It has been a good six years since Overwatch’s official release. This team-based multiplayer FPS game by Blizzard Entertainment has truly come a long way with many new additions and changes. Whether all those attempts pleased the players or not is another story, but this hero shooter had already succeeded in setting its name in stone. Eitherway, no game can get so far without an impressive player base!
Overwatch Players
Due to the game’s nature of assigning players into two teams of six, you are bound to run into all sorts of gamers online. While they all get to select a hero of their choice, this doesn’t say nearly enough about the players themselves. That’s why Overwatch has a pretty neat system of level borders and portraits, which are used to indicate just how much experience a certain player possesses in the game, regardless of their skill level and/or Rank. If you’re looking to make the best of your experience, a general idea of these Borders and Portraits are highly recommended.
How the Borders and Portraits Work?
There are a number of ways to level up the Overwatch borders and those will be discussed below. Bear in mind, there are Stars that appear above your current border to give an even further indication of your level too.
The Border portraits are a great way to see how far along the line you are in comparison to other players. As you garner experience and level up, your portrait border will evolve with you. Starting from good ol’ Bronze, you can keep climbing until you reach Silver, Gold, Platinum and ultimately Diamond.
Whenever the required amount of experience is reached, you will rank up to the immediate next upper tier and restart earning Stars for that border. Starting from 1 Star, you can go upto a maximum of 5 Stars for a given Border.
A Quick Summary
- Bronze: Levels 1 to 600
- Silver: Levels 601 to 1200
- Gold: Levels 1201 to 1800
- Platinum: Levels 1801 to 2400
- Diamond: Levels 2401 to 2901+
Bronze Border Portraits (Levels 1 to 600)
Silver Border Portraits (Levels 601 to 1200)
Gold Border Portraits (Levels 1201 to 1800)
Platinum Border Portraits (Levels 1801 to 2400)
Diamond Border Portraits (Levels 2401 to 2901+)
How the Climb Happens?
When you first start the game, you’ll be greeted by the default Overwatch Level border One with zero stars. For every 100 levels you surpass by playing, you will be rewarded one Star. After you have all five Stars, your next upgrade will take you to the immediate higher border at zero Stars. For every 600 levels, you will notice a slight visual change in your border.
Quick Climbing Guide
- Just play Overwatch as much as you can!
Regular playtime is well rewarded with consistent XP that positively affects your level.
- Match Completions
Every match you complete is awarded with 150 XP.
- The First Win of The Day
This is worth 500 XP!
- Consecutive Matching
Play as many matches in a row as possible, because you’ll earn 300 bonus XP each.
- Backfilling
Whenever you’re loaded into an ongoing game, you’ll get bonus XP for completing it.
- Earning Medals
Bonus XP is awarded to Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. Gold medals get 150 XP, Silver medals get 100 XP and Bronze medals get 50 XP. With 5 Gold medals you can receive 750 bonus XP each game.
- Group Bonus
Try to always play within a party of friends, because you will receive 20% bonus XP for all XP earned. The party size is of no consequence, so you can either couple up, form a six-stack or anything in between for the same rewards. So find an overwatch players and group up with them!
- No Leave Penalties
These are your worst enemy and are in poor taste for any online gamer. Strictly avoid leaving matches or disconnecting consecutively, as these will restrict you from XP gain for a certain number of matches.
- Double XP Weekends!
Last but not least, playing during double XP weekends (which occur multiple times a year) would give you a huge XP boost!
Gaining XP
Farm your beloved XP by finishing Quick Play, playing Player versus AI, practicing versus AI, participating in Arcade and by engaging in Competitive modes. Exactly how much you will earn depends on how long the Round was, Victory or Defeat and the level of your contribution to the game.
| LEVEL | XP REQUIRED TO LEVEL UP | LEVEL | XP REQUIRED TO LEVEL UP |
| 1 | 2000 | 12 | 14500 |
| 2 | 3500 | 13 | 15000 |
| 3 | 5000 | 14 | 15500 |
| 4 | 6500 | 15 | 16000 |
| 5 | 7500 | 16 | 16500 |
| 6 | 8500 | 17 | 17000 |
| 7 | 9500 | 18 | 17500 |
| 8 | 10500 | 19 | 18000 |
| 9 | 11500 | 20 | 18500 |
| 10 | 12500 | 21 | 19000 |
| 11 | 13500 | 22 AND ONWARD | 20000 |
Conclusion
That’s about all you need to know about Overwatch Borders and Portraits. These hard-earned badges of glory will automatically update as you level up and gather experience. But remember, it’s never wise to completely judge a player by their Portrait, because it says so little about their skill. At the same time, do not belittle a veteran who had stuck with Overwatch since day 1, because all that grinding amounts to much more than we can imagine! And if you don’t want to grind so much, then take a look at Overwatch boosting services. They provide a wide range of services including level boosting, rank boosting and others.
We hope you got a good idea about Overwatch Portraits and Borders. Good luck for the climb ahead and enjoy the gaming experience to the maximum!