The confirmed start date for this year's version of Overwatch: Archive
UPDATE: 5TH APRIL 8:23AM
Looks like we called this one right and Overwatch: Archives 2018 will begin on Tuesday 10th April 2018.
The news was all but confirmed on the official Overwatch Twitter account just a few moments ago:
Initiating archive declassification…Mission files unlock: April 10. RETWEET to confirm. pic.twitter.com/cTevQ8M5CE
Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) 29 March 2018
ORIGINAL STORY
The next event due to make its return to Overwatch will be the hugely popular Uprising event, which made its first appearance back in April of last year. [UPDATE: The event is now formally known as Overwatch: Archives as there are multiple missions to enjoy.]
Not only did last year’s Uprising deliver an incredible drop of new skins and other cosmetic items, it also added an extremely popular – and tricky – co-op PVE event in the form of the Uprising Brawl.
With the Lunar New Year now well and truly behind us, it’s time to look ahead to the return of this event, one which will no doubt also add a new collection of – more expensive – skins to unlock. Will the Brawl itself be tweaked to accommodate new heroes? We’ll have to wait and see when Uprising goes live once more.
What’s the start date for Uprising in 2018 though? Well, Blizzard has traditionally done a pretty good job of re-releasing events in the same window each year, and last year’s event began on April 11th 2017 and finished on May 2nd 2017. Keep in mind though that it actually over-ran by one day due to a maintenance update bug.
Looking to this year’s calendar, it seems overwhelmingly likely to us that the start date for Uprising 2018 will be Tuesday 10th April 2018. The likely end date will be Monday 30th April 2018 – approximately three weeks later, and assuming the team doesn’t run into the same delay as it did last time around.
You can find full details about the event over at our Overwatch: Uprising 2018 guide hub, but here’s the lowdown on what was added to the game last year. Expect more of the same this year, but with a few new Legendary skins to unlock as well.
Overwatch Archives Overview
Here’s what was added to Overwatch with the first edition of the Uprising event:
- A new Uprising Brawl! Four players work together as Tracer, Torbjorn, Reinhardt and Mercy to face down the Omnic threat on a re-worked version of the King’s Row map.
- 114 new items: 10 Skins, 3 Emotes, 6 Victory Lines, 48 Voice Lines, 31 Sprays, 3 Highlight Intros and 13 Player Icons.
- New items can be either purchased with credits, or unlocked from special season Loot Boxes.
- A new comic called Uprising was also released with the first version of the event.
Overwatch Archives Lore
There’s a little bit of lore associated with the Uprising event, and it can be broken down pretty simply:
- The Uprising event takes place during the final days of the Overwatch organisation.
- The team have been dispatched to King’s Row to defeat an Omnic uprising taking place in the locality.
- This is Tracer’s first mission following her transferral to combat training.
