One month after joining the Overwatch 2 roster, Kiriko is now available in the competitive games of Blizzard’s FPS. This support hero was previously only available in Quick Play and custom games to give enough time for players to master her abilities before joining the official competitive pool.
Kiriko is the latest support hero to join Overwatch 2. Her lore ties in with the history of Hanzo and Genji, the Shimada brothers. She was raised alongside the brothers in Kanezaka, a fictional Japanese city. Kiriko became a ninja healer, able to deal devastating damage to her enemies while bringing her allies back to health.
Her abilities are different from any other support hero currently available in Overwatch 2. As the first hero introduced after the game’s release, her kit was shaped for the new 5v5 format of Overwatch 2. Kiriko can launch Healing Ofudas, talismans that automatically look for an ally to heal them. If an enemy is in sight, Kiriko can launch her Kunai to deal up to 120 damage if she lands a headshot. When the enemy team gathers to launch Ultimate abilities or if an ally is in trouble, Kiriko can use her Protection Suzu to briefly make her teammates invulnerable and cleanse them of most negative effects. Her Ultimate ability summons a fox spirit that rushes forward and accelerates the movement, attack speed, and cooldowns of allies that follow its path.
On top of these offensive and defensive abilities, Kiriko benefits from excellent mobility. She can climb walls just like Hanzo and is able to teleport to a nearby ally, even through walls. This gives Kiriko the opportunity to save an ally in trouble by teleporting to them, launching her Protection Suzu, and healing them, before getting back to safety.
Kiriko is now joining the competitive games in Overwatch 2. However, all players won’t be able to access the ninja healer right away. For those who haven’t bought the Premium Battle Pass or already owned the original version of Overwatch, unlocking Kiriko will take some time. The support hero is unlocked with Tier 55 of the free version of Overwatch 2’s Battle Pass, which takes about 50 hours worth of gameplay to reach.
While Kiriko is now joining competitive games in Overwatch 2, Bastion and Torbjorn are still nowhere to be seen. They were removed from the game about a week ago to prevent some bug exploits in their abilities.
Overwatch 2 is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows.
