<P> The Overwatch Archive event from the previous year returned, and ran from April 10, 2018 . It brought back the narrative - driven player - versus - environment mode introduced in Uprising . It also featured a new mode titled "Retribution", which will take place on a new map, Rialto, which entered the game's map rotation as a Payload map outside of the Retribution event, on May 3, 2018 . This was a four - player co-operative mode, based on the characters Reaper, McCree, Moira, and Genji as they escape from Talon forces; alternatively, this mode also includes an All - Hero mode where players can select any of the available characters . New skins and cosmetic items were available in loot boxes during this time . The new Retribution event was aimed to provide a more replayable experience compared to the prior Uprising event . This included eliminating the waypoint approach they as to reduce elements on the user interface and instead allow players to naturally figure out how to progress in the mission . They also included "specials", unique enemies with special abilities to pose an immediate threat to the players rather than just waves of strong enemies, and included an enemy artificial intelligence systems to better react to players, including in the All - Hero mode . Much of the ideas of this mode were based on concepts from the Left 4 Dead games . </P> <P> The second anniversary event ran from May 22 to June 11, 2018 . Also with new cosmetic items, the event included a limited time competitive deathmatch mode with an exclusive map, Petra . In addition to previous Anniversary cosmetic items, all Anniversary loot boxes included cosmetic items from all previous seasonal events, and these are also available to buy with in - game gold . </P> <P> The third Summer Games event is ran from August 9--30, 2018 . The Lucioball event returned with a new stadium map based on Busan, South Korea . </P> <P> The 2018 iteration of Halloween terror is scheduled to run from October 10--31, 2018 . The Dr. Junkenstein's Revenge mode will be updated to include the changes that hapened throughout the last year, for example, the changes to Symmetra . However, the player - versus - environment map remains largely unchanged, with the 2 modes and 4 difficulties each of the last year's event, however Brigitte was added to the game mode . </P>

When does the summer event start for overwatch 2018