One of the most controversial things leading up to the release of Overwatch 2 was the news that the game would be locking characters behind both in-game progression and paywalls via the premium battle pass. While the shift in focus to a free-to-play model certainly makes sense for the game when looking at the current landscape surrounding multiplayer shooters, it’s fair to say that many players were upset with the change.
After all, if you spent countless hours playing the first game, honing and perfecting your skills with a specific character, only for them to be locked when booting up the sequel for the first time, that could be enough to make anyone write the sequel off in its entirety. Luckily, the entire cast of the original game has made it to Overwatch 2, however, a majority of them are locked behind in-game progression.
More Overwatch 2 guides:
| How to Merge Battlenet Accounts | All New Content: Heroes, Maps & Modes | What Consoles is the Game On? | Does Overwatch 2 Have Crossplay and Cross-Progression? | How to Unlock Every Character |
Which Characters Are Unlocked in Overwatch 2?
One of the most important things to note for fans of the game checking in to see if the sequel is worth their time is that the original cast of Overwatch is included in the game in its entirety for free. The only time you’ll need to pay to unlock characters is for the newcomers that are featured in the battle pass such as Kiriko in season one.
While it’s obviously not ideal that a majority of Overwatch‘s original cast is locked for everyone when starting up Overwatch 2, the silver lining is that you won’t have to pay any money to unlock them all, you’ll just need to put time into the game. For some characters, you’ll need to put in a significant amount of time though, so take the good news with a major grain of salt.
Below, you’ll find the list of free, unlocked characters that are available to you from the moment you start the game. It’s worth pointing out that the only new character that debuted alongside the launch of Overwatch 2 that’s locked right out of the gate is Kiriko who, as mentioned above, is behind a paywall. This means that if you’re looking to try out two new heroes, Junker Queen and Sojourn, you can do so without having to put any time into the game.
The list of automatically unlocked heroes in Overwatch 2 is as follows:
- Junker Queen
- Orisa
- Reinhardt
- Pharah
- Reaper
- Lucio
- Mercy
- Winston
- Sojourn
- Soldier: 76
- Torbjorn
- Moira
- Zarya
- Tracer
- Widowmaker
All in all, you’ll have access to five tanks, seven damage, and three support characters right when you boot the game up for the first time. This leaves 19 characters locked behind in-game progression and one character (so far) locked behind the battle pass. To learn how to unlock all of the characters, check out our guide here.
