Blizzard Entertainment is always one to celebrate holidays in style, including the Lunar New Year. Blizzard’s latest game, Overwatch, joins the celebration.
For the next three weeks, players can earn (or buy) special Lunar Loot Boxes. These boxes contain a bevy of new Lunar New Year themed profile icons, sprays, voice clips, highlight intros, emotes, victory poses, and most important of all, skins.
Some characters (Lucio, Genji, Zarya, Widowmaker, Tjorbjorn, Hanzo, Sombra, Reaper, Soldier: 76, McRee, and Pharah) have not received new skins, while others (Junkrat, Mercy, Ana, Tracer, Symmetra, and Bastion) only received epic skins that are merely recolors of existing ones. The only characters who received legendary skins that drastically change their looks are Zenyatta, Winston, Roadhog, Reinhardt, Mei, and D.Va. Mei and D.Va, as citizens of China and South Korea respectively, received traditional Chinese and South Korean dresses that are a huge departure from Mei’s bulky arctic gear and D.Va’s form fitting mech suits. D.Va’s mech also received a makeover with tassles, gold trims, and a tricolor Taegeuk emblazoned on the top. Meanwhile, Zenyatta, Winston, Roadhog, and Reinhardt can now dress up as Tang Sanzang, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing respectively, all of whom are main characters from the classic Chinese tale Journey to the West.
Lunar Loot Boxes and their loot are not the only additions to Overwatch. Blizzard has also added a new capture the flag mode to the game. Overwatch’s version of this mode, called Capture the Rooster, takes place in the Lijiang Tower map. Players are tasked with both capturing the enemy’s flag and defending their own. Blizzard has spent a lot of time balancing the mode to make it retain the spirit of both Overwatch and capture the flag. Players can only play Capture the Rooster in arcade mode.
The Lunar New Year celebrations will last until February 13th. Both Lunar Loot Boxes and Capture the Rooster will only be available during the event.