Strange Overwatch bug makes Reinhardt’s Fire Strike invisible

Bill Cooney

A group of Overwatch players has discovered a glitch that makes Reinhardt’s Fire Strike completely disappear for Genji after he deflects it.

Genji saw a nice set of buffs in a recent Overwatch update on June 16 that increased Deflect’s duration from 1.5 to 2 seconds – but this new bug is throwing players trying the upgraded hero out for a loop.

Genji can deflect physical projectiles, which includes Rein’s Fire Strike.

Usually, anything deflected by the Cyber Ninja can be seen flying back towards opponents, aimed at wherever Genji’s crosshairs are at the moment of contact.

However, this new glitch actually seems to make Fire Strike completely disappear once the hero deflects it, making it seem like you missed it or it passed through your ability anyway.

Sure enough, Reddit user ‘Zhotograph,’ who captured the clip up above, was able to see the Fire Strike reflected back at him as Reinhardt, but when playing Genji it vanished into thin air when deflected.

Unfortunately, there were only two players testing this out, so we don’t know exactly based on the video if the ability is visible or not to the Genji’s teammates, as well.

Obviously, if it does turn invisible for all allies, that would make it a much bigger problem than just for Genji, since teammates wouldn’t be able to see if anything was deflected or what exactly happened, either.

Good news Genji players: you’re not losing your minds, those Fire Strikes really are disappearing.

Genji has seen his popularity with players spike since the June 16 Overwatch update that increased the amount of damage his primary and alternate fire does, so this glitch might be popping up more and more until Blizzard eventually implements a fix.

If you’re one of those players once again giving Genji a go, just be careful not to get too confused when facing off against a Reinhardt if the Fire Strikes start disappearing.

About The Author

Bill is a former writer at Dexerto based in Iowa, who covered esports, gaming and online entertainment for more than two years. With the US team, Bill covered Overwatch, CSGO, Influencer culture, and everything in between.