If you’re a seasoned Overwatch player, you’ll know that the game holds several seasonal events, each with unique cosmetics. Winter Wonderland had skins and emotes for the holidays, and Halloween Terror had heroes dressing up as ghouls and goblins.
Besides the holidays, though, Overwatch also had one lore-specific event, which was dubbed Overwatch Archives. It looks into each character’s history during the glory days of Overwatch, before the formation of Talon and the new rise of the Null Sector.
Like every other seasonal event, Archives would come with its batch of cosmetics, from skins of characters when they were younger to emotes and stickers. What’s also great is that it also came with a PvE mode where players would have to team up and do a mission. Each event had a different mission, titled Uprising, Retribution, and Storm Rising.
What are Overwatch 2 Archive Lootboxes?
Since Overwatch Archive was like every other seasonal event, it also came with its lootbox. While the game has a standard lootbox that players can work for, each event came with specific lootboxes that contained cosmetics specific to that season; Overwatch Archive gave players the Archive Lootboxes.
When you open one of these boxes, expect to gain cosmetics such as Blackwatch skins for Genji, Cassidy, and Moira or early Overwatch uniforms for Reinhardt, Mercy, and Tracer. Not every Archive skin also has to be Overwatch/Blackwatch related, as we get some origin skins for a lot of the Talon group, including Widowmaker, Sombra, and Doomfist, as well as other factions like Hanzo’s Shimada clan outfit.
Read: How to Unlock Illari in Overwatch 2
You can even unlock Mei’s pajama skin from her short origin—just a lot of fun lore-connected goods.
Where Can I Get Overwatch 2 Archive Lootboxes?
The bad news is that there is no way to earn any lootboxes in Overwatch 2. The lootbox system had been a source of huge controversy in gaming, and Overwatch was no exception. By the time Overwatch 2 launched, Blizzard had removed the lootbox system and had converted everyone’s lootboxes from the previous game into in-game credits.
In place of lootboxes, the players now have a Battle Pass, which wasn’t well-received when the game first launched. After several tweaks, the Battle Pass now grants players Overwatch credits, which they can use to buy specific cosmetics in the game; earn enough points in the battle pass, and you can even unlock a Legendary Skin—but that’s honestly going to take a lot of grinding to get there.
Not Completely Hopeless
Though loot boxes may not be available in the game anymore, that doesn’t mean their contents are completely unattainable. Usually, when Overwatch runs its Anniversary event, all cosmetics will be made available to purchase for players, and they could very much do the same thing this year.
With the launch of Overwatch 2 in October, players are hoping that the anniversary event for OW2 will bring out a bunch of cosmetics that they missed when they were first available in the shop—and that could mean cosmetics from the old Archives event in the first game.
Admittedly, it did look like Overwatch 2 was doing away with Archives since the event usually runs from April to May, and we got nothing this year and last year. On the flip side, it does look like the writers are ready to move the story forward, with the Invasion event having Ramattra front-and-center bringing back Null Sector and forcing Overwatch to regroup once again and take them on.
Then again, this is just speculation on the gamers’ part. There is still a lot of appreciation for the original Archives theme, and new players would likely want to look into the history of the characters as well. It’s only a matter of time before Blizzard gives fans another update.
