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 0:30 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. Ideally, you should capture this Mercenary Camp even during the Objective phase.
• At 1:00 minutes or whenever available, start clearing the allied Samurai Camp and capture it as soon as possible. Ideally, you should capture this Mercenary Camp even during the 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:

• 1 Fortification Camp (purple icon) on the left side of the top lane;
• 1 Samurai Camps (red icon) on the right side of the top lane;
• 1 Recon Camp (blue icon) near the center of top lane;
• 1 Recon Camp (blue icon) near the center of bottom lane;
• 1 Fortification Camp (purple icon) on the right side of the bottom lane;
• 1 Samurai Camp (red icon) on the left side of the bottom lane.

Mercenary Camps on Hanamura Temple are always active, even when the Payload is up or during a bombardment.

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).

Turret [F]

• Item

Place a Turret that rapidly attacks nearby enemies for 90 damage per second. Turret lasts for 45 seconds, or until destroyed.

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.

Due to being Elite, this Mercenary Camp is immune to Bribe effects (such as Covert Mission by Nova).

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. Watch Towers can be captured 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 to move it. Once delivered, it causes a barrage to start, dealing damage to enemy Structures, 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 10%. The presence of a third Hero will add 10% 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 does not count.

There are 3 predetermined Payload's paths: path A, path B, and path C. The time it takes for the Payload to reach its destination changes based on them (see table below). Each time a team delivers a Payload, their part of the path gets upgraded to the next tier. After all the upgrades for that team, it goes back to the first tier. The enemy Payload's path being upgraded does not influence the allied Payload's path in any way.

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

The second path (letter B) is bent in the enemy territory of the enemy 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 enemy team will have access to 1-2 Healing Fountains whereas the winning team will not have any of them nearby.

The third path (letter C) 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 enemy team will have access to 2 Healing Fountains whereas the winning team will be too deep in the enemy territory to use them.

A successful delivery results in 12 shots being fired over 15 seconds. Missiles deal 2280 damage (not scaling) to enemy Structures. Cores take 20% less damage from Payload's shots.

When being fired, Payload's shots will target Structures in the lane where enemy Structures have the least amount of damage taken in total.

Forts and Keeps will only be targeted if the respective Towers and Gates have been destroyed. Cores will only be targeted if all Towers, Gates, Forts, and Keeps have been destroyed.

In the late game, if the only Structure left is the Core with 100% Health and 100% Shield, a barrage will bring it down to around 50% Health remaining.

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.
• At high level of play it is common to completely ignore the Objective area and get value elsewhere by pushing because the Payload takes too much time to be delivered and it does not deal that much damage to enemy Structures.