Progression rewards

[t1saif]

As players level up in Overwatch, they'll earn rewards, like portrait borders for character portraits. Every time they level up, they'll also get a loot box, which spawns with "at least" four cosmetic items. Those items come in four flavors of rarity that will be familiar to any Blizzard fan: common, rare, epic and legendary.

Kaplan emphasized that all that loot is 100 percent cosmetic. "We didn't want to put anything in there that affected your power advantage," he said.

Those loot boxes can drop new character skins, new emote animations and voice-over lines that players can use to customize their Overwatch heroes. Loot boxes can also contain other cosmetic perks, like victory poses, character sprays that can be painted on in-game surfaces and character avatars that show off "the expression of who you are as a player," Kaplan said.

Players who aren't satisfied with their loot drops, whether it be because they haven't unlocked something for a hero they play often or because they unlocked a duplicate item, have some recourse. Overwatch will let players cash in duplicate loot box items for in-game credits, which can then be spent on other cosmetic items. Kaplan noted that some loot boxes will also contain credits.

Overwatch beta players will be able to browse all those cosmetic goodies in the game's new Hero Gallery, a front end that lets players see all those skins, animations and taunts in action.

Naturally, with the availability of loot drops and coveted cosmetic items, comes the question: Can Overwatch players buy this stuff with real money? Not yet. But eventually.

"We're very open to that," he said. "We don't have anything like that implemented yet but what we are exploring is giving players the opportunity to buy loot boxes outright. Right now, we're thinking that at some point, we'll put up a shop —€” think, like, the Hearthstone store where you can buy card packs, and make that available to you. Obviously if you never want to do that, the leveling goes pretty fast. But if you're the kind of person that says, 'I'm getting that Tracer skin tonight, come hell or high water, and I'm just gonna buy loot boxes until it happens' —€” that's something we're very excited to try to players at some point."

full article http://www.polygon.com/2016/2/9/1095...-entertainment

some pictures

https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/cho...atina_01.0.jpg
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/cho..._Punk_02.0.jpg
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/cho...hardt_01.0.jpg
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/cho...nubis_02.0.jpg
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/cho...cy_Devil.0.jpg
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/cho...hiteWolf.0.jpg
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/cho...r_XA_012.0.jpg


http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/bl...eview-2-9-2016

[Val the Moofia Boss]

"We're very open to that," he said. "We don't have anything like that implemented yet but what we are exploring is giving players the opportunity to buy loot boxes outright. Right now, we're thinking that at some point, we'll put up a shop —€” think, like, the Hearthstone store where you can buy card packs, and make that available to you. Obviously if you never want to do that, the leveling goes pretty fast. But if you're the kind of person that says, 'I'm getting that Tracer skin tonight, come hell or high water, and I'm just gonna buy loot boxes until it happens' —€” that's something we're very excited to try to players at some point."

Seems like you won't even be able to purchase the specific skin you want with IRL money; just loot boxes with a chance of either 1. getting what you want or 2. a duplicate to melt down for credits.

The question is: how many credits do duplicate items melt for?

[Beazy]

Seems like you won't even be able to purchase the specific skin you want with IRL money; just loot boxes with a chance of either 1. getting what you want or 2. a duplicate to melt down for credits.

The question is: how many credits do duplicate items melt for?

Not sure, but I received 75 coins last night for a duplicate item. Not sure what it was TBH.

I did notice that the rarity of items had a coin color why they flip in the air before they land and reveal your prizes. (You can see it in the OP vid above)

[Arborus]

Seems like you won't even be able to purchase the specific skin you want with IRL money; just loot boxes with a chance of either 1. getting what you want or 2. a duplicate to melt down for credits.

The question is: how many credits do duplicate items melt for?

