Dorado

Dorado


Theme	▶️ ▶️
Type	Escort
Location	Veracruz, Mexico^[1]
Narrator	▶️
Terrain	Town street
Release date	2016-05-24

Dorado is an Escort map in Overwatch and Overwatch 2. One of the 12 maps included in the game's release on 24 May 2016.

Official Description[ | ]

It is Festival de la Luz in Dorado, an annual celebration of the end of the Omnic Crisis and the period of darkness – both figurative and literal – that engulfed Mexico when the omnics destroyed much of the country’s power grid and infrastructure. But there is a new dawn, as LumériCo and its CEO, war hero and former president Guillermo Portero, are unveiling a string of fusion plants that promise to deliver clean, free energy to the Mexican people.

The attacking team begins in Missión Dorado, a historic location famous for the sound of the ornamental bells that hang amidst its arches.^[2] While the Defenders starts from the Bank: fresh from criminal activity and when that fails, They fall back to the Ziggurat.

Background[ | ]

Dorado is a city in Mexico^[3] set high above a sweeping bay. The city is powered by gigantic ziggurats, which can be seen glowing around the bay. These were constructed by LumériCo, and as the final one was constructed, CEO Guillermo Portero gave a speech to mark the occasion.^[4] The city holds a festival that celebrates the end of the Omnic Crisis, though it possesses an underground criminal element.^[5]

The city was identified as a hotspot by Overwatch in the decades following the Omnic Crisis.^[3]

Gameplay[ | ]

The objective of this map is to transport a truck through the city streets and into one of the ziggurats^[6] in order to restore power to the region^[7]. The attacking team starts very close to the payload truck at the lowest point on the map. The defending team spawns at several locations, two of which are located within the ziggurat powering Dorado.

Known Locations[ | ]

LumériCo ziggurat
Banco de Dorado
Museo de Historia de Dorado
Palacio de Justicia
Gobierno Municipal de Dorado
Misión Dorado
Mercado
Panadería Las Nieblas

Strategy[ | ]

The winding streets and courtyards of Dorado provide many opportunities for snipers on this map. A vantage point is set up directly opposite of the truck's starting location, making it an ideal position for a hero such as Widowmaker to set up. The narrow passages can make abilities like Dragonstrike effective. Torbjörn excels on Defense as his turret can cover a lot of the wide open areas. Heroes with vertical movement abilities excel on this map, due to its various strong high grounds that otherwise require taking longer flanks to access.

Trivia[ | ]

The map's name means "Golden" in Spanish. It also might be named after the Dorado constellation.
- The namesake could also be a reference to El Dorado, a mythical Aztec city that was entirely made of gold. The nearby LumériCo building is even based off an Aztec pyramid.
The attacking team's starting area contains a range of large metal bells, which can be shot at to produce different musical notes. Creative players can produce simple melodies in this way.
- It is possible to play the Overwatch main theme on these bells.
  - When done successfully with Wrecking Ball, he will squeak the tune.
- It is also possible to produce the main theme of the show "Futurama".
The streets of Dorado are festooned with numerous decorations, including destructible piñatas and guitars. Some of these piñatas depict the heads of characters from other Blizzard games, such as the eponymous Diablo. The map itself depicts the city's Omnic Crisis celebration.
The Hero short takes place on a modified version of Dorado.
Around the start of the map, near the first point, there is a statue featuring four plaques. The plaques read:
- 'En honor a los caídos durante la oscuridad' (Rough Translation: 'In honour of the fallen during the darkness')
- 'Hasta la noche más oscura cede ante el amanecer' (Rough Translation: 'Even the darkest night gives way before dawn')
- 'Que renazcan en la luz' (Rough Translation: 'May they be reborn in the light')
- 'Y que jamás sean olvidados' (Rough Translation: 'And never be forgotten')

Development[ | ]

During development, the Overwatch team had difficulty finding the right visual references for Dorado, leading them to eventually look for "colorful mexican towns" on google images. In doing so, they managed to find a photograph that helped solidify Dorado's aesthetic, though the developers later discovered that their visual reference was actually of a town in Italy called Manarola.^[8]
During Season 11's mid-season patch, a crashed Lucheng Interstellar space shuttle was added to Dorado's first attacker spawn. This is the shuttle Juno used to arrive to Earth.

Season 13 rework[ | ]

Dorado was one of the four maps reworked in Season 13 with the goal to address balance issues between attackers and defenders. The changes to Dorado specifically were made address to spawn camping on the first point and the defenders high ground advantages across the map by adding cover and improving the accessibility of the high grounds to the attackers.^[9]

On the first point, the spawn room protection was extended to the balcony, the close cliff side building's roof was made inaccessible and an elevator was added to access the middle building's roof from the attackers' side. Both flank routes were shortened for better access to the high grounds. The stalls in the market area near the end of the first point were moved and additional entrances were opened to the cliff side building to provide more angles to the attackers. On the second point, an entrance to the courthouse was added to the attackers' side. The courthouse balcony was lowered and a staircase was added to the attackers' side. On the last point, cover was added to the main path after the choke point and after the staircase leading to the high ground.^[10]