Overwatch 2 Season 20 went live on December 9, 2025. The update introduces Vendetta, the game's first melee-focused DPS hero, alongside major competitive system changes and the return of Winter Wonderland.
Vendetta Slashes Into the Roster
Vendetta is a sword-wielding DPS hero built around aggressive engagement and high mobility. She performed well during her hero trial but struggled at higher ranks, prompting Blizzard to ship her with a round of buffs for Season 20.
Her primary weapon, Palatine Fang, is a hard-light greatsword with combo swings ending in an overhead slash. Warding Stance lets her block frontal damage and deflect melee attacks at the cost of energy. Soaring Slice throws the sword forward and pulls Vendetta to its location, while Whirlwind Dash sends her into a forward circular slash.
During Warding Stance, she can use Projected Edge to fire a wide projectile that costs energy. Her passive ability, Onslaught, stacks movement and attack speed bonuses as she lands hits. Her ultimate, Sundering Blade, cuts through most defenses and deals heavy damage to enemies in front of her.
Season 20 Vendetta Changes
Recovery times on Palatine Fang's overhead attack, Whirlwind Dash, and Projected Edge drop by about 15%. Onslaught stacks now last 6.5 seconds instead of 5.5. Projected Edge travels faster at 37 meters per second, up from 33.
Soaring Slice's max throw distance shrinks from 16 to 14 meters. The devs say this keeps her engagement range in check while making the ability feel snappier overall.
Sundering Blade's cast time goes up slightly (0.4 to 0.5 seconds), but base damage jumps from 100 to 120. This makes partial charges more worthwhile. Her Siphoning Strike perk now heals for 40% instead of 30%, and Swift Vengeance grants 150 overhealth instead of 125.
Tank Balance Changes
Hazard comes out ahead this patch. Jagged Wall deals 50 knockback damage now (up from 40) and has 400 health instead of 350. Sigma's Hyperspheres hit harder too, with impact damage rising from 15 to 25.
Junker Queen and Reinhardt catch nerfs. Carnage's cooldown increases from 8 to 9 seconds, and Earthshatter costs 9% more ultimate charge.
DPS Balance Changes
Bastion's Recon mode fires faster at 6 shots per second, up from 5.
Freja gets a mixed bag. Her Revdraw Crossbow base damage goes up (25 to 30), but Take Aim loses punch on both direct hits (40 to 30) and explosions (90 to 80). Quick Dash travels 15% farther to compensate. Bola Shot's hinder lasts longer at 1.4 seconds and slows the area by 45% instead of 25%.
Junkrat's grenades move faster at 30 projectile speed, up from 25. His Frag Cannon perk's speed bonus drops from 40% to 25%, but it no longer reduces ammo capacity.
Reaper's lifesteal takes a hit, dropping from 30% to 25%. Venture's Explorer's Resolve grants 25 shield health per ability instead of 30.
Support Balance Changes
Baptiste's Immortality Field comes off cooldown faster at 22 seconds instead of 25. Juno's Mediblaster can now land headshots on enemies.
Three supports get tuned down. Illari's Captive Sun projectile shrinks from 0.75 to 0.45, making it easier for enemies to avoid. Kiriko's Kunai projectile size drops from 0.15 to 0.12. Wuyang's Rushing Torrent speed buff falls from 50% to 40%.
Console Aim Assist Rework
Controller players get a 7% aim assist buff across the board. Blizzard noted that Overwatch 2 has historically run lower aim assist than other shooters, and supports will benefit most from the change.
New sensitivity options include Extra Horizontal and Vertical Sensitivity at Max Deadzone, plus adjustable ramp-up delay and time settings. Players can also disable aim assist at max deadzone entirely.
Ana, Juno, and Illari get specific changes to friendly aim assist. A new health threshold setting (default 99%) prevents aim assist from snapping to full-health allies. Default friendly aim assist strength for these three heroes is now 100%.
