Battle of the Beasts

Battle of the Beasts was a limited-time event in Overwatch 2. With the release of Season 8: Call of the Hunt, coinciding with the release of the newest hero Mauga and the new Orisa Mythic Skin. The event ran from December 5 to December 18, 2023^[1], and then returned during the Overwatch Anniversary Event 2024, on September 24 to October 1, 2024.^[2]

Gameplay[]

In this PvPvE game mode, players would have to battle against an enemy team to defeat their "Beast". The teams are a selection of 4 Heroes from a restricted selection, with each team having their own "Beast". Beasts are AI-Controlled Orisas equipped with her Grand Beast Mythic Skin. The game mode ran on the Flashpoint map New Junk City.

In-game description:

TRY OUT MAUGA AS YOU HUNT THE ENEMY TEAM'S BEAST AND DEFEND YOUR OWN!

Start[]

To start, team spawns at their respective spawns on opposite sides of the map, with their Beasts outside. Once the game starts, they would go to the First Objective on New Junk City, where the two Beasts would head to the Arena in the centre of the map to battle.

Battle[]

During battle, The Beasts would primarily attack each other, unless an enemy player was the vicinity. If a player was close by, it would instead attack them whilst not moving out of the Arena. Players could help attack the enemy beast, heal their own beast (If they had healing abilities), or attack enemy players instead. Once the beast had taken enough damage and lost one of its three health bars, teams would move to an Objective Point for the Pylon stage.

Pylon Collection[]

Teams would have 20 seconds from the end of a battle to go to one of the four remaining Objective Points on the map where a pylon would spawn and try to claim it. During this stage, whilst a pylon is at a point or travelling, the Beasts would enter a "Hibernation" mode of sorts, being shielded from taken damage, healing and incapable of moving. Pylons provide the Beasts Large amounts of Overhealth based on the percentage of their respective team claimed on that objective. This could mean both Beasts gain substantial Overhealth in the next fight, or only one Beast does.

Repeat[]

Once a Pylon is claimed, the Battle stage begins again after the Pylon travels from the Objective point back to the Arena to provide the Beasts with Overhealth. This cycle continues until one of the beasts loses all 3 of it's Health Bars.

Heroes[]

During this game mode, hero selection was restricted to the following heroes for each role.

Tanks[]

Mauga is the only available tank for this mode.

Damage[]

Playable Damage Heroes

Ashe
Bastion
Cassidy
Echo
Genji
Hanzo
Junkrat
Pharah
Reaper
Sojourn
Soldier: 76
Symmetra
Torbjörn
Tracer
Widowmaker

Support[]

Playable Support Heroes

Ana
Baptiste
Brigitte
Illari
Lúcio
Mercy
Moira
Zenyatta

Beasts[]

During this game mode, the primary enemies were Beasts. Beasts were large Orisas who had her Grand Beast skin equipped. The Grand Beast skin would vary each game, with a random selection from its customizable options. The Beasts spoke to their respective team to ask for their help in battling the enemy Beast. During battle, the typical abilities of Orisa were enhanced in various ways, including an increased Health Pool consisting of 3 health bars, which were located at the top of the screen at all times. Whilst the Beasts were in hibernation, a shield would appear over the health bars as to show they are protected from further damage.

Beast Abilities
Weapon/Ability	Enhanced
Augmented Fusion Driver	Due to the AI-Controlled nature of the Beast, the weapon is more accurate as it can better track players. It also deals more damage in comparison to Orisa's normal primary, being approximately 17.5 per shot.
Fortify	It's difficult to tell if there was any changes to her Fortify in this mode, as it able to be properly tested. It likely functioned as normal Fortify, making her immune to CC, reduced damage and giving overhealth.
Energy Javelin	Energy Javelin, unlikely normal Javelin, had a prolonged animation prior to it being thrown. When targeting a player, The Beast would hold the Javelin prior to it being thrown, with a laser pointing directly at the target. It would then be thrown around 3 seconds after targeting, dealing ~140 damage, stunning the target and applying a brief moment of Anti-heal.
Javelin Spin	Javelin spin was noticeably more improved, creating a vacuum where the Beast was facing, causing players to be dragged towards the Beast whilst functioning as a normal Javelin Spin, destroying projectiles.
Terra Surge	Due to the Beasts increased size, her ultimate was similarly greatly increased. Rather than fully charging it for 4 seconds, the Beast would typically activate it within 2 seconds, dealing increased damage regardless.

Challenges[]

List of event challenges

Cosmetics[]

These cosmetics are the ones exclusive to the event and were only accessible for free through the challenges, rather than all cosmetics which relate to the Season 8 theme, "Call of the Hunt".