Progression in Overwatch is built around leveling up a player's account by earning experience. Players gain experience by completing any game mode. Leveling up also gives Loot Boxes which give collectible items.
Experience[]
Currently, experience is gained by completing Quick Play, Play vs. AI, Practice vs. AI, Arcade (including the Game Browser) and Competitive Play games. The amount of experience earned is determined by a variety of factors: round length, outcome, and individual participation. The experience award will be given when the game finishes and will be displayed on the endgame scoreboard.
Base Exp[]
- Time: ~211.5XP per minute (~3.521XP per sec)
- Match Finish: 150XP
- Win: 500XP
- Consecutive Match: 300XP
- Backfill: 400XP
- First Win of the Day: 1,500XP (excluded from game-mode multipliers)
- Medals: The experience granted for medals only counts the highest quality medal received and is applied only once no matter how many medals received. For example: if a player has two gold medals and one silver medal, only 150 XP is received for one gold medal.
- Gold Medal: 150XP
- Silver Medal: 100XP
- Bronze Medal: 50XP
- Group Bonus: +20%XP
- Leaver Penalty: -75%XP
Quick Play (including most Arcade)[]
- Standard exp rate
Arcade—Free for All and Team Deathmatch[]
- These game modes gives 80% exp
- For example instead of receiving +150 for a Match Finish you receive +120
- Placing in the top half of Free for All does not give exp for a Win
Arcade—Lockout Elimination[]
- This game mode gives between 40 - 125% exp based on game length between 1:45 & 3:15
- For example instead of receiving +150 for a Match Finish you receive +188 for long (>3.25) and +58 for short (<1.75 min) games
- If you play elimination for exp longer games are recommended
Competitive Play[]
- This game mode gives 115% exp
- For example instead of receiving +150 for a Match Finish you receive +173
Practice vs. AI[]
- This game mode gives 90% exp
- For example instead of receiving +150 for a Match Finish you receive +135
Experience Reward Explanation[]
Leaver Penalty[]
Example of the warning before Leaver Penalty applied on PC version.
The rate of leaving is calculated over the 20 most recent matches. Every time a player quits in the middle of the match - after initial heroes select ("Assemble Your Team") and before Victory/Defeat result announcement - it will count toward their leaving rate besides receiving an automatic loss. Dropping from a match due to inactivity or disconnecting will also count.[1] Quitting a match as a result of grouping or following your group's leaving will also count. It will also count if you are disconnected due to loss of internet connection.
If the rate of leaving rises above a threshold, that player will receive a warning message (which will be displayed when you attempt to quit again). Continue to leave, they will suffer the "Leaver Penalty" for subsequent matches: there will be a cut of 75%XP applied. The penalty is lifted if the rate of leaving goes under the threshold again.[1]
The Leaver Penalty condition is much more severe in Competitive Play. It was reported that quitting one or two matches is enough for the penalty to be applied.
Backfill[]
In every PVP mode except for Competitive Play and Duels, when a player or multiple players leave a match, the matchmaking system will try to replace the empty spot with another player or group who is looking for a match. The one who backfills will get a bonus at the end of the match as a reward. The backfill player will not receive a loss in their statistic if their team loses, but they will receive a win if their team wins. If the backfill player leaves that game, it will still count toward the Leaver Penalty.
Consecutive Match[]
If players play consecutive matches without interruption, they will receive a small experience bonus. In the case when the matchmaking system cannot find enough participants to continue the match, and the player is forced to return to the main menu, that player still receives the Consecutive Match bonus for next match if they don't cancel the automatic game matching. Competitive Play, however, doesn't have the Consecutive Match bonus, as you cannot play a Consecutive Match.
Group Bonus[]
If players join a match as a group, then regardless of whether or not they stay as a group, a bonus of 20%XP will be added at the end of the match. Note that it will add separately into each factor instead of adding to the sum at the end. For example, Quick Play's Win experience bonus will be shown as 600XP instead of 500XP.
