Overwatch 2 Kiriko Guide: All Abilities and Playstyle with tips

Overwatch 2 brings three new heroes with its release: One tank, one DPS, and the other one is Support. Among the three, we will be focusing on the support hero today. Kiriko is the newest support hero to join Overwatch 2’s roaster. She is very unique from all the Support we have so far.

Kirio is a high mobility support with a big potential for damage. But this is also why Kirikio is considered a high-skill support hero. So let us check her abilities and what kind of playstyle we should use with her. On a side note, fans can also get a free legendary Kiriko skin through Twitch drops.

Kiriko: All ability breakdown

Kiriko’s main role is Support. Naturally, her abilities are focused on helping her team. However, she has her kunai to deal damage all by herself in dangerous situations. Even though the kunai don’t do much damage on the body shot, they have a big multiplayer on the headshot.

So, she falls into a support, high-skill damage dealer category. To have a better understating; we will go through all of her abilities in detail and point out all the best ways you can use the abilities:

1. Passive: Wall climb

Being related to the Shimada Clan, she has the same passive wall climb as Genji and Hanzo. Climbing helps her to reach the high ground more easily. This ability can be used for getting better firing angles and keeping up with other mobile heroes.

2. Healing Ofuda

This is Kiriko’s main weapon for Healing. She throws paper-like talismans infused with healing power at the teammates to heal them. The talismans have a soft lock feature that tracks down allies to heal them.

Yet, not all aimed talismans will hit an ally while battling and moving around so much. The one that locks on the ally and will hit to heal them shows in Yellow/Gold color after firing, while the missed talismans remain Blue in color. In short, you can tell what is hitting and what is not.

The downside of this ability is its slow projectile speed makes it difficult to heal allies instantly. To use this ability best, you can shoot at your teammates right before they are about to take damage, ensuring they will get some healing right away. Or you can be a close-range healer to deal out some good healing quickly.

3. Kunai

Kunai is her damage ability and also her main and only way to damage opponents. It deals a deadly 3X damage on headshots and only 40 damage for body shots. These projectiles have a pretty good velocity, so your aim should always be your opponent’s head. Therefore, practice is the name of the game here.

Her kunai has a high skill ceiling, but when you hit the heads of an opponent, it is very satisfying. You can sometimes melt down the tank if you hit your headshot. But if you are not hitting the heads, you won’t get much value from the kunai since 40 damage is very low for a projectile that shoots pretty slowly.

4. Protection Suzu

Kiriko throws a ball-like projectile towards the aimed area known as Protection Suzu. This ability has cleansing power and immunity from all damage for a short time. It impacts allies in a certain area. Using Protection Suzu removes most negetive effects like anti-heal, stunt, and sleep. It also heals  50 HP and grants a shot immunity.

The negative point is that it does not last too long, only a second. You have to be very close to your teammates to use it effectively. Misusing it can kill her easily, especially if the timing is wrong. But since the ability has a very long cool down, it is important not to waste it. Thus, it suggests using against enemy ultimate to cleanse your teammate or protect them from deadly damage.

5. Swift Step

Kiriko’s teleportation power is named Swift Step. It can help her to teleport to an ally instantly. This ability can allow her to travel through walls to reach her teammates. The Swift Step has a large range of 30 meters and only 7 seconds cooldown.

Because of the high range and low cooldown, you can use this ability to teleport to a teammate and join the fight instantly, then back out of the fight by teleporting to another nearby teammate after the cooldown refreshes. While teleporting, make sure you don’t teleport on a 1v5 fight and die instantly.

6. Ultimate: Kitsune Rush

Her ultimate makes her summon a fox spirit which rushes forward, making a path and torii gates. This ability gives several buffs to the character inside its path. It increases movement speeds, increases attack speed, and reduces the cooldown of all allies as long as they are inside the ultimate zone.

This makes it a very good, if not the best support ultimate in the game. Visually speaking, this ultimate can easily shake off opponents because Kitsune Rush is very powerful. Your opponent can only counter this if they use their own kitsune rush. So, use this ultimate to push with your team instantaneously and gain control of an area.

Best ways to play Kiriko in Overwatch 2 with tips

Kiriko is a high-skill support hero. Unlike the traditional support hero, Kiriko has a lot of potential to be used alongside dive or flanking-type heroes because of her teleportation. Her Kunai damage makes her almost a Support, Damage hybrid.

There are mainly two ways to play Kiriko, depending on your skill level. One is if you are mechanically good, you can play alongside your flankers or dive tanks to secure some kills. And the other consists of focusing on healing and looking for kill opportunities.

1. The Flanker’s Friend Playstyle

Kiriko’s swift step let her teleport to any hero within 30 meters instantly. And her kunai deals 120 headshot damage per shot. For this playstyle, you will teleport to your flankers as they take on a fight. Then you and your flanker will work together to get one or possibly more kills in the back line.

Since the teleport has only a 7-second cooldown, you can teleport back to safety after the cooldown is up. While trying to flank, you should focus on the headshot and healing the flanker if necessary. You can also use your Protection Suzu to save yourself or your flanker.

2. The Close Range Healer Playstyle

Kiriko has some really good healing for hybrid-style Support. Even though her healing is not instant since the talismans take some time to travel to the target, you can offset that disadvantage by being close to your target. Here you need to focus on healing anyone that needs it.

Use your teleport to go to the character that needs healing. Heal the character, then get out of there either by using the teleport or by just running out of there. While doing this, look out for any target that you can hit and get some damage on.

Always be aware of where you are teleporting. Otherwise, you will find yourself in the middle of the enemy team and die without being of any use to your team. You can save your Protection Suzu to counter any big damage ultimate or to cleanse the team. You can also use it to save your tank or any critically low ally.

What are your thoughts on the newest support Kiriko? Let us know in the comment section below!

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