Overwatch's newest hero is Sigma, and he has been making quite the impact on the game's meta since his introduction. He is a main tank with a ton of power and unique abilities that use some fun mechanics that are not explicitly clear upon first glance.
In terms of the lore, Sigma is also a fascinating hero with a rather detailed backstory that paints an interesting picture of the character as a whole. With both the gameplay and lore aspects of the hero in mind, we decided to put together a list of ten facts you didn't know about Sigma.
10 Sigma's Barefoot Look Means More Than You Think
Shortly after Sigma was first playable on the Overwatch PTR, many players started to comment on how they thought it was strange that the character's default skin does not include shoes to cover his feet. This questioning prompted Sigma's concept artist Qiu Fang to respond on their ArtStation by stating that "We decided to keep the feet bare to sell the ‘asylum’ look a bit more."
While it is debatable whether or not having Sigma barefoot accomplishes this, it is interesting to get a peek at why the character's creators decided to make the decisions that they did.
9 Sigma's Hyperspheres Can Hurt Him
Something that many Sigma players may not have discovered yet is that his primary Hypersphere attack can hurt him. Luckily, the self-damage aspect of the Hyperspheres seems only to occur when they explode so simply deflecting them back towards Sigma will not damage the hero.
Having the Hypersphere explosions do damage to Sigma is consistent with how most explosive abilities in Overwatch behave, so you should just keep this in mind when fighting enemies at closer ranges.
8 Sigma's Powers Are A Result of His Research
Before his time as a member of the international terrorist organization and primary evil group of the Overwatch universe Talon, Sigma was an astrophysicist studying the ways he could control gravity. During this research, Sigma was able to create a black hole, and his interaction with its gravitational pull seems to be the origin of much of his technology and powers.
If you look closely at the center of the Hyperspheres that Sigma uses in the game, you will notice an orb that looks very similar to the black hole seen in the announcement trailer. This implies that the Hyperspheres and presumably much of Sigma's powers were a result of his accident.
7 The Black Hole Sigma Created Caused Lasting Effects On His Mind
Outside of Sigma's black hole leading to the creation of much of his technology and powers, the experiment appears to have also left some rather upsetting effects on his mental state. The official Overwatch website states that he "he suffered serious psychological damage" as a result of his contact with the black hole.
This psychological damage seems to have manifested itself in the form of multiple personalities which are on full display in the first Sigma trailer were they also appear to alter the power of his gravity abilities.
6 Using Sigma's Accretion At Range Will Make It More Powerful
At this point, many Overwatch players know that Sigma's Accretion ability that allows him to hurl a ball of rocks at his enemies will stun opponents on contact, but few seem to have realized that if you use Accretion at further ranges, the projectile will knock down enemies and stun them for even longer.
This is not to say you should never use Accretion at close range, but if you are using the ability to knock someone off the map or stun them for as long as possible, try and put some distance between you and your enemy.
5 The Name Sigma Comes From His Time Under Government Custody
Following his disastrous experiment with black holes that lead to his powers and altered mental state, Dr. Siebren de Kuiper was held in a secret government facility due to the dangerous nature of his abilities and was referred to as Subject Sigma. It was at this facility where Sigma began to learn about the extent of his powers, but he was never able to control them fully.
This seems to be the first instance of someone referring to De Kuiper as Sigma, and it is the code name he continues to operate under following his liberation from the government by Talon.
4 Sigma's Involvement In Talon May Not Be Voluntary
While Sigma was freed from captivity by Talon, he had no prior relation to the organization before his experiment left him with extraordinary abilities. In fact, the official Overwatch website states that Talon "manipulates him to their own ends" and "is using both him and his research."
It is unclear if Talon is able to control Sigma due to his mental state or simply through lying about their group's objectives and motivations, but regardless it is clear that he is not entirely in control of his current situation.
3 Sigma's Announcement Trailer Features Hidden Messages
The first Sigma trailer was exciting because it provided details about the character's backstory through flashbacks and voiceovers, which often required a bit of decoding. This included certain points in the video where there were even hidden messages for viewers to discover.
Most significantly, there is a jumbled audio clip and letters that spell "EM DJIRVEB" that when reversed say "release me" in English and Dutch respectively.
2 Sigma's Hero Select Voice Line Is A Neil deGrasse Tyson Quote
Shortly after Sigma was released, fans started to realize that Sigma's hero select voice line "there is no obligation for the universe to make sense to you" is actually a quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson. While it is not unusual for Blizzard to reference pop culture figures like Tyson in their games, it is rare to see a nod like this appear in an Overwatch hero's select screen audio.
The use of the quote is likely a reference to the fact that Sigma and Tyson are both astrophysicists.
1 Originally Sigma Was Not Going To Be The Talon Tank
For a while, Blizzard had been planning to introduce a Talon main tank hero to Overwatch, but initially, this was supposed to be a character named Mauga. Before Sigma's release, Mauga was introduced in the "What You Left Behind" Baptiste short story and many fans correctly assumed that due to his skillset and prominence in the story Mauga would be the game's next tank.
Plans changed though when Blizzard's development team decided that Mauga's kit was not suited for a main tank and instead replaced him with Sigma.