Separate ease-in settings for projectile, hitscan, and melee heroes are available in the All Heroes menu. Aim Assist Legacy Mode is gone.
Challenger Tier Replaces Top 500
The competitive system gets a major shakeup. Top 500 is now Challenger Tier, and leaderboards track Challenger Score instead of raw rank.
Wins at Diamond 5 or higher in Core Competitive (or All-Star 5+ in Stadium) grant Challenger Score based on the highest-ranked player in the match. Losses subtract 33% of what a win would give at your current rank. Score resets each season.
A Heat Bonus rewards consistent play with 5% extra score per consecutive week. By season's end, wins can be worth 40% more than at launch. Score earned in Role Queue counts toward both role-specific and combined leaderboards. Open Queue and Stadium have separate tracks.
Leaderboard requirements have changed. The Combined, Open Queue, and Stadium boards need 5,000 score. Individual role boards need 4,000. Players must have Endorsement Level 2, and Stadium requires 25 wins.
Verified Challenger Tier players can link their social channels directly from the leaderboard. Live streamers show up with a red highlight. Rewards will be better than Top 500, with details coming before Season 21.
Grouping rules tighten at high ranks. Champion players must be within 1 Division to queue together in Narrow groups. Grandmaster and Master players need to be within 2 Divisions.
A new Cheater Compensation system will restore rank progress lost to matches with banned cheaters. The tech ships with Season 20, but Blizzard will calibrate it before turning it on.
Winter Wonderland Returns
The holiday event runs December 9 through January 7, 2026.
Weeks 1-2 feature Mischief & Magic on a snowy version of Kings Row. Weeks 3-4 swap in Mischief & Magic Wonderland, a variant where props fight back. Players hiding as Rogue Kiriko can taunt and stun Genji Knights to build ultimate charge, then use their ult and boosted health to escape.
Classic modes return throughout the event: Mei's Snowball Offensive, Snowball Deathmatch, Yeti Hunter, and Freezethaw Elimination.
This year adds a cookie-based reward track. Completing challenges in the new modes earns cookies that players can gift to three winter spirits: Tracer the Elf, Santa Torbjörn, or Junkrat Krampus. Each spirit offers different rewards including lootboxes, Battle Pass tier skips, and festive skins (Jingle Tracer, Krampus Junkrat, and Santa Claus Torbjorn).
Stadium Mode Additions
Stadium gets Challenger Tier support and two new heroes: Doomfist and Wuyang. Both arrive with full power sets and legendary items for different build paths.
Cassidy receives a power rework. Full House now cuts Fan the Hammer spread by 25% after Flashbang hits. Bang Bang reduces Flashbang cooldown when landing shots on recently flashed enemies. Dead Man Walkin' marks low-health enemies with larger heads and grants lifesteal on crits against them.
Hazard's Bonerot and Twin Fang powers deal more damage, but his ability power items cost more and do less. Orisa's Restorify healing rises from 5% to 8%. Winston's Circuit Breaker and Electro Cluster both deal less damage. Genji picks up buffs across multiple powers and items. Juno's MediMaster crits hit harder and now reduce Hyper Ring cooldown.
A new Control map, Wuxing University (Water College), joins the rotation.
Other Changes
All heroes that apply overhealth can now earn Saves when the timing is right. Previously only some heroes could get credit.
Antarctic Peninsula is disabled for two seasons. The dev team wants to rework parts of the map and plans to bring it back in Season 22.
Bug fixes address FPS drops during backfill, move speed display errors in the Advanced Info Panel, and controller navigation problems on hero select. Several Vendetta bugs got squashed, including one allowing multiple overhead swings at once and another where Projected Edge couldn't break railings or boxes. Stadium fixes cover Super Serum issues on D.Va, Torbjorn's Overloader not scaling with Max Armor, and Commander's Clip overriding Tracer's reload during Blink.
Overwatch 2 Season 20 is live now on all platforms. Winter Wonderland runs until January 7, 2026.
