Hanamura Temple Map Guide

Hanamura Temple is a 2-lane Map belonging to the Overwatch universe. The signature Objective of this Map is a Payload. Once successfully escorted to its final destination, it deals damage to enemy Structures. On this Map, you can also find the Sentinel Camp, a unique Mercenary Camp that deals a lot of damage to enemy Heroes and Structures.

Here you can find one or more formations that are viable on this Map. Keep in mind that positions in lane are not strict and will often change based on the situation.

The go-to formation for Hanamura Temple is 1-4:

• 1 Hero, the Offlaner, covers the top lane;
• 4 Heroes cover the bottom lane.

• At 1:00 minute or whenever available, start clearing the allied Samurai Camp and capture it as soon as possible.
• At 1:20 minutes or whenever available, start clearing the allied Fortification Camp and capture it as soon as possible. Do not forget to pick up the Turret! If you are quick enough, you can get a second Turret at the beginning of the first Objective phase.
• If the enemy Samurai Camp has been already captured by the enemy team, when the enemy Samurai reaches your Structures, you may need multiple Heroes to defend from it, especially if enemy Heroes are pushing with it.
• If the enemy Samurai Camp has not been captured by the enemy team yet, you can consider invading it to kill some Heroes while they are busy clearing it and/or to capture the Samurai Camp instead of them.
• After 3:00 minutes or whenever the Objective is active, prevent the enemy team from delivering the Payload when it gets closer to the end of its path, so that they cannot deal more damage than you to Structures and thus cause you to lose the trade.
• If the allied Samurai Camp and the allied Fortification Camp are taken, you can capture any Recon Camp that is controlled by the enemy team, so that they will not be able to see your movements with their Watch Tower effect. Be careful not to be invaded by the enemy team or you will lose Experience.
• If the allied Samurai Camp and the allied Fortification Camp are taken, you can escort the Payload to its destination, not necessarily by committing all Heroes. Choose how many Heroes to use depending on how fast you need to escort the Payload, how dangerous it is, and what else your team can do to get value on the battlefield.

As shown in the image below, Hanamura Temple has a total of 6 Mercenary Camps:

• 2 allied/enemy Samurai Camps in opposite lanes;
• 2 allied/enemy Fortification Camps in opposite lanes;
• 2 neutral Recon Camps in the middle of the battlefield.

Contrary to some other Maps, Mercenary Camps on Hanamura Temple do not disappear from the battlefield during the Objective phase or right after it ends.

Mercenary Camps indicated with a red icon are immune to Bribe effects.

This type of Mercenary Camp features 3 Henchmen. Once captured, it behaves like a Watch Tower.

Due to how the Recon Camp works, simply capturing it will not result into a net gain of Experience. The enemy team captures it, get Experience, then you capture it back, and get a similar amount of Experience. To receive a net gain of Experience, let the enemy team clear it and invade at the last second.

This type of Mercenary Camp features 1 Mechanic and 1 Turret. Once captured, it leaves a Turret on the ground that can be collected by allied or enemy Heroes. Always kill the Mechanic first because he can repair the Turret while below 80% Health.

Turrets are consumable items that, when put on the ground, deal damage to an enemy within range, prioritizing Heroes and dealing double damage to Minions. Since they count as Mercenaries, you can empower them with some Talents (such as Mercenary Queen by Sylvanas).

This type of Mercenary Camp features 1 Samurai. Once captured, it spawns the same unit fighting for your team in the corresponding lane. When possible, push with it to get more value.

While in combat, the Samurai will attack any foe in range and execute his signature move: Horizontal Slash (8-second cooldown). If you are a ranged Hero, stay distant and just step back as soon as you see Horizontal Slash's indicator on the ground. If you are a melee Hero, stay close and just walk through the Sentinel because Horizontal Slash only deals damage in the frontal area.

Hanamura Temple features 2 Watch Tower in the form of Recon Camps: they are located in the middle area, one near the top lane and another one near the bottom lane. If a team controls both Watch Towers, when the Payload is not active, it impossible to walk from a side to another without being seen because there is a hole in the center of the battlefield, where the Payload spawns.

