Practice vs. AI

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Practice vs. AI

Practice vs. AI is a game mode in Overwatch 2 available via the Training playlist. During a match, one team of five human players faces a team of five heroes controlled by the game's AI.

Description

"Hone your skill by playing against AI-controlled heroes."

Practice vs. AI plays nearly identically to Unranked Open Queue, only with AI-controlled heroes as opponents instead of humans. There is no role lock in place for the human team, meaning players may pick any hero not already chosen by an ally. The AI team is restricted to a standard Role Queue composition of 1 Tank hero, 2 Damage heroes, and 2 Support heroes.

The mode is played as 5v5 on a randomly selected map from one of five standard play game modes:

• Control
• Escort
• Flashpoint
• Hybrid
• Push

Difficulty levels

Before searching for a match, the player is prompted to select a difficulty. Higher difficulties increase the bots' damage output, weapon accuracy, ability usage, and movement complexity.^{[citation needed]} Practice vs. AI has three difficulty levels, from easiest to hardest:

• 
  CASUAL
• 
  HARD
• 
  LETHAL

Heroes with AI

The following is a comprehensive list of heroes which can or cannot be encountered on the AI team, indicated by either a check mark (✔️) or a cross (❌), respectively.

Characteristics

Bot heroes have many defining characteristics when it comes to their behavior during matches. Some notable quirks are as follows:

• Bots destroy any breakable terrain object they come into contact with.
• Bots cannot be moved around by human players walking into them, but they can be bodyblocked.
• Bots cannot equip Perks.
• Bots cannot crouch.
• Bots cannot be On Fire, and they cannot earn Play of the Game.^{[citation needed]}
• Bots only jump to navigate map terrain; never in combat. The only exception is Hanzo, who will do so in order to execute his Lunge when he sustains enough damage.
• Bots will immediately attempt to find cover when specific Ultimates are activated by the enemy.
• Bots will switch heroes after being eliminated a certain amount of times. However, they do not switch if their Ultimate is ready or almost ready.
• Bots ignore enemies slept by Sleep Dart until they wake up.
• Bots focus their attention on enemy Support heroes more than those of other roles.^{[citation needed]}
• Bots can track enemies that have left their line of sight for several seconds.^{[citation needed]}
• Bots greet each other in the spawn room during setup.
• Bots will attempt to destroy the motorcycle in the Junkertown attacker spawn.
• Bots automatically switch heroes after a lost round on Control maps.
• If outnumbered, bots may retreat to the spawn room and wait for allies to respawn before continuing to attack.
• Damage and Support bots are programmed to walk behind the Tank hero until they get to the objective.^{[citation needed]}
• Certain bots are not able to use their entire kit.^{[citation needed]} The abilities that cannot be used are as follows:
  • Baptiste: Exo Boots
  • Genji: Cyber-Agility
  • Hanzo: Wall Climb
  • Kiriko: Wall Climb (Kiriko)
  • Lúcio: Wall Ride
  • Mercy: Angelic Descent
  • Reaper: Shadow Step
  • Symmetra: Teleporter
  • Widowmaker: Grappling Hook
  • Zenyatta: Orb of Destruction Alt Fire
• Doomfist, Mauga, Reinhardt, and Brigitte may attempt to cancel an enemy's Rocket Punch, Overrun, Charge, or Shield Bash by using their own.
• Reinhardt may "taunt" enemies that he Charges off the map by greeting them.
• Sombra will attempt to Hack all nearby health packs after the round starts.

Bugs

AI heroes have several notable bugs. Some only occur when Recommended Role AI is active (meaning the AI is allowed to switch heroes); these cases are marked with an asterisk (*).

• After switching heroes, a bot may either retain the AI of the previous hero it played, or it may only look upwards for the remainder of the match.*
  • Bots often look upwards after switching from Junkrat. Possibly due to his arcing projectiles.
  • Bots often repeatedly jump after switching from Hanzo. Possibly in an attempt to use his Lunge.
• The AI team may have two of the same Damage and/or Support heroes, despite the Role Queue restriction.*
• Doomfist will never fully charge Rocket Punch.*
• Roadhog will never use Chain Hook and will only tap-fire his Take a Breather instead of holding its input.
• Sigma will only rarely use Hyperspheres and Accretion never at all.*
• Zarya will never use Graviton Surge.*
• Sombra will never use Virus or EMP.*
• Brigitte will never use Repair Pack.
• Bots sometimes do not respond to the presence of enemies (i.e., they do not attack or evade damage) when moving to or from the objective.
• Genji and Tracer are prone to falling off the map when using their movement abilities.
• Starting in Season 17, Tracer had a severe amount of bugs that were fixed in Season 18.
  • Tracer randomly died.
  • Tracer could restore all her ammo and health by using Blink.^{[citation needed]}
  • Tracer's Recall pulled enemies toward the position it was used at, potentially causing Environmental kills.^{[citation needed]}
  • When Tracer's Pulse Bomb exploded, it caused a secondary explosion when the enemy approached the location Pulse Bomb first exploded at, potentially eliminating unwary players.^{[citation needed]}
  • Tracer's Pulse Bomb appeared to be able to slightly home onto enemies.^{[citation needed]}
• Kiriko will always attempt to Swift Step to an ally when she sustains enough damage. This causes an error when she is the last ally standing; even if not within teleport range, she will remain "locked on" to her closest ally and unresponsive to enemies until she either can teleport or is eliminated.

Trivia

• Clash is the only standard play game mode that is not in rotation, most likely due to very short match times if either team gets overwhelmed.
• Roadhog was the first hero to be removed from the AI pool, following his November 2023 rework. However, he was reintroduced to the AI roster in March 2024.^{[citation needed]}