Cassidy

Lore & Background

When Overwatch began to collapse and Blackwatch sought to reform it to its own ends, Cassidy went underground, resurfacing years later as a gunslinger for hire, dropping his false name. After Winston initiates the recall message to reform Overwatch, Cassidy receives it, but initially refuses it and insists Echo, the creation of the late Dr. Mina Liao, to rejoin the organization in his stead. He is soon approached by Ana Amari, who also got the message and persuades him to make Overwatch better by finding new heroes to join the cause. Cassidy ends up recruiting Pharah, Baptiste, Zarya, and D.Va into his new team. Outside of Overwatch, Cassidy also appears in the updated dating sim game Loverwatch, exclusive to Chinese regions.

In Their Own Story

The desert wind howled across the ruins of an old mining town, kicking up dust around Cassidy's boots as he leaned against a crumbling adobe wall. His Peacekeeper revolver hung heavy at his hip, but his eyes were fixed on the horizon where a convoy of stolen tech was making its escape. 'Too slow,' he muttered to himself, adjusting the bandana covering the lower half of his face. With a practiced flick of his wrist, he holstered his pistol and drew the Deadeye shotgun, the mechanical click echoing in the silence. He wasn't just chasing money anymore; every target he took down was another step toward clearing the name that once brought him shame.

Reader's Guide

Cassidy is a Damage-class character, designed to provide a more offensive role in team compositions. His primary weapon fires one shot at a time, or if the alternate firing mode is used rapidly fires the pistol at a loss of accuracy. Cassidy also has several abilities that require activation, each having a "cooldown" period after use where they are unable to be used again during that duration. "Combat Roll" allows him to dodge attacks, while immediately reloading his revolver when activated. Meanwhile "Flashbang" throws a short distance grenade which will stun enemies and can interrupt their own abilities; in Overwatch 2, this was replaced with "Magnetic Grenade", an attack that dealt high damage on a direct hit, but no longer caused stun. Later, the "Magnetic Grenade" was replaced back with "Flashbang"; it is the same short-range grenade like in Overwatch, but doesn't make the affected heroes unable to be controlled, instead slowing them and disabling their mobility abilities. Lastly, his 'ultimate' ability, called "Deadeye", requires to be charged before use. The ability charges slowly during the course of gameplay, and can be charged faster through damage dealt to the enemy team. Once full the ability can be activated to line up shots on every enemy in his sight, with resulting damage proportional to the time spent aiming. According to developer Geoff Goodman, Blizzard wanted Cassidy to be a hero strong against agile opponents and to counter close-range abilities. To achieve this, they repeatedly modified his abilities in the months after the game's initial release, which led some to jokingly call him "the most indecisive character" of the game. Initially seen as a popular pick in almost any situation, the character was particularly useful for dealing with Tank-class characters. However, director and lead designer of Overwatch felt the character was too effective in this role, and as a result his gameplay was changed over the course of updates to have him act as an "anti-flanker" character with additional long-range capability.

Did You Know?

• Cassidy stands 6 feet 1 inch (185 cm) tall, with a tanned complexion, brown hair, a chin curtain beard, and a cybernetic prosthetic replacing his left arm from the elbow down.
• His belt buckle spells 'BAMF', and his 'Summer' skin changes it to 'SAMF', which led to fan speculation about the meaning.
• The character's original concept was designed by Chris Metzen as a cyborg cowboy for the original StarCraft, later recycled for Overwatch.
• In Overwatch 2, Cassidy's design was revised with a full beard, additional armor plating, and a lighter skintone, leading to confusion among players who had assumed he might have Native American or Hispanic heritage; developers confirmed he is 'white and just very tan'.
• Cassidy's revolver, 'Peacekeeper', was conceptualized by artist Ben Zhang, and it was decided his right arm would hold the weapon so his mechanical left could rapidly fan the gun's hammer.