If you have some Mythic Prisms but no skin you’ve really wanted in Overwatch 2 to spend them on, there’s a certain giant, demonic hammer that might suit your tastes—and it’s available today.
Blizzard will introduce Mythic weapon skins in Overwatch 2‘s Mythic Shop today with Reinhardt’s Bound Demon weapon skin, the first of its kind in the game. The “Bound Demon” moniker is strictly descriptive in this case—there’s a small, fiery character embedded in the head of the hammer (which has gone full ax, in this case) that reacts to the eliminations you secure while playing Reinhardt with the skin.
“Our initial thought was to have the theme be magma, but once I started concepting, I decided to add a creature to make the weapon fiery and alive,” said Angela Song, concept artist for the Bound Demon weapon skin. “The reactivity of the weapon echoes as the demonic entity is awakening, gaining power as you feed it more kills throughout the game.”
It’s a weapon that would feel right at home in Diablo, and there are a few Reinhardt skins I can already think of that would look great paired with it. But players should also notice the bells and whistles that come with this Mythic skin. There are flourishes the player can perform where Reinhardt brandishes the hammer. “We wanted a smooth animation that the player can constantly spam,” Song said. “Reinhardt jovially tossing and flipping the weapon felt like a natural fit.” There are also special effects when eliminating an enemy, as well as the aforementioned demon that grows brighter and brighter with every elimination achieved with the hammer.
This, of course, required custom animations as weapon flourishes in Overwatch have historically been kept to the realm of emotes. “Tech art worked closely with the team to make a unique weapon setup for the animators to do their magic,” said Ana Martinez, tech artist. “We wanted to give the animation team the liberty to make the weapon roar, twist, and smirk as Reinhardt swings it around in a blazing inferno.”
In addition to the weapon flourishes, the team landed on what VFX artist Nick Quackenbush described as a “smoldering eruption” when players secure an elimination with the weapon skin equipped, tying the skin all back into the theme.
Reinhardt’s Bound Demon weapon skin will be available beginning today, July 23, in the Mythic Shop for 50 Mythic Prisms. As with the Mythic hero skins, the weapon skins have three levels to unlock with more Mythic Prisms after unlocking the base skin.
