23 Tips To Complete Retribution On Legendary

This year’s Overwatch Archives event contains the brand new Retribution PvE mission. In Retribution, players relive a Blackwatch mission gone horribly wrong, having to fight off hordes of Talon forces in the streets of Venice. This is a breeze for most players on the lower difficulties, but on Expert and Legendary it can be quite the task to make it out of the Rialto district in one piece. Since this event doesn’t require a strictly followed playbook (as is the case with Junkenstein’s Revenge, for example) we thought we’d gather the best Retribution tips and tricks in order to help you get those shiny achievements and the bragging rights that come with them. There’s a few days left in the event so there’s still plenty of time to go and grab those sprays!

Hero Specifics

The four main characters of Overwatch’s Retribution mission.

Moira

• Use your healing orb. You’re the only healer and healing orb is infinitely more useful than damage orb in almost all situations.
• Your ult is a good panic button and can be very useful for both healing your team and clearing regular mobs. Don’t use it as a dps beam on one enemy boss or throw it away to clear three regular soldiers.
• Heal, heal, heal. A dps Moira has no place in this game mode at all and you should only be doing damage to recharge your healing or if it’s literally the last option.

Genji

• Your reflect is instrumental in this game mode, it’s the only thing resembling a shield that you have in this game mode, so use it as if it is a shield. It can tank enforcer blasts, sniper bullets, heavy assault fire, … Just make sure that you’re able to retreat to a safe spot after using it so that you don’t get caught out with your pants down.
• Dash can stun the enemy assassin just like McCree’s flashbang can.
• Your ult is most useful for clearing low-level mobs. If you’re fighting a heavy and a group of mobs block your rotating path you can quickly ult to get them out of the way. Do not ult straight into a bunch of enforcers or a group of enemies with a boss, as that’ll get you killed before you can say ‘I need healing’.
• Genji is good for both boss damage (since your shurikens have no falloff damage you can ping bosses from relative safety) and cleaning out mobs (thanks to dash and your ult).

McCree

• Use your ult to clear out groups of mobs. For example you should always ult when the boats full of enforcers are coming up, which can clear most of them before they even hit the shore.
• Flashbang is one of the best abilities in this mode. Use it to stun an assassin, stun an enforcer right before he fires off his shot, … Do not use it willy-nilly on regular soldiers, since that’s a waste of a very useful ability.
• Try and ping snipers, assassins, enforcers, … from afar. The Peacekeeper is hitscan so McCree excels at putting consistent damage into enemy units.

Reaper

• You’re effectively the tank of the team, thanks to your higher health, self healing and wraith form. You can bait out enforcer shots, you can draw fire while in wraith form, … Just make sure that you’re able to retreat to a safe position after using wraith form, otherwise that 50 extra hp will be burned away in an instant.
• Your ult is very useful for clearing low-level mobs, but it does not make you invincible. Wraithing straight into a bunch of enemy enforcers and pressing Q will get you killed, since you’re an easy target when ulting and enemy forces do a lot of damage on the higher difficulties.
• When rotating around the map it’s a good idea to be up front as Reaper, since you can wraith out of any nasty surprises and you’re less likely to be one shot by some surprise enemy.
• You keep resurrecting when in wraith form. This can be ideal for last minute clutch resurrects.

General Tips

Clearing out these mobs as fast as possible is always a good idea.

Try out the mode on easy first

By now most people who want to complete all the achievements will know most of the map, but if you’re only just getting started with your Retribution runs it’s a good idea to at least do one run on easy. It’s practically impossible to lose on the easiest difficulty and it’ll allow you to scope out the map and overall feel of the game mode.

Don’t stay in the line of fire for too long or you will be killed.

Use cover effectively

Rialto has quite a few nooks and crannies, as well as a few side paths which loop around the main pathway of the map. Use this to your advantage. If you do not use cover effectively you will get mowed down. There’s plenty of cover throughout most of the map, so make sure most of the enemy bullets land in the wall as opposed to your head.

Stay together

You only have one healer in this gamemode and she’s not a long range healer. If you’re off on a ‘heroic mission’ as if you’re trying to get POTG in Quickplay you cannot be healed nor can you be helped by your teammates if you end up in a sticky situation. Move together as a group and help each other out.

If you’re gonna die, die somewhere safe

If things go awry and you feel like you’re going to die then try and retreat somewhere safe(ish) so that your teammates have an easier time getting you back in the fight. There’s no use dashing into the middle of an open space in order to get that last kill on a regular mob before getting downed, as that will make it infinitely harder to rez you back up.

Kite the specials (especially the heavy assault)

Always try to avoid the heavy assault’s pin.

When an enemy boss spawns it’s always best to isolate them/fight them ‘on your terms’ to make sure that you’re not getting overwhelmed by mobs when fighting the boss. This is absolutely vital with the heavy assault units. Once a heavy spawns you need to rotate constantly. The heavy moves very slowly (unless it’s charging, but that has a predictable element to it) so use that to your advantage. Make sure you and your team (again; it’s empirical that you stay together) are constantly moving in a loop and retreating to safety, outputting damage on the Heavy during moments of safety (Genji’s reflect is absolutely wonderful for creating these moments) and then retreating again through one of the many corridors the map has. Just make sure to not end up in a dead end street.

Killing a Heavy is a matter of patience and strategy, don’t try to rush it.

Focus the assassin down as fast as possible.

Punching the assassin stuns it

Short and simple. If the assassin is on top of a teammate just melee it to stun.

Don’t panic when someone dies

Unless you’re going for that particular achievement, having a teammate die is not the end of the world. You’ve got 40 seconds to rez them back up, so make sure to kite the enemies away from that position (by doing a loop around a section of the map, for example) and then rez them when the enemies are drawn out of position.

Patience is key, focus on staying alive

All too often I see runs end because someone wants to make a hero play when there’s absolutely no need to attempt anything risky. Winning this mode on the higher difficulties is about strategy, patience, and teamwork, it’s not about making big flashy plays by yourself. Don’t ult straight next to a heavy, don’t run off by yourself to clear ‘those last few enemies over there,’… Every mistake gets punished almost instantly, and one silly death can quickly snowball. Focus on staying alive and being useful to your team instead of being ‘the hero.’ Even if you’re only doing chip damage at a certain point of the mission, you’re still far more useful alive than  dead.

Communicate

Not everyone who plays on Expert or Legendary will know ‘the meta’ so it can be quite useful to at least agree on a basic strategy before the mission begins. You don’t have to be going all out as if you’re Seal Team 6, but teamwork (and communication) makes the dream work, so it’s super useful if you’re all on the same page.  

Retribution has been out for a while now and this is a list of the most often mentioned and used tips and tricks which has helped players complete the mission on the harder difficulties. If you have any more tips then feel free to add a comment or hit me up on Twitter!