The first seasonal event in Overwatch is officially underway, and Blizzard has added quite a few new cosmetic items for players to unlock. Right now, the only way to unlock the cool summer skins and icons is by earning them through the special summer-themed Loot Boxes. Fortunately, these can be earned through the regular ways of simply playing the game and leveling up, or by spending real money on extra Boxes.
Each time you level up, you’ll gain one summer Loot Box, and the Box will contain at least one summer cosmetic item. This sounds like a great deal, but be warned that it is very likely that you will end up with one summer item (and it’ll probably be an item you don’t even want), and three other regular items that you might not particularly care for. Blizzard has stated that there are over 100 new summer cosmetic items, so if you consider yourself a collector, you have quite the level grind ahead of you.
The Summer Games event in Overwatch will last until August 22, which means that this is the hard deadline for you to collect summer Loot Boxes. After this date, you’ll only be able to earn regular Loot Boxes, but all of the summer items you earned during this period of time will be permanently yours.
