How to complete all the Season 1 challenges

The first season of Overwatch 2 is underway, and if you can pull away everyone the drama, the clock is ticking to meet all the season’s challenges. While dailies and weeklies reset at the right time, seasonal challenges only come once, so you won’t want to sleep on them.

With 41 challenges and a narrow time window to get to them all, it can be difficult to keep track of everything. This guide will help you sort through the challenges to better understand them. It will also call up some helpful tips to help you maintain your sanity as you grind your way through the season.

Read more: 7 more tips Overwatch 2 Beginners determined to win

Season Challenges 101

It is entirely possible to jump into match after match Overwatch 2 and complete many challenges just by going through different maps, rotating heroes and playing your best to progress towards the challenges that require victories. That said, you have a limited number of days to get through all of these. So here are some things to keep in mind if you want to optimize your time.

You must play 50 (yes, 50) unranked games before you can even take on competitive challenges. Sure, you can knock out a fair amount of challenges in just about every mode except Player vs. AI and Custom Games, but some require being in competitive games and will task you with grinding it out in unranked mode. We all have to, so if you’re ready to take on other players, jump into some Unranked and start making progress towards that goal.

Use the in-game filter to track your progress. Overwatch 2 has a super handy feature that lets you filter your challenges based on All Challenges, In Progress, Not Started and Completed. Navigate to your challenge page, and under each tab (divided into Daily, Weekly, Season, Competition, Lifetime and All) use the filter to help you identify which ones you’ve made the most progress towards.

Remember that 50 game requirement for competitive games? There is a challenge in itself, the “Competitive Play Qualification”, and you can check your progress in the “Competitive” tab. If you’ve played any unranked games, selecting “In Progress” from the filter drop-down menu will highlight only the challenges you’ve progressed against. Try it on the Season tab to see how many challenges you’ve already progressed. Best Practice: Filter through your “In Progress” challenges every time you start a new session. This will help you keep the remaining, almost-there challenges in front of you, and save you from the inevitable “oh miss, I forgot I almost finished Sojourn’s ‘Railgun Mastery’ challenge!”

And if you forgot to check your ongoing challenges before entering a game, you can access the entire challenge menu, filters and all, during a game.

With 10,000 XP per level in the Season Pass, the Season Challenges alone won’t knock out the entire pass. They will get you through about three levels, but unlike other challenges, these will expire at the end of the season. For you Premium Season Pass holders, you get 20% extra XP per match. You’ll also get 100 XP for each match you play, with an additional 100 for subsequent matches.

There are 41 seasonal challenges for season one. They’re laid out in a giant scrollable list, but I’ve broken them down into four broad categories based on similarities between them. This should help you narrow your focus a bit.

“As Hero” seasonal challenges

“As Hero” challenges are any challenge that asks you to do X things as a certain hero. For these you must play as the hero mentioned in the challenge. (These are different from Hero Challenges which unlock new playable characters, which you can find in their exclusive tab.)

Some of these can be quite difficult, so you may want to put in a few rounds of PvE if you’re learning a hero for the first time. And if you take on a heroic challenge, try not to overlook your team!

Note: As of this writing, bugs have rendered Bastion unplayable, so his challenges, and any that require his presence on the battlefield, are equally impossible.

Read more: Overwatch 2 Is Buggier Than Blizzard Admits [Update: Entire Characters Pulled ATM]

There are a total of 11 seasonal “as heroes” challenges.

• Never Saw It Coming: Damage a hero with the return flight of your blade as the Junker Queen. (500 XP)
• Railgun Mastery: Earn five eliminations with your alternate fire as Sojourn. (500 XP)
• Tankbuster: break a barrier five times while in Configuration: Assault as Bastion. (500 XP)
• Hook, Line, And Sinker: Hook an enemy under your ultimate as Roadhog. (500 XP)
• Never Skip Leg Day: Get an environmental kill with Snap Kick as Zenyatta. (500 XP)
• Literal Wall Hacks: Heal an injured ally after using Swift Step through a wall for five games as Kiriko. (500)
• Javelin Mastery: Pin five enemies in a wall with the Energy Javelin as Orisa. (500 XP)
• One-Two Punch: Rocket Punch an enemy after jumping into them Seismic Slam in five games as Doomfist. (500 XP)
• I For A Shock: Do 1000 damage with your secondary fire as Winston. (500 XP)
• Wombo Combo: Eliminate three enemies with both Shield Bash and Whip Flai as Brigitte. (50 XP0)
• No no no! Yes, Yes, Yes!: Use Charge to get an environmental kill without falling to your death also as Reinhardt. (500 XP)

Situational seasonal challenges

Some seasonal challenges require you to team up with the right hero at the right time. Others task you with seizing the moment, looking for a specific opposing team’s opening, or denying an enemy a certain type of elimination. I like to refer to these as “situational challenges.”

