New Stranded Spawns System in Overwatch 2, explained

Time for fewer stagger kills

Season 4 of Overwatch 2 launched on April 11, 2023, and with it comes a host of changes. While the addition of new hero Lifeweaver has grabbed headlines, another significant change has arrived via the Stranded Spawns System.

In short, spawn rooms that would normally shut down after capture or a lost objective will remain active for seven seconds. Hero swapping is still off-limits in this state, but the opposing team will be locked out of entering the room. Additionally, the healing field will remain active, and you’ll be able to instantly teleport to the new active spawn room.

Basically, the Stranded Spawns System should deal a huge blow to stagger kills. It’ll be much easier for teams to regroup now, which should curb generally unpopular strategies. Casual players won’t necessarily feel the impact of this system too intensely. Meanwhile, experienced players trained to chase stagger kills will need to take some time to adjust. Though some players aren’t as enthused about this change, many are excited that this may help a team on defense get off the backfoot and stand more of a chance to form a counter play.

Players can press their Interact key to warp to the new active spawn room. For console players, click the L3 button to Interact (or more specifically, click your left joystick). On PC, press the F key if you’re using the default key bindings. Give it a try during your next game, and stay tuned in case Blizzard roles out any additional tweaks to this feature.