I've only got three duplicates so far, but sprays seem to be 5 and skins 50.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Went from level 1 to 7 during my play session over the course of 15 games, got a bunch of sprays/voice overs/portraits, one victory pose (ironically for Hanzo, my most played character - coincidence?), a box of 50 credits and no skins. That was four or five loot boxes, I believe (your not guaranteed a loot box every time you level up). It should also be noted, that the amount of XP required to level up increases with each level; at six it took me five whole games to get to seven, and judging from the unremarkable loot I received... (Well, beta is beta, and this is my feedback).

Yet, I'm seeing many players running around in the 1000 credit skins already, despite progression having only been available for less than tweleve hours when I played. How?

[Beazy]

Went from level 1 to 7 during my play session over the course of 15 games, got a bunch of sprays/voice overs/portraits, one victory pose (ironically for Hanzo, my most played character - coincidence?), a box of 50 credits and no skins. That was four or five loot boxes, I believe (your not guaranteed a loot box every time you level up). It should also be noted, that the amount of XP required to level up increases with each level; at six it took me five whole games to get to seven, and judging from the unremarkable loot I received... (Well, beta is beta, and this is my feedback).

Yet, I'm seeing many players running around in the 1000 credit skins already, despite progression having only been available for less than tweleve hours when I played. How?

The same way people hit Paragon 1000 in 2 days in D3 ~ No Job + Mtn Dew.

[Mormolyce]

Not sure, but I received 75 coins last night for a duplicate item. Not sure what it was TBH.

I did notice that the rarity of items had a coin color why they flip in the air before they land and reveal your prizes. (You can see it in the OP vid above)

Maybe that's a purple? I just got two dupes, a voice line and a skin. Common I think. 5 coins and 15 coins respectively.

[Arborus]

Went from level 1 to 7 during my play session over the course of 15 games, got a bunch of sprays/voice overs/portraits, one victory pose (ironically for Hanzo, my most played character - coincidence?), a box of 50 credits and no skins. That was four or five loot boxes, I believe (your not guaranteed a loot box every time you level up). It should also be noted, that the amount of XP required to level up increases with each level; at six it took me five whole games to get to seven, and judging from the unremarkable loot I received... (Well, beta is beta, and this is my feedback).

Yet, I'm seeing many players running around in the 1000 credit skins already, despite progression having only been available for less than tweleve hours when I played. How?

You can get the 1000 credit skins from loot boxes :P

edit:

Just got a duplicate purple worth 150 credits, and a duplicate common victory pose worth 15.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Update: Reached level 17, only seen two skins drop so far: a blue (rare) recolor (75 credits worth) for Zarya and a n orange (legendary) skin for tracer (1000 credits worth). Other than that, just sprays and voice overs, with the occasional victory pose. No Play of the Game Highlight animations so far.

[Jester Joe]

Update: Reached level 17, only seen two skins drop so far: a blue (rare) recolor (75 credits worth) for Zarya and a n orange (legendary) skin for tracer (1000 credits worth). Other than that, just sprays and voice overs, with the occasional victory pose. No Play of the Game Highlight animations so far.

I've reached level 14, so far I've gotten an epic skin for Reinhardt, a rare skin for Roadhog, a legendary skin for Mercy (Who I've only played once), and PotG animation for Junkrat.

[A Chozo]

Damn those look like a good amount of things to collect.

But about the progression...

Aside from the obvious fun factor (and I've heard it's really nice here), is this the main method of progression in this game? I'm a little on the fence about buying Overwatch and got concerned about "what's there to do" in the game. Of course, if there's only the multiplayer mode matches, it's fine if it's fun, but I'm wondering if there's a general direction to progress. Ranks are confirmed, right? What else?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Damn those look like a good amount of things to collect.

But about the progression...

Aside from the obvious fun factor (and I've heard it's really nice here), is this the main method of progression in this game? I'm a little on the fence about buying Overwatch and got concerned about "what's there to do" in the game. Of course, if there's only the multiplayer mode matches, it's fine if it's fun, but I'm wondering if there's a general direction to progress. Ranks are confirmed, right? What else?

Ranks are in the game right now.

List of unlockables: skins, voice overs, emotes, victory poses, play of the game animations, sprays, and player icons.