Kiriko is a new Support character to Overwatch 2 who can be a big help to your team in various roles. While she is probably most noticeable for her kitsune spirit fox friend, she has a lot of personality on her own and brings some unique utilization to the Support role. Here is everything you need to know about Kiriko in Overwatch 2, from her abilities to her counters.
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All Kiriko abilities
- Passive
- Like other Supports, Kiriko will regenerate health after a short time without taking damage
- Also, similarly to Genji and Hanzo, Kiriko can climb up walls
- Swift Step (Ability 1)
- Kikaro instantly teleports to a teammate within range, can travel through walls and obstacles
- Protection Suzu (Ability 2)
- Throws out an orb that detonates on impact and gives teammates a moment of invulnerability and removes negative effects like Ashe’s Dynamite burning and anti-healing from Ana’s Biotic Grenade.
- Healing Ofuda (primary fire)
- Throws out up to ten floating papers that can search out allies and heal them when they make contact, recharges when used up
- Kunai (secondary fire)
- Throws out a kunai projectile that deals better than expected damage, especially on critical shots
- Kitsune Rush (Ultimate)
- Create a path with your spirit fox that increases the reload and walking speed, fire rate, and cooldown regeneration of all allies within range
How to play Kiriko
Kiriko is a Support that has a bit of a lot of other characters in her. While most of the time, Supports are focused on their healing prowess, that is not particularly Kiriko’s strongest part of her kit. If you are constantly putting out your Healing Ofuda into teammates, you will do enough healing to keep them alive, but it is her movement abilities and Ultimate where she truly shines.
Swift Step is an ability that works similarly to Mercy’s Guardian Angel. You need to have a teammate within range to teleport to them. However, since you can move through walls with this, this is easily a much better means of escaping danger and helping teammates that got out of position. The Protection Suzu does not actually heal on its own, but it gives a split second of invulnerability to allies affected by it and removes harmful effects. If you choose the proper time to throw it down, you can completely negate enemy attacks that would normally wipe out your teammates.
Her primary fire is throwing out a Kunai that moves straight forward. We would compare this to Genji’s alternate fire, but instead of three projectiles, it is one faster-moving bit of damage that also deals extra damage on critical shots, so she can be lethal at protecting herself against flankers like Tracer if she can hit that headshot.
As stated above, Kiriko has a very strong Ultimate. When you activate Kitsune Rush, any nearby teammates will become lethal machines with higher fire rates, reload times, and lesser cooldowns. You will want to use this whenever the enemy team has no Support Ultimates going. Also, make sure you have as many teammates up as possible to get the full use out of it.
Who are good teammates to play with Kiriko in Overwatch 2?
Kiriko does not have many heroes that instantly pair well with her over others. Rather, she is a good overall option with almost anyone in the game. If you want to get a powerful Ultimate combo going, pair her with Baptiste for an insane amount of damage potential. Her Ultimate also works particularly well with Roadhog, Soldier 76, Sojourn, Zenyatta, Reaper, and really anyone.
All counters and who to counter with Kiriko in Overwatch 2
Kiriko is a solid Support character in the right hands, but if she is not hitting her headshots, her healing typically won’t save as many people as another Support. With that in mind, the biggest counters to her are anyone with long-range or a small hit-box. Widowmaker, Sojourn, Tracer, Genji, and Ashe particularly stand out to us. She also doesn’t stand much of a chance against Tanks, so you should be looking to Swift Step out of those situations.
With the above being said, the best counters for Kiriko are low-health or easier-to-hit stationary heroes. Characters like Widowmaker, Bastion, Mei, Zenyatta, Sombra, and Reaper. As a Support, she is not really looking to get into a 1v1 battle, but there are instances where she can get eliminations or, at the very least, Swift Step her way to safety.
For helping your teammates, she is a great choice against anyone who can apply status effects to your allies. She can stop Mei’s freezing, Zenyatta’s Discord Orb, remove the heal block and wake up from Ana’s abilities, and even pick up a knocked down teammate from Reinhardt’s Earthshatter Ultimate.
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