years-old battle passes may finally join their collections, though there is some skepticism about some of the finer details regarding how much time people will have to nab an Unvaulted Pass.
“FINALLY I CAN GET POSEIDON RAMMATRA,” one fan writes on Reddit. “MY SUFFERING HAS ENDED.”
“I can almost guarantee that it works like Marvel Rivals’ one,” another speculates. “Limited time purchase windows. They are literally going to double dip on the FOMO. ‘Buy now! Special unvaulted battle pass for 15.99.’ At least it stays around and you can just complete it. I am a massive fan of that.”
“Good,” another says. “No reason any game with a battle pass system shouldn’t have something like this.”
Personally, I think I’ve finished every battle pass since 2022 with the exception of one, and I don’t think the levels I failed to reach included anything for my favorite characters, so I’m less concerned about getting old cosmetics than I am with just rebuilding my streak. I had kinda fallen off Overwatch just before Blizzard started making significant changes to the game with last year’s Stadium and Perks, and this year’s narrative revamp. We were just on a break, Overwatch. Now, no one will have to know.
