It is the spookiest month of the year, and there are a lot of reasons to be excited. And if you’ve been playing Overwatch for a while, the release of the latest Halloween skins is one of them.
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PostsThe skin design team for Overwatch has done phenomenal work over the years, but it’s in October that they have released some of their best work. Here are ten skins that you can get at the launch of Overwatch 2 to help you get into the Halloween spirit.
Updated on September 28, 2023, by Lucas Ellinas: Fall has officially arrived, which means it’s time to get into the spooky spirit and equip your favorite Halloween-themed skin. And while most people will have skins they go back to again and again, maybe you’re looking for something new.
Fortunately, Overwatch 2 still has plenty more excellent Halloween skins we didn’t mention the first time around. If you want to switch things up, we’ve added a few more with this update.
14 Bastion: Coffin
The Coffin Bastion skin provides you with an extremely literal interpretation of its theme. It gives Bastion an old-timey lantern for a head, and the rest of their body is an amalgam of small coffins. They’re pretty nice coffins too, with soft cushions so their inhabitants won’t be uncomfortable.
But the real reason to pick this skin is for Bastion’s feathered friend, Ganymede. Or, in this case, not-so-feathered. Ganymede has gotten a little too in on the Halloween spirit and literally died. Fortunately, his re-animated skeleton is still pretty cute.
13 Moira: Banshee
Moira’s Banshee skin is a shout-out to her Irish heritage, and it has the look nailed. The Hero already has a fairly gaunt, spooky look; add in some ragged clothes, wild hair, and pale eyes, and you get one of the most visually striking skins in Overwatch.
The only potential criticism is that the skin doesn’t come with some sort of scream, either as a voice line or an Emote. “Real-life” banshees are most famous for their wailing lamentations, which herald the death of a family member. Although, it might be a bit jarring for other players if Moira suddenly unleashed a blood-curdling scream.
12 Wrecking Ball: Jack-O’-Lantern
Wrecking Ball’s design presents some challenges when creating new Hero skins for him. The art team needs to come up with a skin that can incorporate both a hamster and a big orb. However, those difficulties also provide unique opportunities, the Jack-O'-Lantern skin being a prime example.
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PostsIt dresses Hammond up in a potato sack costume with a wicked grin, but the more notable aspect of it is, of course, the transformation of the hamster ball into a Jack-O’-Lantern. With its own spooky smile, twisting vines, and even candy fired from a pair of sacks, this glowing gourd is emblematic of the Halloween spirit.
11 Pharah: Enchanted Armor
Animated armor is a common trope, seen in everything from Fullmetal Alchemist to Scooby-Doo. There are a few different Heroes that could fit this theme; Reinhardt and Brigitte are both heavily armored characters, and there is some potential for fully-mechanical characters like Bastion or Ramattra.
However, Pharah is special in that she both has a full-face helmet and will frequently take it off. For a particularly fun example, take a look at her Mission Complete Highlight Intro, in which she dramatically removes her helmet. With most skins, you’ll see her proud face. But when using the Enchanted Armor skin, it instead reveals that the armor was empty the whole time.
10 Reinhardt: Draugr
The Draugr skin turns the massive Reinhardt into one of the undead monsters of Norse mythology (or Skyrim) fame. Of course, Skyrim’s draugr often doesn’t feel like much of a threat, but if you run into this version in Skyrim, you might be in trouble. Reinhardt is much bigger than the average Draugr, and is significantly more purple.
The theme is a bit confusing, since Draugr are creatures from Norse mythology, while Reinhardt is German, and there are actually Nordic characters in the game. That said, if the Overwatch team was looking for a character to turn into a giant zombie Viking wielding a battleaxe, Reinhardt was the obvious choice.
9 Zenyatta: Cultist
Cultist Zenyatta is one of the most visually interesting skins in the game. With his tentacled face and the eyes on his orbs that stare into your soul (right before they slam into your head), Cultist Zenyatta has all the markings of the Cthulhu mythos and Lovecraftian horror.
As an extra-fun note, the cultist theme is a fun corruption of Zenyatta’s usual, monk-like demeanor. While canon Zenyatta is focused on finding inner peace and enlightenment, the skin turns him instead into a worshiper of a terrifying being beyond human comprehension. Okay, maybe “fun” wasn’t the right word, but it’s definitely a unique take on the character.
8 Sigma: Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship, appearing in storms and as a general bad omen. In recent years, it has been referenced in everything from Spongebob Squarepants to the Pirates of the Caribbean series.
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PostsSigma’s Flying Dutchman skin has a distinct nautical theme, from the globe on his back to his Hyperspheres, which now have the spiky appearance of sea urchins. And of course, the skin is also a pun, since Sigma is literally a flying Dutch man. If that doesn’t put a smile on your face, you probably just hate fun.
7 Mercy: Witch
Witch Mercy might be the most recognizable of Overwatch’s Halloween skins. With her pointy hat and the transformation of her staff into a broom, the skin is exactly as "witch-y" as you would hope for. And while the Junkenstein’s Revenge event suggests that Witch Mercy is a villain, Mercy’s trustworthy, doctoral image makes that hard to imagine.
Overall, this skin isn’t flashy as some of the others on this list, but there’s something about it that works so perfectly. It may have been outclassed by some newer skins, but this classic still holds its own.
6 D.Va: Shin-Ryeong
The Shin-Ryeong skin portrays D.Va as a kumiho, a type of Korean fox spirit similar to the kitsune of Japanese mythology. Visually, it’s a surprisingly murderous take on D.Va’s regular gamer girl appearance, with sharp claws and an even more devious expression than usual.
The most interesting part of the skin, though, is that it recontextualizes D.Va’s mech as a haunted temple. There are quite a number of D.Va skins that take advantage of her mech in creative ways, but the Shin-Ryeong skin is arguably the best one.
5 Hanzo: Dai-Tengu and Genji: Karasu-Tengu
Here we have a pair of skins for Overwatch 2’s resident feuding brothers, Hanzo and Genji. The skins are variation on the same theme, with each representing a different type of tengu, bird spirits from Japanese folklore.
Dai-Tengu (or big tengu) are older and wiser than other tengu, reflecting Hanzo’s role as the elder, more dutiful brother. Meanwhile, the Karasu-Tengu are more birdlike (karasu being Japanese for crow), which fits Genji since his nickname is “sparrow.” And of course, it helps that both skins look incredible.
