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

Shortly after Overwatch 2 launched on Oct. 4, it encountered a myriad of problems. Players reported frequent disconnections, long queues, and bugs involving the game’s new First Time User Experience as developer Blizzard Entertainment battled back-to-back DDoS attacks and other server problems. While many bugs have been fixed and the servers are mostly stable, a few issues remain.

Enterprising players may have noticed that Torbjörn, the mechanical master of the Overwatch 2 hero roster, is not available for certain modes of play. Following in the footsteps of Bastion, he was removed by the development team at Blizzard for a specific reason. We’ve rounded up everything you need to know about Torbjörn’s removal—and his return.

Here’s what we know about Torbjörn’s absence in Overwatch 2.

Torbjörn removal details

In a tweet published on the evening of Oct. 10, almost a week after Overwatch 2 went live, the development team revealed that both Bastion and Torbjörn were removed from the game deliberately to investigate bugs plaguing them. No mention was made of what the bugs are, but they’re likely serious if Blizzard felt as though it needed to remove them both from certain modes of play.

At time of writing, Bastion is unavailable in all game modes, but Torbjörn is still available in Quick Play. He can’t be played in Competitive, likely to prevent players from abusing or taking advantage of the bugs affecting him. The removal isn’t permanent: the development team will add both heroes back once their respective bugs are fixed.

The development team at Blizzard has finally released an estimated return date for both Torbjörn and Bastion. In the evening of Oct. 19, community manager AndyB published a forum post sharing that they expect to return both heroes to all modes of play on Oct. 25, which coincides with the game’s next update and the beginning of the Junkenstein’s Revenge: Wrath of the Bride Halloween event. Junkertown, which was also temporarily removed to address other bugs, will also return on Oct. 25.

Torbjörn’s absence hasn’t been quite as bad as Bastion’s—at least Torbjörn can still be played in Quick Play. But fans will likely be thrilled to have both heroes back in the roster for all modes.