Overwatch 2 Hero Mastery explained: Release date, Challenges, Gauntlet, more

Overwatch 2 Hero mastery has become a staple in the game ever since its arrival, so here is your explainer on what the mode is, and all its new additions.

When devs at Blizzard were providing new teasers in the lead-up to Season 5, they briefly showcased a new single-player mode they’ve been working on for Season 6, aka Overwatch 2: Invasion. This mode is now known as Hero Mastery. 

The concept was fairly simple. Blizzard had created hero-specific training courses as an introduction to hero mechanics for newer players. Additionally, they’ve released new co-op modes to perhaps teach some newer players about teamwork.

So here is an explainer of what Hero Mastery is, its new additions, and how it helps newer players.

Overwatch 2 Hero Mastery: Release Date

Hero Mastery was released at the same time as Overwatch 2: Invasion, aka Season 6, which has been confirmed to be released on August 10, 2023. 

Additional Hero Mastery missions arrived on January 2, 2024, with Season 8’s mid-season patch.

Hero Mastery: Gauntlet arrived on March 12, 2024, with Season 9’s mid-season patch.

Overwatch 2 Hero Mastery: All Hero Mastery missions

When Hero Mastery came out in Season 6, the devs had planned to gradually release additional missions for more Heroes in waves over the coming Seasons.

Below you can find all the Hero Master missions available, and the Seasons they were released in

• Reinhardt – Season 6
• Winston – Season 6
• Sojourn – Season 6
• Tracer – Season 6
• Mercy – Season 6
• D.Va – Season 8
• Mei – Season 8
• Echo – Season 8
• Genji – Season 8
• Lucio – Season 8
• Soldier 76 – Season 11
• Kiriko – Season 11
• Zarya – Season 12
• Pharah – Season 12

Hero Mastery: Gauntlet was released in Season 9. Although not a new Hero Mastery mission, it is an off-shoot of the mode, however, shut down by the end of Season 10.

Overwatch 2 Hero Mastery: Challenges 

In the Invasion reveal stream, we got a look into what Hero Mastery mission challenges will entail. 

Dotted throughout the map for each Hero, there will be coins that players need to collect as they go around the map trying out a hero’s movement mechanics. The goal is to get as many coins as possible which will build up a Mastery score. 

Not too dissimilar to what the LEGO games do with studs, completionists will need to use some mechanical trickery to get some of the harder-to-reach coins. 

And naturally, each run has a timer. If the Overwatch training range speed runs are anything to go by, chances are there will be a whole subsection of the community racing to see who can get the fastest times. 

Scores will be tallied by the end of a run, with your Mastery score and time being displayed. So to the speedrunners, the game mode was all but made for you. 

Overwatch 2 Hero Mastery: Gauntlet explained

Hero Mastery: Gauntlet is an off-shoot of the Hero Mastery mode that was released in Season 9’s mid-season update.

The co-op game mode sees players team up together to protect towers from enemy bots, essentially a tower defense mode but in the Hero Mastery mode.

The Gauntlet tasks players to work together to not only defend the towers but to also collect as many coins around the map to earn as high a score and compete on the leaderboards.

However, at the start of Season 11, the mode will no longer be in the game after an underwhelming reception from the community.

Overwatch 2 Hero Mastery: Helping new players

One of the goals of Hero Mastery, as Overwatch dev Kim Horn explained in the recent livestream, is to allow newer players to figure out if a hero’s mechanics fit them, or just to practice the fundamentals of a certain hero. 

From showing that players can get a double jump as Winston when activating Primal mid-air, to showing that Tracer can get up into higher ground by jumping and Blinking, and subtly teaching players how to keep afloat as a Mercy, a range of advanced mechanics can be learned here.