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One of the biggest changes between Overwatch 2 and the original game is the switch to a free-to-play model that gates certain characters behind the game’s premium battle pass. While the entire cast of the original Overwatch is able to be unlocked by simply playing the game for long enough, the battle pass hero additions are only available by spending the game’s premium currency.
This means that if you’re planning on playing the battle pass heroes, you might need some pointers on how to most effectively use them in matches since they’re brand new. The first new addition, Kiriko, can be purchased now. While it’s impossible to truly improve your skills at Overwatch 2 without actually putting the time into practicing, if you use the guide below to learn the ins and outs of the character, you’ll be able to hit the ground running when you finally boot up for a play session.
Additionally, be mindful as you play Overwatch 2 and keep an eye on other players picking up Kiriko. Since she’s so new to the game, there are plenty of people trying her out and using different strategies that may end up being dominant in the long run that aren’t currently clear due to her newcomer status.
More Overwatch 2 guides:
| How to Unlock the Founder’s Pack | How to Unlock Role Queue | How to Unlock Every Character | Can You Fix “0 Players Ahead of You” Error? | Does it Have Crossplay and Cross-Progression? | How to Merge Accounts | Which Characters are Unlocked and Free? | Best Characters in Each Class For Beginners | How to Play Tracer |
Kiriko’s Abilities
Like most other characters in Overwatch 2, Kiriko’s loadout is pretty barebones. That’s not to say she doesn’t have a versatile set of abilities, but that there’s not much you’ll need to know about what she can do before you start applying strategy to her moveset.
Healing Ofuda
Kiriko is a Support hero, so her main abilities revolve around buffing her teammates. The Healing Ofuda is a set of five cards that can heal a good portion of a teammate’s health pool in just a few seconds by pulling RT. If a teammate is nearly out of health, they generally won’t be able to bring them back up to 100%, unless they’re one of the more fragile Attack characters like Tracer, but the cards recharge in just around one second after being depleted, so topping off a teammate’s health doesn’t take too long.
That said, because she isn’t able to completely recharge a teammate’s health in a single burst, Kiriko is much more suited for healing people when they aren’t yet at risk of dying.
Kunai
The Kunai is Kiriko’s main way of damaging enemies. By pulling LT, she’ll throw a steady stream of singular throwing knives that deal more damage than usual to critical hit areas. This means that, while hitting your opponents in the body will certainly hurt them, landing headshots is what packs a real punch.
Because of the increased critical damage of the Kunai, Kiriko can take down most Attack characters in just two to three headshots. Obviously, you’ll want to be prioritizing critical hits no matter what character you’re playing, but make sure to take advantage of increased damage as often as you can. Because of how accurate Kiriko’s shots are, landing them consistently is easier than you might think and, with a little practice, you can be landing headshots frequently, drastically increasing your lethality.
Ultimate: Kitsune Rush
While Kiriko is useful for healing allies, her Ultimate, Kitsune Rush, allows her to give a major buff to everyone nearby. Upon activating it, she summons a glowing fox spirit that runs forwards and creates an area that allows allies to move faster, attack quicker, and reduces their ability cooldowns. Similar to her Protection Suzu ability listed below, it’s good for pushing through choke points or rushing objectives.
Swift Step
Swift Step is a relatively self-explanatory one of Kiriko’s abilities. It allows her to instantly teleport to the location of any of her allies. While other Support heroes like Mercy have similar abilities, what sets Kiriko apart is that she can teleport to them through walls and at a great distance.
This not only is useful for quickly attending to a teammate in need of healing, but can also be used to escape dangerous situations. Additionally, make use of Swift Step after being eliminated on a teammate who’s close to the objective and you’ll be back in the action much quicker than the rest of your team.
Protection Suzu
In addition to being able to heal teammates, Kiriko is able to buff them as well. The Protection Suzu casts an AoE cleansing charm that nullifies any negative status effects that your teammates are suffering such as Zenyatta’s Orb of Discord which increases the amount of damage that an affected character takes.
The Protection Suzu also gives all allies in the affected zone brief invulnerability from all attacks. It’s best used when pushing forwards toward the objective or breaking through choke points.
Wall Climb
Kiriko has a passive ability in addition to the passive that she has from being a Support class hero. Wall Climb allows her to scale walls in order to make jumps that she might not have been able to make otherwise. It’s similar to Genji’s passive that allows him to do the same thing which gives her a huge mobility advantage over characters that are best utilized on the ground.
Kiriko’s Role in Combat
As mentioned above, depending on emerging strats that reveal themselves, Kiriko’s role in combat might change over time. Currently, she’s best in two places: on the front lines directly behind Tank and Attack heroes supporting them with her buffing and healing abilities or on the rooftops of the front lines landing easy headshots while healing her team from above.
Her role as direct support is pretty straightforward. Because her abilities lend themselves well to handing out multiple types of buffs, she’s a good pick to support the front lines. The only drawback to that is because she’s so versatile, she isn’t able to focus on doing any one thing better than support characters that are kitted to be providing one specific type of support.
Kiriko’s Wall Climb passive opens up a level of verticality to her playstyle that allows her to make easier headshots from above, putting her in a more aggressive role as well. Luckily, she can just teleport to nearby allies should the situation get a little too hot for her, but it’s not a terrible idea to lead with an offensive strategy when you first meet the enemy team head-on and switch to a support role once your Tank has taken a few hits and the rest of your team is in need of buffs.
In terms of the best heroes for Kiriko to face, she’ll likely be most effective in one on one fights with Attack characters, but, similar to many other heroes in Overwatch 2, can prioritize taking out Tanks given the right circumstances and backup.
Kiriko really shines when helping her team push through choke points and when pushing into a full team of enemies thanks to her Ultimate and Protection Suzu ability. Because of this, it’s a good idea to save her Ultimate until your entire team groups up for an all-out attack.
