The Overwatch 2 developers have stepped in to stop a game-breaking exploit that allows Mercy players to ruin games.
In early June, Overwatch 2 YouTuber ‘nsbunited’ uploaded a video showing how Mercy players could take entire lobbies “hostage” by slowing the game to a crawl.
By activating an exploit where Mercy players can use their staff and pistol animations at the same time and then swapping back to their staff, the support can cause the FPS to drop for everyone.
Luckily, the devs have taken precautions to prevent players from abusing the glitch, but not everyone will like the course of action they took.
Overwatch 2 disables map after players ruin games with Mercy exploit
An interesting tidbit about the glitch is that it only works on one map, that being Paríaso. So, rather than restrict Mercy, the devs decided it would be better to remove the map instead.
In a Known Issues list on the official forums, the devs addressed the bug and explained how they decided to act after learning about it.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
“We have disabled the Paríaso map as we investigate an issue with performance when certain heroes are played,” they said.
Paraíso has been temporarily disabled in #Overwatch2 🇧🇷There was a gamebreaking bug that allowed Mercy to cause performance issues on the map. With less than a week until Season 5, it's unclear if the map will return this season.🔎 https://t.co/Xihxt8urP5 pic.twitter.com/ESgL2lgtsa
— Overwatch Cavalry (@OWCavalry) June 7, 2023
It’s not clear if this means multiple heroes were capable of using the exploit and it’s also interesting how the devs didn’t reference Mercy at all in the post.
With Season 5 just days away, it’s anyone’s guess if the map will return in time for its launch on June 13.
That said, even if the map isn’t reenabled, players will still be able to look forward to an assortment of hero changes to snipers, Lifeweaver and a lot more as part of an upcoming patch.