Can you fix heroes being locked for old players in Overwatch 2?

The First Time User Experience is supposed to be a way to allow new players in Overwatch 2 to not be overwhelmed by the large roster available in the game. It locks off certain characters to let them focus on a smaller pool and slowly unlock the rest of the heroes over time and learn them at a better pace. However, this new mindset has also led to an annoying issue where returning players that are not in the FTUE can not access their normal heroes. Here is what to do if your Overwatch 2 characters are locked away.

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Why are heroes locked away for returning players in Overwatch 2?

Unfortunately, a lot of returning players that should already have access to the full cast of Overwatch 2 have reported their favorites being locked away. This is yet another instance of one of the many bugs that the game has dealt with since its launch to the public on October 4.

From what we have seen, there is no guaranteed fix for this problem and Blizzard will need to address it. They have said that some server-side issues like this can be fixed by logging out of the game and getting back in, but we have seen that not work. You can try it a few times if you want, or just fully restart your system and internet to see if that kickstarts it into working properly. If not, you can unlock heroes by simply playing matches and getting them through the Hero Challenges.

As said above, the first few days of Overwatch 2 have been nothing short of a disaster for the long-awaited game. Just about anything that could possibly go wrong for it has done so in stunning fashion right after each other. Hopefully, Blizzard can get things under control sooner rather than later.

Update: Reports of this issue resurfaced on October 10 after Bastion and Torbjörn were disabled from the hero pool. Some players have suggested restarting the Battle.net client resolves the issue, while others have recommended changing regions as a workaround fix. Blizzard has stated they are aware of the issue and working to resolve it as quickly as possible.