Soldier 76 vs Master Chief

[Q99]

Let's take one of the more straightforward Overwatch characters (i.e. no ults or abilities that are clear easy wins) and put him against another superhuman supersoldier.


Both are all-arounders and icons of their universe. Master Chief only gets UNSC weapons (as opposed to alien gear), both are only told they're facing an opposing super solider, urban environment.

Who wins?

[Lord Revan]

I'd have to say that the Master Chief takes this one.

Jack Morrison doesn't seem to be really superhuman (he seems to be able to maintain agility, strenght and endurance greater then most men his age but not anything that would be "superhuman") with the possible exception of durability depending how far that hand granade was in animated short when it went off. As Soldier 76 Morrison doesn't seem to be wearing any sort of body armor either just something that looks like biker gear without the helmet, also the Heavy Pulse rifle doesn't seem that impressive more like a heavy caliber assault rifle (like an AK-47) with an attached mini-RPG, also without the tactical visor Morrison isn't anywhere as good of a marksman as the Chief.

Morrison's main advantage is stealth as his basic gear helps blend into crowds, though if there's no civilians present that advantage is nullified. That said Jack Morrison has experience of fighting superior opponents as one of the founding members of Overwatch, not mention that he stayed as field operative at least until Ana Amari (his second in command) went MIA(presumed KIA) during an op he was leading.

[Q99]

Jack did go through a Soldier Enhancement Program, which is supposed to grant superhuman ability, and we've seen how superhuman most of the OW crew is.

76's also got the healing ability, and the helex rockets are pretty powerful.

[Lord Revan]

We've also seen Jack Morrison as Soldier 76 work in his animated short and while certainly impressive for a man in his late 40s at youngest (most likely in his 50s or 60s) at same time it wasn't really "superhuman" in the same short we saw the helix rockets in action and again it wasn't that impressive massive blast sure but the truck that was targeted did survive.

As for the Biotic field it's a really big "unknown" as we know it's effects only thru gameplay not lore.

[Q99]

Fair enough.

Let's say we step things up- How about Pharah? More clear armor, more weapons.

[Lord Revan]

Hard to say as we don't have that much info on what Raptor flightsuit can take or just how powerful Pharah's rockets are.

[Kingmaker]

We don't really have much information on anything in Overwatch, especially since a lot of game mechanics are clearly just game mechanics (e.g. Junkrat's ability to blow himself up without harm or the fact that everyone has infinite ammo). Pharah is nominally wearing powered armor, but is exactly as susceptible to harm in-game as a shirtless man who is literally on fire.

Thematically, 76 is Captain America as a bitter old man played by Clint Eastwood, but that doesn't actually tell us much about what he's capable of. Still, my gut tells me that Master Chief is way ahead. Even if the Mjolnir armor does nothing against Morrison's weapons and they are physically equal (both of which I doubt), Chief has access to a wider range of weapons that appear to be more powerful and have greater range. Morrison doesn't really have an answer if Chief pokes at him from mid-to-long range with a sniper rifle or battle rifle. (Does 76's pulse rifle even have iron sights?)

[Cykeisme]

Jack Morrison is 61 years old as we go into the "present day" of the Overwatch timeline.

He's still superhuman in terms of his physical capabilities and presumably has a lot of experience facing and defeating a wide variety of threats (both human and AI-controlled robot "omnics" of various sizes and combat roles).

Master Chief can be taken down by sustained modern battle rifle caliber fire, and the pulse rifle is intended to be more effective than a more conventional firearm, so Soldier has the firepower needed to harm Chief.
However, I don't think Soldier's biological enhancements are up to spec compared to the level of Master Chief, and he's notably lacking the fairly advanced power armor as well.

I'd have to say Soldier: 76 is quite outclassed in this matchup.

..we saw the helix rockets in action and again it wasn't that impressive massive blast sure but the truck that was targeted did survive.

Is the truck that came to pick up the surviving gang members the same one that was hit by the helix rockets earlier?
I had figured it was intended to be a second, different truck, but I may be wrong.

Morrison doesn't really have an answer if Chief pokes at him from mid-to-long range with a sniper rifle or battle rifle. (Does 76's pulse rifle even have iron sights?)

You're not seriously looking at the pulse rifle model, pointing out that it has no iron sights on it, and deciding that Soldier: 76 must therefore have no ability to hit targets beyond very short range, are you?
There's a degree where we have to separate game mechanics from the fictional universe, but however he does it, Solider: 76 is obviously able to fire that rifle very accurately, even without the aid of the computerized visor (and with perfect accuracy when it's in use).

[Kingmaker]

As for the Biotic field it's a really big "unknown" as we know it's effects only thru gameplay not lore.

We don't see the biotic field directly in action outside of gamplay, but there's a comic where Ana Amari hits 76 with one of her regenerative biotic darts (based on the same tech) and its effects are pretty immediate.

The same comic shows him surviving a point blank shotgun to the back.

comic, for anyone interested -> https://comic.playoverwatch.com/issues/ ... -ana-2.pdf

You're not seriously looking at the pulse rifle model, pointing out that it has no iron sights on it, and deciding that Soldier: 76 must therefore have no ability to hit targets beyond very short range, are you?

I'm suggesting that it's not meant to be used at extended range, in contrast to the battle rifle and sniper rifle from Halo (according to lore, the battle rifle has a theoretical effective range of around 900m; the sniper rifle has an effective range of over 2 kilometers). Morrison's visor presumably acts as a computerized gun sight, but I don't recall it ever being shown to have any kind of magnification.

the pulse rifle is intended to be more effective than a more conventional firearm, so Soldier has the firepower needed to harm Chief.

