Castillo, Sombra's hideout and new Overwatch map, reveals the hacker's secrets

Ah, Castillo. Beautiful, clear skies, a great nightlife... and the lair of Sombra, Overwatch’s most notorious hacker. This new 3v3 Arena map was added during the Overwatch Anniversary event, and it gives us some clues about what, exactly, Sombra is up to these days. Blizzard likes to use these maps as an opportunity for some worldbuilding and lore hints, so let’s take a deeper look at what Castillo says about the world of Overwatch.

Hacker vs. Cowboy?

Jesse McCree didn’t show up in Sombra’s animated origins short, which led many fans to believe that the two don’t know of each other. After all, McCree’s a low-tech cowboy who likes to travel off the grid, and Sombra’s high tech might miss such a fellow altogether. Turns out we were wrong, and she actually has some kind of interest in McCree. Let’s go over the facts.

In Reflections, McCree and Sombra are getting drunk at the same bar, independently. It comes across as a gag at first, that these two lore-important characters don’t realize who the other is.

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Turns out, they were in Castillo, inside a bar named Calaveras that serves as the red side spawn point. Jesse just might be a regular at this joint, considering that there’s a spot saved just for him:

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The proof that Sombra is aware of McCree - even if he isn’t aware of her - is in the opposite spawn point, Sombra’s hacker lair. There, you can find this monitor:

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That’s McCree on the left, showing up with Ana, and both of them connected to Overwatch. The Spanish on the screen translates to ‘scanning’. Sombra knows for a fact that Ana is Ana Amari, former Captain of Overwatch’s glory days, and the mercenary operating around Egypt. We also found out recently, through a Pharah/McCree interaction, that Ana was McCree’s mentor, along with Reyes, and taught him how to shoot.

Sombra isn’t the sort of person to search for information without having some kind of end-game. Zarya’s on her tail, but Sombra seems more interested in finding out more about McCree. Hopefully, we find out more about this later.

As an aside, it looks like there’s another pair of notorious Overwatch characters who hang out at Calaveras. This table has the fingerprints of the Junkers all over it.

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The State of Castillo

Castillo, at first glance, looks like a wonderful place to go for a vacation. LumériCo power pyramids dot the map, providing power to the surrounding neighborhoods

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There’s even a lovely plaza in the middle of the map, with some history about the era and an impressive statue.

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The problem is, well, that Los Muertos have completely taken over the city. We saw them in Hero, the 76 animated short, and Morrison’s one man war doesn’t seem to have really made a dent in their numbers. At this point, they essentially run the city.

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Curiously enough, Sombra seems to remain close to the organization. her sugar skull, and tag, covers the alleyways. It’s possible that these are from her history as a former member of the gang before joining Talon, but the fact that she remains set up in Castillo and allows her skull to spread suggests that while she may have removed the tattoos, she’s still willing to work with the gang.

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Who is Sombra?

Getting to see Sombra’s workstation up close actually tells us a lot about the secretive hacker.

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Sombra’s translocator technology is stolen, and she’s seemingly having trouble keeping her translocators together. Not only do they cause her nausea, but she has a few of the things in various states of repair around her den. The source of the technology is Tracer’s Chrono-Accelerator, and Sombra can’t quite get the same level of reliability or power out of it. She’s also made Tracer pretty angry by snatching the tech, which is a feat by itself.

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Finally, we get to see where Sombra sleeps. A bare mattress, with a teddy bear, a sugar skull serving as a night light, and a poster. It’s a little sad, but we’re not actually sure how much she sleeps - judging by the energy drinks laying around, the answer is probably ‘not much’.