All hero changes in Overwatch 2’s “Balanced Overwatch” April Fools’ event (2024)

Overwatch’s April Fools’ Day event is back and better than ever, bringing with it exclusive rewards for the first time ever. This guide contains every change to heroes and gameplay during the Balanced Overwatch event, including changes not detailed in the official patch notes.

All hero changes highlighted in the April Fools’ Day patch notes are exclusive to the limited-time Balanced Overwatch Arcade mode, with the exception of googly eyes and alternate voice lines.

Balanced Overwatch runs from April 1 – April 9, 2024, giving you a whole week to earn the brand new Sprays designed by the brilliant Megabubu.

• All heroes have alternate Ultimate voice lines. (Including regular game modes)
• All heroes have googly eyes. (Including regular game modes)
• Payload and certain other objectives have googly eyes. (Including regular game modes)
• Maximum Ultimate charge between heroes is increased from 15% to 49%.
• 17 new Sprays can be earned through Challenges.

• Can move backwards.
• Can be cancelled by crouching.
• Canceling the ability within 0.4 seconds reduces the cooldown to 1.5 seconds.

• Knockback increased by 900%.

• Power Block and Meteor Strike empowers Quick Melee.

• Movement Speed Modifier increased to 1.25x from 0.65x

• Pressing Secondary Fire while Jagged Blade is active pulls Junker Queen to Gracie, rather than the other way around.
• Cooldown starts when the blade returns to Junker Queen.
• Cooldown decreased to 4 seconds from 6.

• Health decreased to 25 from 350.
• Mauga is 50% smaller.

• Hitting enemies who are “On Fire” will cause them to Ignite.

• Richochets once when thrown.
• Explodes when stuck.

• Armor increased to 225 from 100.

• Annihilation is no longer Rammatra’s Ultimate and is instead bound to Ability 1.
• No longer pauses duration while dealing damage.
• Movement Speed increased by 20%.
• Duration increased to 5 seconds from 3.
• Damage per second decreased to 20 seconds from 30.
• Radius decreased to 9 meters from 12.

• Nemesis Form is now Rammatra’s Ultimate.
• Permanently has Annihilation active when in use.
• Fully heals Rammatra when used.
• Pummel damage increased to 75 from 60.
• Pummel Range increased to 15 from 10.

• Players will talk like Reinhardt when typing.

• Use Primary Fire to reflect projectiles.
• Health decreases by 20% every second while reflecting.
• Barrier size decreased to 50% while reflecting.
• Camera Lock input is now bound to Quick Melee.

• Projectile speed increased to 80 from 26.
• Now inflicts 40 damage as a projectile.

• Projectile Speed decreased to 30 from 37.
• Projectile Gravity decreased to 2 from 18.
• Pressing the ability button while using Accretion will crash the rock into the ground, dealing 50 damage and stunning players in a 4-meter radius.

Secondary Fire chains between enemies. (Just like PvE!)

• Punches cause lightning to chain between enemies.

• Sideways movement increased by 55%.

• Damage increases as you walk sideways.

• Increases the size of a bubbled target by 1.75x

• New ability calls in F.R.E.D., who knocks back enemies upward and leaves.

• Now the default form.
• Movement speed penalty removed.
• Now has 150 ammo, previously infinite.
• Damge per bullet decreased to 5 from 12.
• Deals 1.5x damage on critical hits.

• Transforms Bastion into Configuration: Recon.
• Grants a 35% movement speed bonus.
• Now fires shotgun blasts.

• New passive that marks enemies. Kill them to gain 50 health until your next death.
• After 5 kills, you gain 1 health every time.

• Targets within 5 meters of Echo take damage as if they’re under half health, increasing damage done.

• Cannot choose who to duplicate.
• Can now duplicate allies.
• Health is no longer capped at 300.
• Duplicate gains 100 extra Shield.
• Bonus Ult charge gain rate increased to 6.5 from 4.

• Press Primary Fire with perfect timing to critically deflect a projectile.

• Number of ricochets increased to 3 from 1.
• Number of projectiles per shot increased to 5 from 3.
• Damage of each projectile decreased by 78%.

• Frag Launcher projectiles can be detonated with Secondary Fire.

• New ability that creates a large ice pillar under Mei.
• Press jump while in the air to activate.
• Can be cancelled with Ineract.

• New ability that dashes towards the ground.
• Press crouch while in the air to activate.

• Reaper bleeds shotguns when damaged.

• Primary fire shoots a single shotgun.
• Secondary Fire shoots the other shotgun.
• Damage per bullet reduced to 2.8 from 5.4.
• Ammo increased to 16 from 8.

• Now pulls enemies on deploy.
• Can deploy early.

• Can be used while sprinting.
• Using while sprinting has a spread of 2.

• Killing an enemy infected with Virus will spread it to a nearby enemy.

• Only places an exit Teleporter.
• Allies can use Teleporter from any location.
• Teleporter duration decreased to 4 seconds from 10.

• Turret now sticks to walls, ceilings, and allies.

• Randomly changes the fire rate and spread of Pulse Pistols when used.
• Changes music and screen filter for a short time.

• Now has 3 charges.
• Getting a critical hit with secondary fire replenishes one charge.

• Enemies slowly “rise” when sleeping.
• Enemies take fall damage when landing.

• Launches forward rather than upward.

• Increased speed of projectiles shot through it by 200%.

• 1.5x larger.
• Armor increased to 150 from 50.

• Health increased to 700 from 250.
• Permanently uses Ultimate size.

• Resets Shield Bash cooldown.
• Movement Speed increased to 1.3x from 1.15x.

• Illari becomes Solar Installed.
• Sollar Installed allows Illari to move faster, charges her Solar Rifle faster, and always charges it to full damage.
• Movement speed bonus of 1.2x.
• Attack charge time reduced by 40%.
• Healing recharge bonus of 1.2x.

• Illari is Solar Installed when standing in the sun.

• Grants allies a 10% damage boost, 10% healing boost, 50% movement speed boost, and 700% increased jump height.
• Increased duration to 1 second from 0.65 seconds.

• Kiriko can jump one extra time in the air.

• Now raises to 20m from 8m.
• Platform now has googly eyes.

• Tree of Life now has googly eyes.

• Ammo increased to 30 from 20
• Recovery decreased to 0.125 seconds per bullet from .14 seconds.
• Now shoots 3 bullets per volley during Speed Boost
• Soots 5 bullets per volley during Healing Boost.

• Knocks enemies upwards when used.

• Damage boost removed and replaced with Caduceus Blaster projectiles.
• Projectiles have a smaller size
• Grows during Ultimate.
• Projectiles do 2 more damage.
• Projectiles reload automatically while not firing. Cannot be manually reloaded.
• Projectiles reload at twice the speed while healing or after 4 seconds without firing.
• Can fire projectiles at a reduced speed when healing
• Healing heals at a reduced rate when using “Damage Staff.”

• Healing spray now damages, and damaging spray now heals.

• Ammo increased to 32 from 25.
• Secondary Fire charge time per projectile decreased to 0.47 from 0.52.
• Secondary Fire projectiles fire 33% faster.
• Secondary Fire damage decreased by 30%.
• Can now charge up to 8 Orbs.
• Zenyatta “accelerates upward” while charging Orbs.

Players can earn up to 17 brand-new Sprays by completing various Balanced Overwatch challenges. If you hate fun and don’t want to spend time in Balanced Overwatch, the good news is that you can earn every Spray in around 5 – 10 games.

For more April Fools’ shenanigans in gaming, including a limited-time Dead by Daylight mode, check out our favorite April Fools’ pranks of 2024.