When playing Overwatch 2 or its predecessor, we’ve all been in that position where we can’t quite understand just how exactly that Hanzo on the other team hit such a clean headshot while you were dashing through a doorway – right? Well, at the moment, it looks like Blizzard’s free-to-play hero shooter is actually helping Hanzo mains a little more than it should when it comes to landing these shots. If you’re lucky enough not to come across a Hanzo in-game yet, you’ll be not-so-pleased to know that, in Overwatch 2, Hanzo has an absolutely horrible hit registration bug.
Yep, that’s right – at the moment, Hanzo’s arrows are registering hits when they’re not actually hitting enemies on screen. So, if you have ever wanted to have a crack at playing as Hanzo – but you’re worried about missing your shots – this could be the perfect time to give him a go.
Reddit user ‘JRex299’ decided to conduct a little test in the Overwatch 2 firing range, using Hanzo at close range against a stationary Tracer, Sojourn, and Zenyatta to prove that Hanzo’s arrow hitbox was horrendously broken. He posted the footage with the comment “wow, people were not kidding about those logs”.
Want to check this out for yourself? You can see it all below:
Wow, people were not kidding about those logs from Overwatch
If you’re sitting there wondering whether you’ve heard this sort of thing before, you’ll be pleased to know that you have. Throughout Overwatch’s lifetime, players have been complaining sporadically about the Hanzo arrow hitbox – however, many were hopeful that these issues would be behind us come Overwatch 2.
As you can see below, Reddit user ‘Kopaka6’ has analysed the increased headshot hitbox size for a Hanzo arrow against a player’s standard headshot hitbox, noting that it almost doubles in size. We know they only use Tracer, Widowmaker, and Cassidy as examples but the evidence is still plain to see.
Similarly, this Overwatch forum post from April 2019 shines light on a video from ‘FirstLast’ that shows the huge difference between the hitbox size of Hanzo’s arrows vs bullets from Soldier 76’s assault rifle.
Similarly, this Overwatch forum post from April 2019 shines light on a video from ‘FirstLast’ that shows the huge difference between the hitbox size of Hanzo’s arrows vs bullets from Soldier 76’s assault rifle.
So, while there is always going to be some forgiveness for players, you can see that Hanzo mains are actually given a lot more than others. What makes this somewhat unusual is that he isn’t even the only hero with precision-based attacks – Widowmaker, Sojourn, Kiriko, and Cassidy are examples of heroes with somewhat similar attacks. However, from what we can tell, Hanzo’s arrows are the only projectiles with this level of hit box forgiveness – which, we have to hope is a bug that’s being fixed and not an intentional feature that will be persistent going forward.
Still, things are looking up for Overwatch 2. Blizzard has assured players that their Overwatch 1 skins aren’t lost and we’re already starting to settle on an Overwatch 2 tier list – which, thinking about it, we should probably make sure Hanzo gets bumped up a tier or two.