An Overwatch 2 bug fix has left players of the Blizzard FPS game perplexed as they realise they were actually getting even less battle pass XP than they thought for receiving endorsement rewards. The player endorsement system is a way to encourage good behaviour in the multiplayer game, with a level that goes up if you are routinely endorsed by teammates. However, players have noticed how much less dramatically the bonus rewards players in the sequel.
Your endorsement level in the first Overwatch would periodically be rewarded with loot boxes – specifically, you would earn one fewer than your current endorsement rank (so one loot box for being rank two, two for being rank three, three for reaching rank four, and four should you manage to hit the elusive rank five). As a regular player who spent a majority of my time playing tank and support, I usually hovered around the level 3-4 mark, which earned me (and many other players) a fairly reasonable number of additional loot boxes, each of which contained four random cosmetic items.
With loot boxes gone for Overwatch 2, instead your endorsement level now rewards you with experience for your Overwatch 2 battle pass. However, this was initially affected by a bug, which meant that instead of correctly displaying the earned experience, the rewards screen simply listed the player as receiving 1 experience. Because this was clearly preposterous, it led many players to the assumption that they were instead getting one full battle pass level for their troubles.
The effect of this can clearly be seen in a post on the Overwatch Reddit, where a highly upvoted post says that the ‘battle pass reward was lowered, it used to be one battle pass level.’ The amount displayed now appears to be correct, and the actual values awarded seem to be 1000 XP multiplied by your current level. As such, the maximum reward on offer would be 5000 XP for reaching rank five (something traditionally very difficult to do unless you play a lot of support in modes where players routinely endorse everyone, such as 3v3 elimination). That’s just half a battle pass level – a dramatic reduction from what many thought they were getting.
Players are understandably a little miffed about this realisation – as one player details, “To put this in perspective: In OW1 you would’ve gotten 3 loot boxes – so you could potentially get 12 free cosmetic items out of this. Now you don’t get even half of a BP level.” Another adds, “You also would’ve gotten coins if the loot box drops were duplicates and you’d have easily earned more coins from three dupes than you can currently earn from completing all eleven weekly challenges.”
This development marks just the latest in complaints about Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 monetisation model. Players are similarly unhappy about the rewards on offer from the ongoing Overwatch 2 Halloween event, which awards a small handful of minor cosmetics but no skins and fairly low battle pass experience gains.
Many prominent figures in the community have added their voices to the discussion – streamer Stylosa says the prices are “a laugh,” while support specialist ML7 remarks that he loves the new Witch Kiriko skin but that “A single skin shouldn’t cost more than a battle pass that gives you 5+ skins.”
Another Overwatch 2 double XP weekend is on the way for October 28-31, giving players more opportunity to level up their battle pass in the meantime. Be sure to check our Overwatch 2 tier list for the hottest heroes to play, and learn how your Overwatch 2 sound settings could make the difference between victory and defeat.