First Win of the Day[]
First Win of the Day is added for the first winning match of the day. The bonus will not be added again until the server "day" resets at 12am GMT.
Medals[]
Example of the medals on the final scoreboard.
Gold, silver, and bronze medals are given to the top three best-performing members of a team, respectively; and are given based on the categories on the final scoreboard: Eliminations, Objective Kills, Objective Time, Damage Done, Healing Done. If the player changes character mid-match, the value for each category will be the sum of each hero's value.
- Eliminations: How many times the player kills enemies. It is not necessary for the player to perform the final blow for an elimination to count towards their total.
- Objective Kills: How many time the player kills enemies who are on or near the objective area.
- For Assault and the first objective of Assault/Escort maps, it is how many eliminations the player gets while standing on the capture point or when their enemies are standing on the capture point.
- For Escort and the second objective of Assault/Escort maps, it is how many eliminations the player gets when they are in the vicinity of the payload or when their enemies are in the vicinity of the payload.
- For Control maps, it is how many eliminations the player gets when they are standing in the control area or when their enemies are standing on the control area.
- Objective Time: The amount of time the player contributes to progressing the objective.
- For Assault and the first objective of Assault/Escort maps, it is the amount of time the player spends contesting and capturing the capture point.
- For Escort and the second objective of Assault/Escort maps, it is the amount of time an attacker pushes the payload, or the time a defender contests in the vicinity of the payload.
- For Control maps, it is the amount time the player spends on the control area to attack or defend it. Standing in a captured control point without fighting enemies will not count.
- Damage Done: How much damage the player deals to the enemies' health, armor, and shield, including the damage dealt by their turrets, mines, and traps. However, the damage the player deals to enemy turrets, traps, mines, teleporters, shields, and walls do not count towards the total.
- Healing Done: How much the player has healed their allies' and their own health, armor, and shield. It includes ally healing, like Mercy's Caduceus Staff, or Zenyatta's Orb of Harmony, self-healing like Bastion's Self-Repair or Roadhog's Take A Breather, and area healing like Lúcio's Crossfade:Heal and Soldier: 76's Biotic Field. But repairing turrets, or using Health Packs will not count.(exception: Hacked Health Packs will be added into Sombra's Healing.)
- Deaths: How many times the player has died (even with Mercy's revive). There is no medal given for this category.
On the scoreboard at the end of the match, the player may see the notice of "Career Best" below a category, indicating that is their best performance in that category as that character. Categories that are specific to certain characters do not reward medals.
Level Progression[]
Experience is earned on an account-wide level and is not tied to individual heroes. Successive levels require additional experience. After level 22, the experience needed to level up stops rising and stays at 20,000XP from then on. Upon gaining enough experience to level up at 100, players will get a promotion, and players' portrait border continues to advance to the subsequent tier. After promotion, the level number will be reset to 1, but the experience required to level up each level will be kept at 20,000XP.
A total of 1,838,000XP is needed to achieve the first promotion from level 1, and a total of 2,000,000XP is needed to reach all subsequent promotions. Using the numbers in the table below you need 318,000XP to enter competitive play
| Level | XP to next level |
|---|---|
| 1 | 2,000 |
| 2 | 3,500 |
| 3 | 5,000 |
| 4 | 6,500 |
| 5 | 7,500 |
| 6 | 8,500 |
| 7 | 9,500 |
| 8 | 10,500 |
| 9 | 11,500 |
| 10 | 12,500 |
| 11 | 13,500 |
| Level | XP to next level |
|---|---|
| 12 | 14,500 |
| 13 | 15,000 |
| 14 | 15,500 |
| 15 | 16,000 |
| 16 | 16,500 |
| 17 | 17,000 |
| 18 | 17,500 |
| 19 | 18,000 |
| 20 | 18,500 |
| 21 | 19,000 |
| From 22 and beyond | 20,000 |
Portrait borders[]
The border is shown around the player's hero when viewing players in a match. Portrait borders change in appearance every 10 levels. After getting a promotion, it changes back to the first border and continues to change again after 10 levels. The promotion also affects the portrait border as stated below:
- From level 1 to level 100, the border will be bronze, without any star.