I don't doubt that the pulse rifle can penetrate the Mjolnir armor eventually, but I don't know how long 'eventually' is. Between shields and armor, it takes a lot of bullets to take down a Spartan. The pulse rifle would do it faster, but it needs to do it fast enough to take down Chief before he can either take cover or just shoot Morrison.

[Lord Revan]

Where was Jack Morrison's age mentioned? the sources I've seen state it as "unknown"

Is the truck that came to pick up the surviving gang members the same one that was hit by the helix rockets earlier?
I had figured it was intended to be a second, different truck, but I may be wrong.

it's the same and also the truck used to carry the payload on the Dorado map.

also the Pulse rifle does seem to have iron sights on top of the part that opens up when you reload.

[Kojiro]

I don't know that Morrison's age is revealed, but I'm pretty sure Reinhardt has been stated to be the oldest at 61. Ana is next at 60.

Much as I love Overwatch I feel MC has the edge. It's not definitive, in that if Soldier got the drop on him or just a bit lucky he could down MC but it's like 80/20 in favour of MC. Perhaps a younger, (Strike Commander Morrison) more armoured version could even that up a bit but I'd have to give it to MC.

[Lord Revan]

If it hasn't changed Soldier 76 and Reaper (aka Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes) have their ages officially listed as "unknown" (technically their names are also listed as "unknown" but we know those from other sources) really only thing about Morrison's age we know for certain is that he is at very least 48 years old (he joined the military at 18 and the game happens 30 years after the founding of the orginal Overwatch strike team).

[Q99]

We don't really have much information on anything in Overwatch, especially since a lot of game mechanics are clearly just game mechanics (e.g. Junkrat's ability to blow himself up without harm or the fact that everyone has infinite ammo). Pharah is nominally wearing powered armor, but is exactly as susceptible to harm in-game as a shirtless man who is literally on fire.

We do have all the trailers and comics to take into account, and those are 'higher canon' so to speak. There's a lot of demonstration of their ability level in the Genji vs Hanzo fight, Tracer vs Widowmaker, Tracer and Winston vs Widowmaker and Reaper, etc..

Someone like Tracer seems able to hop a few dozen feet in the air while shooting two weapons at once accurately, and that's not the chrono accelerator. Widowmaker too, if not quite as quickly. Hanzo can knock Genji back with just a physical strike from his bow. That seems to be a pretty normal level of fitness for them.

[Cykeisme]

Apologies, 61 was Wilhelm Reinhardt's age.
Jack Morrison's date of birth/age have not ever been mentioned, and there aren't enough known time-frames from other sources to piece together his age either.

Reinhardt is 61 and Mercy is 37, and if I had to hazard a guess, Morrison would be somewhere in between.
Ana Amari is 60, but that doesn't help either way. Morrison's higher rank in Overwatch (when the organization was active) certainly does not necessarily mean that he was older, although I'd reckon he's probably close to her age.


Based on what Q99 mentioned about the "average" level of physical abilities for an Overwatch character based on the comics and short movies, 76 and Master Chief might be at very similar ability levels if they were both without any equipment.
But the Mjolnir armor is pretty advanced, so at the very least, that would give him the edge.

With that said (armored Master Chief has the edge), I don't think the pulse rifle's range is really an issue though.
It appears to be a directed energy weapon rather than a ballistic slugthrower, so even if we ignore the "hitscan" game mechanics, it may mean that it really does have effectively perfect accuracy, no bullet drop or windage drift, and (possibly) instant travel time. Even without a magnified view, 76's visual acuity may be augmented as well. That, and we know it's superior to a contemporary assault rifle or battle rifle in terms of firepower.

In an unfair situation where S:76 is able to ambush the Master Chief and hose him with the pulse rifle (even from significant range), S:76 might win. But in a fair fight, I'd say Chief with his gear has a clear advantage.

[Cykeisme]

Btw, do we have a canonical non-game mechanics idea of how much battle rifle fire a Spartan can eat before he goes down?

[Esquire]

As I recall, Legendary difficulty in the games is canon - so at least a full magazine, at point-blank range? It's been a while since I played any of them.

[Lord Revan]

Btw, do we have a canonical non-game mechanics idea of how much battle rifle fire a Spartan can eat before he goes down?

don't think so but we do see chief take needle rounds on his armor in the "Forward unto to Dawn" web-series/film and the same film gives an indication what happens when an unarmored human takes needles rounds (she practically liquidfied, off-screen though)

[Cykeisme]

A check of the Halo wiki says that in multiplayer, the battle rifle ("BR85 Heavy Barrel Service Rifle") kills other Spartans with 11 rounds, delivered in four three-round bursts.

For unarmored humans compared to an armored Spartan, if we take the needler to liquefy (or significantly dismember) an unarmored human versus a Spartan being able to take multiple rounds without much hindrance, I think the ratios of physical injury are consistent enough for what the game mechanics suggest for a battle rifle. Realistically, a single battle rifle round will easily kill an unprotected human, and 11 rounds on target would leave a human body quite badly mutilated, whereas a Spartan can take the initial shots on his armor and be little affected.
So I'd say it's consistent enough, between Forward Unto Dawn and game mechanics, that we can take both into account.


If the "Heavy Pulse Rifle" is similar in terminal effects to a Halo battle rifle (one could argue for the pulse rifle being superior, but I would rather be conservative), it'd still be a significant threat to a Spartan.. but as I said before, I'd still give the Spartan the edge on account of the power armor encasing him.