Overwatch Season 4 will let players choose which battle pass rewards come first
The Aug. 11 system will feature five skin-focused tracks, a one-use Tier Hack for premium owners, and returning passes later in the season.
Blizzard announced a redesigned battle pass system for Overwatch Season 4: Heroes of Busan, and the new format will arrive on Aug. 11. Instead of pushing through one fixed reward path, players will be able to decide which skin tracks to level first.
Blizzard outlined the changes in its Aug. 10 Director’s Take. The system replaces the familiar 80-tier progression with several paths that can be completed in the order each player prefers.
Five battle pass tracks put skins first
Players will first need to complete a short introductory track. After that, the Season 4 pass will open five main tracks, with each one featuring a Legendary or Epic skin. Progress can move between those tracks freely, so players can focus on the cosmetics that appeal to them instead of collecting rewards in a fixed sequence.
Finishing all five tracks will let players collect the full set of standard pass rewards and unlock additional tiers containing Legendary loot boxes, Mythic Prisms, and Overwatch Coins. Completing those bonus tiers will eventually award seasonal titles as well.
The new structure will not increase the grind. Blizzard said the total number of tiers and the time needed to level the pass will remain the same.
Premium pass owners will also receive one Tier Hack per battle pass. The feature allows an eligible Legendary reward to be exchanged for another cosmetic from the seasonal selection, which can include older shop and loot box skins for heroes across all three roles.
The Tier Hack pool will change each season, and Season 4’s selection will open with 12 Legendary skins, including options for heroes who appear less often in seasonal Battle Passes.
Season 4’s available alternatives include Raijin Ashe, Mob Boss Junker Queen, Cardboard Reinhardt, Sakura Lifeweaver, and Crustacean Wrecking Ball.
Older battle passes will return during Season 4
The current pass will not be the only one players can work on. Blizzard will introduce what it calls the Legacy Battle Pass Unvault system during Season 4’s midcycle period in September, bringing back select past battle passes, although it has not yet named the returning passes.
Once a pass returns, it will remain permanently available for progression alongside the current content. Players who already own one of those passes will be able to continue leveling it, while others can pick it up when it becomes available again.
There are some limits to the returning content. Unvaulted passes will not include their original premium currency, Mythic Prisms, Prestige titles, or Mythic hero and weapon skins.
Blizzard will share the full list of returning passes in the Season 4 midcycle blog. The Aug. 11 launch will also add the new tank D.Mon and bring map changes to Busan, Eichenwalde, and Paraíso, which are covered in our Season 4 map rework coverage.
Which reward track will you level first? Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.
Overwatch
Developed by Blizzard Entertainment
Overwatch is a free-to-play first-person hero shooter developed by Blizzard Entertainment. Players choose from a large roster of role-based heroes and compete in 5v5 team matches across various objective-based game modes, with both casual and ranked competitive play. Originally released as Overwatch 2 in 2023 as a successor to the 2016 original, the game was rebranded to simply Overwatch in 2026 with a renewed focus on seasonal narrative content and expanded hero rosters.
- Genre Shooter
- Platforms Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 2, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Perspective First person, Third person
- Modes Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Release August 10, 2023
- Publisher Blizzard Entertainment
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Age Rating