- After the promotion at level 101, players will get one bronze star under the portrait border. Players will get one more bronze star at level 201, and again at level 301, 401, 501, up to 5 bronze stars.
- At level 601, or the sixth promotion since the start, the portrait border is changed to silver, and the five bronze stars are removed.
- At level 701, players will get one silver star under the portrait border. Players will get one more silver star at level 801, and again at level 901, 1001, 1101, up to 5 silver stars.
- At level 1,201, or the sixth promotion since getting the silver portrait border, the portrait border is changed to gold, and the five silver stars are removed.
- At level 1301, players will get one gold star under the portrait border. Players will get one more gold star at level 1401, and again at level 1501, 1601, 1701, up to 5 gold stars.
- At level 1801, or the sixth promotion since getting the gold portrait border, the portrait border is changed to platinum-and-gold color, and the five gold stars are removed. The portrait borders are also changed a bit in its design.[2]
- At level 1901, players will get one gold star under the portrait border. Players will get one more gold star at level 2001, and again at level 2101, 2201, 2301, up to 5 gold stars.[2]
- At level 2401, or the sixth promotion since getting the platinum-and-gold portrait border, the portrait border is changed to a similar new platinum design except the border now shines (mainly referred to as the diamond border), and the stars now alternate from diamond to gold. The five gold stars are also removed from the previous promotion.
- At level 2501, players will get one star under the portrait border. Players will get one more star at level 2601, and again at level 2701, 2801, 2901, up to 5 stars. These stars will alternate with diamond and gold every star.
- The portrait border stops changing at level 2901; however, players can continue leveling up.
Not only the portrait border follows this color code, but so does a lot of places where level number is displayed
Lookup table and portrait border gallery[]
| Level | Border color | Stars |
|---|---|---|
| 1 -100 | Bronze border | No stars |
| 101-200 | 1 bronze star | |
| 201-300 | 2 bronze stars | |
| 301-400 | 3 bronze stars | |
| 401-500 | 4 bronze stars | |
| 501-600 | 5 bronze stars | |
| 601-700 | Silver border | No stars |
| 701-800 | 1 silver star | |
| 801-900 | 2 silver stars | |
| 901-1000 | 3 silver stars | |
| 1001-1100 | 4 silver stars | |
| 1101-1200 | 5 silver stars | |
| 1201-1300 | Gold border | No stars |
| 1301-1400 | 1 gold star | |
| 1401-1500 | 2 gold stars | |
| 1501-1600 | 3 gold stars | |
| 1601-1700 | 4 gold stars | |
| 1701-1800 | 5 gold stars |
| Level | Border color | Stars |
|---|---|---|
| 1801-1900 | Platinum- and-gold border |
No stars |
| 1901-2000 | 1 gold star | |
| 2001-2100 | 2 gold stars | |
| 2101-2200 | 3 gold stars | |
| 2201-2300 | 4 gold stars | |
| 2301-2400 | 5 gold stars | |
| 2401-2500 | Diamond- and-gold border |
No stars |
| 2501-2600 | 1 diamond star | |
| 2601-2700 | 2 gold stars | |
| 2701-2800 | 1 diamond 2 gold stars | |
| 2801-2900 | 2 diamond 2 gold stars | |
| 2901+ | 3 diamond 2 gold stars |
- *The image for this portrait border is not correct. This will be replaced when the official website updates and fixes this image.
Video[]
Notes[]
- Upon reaching level 25, players will be able to play in competitive matches.
- At the end of a match or in Career Profile, you can see the experience bar, which will display the total experience required to level up and how much experience is left until the next level. Each segment of the bar indicates 500XP.
Patch changes[]
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