You can give Overwatch 2’s new drill-wielding, burrowing damage hero Venture a spin for free later this week
Ahead of Season 10’s arrival next month
Overwatch 2’s next damage hero Venture is tunnelling into the free-to-play shooter a little early - for a while anyway. Before the new drillin’ DPS makes their official arrival next month, they’ll be available to take for a spin from tomorrow through the weekend.
Venture, if you missed their teased announcement during last year’s BlizzCon, brings an intriguing new mechanic to the team hero shooter, using their Smart Excavator drill-gun to burrow underground and become invulnerable to damage - visible with a cartoony moving pile of dirt - before popping out to pop off seismic charges with area-of-effect damage and dash forward (and potentially across gaps) using their drilling implement.
As they pop off their abilities, Venture’s passive ability will also grant teammates temporary shields via Explorer’s Resolve, with a second passive, Clobber, allowing them to deal increased melee damage with fast close-quarters attacks.
Their ultimate, Tectonic Shock, looks a bit like a souped-up version of Reinhardt’s Earthshatter, sending out a series of shockwaves that don’t knock enemies down but do deal damage across a wide area. (They yell “Excavation Initiation!”, if you’re curious what to listen out for.)
Venture is Overwatch’s 18th damage hero, 40th overall and the game’s first non-binary character. Their arrival on April 16th alongside the kickoff for Season 10 will be preceded by a limited trial from March 28th - that's tomorrow - until this Sunday, March 31st, during which time you can give their driller powers a go.
Whereas previous additions to Overwatch 2 - such as Mauga - have required brand new players to grind out some matches to unlock the full roster, and even long-term players to cough up for the premium battle pass in some cases, Season 10 will drop all of the previous barriers to playing a new character. Venture will be available for all players from day one, with future characters also being offered for free off the bat. The new season will also rework the shooter’s in-game Mythic Shop, providing more flexibility about how you unlock skins through its battle pass.
In matches themselves, Season 10 will make some gameplay changes around group restrictions and its Hacked events, following recent tweaks to allow non-support characters to heal themselves and adjusting the likes of projectiles and hit points.