Know Thy Weapon

Junkrat is a Demolitions Man! His trusty frag launcher shoots explosive projectiles in an upwards arc and will cause damage instantly upon impact. If the projectiles do not come in contact with an enemy or object, they will bounce twice before exploding on the third bounce, and they will still cause splash damage to any nearby enemies or objects. In Classic Overwatch, the frag launcher will cause self-damage. Overwatch 2 has disabled this.
The frag launcher uses compact homemade grenades, which are classified as rack-loaded ammunition.

Key gun statistics to know and use to your advantage:

Arcing splash projectile type

5 rounds per clip

1.5-second reload

40 impact hit damage

Max 120 damage per shot

10 - 80 splash damage

2 m splash radius

1.66 shots per second

20 m/s projectile speed

X Cannot headshot

X Cannot inflict self damage

✓ Can inflict self knockback

Junkrat's Frag Launcher lobs grenades a significant distance. They bounce to reach their destination, and blow up when they strike an enemy.

Strategy

Overwatch features squad-based combat with two opposing teams of six players each, while Overwatch 2 uses five-on-five teams. Players choose one of thirty-nine hero characters, each with their own unique abilities and role classes. The three character roles include: damage characters that have powerful attacks to lead attacks or defend control points and choke points, support characters that provide buffs and debuffs for their allies and enemies respectively (such as healing or speed alterations), and tank characters that have a large amount of armor and hit points to withstand enemy attacks and draw fire away from teammates. During the pre-match setup, players on a team will be given advice from the game if their team is unbalanced, such as if they are lacking defensive heroes, encouraging players to switch to other heroes pre-match and balance the starting team. Within a match, players can switch between characters in-game following deaths or by returning to their home base. The game is designed to encourage players to adapt to the opposing team during a match by switching to characters that better "counter" their abilities.

Each hero has a primary ability and at least two additional abilities that can be invoked at any time, some requiring a brief cooldown period before they can be used again. Furthermore, each player slowly builds up a meter towards their character's "ultimate" ability; this meter builds up over time but can build up faster for defeating opponents or performing other beneficial tasks for their team such as healing other team members. Once ready, the player can use this ability at any time which may last for a few seconds (such as increased attack strength or immunity to attacks) or be a single powerful action (such as throwing a small explosive), after which they then must wait for the meter to fill up again. Opposing players will be alerted to the use of this ultimate ability by an exclamation from the character, often in the character's native language; for example, when using his "Deadeye" ability gunslinger Cassidy will call out "It's high noon" as the player engages the ultimate ability to target multiple visible enemies and deal lethal damage to those still in sight. This gives opposing players a brief moment to try to take cover or respond appropriately.

A second meter tracks how many in-round points a player has scored over time, which are rewarded for killing or assisting in killing, providing team defense or healing, and scoring objective points. When a certain threshold is reached, the player character's icon will be "on fire," representing that that character is a threat, but otherwise does not directly affect gameplay. This meter will slowly drop if the player does not continue to score points.

Overwatch employs an automated instant replay system, designed to highlight important moments of the game. After the game's end, the server selects a fragment of the match which had a large impact on the game's progression, such as a rapid succession of kills or an effective use of team healing, and then broadcasts it to all players from the point of view of the player responsible for it. This is called a "Play of the Game" (often abbreviated to "PotG"), or "Play of the Match" ("PotM") in competitive games that have longer matches. Afterwards, a result screen is shown, highlighting up to four individual players from both teams for their achievements during the match (such as damage dealt, healed or blocked, or time spent on the objective), and all players are given the option to commend one of them. Following a June 2018 patch, players can also give out up to three endorsements to any other player in the match based on leadership, teamwork, or sportsmanship. Such endorsements boost experience gained by the receiving players, and factors into matchmaking, favoring players that continue to get endorsements.

Players gain experience points following a match towards a metagame level based on several factors such as whether they won or lost, how effectively they used their character's powers, being awarded gold, silver, or bronze medals for their team across six categories such as most time spent on the objectives; and beating past personal records in these categories. Initially, experience was only awarded when playing the game's matchmaking modes and not custom games, but the custom server browser update, released in February 2017, enabled experience gains for custom games. Each experience level earns a player a loot box, which contain four random cosmetic items for individual heroes, including victory poses, paint sprays, alternate skins (costumes), emotes and voice lines. Items are given out based on their rarity level, with "Common", "Epic", and "Legendary" tiers. Loot boxes may contain in-game currency called "credits", which can be used to purchase specific cosmetic items directly, with their cost based on the item's rarity. Duplicate items are rewarded with in-game currency. Other items can only be acquired by completing in-game achievements.

Character roles

Characters in Overwatch come in three varieties: Damage, Tank, and Support. These roles serve to categorize the heroes by similar characteristics that can be used to describe them and their play style. If playing in an “open-queue” game-mode, the game shows tips to the players depending on which heroes have been selected; e.g., the team will recommend that a player selects a Support hero if there are none on the team.

✚ Support: Support characters are utility characters that have abilities that enhance their own team or weaken their enemies. They do not deal a lot of damage, nor do they have many hit points, but the buffs and debuffs they provide aid teammates in eliminating their opponents.

⛉ Tank: Tank characters have many more hit points compared to other characters. They are able to draw enemy fire away from their teammates to themselves, disrupting the enemy team. Tank heroes have various ways to protect themselves and their team with shield-like abilities.

⚔ Damage: Damage characters include those that have high mobility and are known for their ability to deal large amounts of damage though are highly vulnerable, and those that excel at protecting specific locations and creating choke points, often by providing field support units such as sentry turrets and traps.