Overwatch 2 is a five vs five team-based game where you have to execute a certain task while fighting against the enemy heroes. These objectives can range from escorting a payload or a robot to capturing an area for a certain amount of time. Players need to strategically carve their way to victory.
Kiriko was released exclusively alongside Overwatch 2 and became the first main difference between the first and the second game. The character has a unique skill set that allows her to contribute to the team in different ways. She's one of the most agile characters in the game.
Updated November 2, 2022: We've added a video guide to this article that teaches you how to play as Kiriko in Overwatch 2.
Kiriko's Role In Overwatch 2
Heroes are divided into three different roles when it comes to Overwatch 2 namely: Tank, Support, and Damage. A team consists of one tank, two damage, and two support characters unless you're playing Open Queue where everyone is free to choose any hero.
Kiriko is a support character in the game. The special ability shared between every support character is that they automatically heal themselves if they don't take any damage for a short duration. This allows you to take fights where you can make a quick getaway and heal yourself.
Just like every other support character, Kiriko also has a mechanic that allows her to heal her teammates.
Kiriko's Abilities
Kiriko has a set of six abilities that involve her weapon, passive, and active abilities. The function of each one of these are as follows:
|
Ability Name |
Ability Type |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Healing Ofuda |
Primary Weapon |
Using this ability throws a bunch of talismans in front of the character. If you're aiming at a teammate within your line of sight while using this ability, the talisman will turn yellow and automatically follow that character. When the talisman reaches a certain character, it will heal them for quite a lot of HP. |
|
Kunai |
Secondary Weapon |
Using this ability throws a Kunai that deals high crit damage in the direction that you're aiming. This ability doesn't have any hit scan, so you have to predict the enemy's movement. |
|
Swift Step |
Active Ability |
When you're in proximity of an ally and have this ability ready, you can directly teleport to them. This teleport can be activated even through walls. |
|
Protection Suzu |
Active Ability |
Upon activating this ability, Kiriko will throw an orb in the direction you're aiming. Once this lands on the ground, the allies in its area of effect will become invulnerable for a short period. This ability also cleanses them of most of their debuffs like sleeping or being stunned. |
|
Wall Climb |
Passive Ability |
When you get near a wall and press the jump button, this ability allows you to directly climb on it for a short period. |
|
Kitsune Rush |
Ultimate |
Upon activating this ability, a fox will make a path in the direction you're facing after a short delay. All the allies on this path will have increased movement, attack speed, and reduced cooldown. |
Tips To Play As Kiriko
Even though she's a support character, there are some nuances to Kiriko's abilities that can make her feel amazing to play, even for someone who finds the support role boring. She brings a lot to the table, and can sometimes single-handedly carry the entire team.
If you're planning to play this hero, here are a few tips that will help you perfect her easily:
Beware Of The Delay In Your Ultimate
As mentioned above, your ultimate has a little delay between the moment you cast it and the moment kitsune creates a path. While this delay is less than a second, it's something you have to take into account when you're planning to use this ability.
There can be moments when you use the ability while you're looking at the location you want to direct it to, but you turn around to heal a teammate right after and the path gets created in the wrong direction.
The best way to go about using this ability is to activate it a moment before you're at the desired location. This way, you can make sure it goes the right way without standing still and making yourself vulnerable to enemy snipers.
Keep An Eye On Your Teammates
Overwatch 2 has many indicators for support characters to let them know about the health state of their teammates. Whenever your teammate is below 50 percent health, they will have a big plus sign on their body with Critical written on it.
Furthermore, when they are extremely low on health, their aura will turn bright orange to tell you that they're the ones you need to focus on. It's your job to keep a tab on all four of your teammates to ensure all of them get the healing whenever they need it.
This is the most important factor when you're playing the support role because your teammates have no other way of getting healed if they're getting attacked, with some exceptions.
You can use the Swift Step ability to quickly get to the teammate who needs healing, make them invulnerable using Protection Suzu in case they're getting attacked, and then heal them.
Hit Them In The Head
Kiriko's Kunai have increased damage if you damage an enemy with a critical hit, and this increased damage needs to be emphasized. You can essentially kill the enemy's support and damage characters with two critical hits while using Kunai. This makes it crucial for you to have a good aim with her.
Headshots are the best way to get a critical hit on your enemy. It'll take you some time to get used to the projectile of her secondary weapon because that requires muscle memory. Once you've done that, you'll be able to destroy everything in your way as a support character.
There are not a lot of support characters in Overwatch 2 that can be aggressive, but Kiriko is one of them. This is because of how quickly she can kill a squishy character in the enemy's backline.
Furthermore, if the entire enemy team realizes that you're trying to pick them off one by one and come at you together, you can simply teleport to any of your teammates nearby to get away without dying.
While there's an aggressive play style for her, it's also important to make sure that the second support in the team has enough healing power for the team to allow you to go on your own.
Use Your Abilities To Find Unexpected Places
The ability to climb walls is rare in the game, and it's important to understand its potential. As you learn different maps, you need to pay attention to the spots you can climb. This can have quite a few benefits:
- When you respawn, there are times when you can simply climb over a certain building instead of having to go all the way around. This will allow you to get back into action surprisingly faster.
- Sometimes, the enemies are busy dealing with your teammates on the ground. This is the perfect time to peek from the top of a building and get a cheeky headshot on one of the enemies.
- If an enemy team has a sniper on top of a wall, you can use this ability to climb it and kill them easily because their teammates won't be able to get there to save them quickly enough.
Self-Healing Characters Are Your Nightmare
One of the places Kiriko struggles is when she's against a character who can heal themselves. While your headshots can deal a good amount of damage, the body shots will not be able to out-damage the healing of characters like Soldier: 76.
Similarly, if you get a headshot on the enemy's support character and aren't able to capitalize on it, they can easily get their health back. Hence, characters who can heal themselves will be your nightmare when you're trying to fight them as Kiriko.
If you're not confident in your shots, the best thing to do against these characters is to not waste your time and support your team by healing them instead.