Between three categories of heroes — Tank, Damage, and Support —there are 35 characters in Overwatch 2. But not all of them are unlocked from the start. If you are a new player and didn’t play the original Overwatch, only 15 are available when you first start up the game. To unlock the remaining 20 characters, you’ll need to put in some time.
Fortunately, Overwatch 2 doesn’t make it very difficult to unlock characters and gives you new heroes at a consistent clip. Plus, if you owned the original Overwatch, Blizzard has said you will not have to unlock characters; except one, all will be unlocked by default upon logging in. If Account Merge is broken for you, or you are stuck in the queue, you may have to wait until those issues are fixed to receive access to all the game’s heroes.
To unlock most the heroes you knew from the original Overwatch, you have to play and win matches. This is what Blizzard is calling the First Time User Experience (FTUE). To work your way through the entire FTUE, you’ll have to play a maximum of 150 unranked games. The catch is that winning games counts as two completed games, so it will likely average out closer to 100 unranked matches.
How to Get All Characters
- Genji (Damage)
- Complete 1 match.
- D.VA (Tank)
- Complete 2 matches.
- Cassidy (Damage)
- Complete 3 matches.
- Ana (Support)
- Complete 4 matches.
- Hanzo (Damage)
- Complete 9 matches.
- Junkrat (Damage)
- Complete 12 matches.
- Roadhog (Tank)
- Complete 15 matches.
- Symmetra (Damage)
- Complete 20 matches.
- Zenyatta (Support)
- Complete 25 matches.
- Bastion (Damage)
- Complete 30 matches.
- Sigma (Tank)
- Complete 40 matches.
- Ashe (Damage)
- Complete 50 matches.
- Brigitte (Support)
- Complete 60 matches.
- Mei (Damage)
- Complete 70 matches.
- Doomfist (Tank)
- Complete 85 matches.
- Baptiste (Support)
- Complete 100 matches.
- Sombra (Damage)
- Complete 115 matches.
- Wrecking Ball (Tank)
- Complete 130 matches.
- Echo (Damage)
- Complete 150 matches.
How to Unlock Sojourn and Junker Queen
Sojourn and Junker Queen are not unlocked via the FTUE, but if you log into Overwatch 2 before December 5, you’ll be given both Sojourn and Junker Queen for free. Any player, regardless of if you owned Overwatch 1 or not, will unlock these two heroes as long as they log into Overwatch 2 before the end of the first season and complete the tutorial. After the season ends on Dec 5, these characters will need to be purchased to be unlocked… that is, unless you owned the first Overwatch.
Players of Overwatch 1 have an entire other season to log in to and redeem Sojourn and Junker Queen. Since both Heroes come in the Overwatch 2 Founder’s Pack, players have until Season 2 ends to reedem them. As long as you open and log in to the game before February 2023, you’ll be able to redeem the Founder’s Pack for Sojourn and Junker Queen.
How to Unlock Kiriko
The new Support Hero Kiriko is the only new character that is truly locked away. In order to unlock her, you either need to reach Level 55 in the base Battle Pass or pay 1,000 Coins (equivalent of $9.99 USD + tax) for the Premium Battle Pass. When you purchase the Premium upgrade, Kiriko will be one of the perks that immediately unlocks. If you don’t want to pay this premium, you’ll have to put a good number of hours into Overwatch 2 before unlocking Kiriko.
There is a third way to unlock Kiriko: having owned Overwatch 1 and redeem the Founder’s Pack. As long as you meet this requirement and logged on to Overwatch 2 before June 23, 2022, at 11 am PDT, you should have received the game’s newest character.
That’s how you unlock all of the current characters and heroes in Blizzard’s shooter sequel. For anything else on how to play Overwatch 2 or navigate its nasty error messages, check out our guides hub for the game.
