With Week 2 of Overwatch's Archives event having kicked off, two new Challenge Missions have been released for the Retribution campaign mission. Week 2 will also be having Torbjorn's epic skin, Rustclad, available through winning nine games in Quick Play, Competitive, or Arcade.
Back in 2018, Overwatch Retribution was released for the Archives event, featuring the Blackwatch heroes, Reaper, McCree, Genji, and Moira. However, the Challenge Missions released for this year are available for most of Overwatch's cast of heroes. All Challenge Missions can only be played on expert difficulty, so they will prove to be quite difficult for most players, even outside the limits of the challenge.
The two available Challenge Missions for Retribution are Surgical Strike and Close Quarters. While Close Quarters allows for all Overwatch heroes to be played like the Challenge Missions from Week 1 of the event, Surgical Strike heavily limits which characters can be played, due to the nature of the mission.
A general note for both missions is to have high amounts of healing going around to the entire team, as the flood of enemies can become extremely overwhelming due to the nature of how they are dealt with and the difficulty setting. This can make reviving teammates very difficult, so players should try to avoid situations where reviving is needed whenever possible.
Surgical Strike
The challenge of Surgical Strike is that only critical hits damage the enemies. In Overwatch, the only method of dealing a critical hit is through headshots, so the only heroes available for this challenge are those who can inflict them. These heroes are: D.Va, Orisa, Roadhog, Wrecking Ball, Ashe, Genji, Hanzo, McCree, Mei, Reaper, Soldier 76, Sombra, Torbjorn, Tracer, Widowmaker, Baptiste, Lucio, Mercy, and Zenyatta.
With this lineup in mind, it is important for players to note that the only heroes capable of dealing headshots with their ultimates are Roadhog and Hanzo, but Hanzo's Dragonstrike can only deal a headshot if initial arrow used for the ultimate hits an enemy's head before the dragon itself comes out. Despite the ultimate's description, McCree's Deadeye doesn't perform actual headshots and are not counted in this mode. Torbjorn can only perform headshots with his rivet gun, not his turret, making him not recommended.
As obvious as it may be to some players, the key to this challenge is to focus on one's aim. The Talon soldiers in Retribution all have bright red helmets that are obvious targets for headshots. By keeping up the constant headshots, the common soldiers should go down pretty easily. The real challenge comes in with the Enforcers and the special units. With the high amount of damage inflicted by these enemies, they need to be taken down quickly before the entire team is taken down. Heroes such as Reaper that can get in close and deal with these enemies quickly are highly recommended.
Close Quarters
Like Surgical Strike, the main challenge of Close Quarters is in how the mission changes how players can damage the enemy Talon soldiers. This time, the challenge is that players can only deal damage while in close proximity to one another. However, unlike Surgical Strike, players have access to every hero available in Overwatch. Dealing with the challenge, player synergy is key, from choosing heroes to grouping up with others.
Due to the challenge's nature, players should pick tankier characters, from actual tanks to DPS heroes that can take more of a beating. Of course, a healer is absolutely necessary. It is important that all selected heroes have similar fighting styles, as it would be problematic for a short-ranged hero to have to fight directly next to a long-ranged hero. An example of two heroes that can work well side-by-side together are D.Va and Reaper, as they both utilize short-ranged guns in combat, while also being able to take hits.
The most difficult factor in this Challenge Mission are the snipers. For shorter ranged heroes, it can be difficult for multiple of them to reach the high areas where the snipers are placed. For this reason, team communication is important, so heroes with longer ranges can take down the snipers before the entire team gets wiped.
The lack of new campaigns for this year's Archives event may have disappointed some players, but new content was shown to new players with the recent official reveal of the 32nd hero, Echo. With the new hero and Overwatch 2 on the horizon, players have a lot to look forward to past the current event.
Overwatch is out now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
