Overwatch 2 fan and YouTuber Marblr figured out the cause of the 5 million damage mitigated bug that has been puzzling players for weeks. The damage mitigation bug may occur when an Ana player and a D.Va player are on the same team. Ana’s Nano Boost ability in Overwatch 2 mitigates damage inflicted on allies, but the amount of damage mitigated is nowhere near 5 million under normal circumstances. However, if an Ana player uses Nano Boost on a D.Va player’s self-destructing mech right before she dies in combat, the damage mitigated will be reported as 5 million. Development challenges involving D.Va appear to be the underlying cause for this bug.
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Blizzard’s programming of D.Va indicates that she’s technically two separate Heroes within Overwatch 2. Players switch between the two characters when entering and exiting D.Va’s mech in a match, and the swap is directly visible on the player’s HUD. When switching between the two, D.Va’s portrait and HUD will reset to indicate that the swap was made. If D.Va dies before the mech self-destructs, Overwatch 2 registers 9,999,999 damage inflicted on her death. Ana’s Nano Boost ability mitigates damage by 50%, so the total damage mitigated on an affected D.Va player will register as 5 million on the scoreboard.
Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller once described D.Va as “a plate of spaghetti” due to various programming troubles involving the Hero. Since Blizzard must account for two characters at once, D.Va may cause problems while the development team scripts and implements new features. Blizzard has to specially tweak D.Va on many occasions due to bugs, and Overwatch 2 bugs continue to persist after launch.
Marblr’s video provides valuable insight into the development of Overwatch 2 and D.Va. The damage mitigation bug appears to be a very tricky one to solve due to Overwatch 2’s programming hurdles. However, Blizzard will continue to polish the game and address game-breaking bugs as quickly as possible.
Season 1 of Overwatch 2 wraps up in roughly a month’s time, and Blizzard is expected to release more updates to resolve bugs and known issues. Overwatch 2 Season 2 launches on December 6 with a new Hero, a new Battle Pass, and major balance adjustments.
Overwatch 2 is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
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