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Overwatch Archives 2020 brings back past three stories today

Missed out on an Overwatch Archives event? Now's your chance to relive them with some new challenges and some brand new rewards.

Ozzie Mejia

March 12, 2020 11:00 AM

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If you're an Overwatch player and you're checking your calendar, you might be thinking that it's almost time for the annual Overwatch Archives event. That's the event that introduces a special PvE component to Blizzard's team-based shooter and offers up a healthy dose of lore alongside a slew of rewards. Maybe you've missed one of the past three events and wish you could jump back in. Well, now's the time, as Blizzard announced on Thursday that for this year's Overwatch Archives, the past three events would be making their return.

Yes, the three Overwatch Archives missions sets (Uprising, Retribution, and Storm Rising) will all be back starting today. They're going to offer something new for those who have already experienced them. Each of the Archives Brawls will offer new modifiers to make them a little bit more challenging. Here are the special missions that players can look forward to:

• Week 1 (Overwatch Archives: Uprising)
  • Molten Cores: Enemies drop Lava on death
  • Glass Cannon: Players have 50% less health and increased damage
• Week 2 (Overwatch Archives: Retribution)
  • Surgical Strike: Only critical hits do damage to enemies
  • Close Quarters: Enemies can only be damaged if a player is nearby
• Week 3 (Overwatch Archives: Storm Rising)
  • Blood Moon Rising: No Support heroes and healing is reduced. Heal yourself by doing damage.
  • Storm Raging: Some Enemies are enraged. Killing them spreads the rage.

On top of that, players can earn all-new rewards throughout this event. Those rewards include Player Icons, Emotes, Sprays, three Epic Skins, and five Legendary skins. While those Legendary skins will come in crates, players can pick up those Epic skins by completing weekly challenges. Simply win nine games each week to get Holi Symmetra in Week 1, Rustclad Torbjorn in Week 2, and Bear Mei in Week 3.

While some might be hoping for all-new Archives content, it should be noted that Blizzard is currently working on Overwatch 2, which will contain its own PvE component. So it looks like we might have hit the end of the road on lore content for the time being. In the meantime, be sure to relive the past Archives stories with this special event, which runs from now through April 2 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?