Blizzard Entertainment has released the launch trailer for *Overwatch* Season 5, “Doctrine of the Undead,” which kicks off at 3:00 a.m. Japan Standard Time on October 7.
There’s also a collaboration with “Why Am I the Only One Leveling Up”!
Season 5, “Doctrine of the Undead,” introduces the new support hero “Doctrine.” This vampire-like hero is connected to Doomfist’s past and was once imprisoned in the prison known as “Grimsvoton.”
The launch trailer showcased the following content and changes:
New Support Hero “Doctrine”
New Escort Map: “Watchpoint: Grímsvötn”
Limited-time event: “Mystery Madness: Game of the Graveyard”
New Battle Pass and Starter Pack
Sombra’s Support Rework
Roadhog Rework
"Drive" Added to Quick Play
New "Dokiwatch 2.0" Skin with a Magical Girl Theme
New Mythic Skin for Wuyang
Lucio’s New Mythic Weapon
"Overwatch" × "Shadow Lord" Collaboration ("It's Just Me Leveling Up" Collaboration)
New Support Hero “Doctrine” Who Manipulates Both Friendly and Enemy Health
According to the official English blog, Doctrine is a support hero designed to manipulate the health of both teams. She can heal allies and deal damage to enemies at medium to long range, and supports her allies with bat-like mechanical drones.
The game features a system called “Enhancements” that grants powerful effects to the next ability or weapon used, so deciding when, where, and what to enhance will likely be crucial.
Doctrine’s abilities are as follows.
Weapon: “Eternal Staff”
—A mid-range weapon that heals allies and deals damage to enemies. Enhanced effect: Bullets become larger and gain piercing capabilities.Ultimate: “Deliverance”—Sends out a swarm
of drones. The drones reduce enemies’ maximum health and grant additional health to allies.Passive: Sub-Role “Survivor”—Using a
movement ability triggers a self-healing passive.Abilities
Enhance
: Grants a powerful effect to the next ability used.Crimson Veil: Dash forward, backward, left, or right while reducing damage
taken. Upgraded Effect: Allows you to fly freely.Vital Drone
: Sends a drone to an ally, granting them an attack speed bonus and health. Enhanced Effect: The drone’s effects are also applied to the user.
Perks
Minor (Level 2)
Hand
of Salvation: The target affected byinstantly regains 40 health. Blood Drain
: Restores 50% of the damage dealt with.
Major (Level 3)
Transfusion: Dealing damage or healing reduces the cooldown of. Price of Life: Your
maximum health is reduced by 25, but the healing provided by theincreases by 20%.
The blog also touches on Doctrine’s background.
While loss shaped Doctrine’s life and philosophy—and led him to create the technology that kept him and his brother alive—that very technology ultimately resulted in his imprisonment in Grímsvötn. After spending many years without his drone, he was freed by his old friend, Doomfist.
New Escort Map: “Watchpoint: Grímsvötn”
The new map, “Watchpoint: Grímsvötn,” is set in a volcanic fissure in Iceland. The facility was once an Overwatch Watchpoint and was later used as a prison under Helix’s control to house violent criminals and their weapons.
Doomfist himself was once imprisoned here. Talon has now taken control of the prison, and players will navigate this area as the aftermath of Doctrine’s escape unfolds.
Sombra Shifts to Support; Roadhog Gets a Rework
In Season 5, Sombra’s role shifts from damage dealer to support. The official English blog describes this as the biggest change to an existing hero to date.
Her abilities after the rework are as follows:
Weapon: “Machine Pistol”
—A close-range automatic rifle.Ultimate: “EMP”—Deals damage to
nearby enemies equal to a percentage of their remaining health. Hacks enemies and destroys barriers around the player.Passive: “Intelligence”—Allows Sombra to detect when an enemy’s Ultimate is fully
charged.Passive: Sub-Role “Tactician”—Allows you to charge your
Ultimate an additional time.Abilities
Hotfix
: Continuously and automatically restores a set amount of health to allies. Can also hack health packs and most enemy structures.Cyberspace Fires a projectile that explodes upon
impact, creating a zone. The zone weakens enemies and heals allies.
Translocator: Throws a beacon and teleports to it. After teleporting, becomes stealthed for a short time.
Perks
Minor (Level 2)
When Life Hack
is activated, grants to all nearby allies. CTRL+ALT+ESC If you teleport using 〈Translocator〉 while
your health is below half, passive self-healing begins.
Major (Level 3)
Data Packet
: Hacking a Life Pack with 〈Hotfix〉 reduces the main cooldown of that ability by 4 seconds.
Cybersecurity: The healing provided byto allies with less than half their health is doubled.
Roadhog will also receive a rework, including the addition of a new ability, “Trash Compactor.”
His abilities are as follows:
Weapon: “Scrap Gun”
—A two-shot burst close-range shotgun.Ultimate: “Hole Hog”
—Deals damage to enemies in front of you and knocks them back.Passive: Role “Tank”
—Reduces the amount of Ultimate Charge gained from healing or damage taken. In Role Queue game modes, base Health is increased.Passive: Sub-Role “Bruiser”—Gains resistance to
critical hits. Movement speed increases when health is below half.Abilities
Trash Compactor: Absorbs
enemy projectiles and converts them into exploding scrap balls.
Chain Hook: Pulls enemies toward you with a hook.
Take a Breather: Restores health and reduces damage taken.
Perks
Minor (Level 2)
Scrap Hook
: Whenhits, reloads 4 rounds. This Way, Little Piggy
: Whileis active, the cooldown of is reduced by 80%.
Major (Level 3)
When using Share the Breather
, nearby allies also regain 50% of your healing amount. While Toxic Exhaust
is active, enemies directly in front of you have their movement speed reduced by 30% and take 20 damage per second.
The “Only I Level Up” Collaboration Is Here!
The "Overwatch" × "Shadow Lord" collaboration features collaboration skins for the following heroes:
Genji × Shun Mizushino
Reaper × Igritt
Anlan × Shizuku Mukosaka
Reinhardt × Iron
Life Weaver × Makoto Mogami
In addition, the English-language official blog features the Halloween event “Mystery Madness: Games in the Graveyard.” This is a limited-time mode where you deploy with a random hero and, each time you’re defeated, you revive with a new, randomly selected ability.
Please check the official blog for details on the Halloween event, the Battle Pass system, various skins, and more.
*Overwatch* is available as a free-to-play game on PC (Steam/Battle.net/Microsoft Store),PS5,PS4,XBOX Series X|S/XBOX One, and Nintendo Switch 2. Season 5, “Doctrine of the Undead,” featuring Doctrine, is scheduled to begin on October 7 at 3:00 a.m. JST.
*UPDATE (October 6, 2026, 2:06 p.m.): The article has been revised, including replacing the trailer with the Japanese version.
