When will Bastion be back in Overwatch 2 and why is he missing?

One of the best parts of Overwatch 2 is undoubtedly its character roster. Developer Blizzard Entertainment made a point of bringing back all of the first Overwatch‘s heroes to make the new game feel like a fluid continuation of the previous one. More than a few heroes also received reworks or small ability changes, particularly tanks, who had to be adjusted the most to fit the new five-vs-five match structure.

Naturally, these changes can cause problems of their own. One of the heroes who was adjusted was Bastion, who received a full rework to make him more fun to play and less aggravating to play against. Unfortunately, it seems as though something went wrong with him somewhere along the line, as he was removed from the game on Oct. 10.

So what happened to Bastion, and when will he be back in play?

When will Bastion be back in Overwatch 2 and why is he missing?

As previously stated, Bastion was removed from the live game as of about 5:50pm CT on Oct. 10. In a tweet from the official Overwatch account, the development team revealed that both Bastion and Torbjörn would be removed temporarily to fix a few bugs affecting their abilities. Bastion was removed from all modes, while Torbjörn was removed from Competitive but remains available in Quick Play. Blizzard did not share what bugs the two heroes were suffering from.

The statement came as Overwatch 2 was suffering from a myriad of problems on launch, including incorrectly locked heroes and FTUE issues for many players. The comments on the announcement are filled with players sharing screenshots and videos of their respective problems.

At around 5:30pm CT on Oct. 19, Blizzard’s customer support account announced that Junkertown would also be removed from the live game temporarily to fix some related bugs. In the tweet, the developer revealed that it expects the map to return the following week alongside Bastion and Torbjörn.

The tweet linked to a Blizzard forum post from community manager AndyB, who provided even more detail: the team plans to return Bastion, Torbjörn, and Junkertown to the live game in its next update, which will drop on Oct. 25. Oct. 25 is also when Junkenstein’s Revenge: Wrath of the Bride, Overwatch 2’s first Halloween event, will begin. This news will likely come as a relief to players who frequently play Bastion since he has been unavailable for play for 10 days now.

Note that while Bastion remains unavailable for play, he will not appear in the Hero Gallery menu and players cannot adjust the cosmetics they have equipped on him. Torbjörn is still present in the Hero Gallery, though the lock icon on his portrait indicates that he isn’t available in Competitive for the time being.