Overwatch 2: How To Unlock The Hard Light Weapon Skins

Overwatch 2 now has weapon skins! The first collection is called "Hard Light" and was added with the Season 8 update. Here is what they look like and how much they cost.

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Overwatch 2: How to get weapon skins | © Blizzard

Overwatch 2 Season 8 introduces custom weapon skins for a selection of heroes. The game always had a grand selection of hero skins, which would also change the look of the weapon. But now, Blizzard has added a new feature that allows us to customize the look of a hero's weapon individually, as well as sound effects and animations. These skins are now available in the game, and we will tell you how to get one.

How To Get Weapon Skins In Overwatch 2

The new Hard Light weapon skins for Reinhard, Reaper or Mercy will be purchasable in the store. If they appear in the shop, you will be able to buy them individually for 1200 Overwatch Credits ($12) or as a whole pack for 2900 Credits (29$). The whole pack will include the three weapon skins for Reinhard, Reaper and Mercy.
Here is a close-up of all three Hard Light Weapon Skins:
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Overwatch 2 Hard Light Weapon skins for Mercy, Reaper & Reinhard | © Blizzard

The Hard Light weapon skin collection is strongly inspired by the classic Echo look. The blue "Hard Light" material is the same for all versions, and the white and blue color scheme with golden accents actually looks quite charming. Despite a decent individual design, the weapons sometimes look a little out of place, depending on the hero carrying them.

While the skin looks great on a delicate hero like Mercy, Reaper looks a bit ridiculous holding these weapons.

Another issue is that the new skins seem very overpriced, considering that they don't apply to all heroes, as is the case with Valorant, for example. In the Riot shooter, all weapon skins can be applied to any agent, but cost between 12 and 20 dollars, the same as the new skins in Overwatch 2.

As a longtime Overwatch player, I know from experience that many people buy normal hero skins just for the look of the weapon. It makes sense, because that's all they'll see while playing. Because of that, I am concerned that they might replace the normal hero skins.

But it could also be the other way around, where players won't find them interesting enough, since we already HAVE hero skins that change the look of a weapon. Either way, these custom weapon skins seem kind of useless, considering they don't really add any value to the normal skins except for new sound effects.

Overpriced items are nothing new when it comes to Blizzard, so I won't even bother delving into this topic further. With the new season, the publisher has announced that more weapon skins will be coming in the future. So, we will see how they will balance the weapon skin prices from normal skins.

Malena Rose

Malena is a game design student and writer at EarlyGame. Her life-long passion for videogames inspired her to make a living out of it. Through her studies in Game Design, she now plays an active role within the gaming industry....