Overwatch 2 Cosmic Crisis guide: How it works and how to win

Overwatch 2 Season 9 has arrived with a brand-new PvE game mode! This time, the co-op action is Cosmic Crisis. Your team must escape Ecopoint: Antarctica, avoid tentacles and noxious gas, fight omnics, collect batteries, and protect your ship. Read on for our Overwatch 2 Cosmic Crisis guide on how everything works and how to claim victory!

After assembling your team of four heroes, get out of the ship by pressing the "F" key near it. Then, attack the bots coming your way. At the same time, clear off the snow or put out the fire near your ship by following the orange indicators.

Once that's done, find the laboratory by following the orange indicator. Clear the path by eliminating the bots. A cutscene involving a giant monster plays as you're making your way to the laboratory.

Stay away from where this monster's tentacle is located once the cutscene is over! This is because if you're too close to the hole, the monster drags you in and eliminates you.

Work with your team to clear the area. For example, while Soldier: 76 and Widowmaker can leverage the high ground, Sigma can create a shield as a tank. Meanwhile, Ana can heal and provide some crowd control.

Next, keep following the orange indicator and enter the laboratory area. Once you're there, be prepared for battle and watch out for the subjugator unit that uses a gravity beam. If you're caught in it, then you're toast! Thankfully, it's possible to escape the subjugator's pull if you defeat it in time.

Watch out for the tentacles coming out of the ground and the purple gas as well. If you shoot a tentacle to scare it away, then purple gas comes out of it and deals damage to whoever is in the area.

Don't forget to destroy the power relays by attacking them. Follow the orange indicators on the map to find them. These are purple orbs with lots of health. You might have to collect access cards as another option. If a teammate gets eliminated along the way, revive them by standing next to them and hold the "F" key.

After destroying all of the power relays or finding all of the access cards, head back to the ship while clearing the bots along the way. You must find the ship batteries while fighting off more waves of bots. To pick up a battery, press the "F" key near it.

It's at this point that one player on your team can choose to either betray or save everyone. This player is randomly selected by the game. Our Widowmaker, for example, listened to an ominous voice and jumped into the tentacle pit. Her objective was "Answer the call or help your team." She answered the call by following the orange indicator that was only visible to her, so she turned into our enemy!

Our team then had to collect batteries, bring them to the ship, fight bots, and defeat Widowmaker all at once! The ship begins to repair itself after your team turns in all of the batteries. During this time, defend the vessel from explosive bots and enemies galore.

After repairing the ship, gather inside of it to complete the mission. Don't forget to endorse everyone for a job well done.

That's all for now. Are you excited to try out the Overwatch 2 Cosmic Crisis PvE game mode? This game mode will also get modifiers such as Death from Above, Molten Core, and Thunderstorm starting Feb. 20. Until then, stick around on esports.gg for more news and updates!