by JR Cook - 7 years ago     show comments

A new image on the official Twitter feed shows us Efi’s checklist:

[UPDATE] Genius grant recipient and Numbani local Efi Oladele posts curious image on her holovid channel, declaring: "Time to get to work!" pic.twitter.com/lQSzzD5ZT5

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) February 27, 2017

Let’s try to unpack everything here, starting with the items on the list:

• OR-15 chassis: The OR-15s are Numbani’s defense robots, a bunch of which just got junked by someone at the Numbani airport.
• Branford arm: This is a mystery currently, since it doesn’t appear to refer to a current mechanical model of some kind.
• Fusion driver: I’m assuming this isn’t a high-class golf club, but instead a high-powered (fusion-powered?) tool of some sort.
• Miniature Tolbelstein reactor: The “Tolbelstein reactor” probably refers to the Tobelstein reactor that powers Zarya’s particle cannon.
• The paint color palette is self-explanatory, but more importantly, it doesn’t match the appearance of any mechanized hero we’ve seen in concept art so far, though it is close to one that appears on some of Axiom’s billboards in Numbani.
• Axiom vocal processor: Axiom is a tech company of some sort that appears to deal in armored suits, as they have a number of billboards up around Numbani.
• Lucio-ohs!: Apparently Lucio’s branded cereal is canon and Efi is a fan. ^_^

Elsewhere in the image, we see the following:

• A hand-drawn image that resembles a robotic head with either horns or pigtails.
• A RAM stick with Axiom’s label (which is likely the Axiom vocal processor memory, since Efi has already crossed it off her list).
• A powered monkey wrench that looks like it could have come out of Torbjorn’s collection.
• A handheld display with a mechanical diagram of some sort.
• Drawn onto the checklist are what appears to be a crude depiction of an atom and a graphic that resembles some of the iconography of Numbani’s flag.

Things to note:

• The OR-15s were thrown and crushed rather than shot or burned. Whatever destroyed them was able to push them around if not outright pick them up. They are also four-legged, meaning they were already pretty well-balanced against being bowled over.
• The Tobelstein reactor in Zarya’s particle cannon turns impacts to her shields into energy that amplifies her cannon’s power. That interchange could be used to empower a different kind of weapon, or we could be seeing a reversal of some kind where impacts to our hero charges up a powerful defense shield.
• On the assumption that the “fusion driver” refers to a high-powered pile driver, there are two possible interpretations:
  • The driver is a weapon that can be used to push enemies away, like a much ruder version of Lucio’s alt-fire. This would also give a greater justification to the Lucio-Oh’s reference, since that’s a trademark ability for him.
  • The fusion driver is a function being added to the chassis, where posts are driven into the ground to prevent the mecha’s legs from being moved or lifted off the ground. This would give our new hero the ability to withstand abilities that would normally move it, like Reinhardt’s Charge, Zarya’s Graviton Surge, Roadhog’s Whole Hog, and any other knockback mechanics in the game. No other hero has that kind of ability.

It’s highly likely we’re going to learn more about Efi’s creation very soon, so all of this speculation may be for naught, but if this checklist is any indication for what she’s going to come up with, AND if that results in our new hero, it’s promising to be something unique.