While you can team up with friends to more predictably score the co-op challenges, the others require you to keep an eye on who is on the enemy team. Take a look at who is on the enemy roster and identify what challenge you are most likely to handle in that matchup.

There are 13 “situational” seasonal challenges.

• I Make My Own Fate: Escape Orisa’s Ultimate. (500 XP)
• Divine Protection: Stay alive for five seconds after being cleansed by Kiriko’s protection Suzu. (500 XP)
• Ancestral Empowerment: Earn five eliminations while being buffed by Kirko’s ultimate. (500 XP)
• Stop Your Resistance: Earn five eliminations on enemies affected by any of Orisa’s abilities or ultimates. (500 XP)
• Finish Them!!: Eliminate an enemy hero immediately after they are slammed into a wall by Doomfirst. (500 XP)
• Horseshoes, Grenades, and Ultimate: Eliminate three enemies damaged by Bastion’s ultimate. (500 XP)
• Disruptive Behavior: Earn five eliminations on heroes slowed by Sojourn’s Disruptor shots. (500 XP)
• System Wide Malfunction: Reduce 1000 damage from Bastion. (500 XP)
• Trigger Discipline: Eliminate a Doomfist within five seconds of Power Block ending for five games. (500 XP)
• Denied!: Get an elimination/assist on an enemy stay during her ultimate. (500 XP)
• All Hail The Queen: Earn five eliminations on heroes while affected by the Junker Queen’s ultimate. (500 XP)
• As the Queen Orders: Earn five eliminations while being buffed by the Junker Queen’s Commanding Shout. (500 XP)
• Hacksecution: Get five eliminations on heroes highlighted by Sombra’s Hack.
• (500 XP)

Map-based seasonal challenges

Some of the challenges in Season 1 ask you to perform a certain amount of kills in a certain location on a certain map. If you’re not familiar with a map, you can always create a custom solo game to explore a map on. For example, the “Staying on Track” challenge requires you to earn eliminations from the train near the capture point at Midtown. If you don’t know where it is, learning in the heat of battle isn’t always the most optimal way to do this.

As with “as heroes” challenges, be sure not to overlook your team while heading to these specific locations.

There are 12 map-based seasonal challenges.

• Grand Prix Champion: Win three matches in Circuit Royal. (1000 XP)
• Veni, Vidi, Vici: Win three matches in the Colosseo. (1000 XP)
• Hope for victory: Win three games at Esperança. (1000 XP)
• Staying On Track: Earn five eliminations in or from the train near the capture point at Midtown. (500 XP)
• Welcome to 6IX: Win three games in New Queen Street. (1000 XP)
• High Roller: Earn five eliminations from the balcony of Maison Borsa at Circuit Royal. (500 XP)
• Te Salutant: Earn five eliminations while listening to the cheers of the masses in the Colosseo. (500 XP)
• Big Apple Aspirations: Win three games in Midtown. (500 XP)
• Concrete Jungle Playground: Earn five eliminations from above the Midtown Tunnel at Midtown. (500 XP)
• Hometown Advantage: Earn five eliminations from the neighborhood rooftops in Paraíso. (500 XP)
• Double-Double: Earn five eliminations at or from the Hotel Montebianco or the Memorial Library on New Queen Street. (500 XP)
• Cidade Maravilhosa: Win three matches in Paraiso. (1000 XP)

Season Challenges for competition only

Under the Seasonal Challenges tab you will find some competitive challenges that are different from the Competitive Challenges tab. There aren’t that many of these, but they are still quite a challenge. do not forget, you must clear 50 unranked games before you can play in competitive mode.

There are five seasonal challenges that are competitive only.

• Season 1: Open Queue Competitor: Win seven games in Competitive Plays Open Queue (1000 XP)
• Season 1: Seasoned Competitor: Win 50 games in any competitive mode. (3000 XP)
• Season 1: Veteran Contender: Win 100 games in any competitive mode. (5000 XP)
• Season 1: Amateur Contender: Win 20 games in any competitive mode. (1000 XP)
• Season 1: Role Queue Competitor: Win seven matches in Competitive Play’s role queue. (1000 XP)

While these challenges alone aren’t going to bag you the season pass, they’re certainly worth pursuing given their fleeting nature. Team up with friends for the best results and keep an eye out for the double XP weekends. These are as follows:

• The weekend of October 21
• The weekend of October 28
• The weekend of November 24

With 80 levels in the season one pass, and countless challenges across daily, weekly, seasonal and competitive, not to mention Hero unlockable challenges, there’s plenty to keep you busy Overwatch 2. Ticking off these challenges is a great way to keep a goal in mind as you go through battle after battle. And aiming for some of the more difficult ones can only improve your game as well.