Anyone looking for some Mayhem?
While many players dedicate themselves to the grind of Overwatch 2‘s competitive mode, others find that the more casual, chaotic arcade modes tickle their fancy. There’s a whole host of fun and fresh modes out there for those who need to refresh their experience with the game, and one of the best absolutely has to be the “Total Mayhem” mode. If you’re looking for some extra spice, and overpowered ridiculousness, in your Overwatch matches, this game mode just might be for you.
You can find the Total Mayhem game mode as a rotating, but permanent fixture in the Arcade menu of Overwatch 2. It used to be a rotating brawl mode when it was first released in the original Overwatch, but Total Mayhem has been popular enough with fans to warrant a regular spot. All of the game modes in the Arcade aside from No Limits change out every 24 hours, but Total Mayhem is popular enough that your likelihood of being able to play it on any given day is pretty high.
Simply put, Total Mayhem is structurally the same mode as Quick Play, only it has the following modifiers applied (via the Overwatch fan wiki):
- Only Escort and Hybrid maps are available.
- All heroes have double their usual health.
- All ability cooldowns are 75% faster. (Ana’s “Sleep Dart” cooldown is only 33% faster, and Baptiste’s Immortality Field is reduced from 20s -> 14s.)
- All ultimate abilities charge 50% faster.
The mode’s off-the-wall rules that some characters are more powerful than others, hence the modifications to Ana and Baptiste’s kits, and Blizzard recently had to buff Zarya’s new kit in Total Mayhem as well. It used to be a 6v6 mode when it was first introduced, but it has since been reduced to 5v5 to match the main game modes.
It’s no coincidence that the mode shares a name with Junkrat’s passive ability, because Total Mayhem is a high-energy, explosive game type that usually has me laughing hysterically within a few minutes, especially if I’m playing with friends. One of my favorite parts of playing Overwatch 2 is the bombastic, all-out team fights you get into when everyone is in the heat of battle, and Total Mayhem allows you to do just that, but cranked up to 11.
