With Overwatch’s Halloween event kicking into high gear across all platforms, a new game mode was added for the festivities runtime. Titled “Junkenstein’s Revenge” this game mode sees four players hold off waves of robots and enemy hero characters until the timer reaches zero. The only way to lose is if no one in your party is alive or if the door you are protecting takes enough damage and explodes. This is fairly simple on Easy and Normal difficulty but on Hard mode, this new brawl will push your skills to the test.
One of the biggest problems the enemies such as the Zombardirs have increased damage and can easily kill players thanks to their cannon’s splash damage. The hero units such as Junkenstein, Reaper, and Junkenstein’s monster can also be huge problems thanks to their damage output and increased health pool. This makes your team’s use of ultimates critical to success, along with positioning for each player on this very small map. In this guide, we will break down the role of each hero, their ideal location, and how to defeat each boss wave.
Ana:
Your role as Ana is to be the team healer and general backbone of the group. There are no health packs and outside of Soldier 76’s AoE heal, you will have no other way to gain back health. This makes Ana a critical character in this match due to her long range healing and ability to sleep any enemy hero that might rush your group. My team positioned Ana in the back by the door so she could see each player and their respective health bars at all time. Always keep your head on a swivel and try to not use the scope since you won’t be able to see if your allies need health.
Her Nano Boost should be given to McCree in most instances since it not only boosts his damage but the speed of his Deadeye. The only time you will give it to someone else is during the first Junkenstein appearance since combining it with Hanzo’s ultimate will basically drop his health instantly to 10%.
Hanzo:
Hanzo should be positioned either in the sniper’s perch right above the gate or on the left-hand side wall. Either way, Hanzo’s main job should be to kill all of the Zombardirs that come flying out and leave the little robots for Ana, McCree, and Soldier. Since Hanzo can drop the Zombardir’s quickly, this can make your playthrough far easier since these enemies cause the most trouble. While his focus should always be on these long range enemies, feel free to mop up any other robots in between phases.
Hanzo’s ultimate should be used mainly to kill Junkenstein since he has nowhere to run when it’s fired off at him. Outside of that, using Hanzo’s ultimate horizontal to the door during a boss phase is also useful since it will clean up any Zomnics trying to sneak by. Given how fast his ultimate charges, you can be a far more liberal with its use in Hard Mode. Just always make sure to have one by the time the Roadhog phase ends.
McCree:
Make sure to put your McCree dead center or on the far left since he can output some of the best damage. Personally, I prefer putting him on the left-hand side since it allows his Deadeye to be far more effective with minimal risk. For the most part, your job is to kill elites and this comes down to the use of your Deadeye, which should be nano boosted. You are able to kill Reaper and Mercy instantly with a boosted Deadeye, so make sure to always save it for bosses. Do not use it on basic enemies unless you absolutely need to. McCree is a boss killer, use him as such.
Soldier 76:
Soldier 76 is a bit of a wild card and can fit a ton of different roles in a single match. Place him either on the top right or dead center, since he will be your main robot killer. While his ultimate is good for taking out bosses, it’s also fantastic for mowing down any big waves of enemies that might overwhelm your team. Make sure to use your healing field and place it in the center so everyone can use it if needed. Soldier 76 is basically going to be your clean up crew and shouldn’t be considered your primary source of damage against bosses. However, he can be great for killing The Witch since her mobility is nullified by his Tactical Visor.
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Boss Phases
- The Reaper: This fight is simple enough, just spread your team out and Nano Boost McCree so he can instantly kill him with his Deadeye.
- Junkenstein’s Monster: Once again Nano Boost McCree, but make sure to also hit this enemy with your healing grenade so he cannot gain back some of his life. Combo this with a Soldier 76 Ultimate and he should be dead quickly.
- Junkenstein/The Reaper: It’s critical Ana has her ultimate because Junkenstein comes out quickly after his monster dies. Let her farm the robots for charge until she has it, otherwise, this fight will be annoying. As soon as it begins Nano Boost Hanzo so he can ultimate and finish off Junkenstein. Do not use McCree’s Deadeye because Reaper will come out a few seconds later and you will need to use that in order to kill him.
- The Reaper: He will appear a couple more times before the final battle, but just repeat the same steps as before and it should be easy. Just make sure to listen for his audio cues and always make sure to have both Ana and McCree’s ultimate before the timer hits 0.
- The Final Battle: As soon as it starts Nano Boost McCree so he can us his Deadeye on all three enemies. While he is doing this have Hanzo use his ultimate on Junkenstein so his health drops low enough so McCree can kill him. If you don’t manage to kill Mercy have Soldier 76 Use his ultimate and focus her down until she is dead. Hanzo should now focus on enemies while the other three heroes deplete the last of Roadhog’s health bar.
Now this is just one way of beating Junkenstein’s Revenge on hard, so make sure to let us know how you defended the castle. The biggest tip is to manage your ultimates and always know when and how to use them. This is quite a fun game mode and it will be interesting to see if Blizzard expands the four-person co-op mode further into something resembling a campaign for Overwatch.