Profile Rank

The introduction and explanation of the experience (rank) system

Profile Ranks were introduced in Global Offensive as part of the May 26, 2015 (Operation Bloodhound) update as a mostly cosmetic form of upgrading a player's status by playing on official servers.

By playing on official game servers, players gain experience points towards the goal of increasing the player's Profile Rank. The first time the player ranks up in a week, the player also receives a weapon drop. Prior to Operation Hydra, the operation's pass holders are eligible to receive rewards exclusive to the operation's weapon collections during an active operation. Players participating in the Overwatch program also gain additional experience.

The 2015 Service Medal Level 1, inspect animation

Although a player's Rank is separate from the player's skill group, a profile rank of Private Rank 2 is required to be eligible for competitive matchmaking. However, a player's profile rank does not affect the player's ability to compete in casual game modes.

Although only 40 ranks exist, the player has the opportunity to reset his or her profile rank to start over.[1] After reaching rank 40, a Get Service Medal button will appear above the rank progress bar. Clicking the button will reset the player's rank and add the service medal to the player's inventory. Once the player receives a service medal, he or she will not have to re-rank to Private Rank 2 again to play competitive match making. Starting with the November 10, 2015 patch, the service medal can now be upgraded to level 2 by hitting rank 40 a second time. The player's rank is not reset each year, but rather the rank up will count towards that year's medal.

After each match is over, the experience points will be allocated. Leaving a match early will not award any experience points. The experience gauge will be shown at the bottom of the scoreboard at round end, with the Current XP appearing as a dark blue bar, the Earned XP and Weekly XP Bonus appearing as a green bar, and Mission XP appearing as a dark yellow bar.

The XP bars are accompanied with small pieces of text beneath them indicating their XP type and calculation method, written on a background of the same colour. If the player ranks up, another piece of text saying "Rank Up" and using a purple background will appear after all other pieces of text.

The amount of XP the player earns at the end of a game is determined by player performance during the game, applied through the game mode's multiplier. Excluding competitive matches, this multiplier uses the player's score. The competitive multiplier uses the player's won rounds during a match. Additionally, the multiplier is always rounded down to the nearest decimal. The maximum amount of experience points that a player can earn in casual mode is 1,000.

The weekly bonus XP is a pool of 5,000 XP applied as a bonus when a player finishes a round. The first 3,500 XP is awarded as a bonus of 3x the amount of XP the player gains in the round. The rest 1,500 XP is awarded as a 1x bonus. The bonus XP is not awarded further if all 5,000 were awarded during a week.[2]

If the player earns too much XP during a week, the player will receive a reduced multiplier, drastically cutting the amount of XP received regardless of game mode.

Note: These values are approximate values based on community testing.[3] [4]

An Overwatch Investigator who successfully confirmed the guilt of a suspect player will gain an Overwatch XP Reward. It will be first notified to the player on the main menu, and the Investigator will redeem the reward of 195 XP the next time the they finish a match on an official server.[2]

The Weekly XP Bonus also applies to the Overwatch XP Reward.

New players receive an XP boost as they progress through the Recruit and Private ranks.[3][Better Citation Needed]

After Operation Bloodhound, Operation Missions no longer give players item drops. Instead, they award experience points to the player, and players with Operation passes who rank up during the Operation are then eligible for Operation exclusive item drops.

The amount of experience point gained from a mission is dependent on the mission's difficulty. Generally, Easy rewards 200 XP, Normal rewards 300 XP, and Hard rewards 400 XP, with missions reward more base XP based on further variations. Some missions also award bonus XP based on the player's actions during the mission, like kills with specific weapons and completing the mission before a certain number of rounds.

Mission panel during Opertion Hydra

The Mission XP is rewarded only once upon the first completion of the missions. Replays of the missions will reward Earned XP only.

Weekly bonus XP is applied to XP gained in missions. The XP penalty also applies to these XP.

In Operation Wildfire, Blitz Missions are time-limited multiplayer missions which give an extra 10XP per round won, though players must be Private Rank 3 or above to participate in competitive Blitz missions.

In Operation Hydra, missions no longer award XP to the player's rank. Instead, they award Guardian XP to a different system.

Since Operation Shattered Web, each operation rewards a 'Bonus Rank XP' reward which rewards 5000 XP. This is given to the player after completing a certain amount of missions.