Junkenstein’s Lab was added a couple of weeks ago as part of Overwatch 2’s Halloween celebrations. This was a spin on the usual seasonal event, which involves Junkenstein in various PvE modes, but this time, it was PvP, and quite frankly may rival the standard Overwatch 2 modes.
Junkenstein’s Lab sees players pick between a select group of heroes. There’s only D.Va, Orisa, and Reinhardt to pick from out of the tanks, Soldier 76, Genji, Ashe, Pharah, and Reaper from DPS, and Kiriko, Mercy, Moira, and Zenyatta from support. The limited choice is due to each of them having multiple mutation variants, which change abilities and how you can play each hero.
Players start the objective match by picking two mutations and, as the game is first to three wins, you can get up to six mutations by the time you play five games. The mutations are also grouped into common, uncommon, rare, and legendary categories. For example, Reinhardt has common mutations like Early Grave which reduces his ultimate cost by 25%, uncommon mutations like Hellfire Strike which increases his ability Fire Strike’s projectile width by 25%, rare mutations like Scorched Earth which sees Fire Strike leave a trail of lava on the floor that can inflict burn damage to enemies, and legendary mutations like Annihilation which sees Charge impacts create an explosion with a three metre radius.
Every hero has unique mutations which will change various abilities or strengthen certain aspects like health or armour. Most of these mutations are also descendants from Overwatch 2’s scrapped hero abilities and skill trees which were a part of the previously promised PvE experience. I really enjoyed seeing what could have been and have spent a good chunk of time replaying Junkenstein’s Lab, and apparently I’m not the only one.
“Quick update on Junkenstein’s Lab,” Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller says. “The event has been incredibly popular! Two weeks after launch, 15% of our daily players are still jumping into the mode. To help support it, we’re going to put out a small balance patch for it tomorrow. Have fun!”
It’s fantastic that Blizzard has recognised just how popular Junkenstein’s Lab is. And the fact that it will be receiving some small patches makes me hopeful that the devs may keep this game mode around after the Halloween celebrations are done. It seems like such a waste of a great mode to restrict it to seasonal events.
Alongside these patches we also got some news that players could expect larger changes as well. “Alongside the Junkenstein’s Lab changes, there will also be a small balance patch tomorrow for the core game,” the lead gameplay designer, Alec Dawson says. We’ll see what the balance patch has in store for us later today, but it’s possible that’ll make some changes to the DPS hero Sombra, seeing as the last patch made major changes to her kit, which some players have not enjoyed at all.
