Why bring guns when you can throw motorbikes? Overwatch’s Season 3 plans to answer that important question with the new hero Shion. She brings both, so guns and weaponised motorbikes must fill different, invaluable niches, I suppose.
Below, I’ll explain when Overwatch Season 3: Into the Tiger’s Den releases in your time zone, as well as what you can expect from the new season. Of course, that includes a rundown of Shion’s abilities and perks, which are seriously cool.
When does Overwatch Season 3 start?
Overwatch Season 3 begins on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at 12 am PT / 3 pm ET / 7 pm GMT, and runs until mid-August. You’ll be able to preload this update on PC and console (now including Switch 2) to save you time.
This coincides with the end of the current season, so you’ve still got a little time left to finish your battle pass. Plus, you’ve also got Drives to earn before the new season rolls out, too.
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Here’s everything arriving in Season 3:
- DPS hero Shion
- Neon Junction (Hybrid) map, set in Tokyo
- Anima Strike event
- Summer Games event returns
- Stadium hero reworks for Moira, Orisa, and Reinhardt
- Illari mythic skin
- Hanzo mythic weapon
- Yaosobi collab skins for Kiriko, Hanzo, and Genji
- Hero ban updates
As always, there will also be a new battle pass and store bundles, and another mythic skin coming in the mid-season update.
Overwatch Shion abilities and perks
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Releasing alongside Season 3 (there are no hero trials anymore) is Shion, the newest hitscan DPS to join the roster, and the leader of the Hashimoto. She’s similar to Tracer in that she dual-wields semi-automatic pistols and has a dash, but she’s also got a motorbike. And it’s as outlandish as it sounds, letting you drive around and then launch your ride at enemies.
I predict she’ll be a very strong flanker due to having two mobility tools and an execute in her base kit, which is something Anran, another recent flanker, has been lacking. You’ll have to wait and see where Shion lands on our Overwatch tier list once she’s settled in.
Here are Shion’s abilities:
|
Ability |
Type |
Effect |
|---|---|---|
|
Kira Pistols |
Primary weapon |
Rapid-fire anima pistols, best suited to close range. |
|
Execution |
Ability |
Fire an X-shaped volley. You can hold the ability to tighten its spread. |
|
Evade |
Ability |
Dash and briefly gain overhealth. |
|
Joyride |
Ability |
Activate to start riding a motorbike. Reactivate to dismount and launch your bike forward. |
|
Satsuriku Spree |
Ultimate |
Rush forward three times in a storm of gunfire. This is omnidirectional. |
|
Flanker |
Subrole Passive |
Health packs restore more health. |
And here are Shion’s perks:
Minor:
- Rapid Reload: Evade reloads nine ammo.
- X Machina: Execution does 20% more damage to enemies below half health.
Major:
- Refuel: Joyride instantly restores 50 health and regenerates 20 health per second while active.
- Faces of Death: Gain all other Damage subrole passives (Recon, Specialist, and Sharpshooter).
The elephant in the room is the Faces of Death perk, which has the potential to be incredibly broken. But chances are, you don’t remember all the subroles off the top of your head, so here they are:
- Recon: Detect enemies below half health through walls after damaging them.
- Specialist: Eliminating an enemy briefly increases your reload speed.
- Sharpshooter: Critical hits reduce your movement ability cooldowns.
These come in addition to her default Flanker passive. The end result is a DPS that will be blazingly quick, so long as you’re hitting headshots and scoring kills. With two mobility skills and an execute, that shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
I’ll probably be picking X Machina as the minor perk to gank low-health enemies before they inevitably get healed up, and Faces of Death as the major perk to become supercharged. However, I’m interested in testing Refuel. Depending on how quickly you can get on your bike and fling it at the enemy, that burst of healing could be very handy.
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