Securing a Watch Tower provides your team with greater vision, allowing you to keep an eye on enemy movements in that part of the battlefield. Watchtowers can be captured similarly to defeated Mercenary Camps, by standing in the area until your team gains control.

Watch Towers controlled by the enemy team are extremely dangerous, especially when there are bushes nearby, therefore you should think twice before contesting them. If you do not have mobility tools at your disposal and your teammates are not nearby to help you, you should definitely not try to capture a Watch Tower as you will only risk dying for no reason. Staying alive is more important than getting vision.

The signature Objective of Hanamura Temple consists of 1 Payload. Securing the area around the Payload allows your team move it to its final destination. Once there, it fires 12 shots that do 1900 damage each (not scaling) to enemy Structures in the lane where enemy Structures have the least amount of damage taken in total and gives a Regeneration Globe to all the winning Heroes nearby. The countdown for its respawn will start after the last shot has been fired.

Single Payload At regular intervals, a payload spawns at the center of the battleground that can be contested by both teams.

Escort Payload Stand next to the payload and move it to its destination. Prevent the enemy team from trying to do the same.

Bombard your Enemy Once a team escorts the payload to its destination, it will fire upon the enemy's forts.

You can make the Payload go faster by escorting it with multiple Heroes. Adding a second Hero will increase that value by about 30%. The presence of a third Hero will only add 15% to that. This bonus is capped at 3 Heroes, so any additional Hero after that will not contribute to speeding up its delivery.

Leaving the area will cause the Payload to stop moving, but it will not go back unless enemy Heroes start escorting it uncontested. Dedicating a single Hero is the most efficient way to escort the Payload whereas dedicating 3 Heroes is the fastest way to escort it. Misha counts as 1 Hero, Gall doesn't.

There are three predetermined paths with increasing difficulty: easy, medium, and hard. Each time a team delivers a Payload, their part of the path gets upgraded to the next tier. After all the upgrades, it goes back to the first difficulty.

The first path is vertical and requires each team to escort the Payload through one of the side lanes after walking around one of the Recon Camps. The final destination of the easy path will always be in the same lane where the enemy Sentinel goes.

The second path (see the blue line in the corresponding image) is bent in the enemy territory of the losing team, passing nearby the enemy Fortification Camp. This change makes it slightly harder for the winning team to successfully escort the Payload again as the zone is surrounded by enemy Structures, especially if the nearby Fort has not been taken down yet. In particular, the losing team will have access to 1-2 Healing Fountains whereas the winning team will not have any of them nearby.

The third path (see the blue line in the corresponding image) is also bent in the enemy territory, but this time goes near one of the Recon Camps and then proceeds through the wide area near the enemy Sentinel Camp. This change makes it harder for the winning team to secure the Objective another time as the final destination is exactly in the middle of the enemy Keeps. The losing team will have access to 2 Healing Fountains whereas the winning team will be too deep in the enemy territory to use them.

Every 8 seconds, the Core fires 2 volleys of Missiles around it, dealing 5% maximum Health as damage to enemy Heroes and Slowing them by 70% for 1.25 seconds.

To win the game on Hanamura Temple, you should count on any of the following win conditions:

• Map Objective,
• Sentinel Camp.

Try to store Turrets for the late game.

• Use the first Healing Fountain (2-minute cooldown) at or before 1:00 minute because the first Objective on this Map activates at 3:00 minutes, so you will have it back in time for that.
• You can bait the Samurai's Horizontal Slash in the direction you want as it targets the closest Hero. When capturing it, bait it towards the wall so that allied Heroes do not risk taking damage from it. When defending from it, bait it away from allied Structures so they do not take damage from it.
• Due to how the Recon Camp works, simply capturing it will not result into a net gain of Experience. The enemy team captures it, get Experience, then you capture it back, and get a similar amount of Experience. To receive a net gain of Experience, let the enemy team clear it and invade at the last second.
• Even if your team almost delivered the Payload at its final destination, if the enemy team has an advantage, you should immediately retreat and try again later, unless it is the game-winning Payload for the enemy team.
• If your team is doing fine, you can store Turrets for the late game instead of using them in the early game. If you are going to die, however, place them on the ground before they kill you and steal them.