Overwatch’s broken elevator bug is getting players killed

Taking the elevator to heaven is a great way to get out of sticky situations in Overwatch, but a new bug plaguing the system means that they’re not operating as intended.

As Overwatch has continued to grow over the years, one of the most contentious in-game systems are the notorious elevators.

Found on both the Hollywood and Volskaya Industries maps, Blizzard finally adapted the feature to lift upwards only when someone stood on them all the way back in September of 2020.

A new bug has appeared on both maps’ elevators, though, which means they’re not quite working as intended. Turns out, players aren’t pleased.

Overwatch elevator bug

Despite now being programmed to elevate when a player stands on top of them, Overwatch’s elevators appear to be pretty picky about who they want to play ball with.

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As seen in the first clip, the Reaper uses his Shadow Step to close the gap between Points A and B on Volskaya, and despite landing on the elevator it doesn’t raise for him. Evidently frustrated, the player jumps off only to watch it lift his allies up without him.

Another situation arises on Hollywood, where the lift proceeds to block the healing Mercy who, when she tries to jump back to McCree, can’t ride the elevator.

She quickly falls victim to the other team and winds up having to respawn, and the elevator chooses the very moment that she dies to rise upwards. Comedic timing, or just plain bullying? We’re not sure. Though the simple solution here would have been to get on the lift with the cowboy hero.

While initially there was a lot of debate about whether or not this is a bug, it’s pretty clear that there’s something not quite right with the in-game system.

The players are standing directly on the elevator, and have moved on and off yet still haven’t triggered the proximity mechanism. While some commenters argue this is due to their being a cooldown period for the elevators, there’s nothing that shows this obviously in-game.

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So whether it’s a bug or part of the design is unclear, but it’s clearly pretty frustrating. Hopefully, Blizzard either implement a fix, or consider including something that shows you when the elevator is usable again.

Until then, though, make sure you speak extra nicely to it while in-game. You don’t want to be stuck with a vengeful elevator.