‘Overwatch’ Lunar New Year Event Adds New Skins, The Ability To Change Skins Before A Match

Celebrate the Lunar New Year with good fortune and new skins in Overwatch. The Lunar New Year event is back for the Year of the Dog with several new skins and a revamped capture the flag mode. Not to mention, today’s Overwatch update lets players change their skin in a match lobby before the fight begins.

The seasonal Lunar New Year event returns in 2018 with all the skins from the previous year alongside new additions. Last year’s skins can be unlocked with credits for the standard price rather than the higher event cost. Skins new to Overwatch this year will cost triple the standard price. For instance, last year’s Bajie skin for Roadhog is just 1,000 credits, but this year’s Red Phoenix skin for Mercy is 3,000 credits.

In addition to the new legendary Mercy skin, players can unlock new legendary skins for Genji, McCree, Pharah, Widowmaker, and Zarya. The latest event in Overwatch also includes a new highlight introduction for McCree and emotes for Roadhog and Doomfist. Players can preview all of the event items on the game’s official website.

Capture the flag also returns to the Arcade this year with the Lunar New Year event. The mode underwent a few changes with today’s maintenance. Players can pick up flags instantly but using a restricted ability will cause the player to drop it. For example, Winston’s Jump Pack ability will make the character drop the flag.

Alongside the event, a new permanent option is now available before a match starts. Players can now change their characters’ skins before battle in Overwatch. In the Hero Select screen players can use the Select Skin menu to change heroes’ skins according to the patch notes. This new feature is available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

A number of bug fixes and a few changes to Doomfist are also part of the Overwatch patch. Most notably, Doomfist’s Hand Cannon deals less damage but fires more bullets. Additionally, the interface notification letting Zenyatta players know where his orbs are now includes hero names alongside player names.

The return of the Lunar New Year event comes just weeks after a large cosmetic patch released for the FPS. As the Inquisitr reported, over 100 new items were added to base loot boxes alongside the release of the Blizzard World map. A little over two weeks later, another new map and 50 new event items were added with the Year of the Dog event in Overwatch.