As an avid Overwatch player with hundreds of hours invested across multiple characters, I always get excited when new heroes join the roster. The latest addition – Kiriko – immediately caught my attention thanks to her graceful mobility and impactful support abilities.
After extensively playtesting Kiriko over the past weeks, I‘ve gathered plenty of first-hand experience using her toolkit in actual matches. Today, I want to provide fellow gamers an in-depth guide so you too can utilize Kiriko to start dominating your Overwatch 2 games.
There‘s a lot to break down regarding her background, abilities, and advanced combat tips. So whether you‘re a support main or simply want to learn the new meta hero, read on for everything you need to know about Kiriko!
Origins and Background
Before jumping into mechanics, it‘s important to understand where Kiriko comes from in Overwatch‘s expansive lore. This context helps appreciate why her kit functions the way it does currently.
Kiriko hails from the spiritual Kanezaka clan, whose members train as mystic fox priestesses and ninjas. She grew up surrounded by these ancient traditions passed down through generations in her family.
Specifically, Kiriko is the granddaughter of Kanezakafox shrine‘s head priestess – Aneki. The elder woman wanted Kiriko to follow her spiritual path and undergo intensive ritual training from a young age.
However, Kiriko‘s mother had chosen a different life as an elite assassin down the ninja path. So growing up, Kiriko found herself conflicted by her family‘s differing expectations.
Eventually, after her clan is targeted by the hostile Hashimoto crime syndicate, Kiriko realizes she must forge her own path. She cannot fully commit to either her mother or grandmother‘s way of life.
Instead, young Kiriko combines her spiritual intuition with ninja dexterity to protect her home in her own unique style. This rebellion from tradition is directly reflected in the versatile support kit Kiriko possesses currently.
Now in Overwatch 2, Kiriko‘s abilities allow her to gracefully dance across battlefields providing healing and defensive support. She moves with the swiftness of a fox while wielding spiritual charms and shuriken befitting her Kyoto-inspired roots.
Next, let‘s analyze Kiriko‘s kit closely to see what makes this hero such a powerful addition to the roster.
Breaking Down Kiriko‘s Support Kit
Kiriko enters Overwatch 2 as the game‘s newest support character alongside stalwarts like Mercy and Lucio. As you play her more, you‘ll notice she performs the support role with an agile finesse unlike any other hero currently.
Her abilities allow Kiriko to traverse maps with great verticality thanks to ninja-esque wall climbing. She can teleport instantly to injured allies in tricky situations to keep them alive. And her ultimate charges relatively quickly to bolster entire teams during critical late-game teamfights.
Let‘s examine Kiriko‘s full toolkit closely:
Passive – Wall Climb
- Allows Kiriko to rapidly scale up flat vertical surfaces by jumping across them in sequence.
- She can climb about 10 meters high with great 8.5 meters/second velocity.
- This passive mobility allows Kiriko to take unexpected high ground across all maps.
Strategy Tips
Use wall climb often, especially at match start, to claim unexpected off-angle spots. Heal struggling allies more easily from this high ground.
Primary Fire – Healing Ofuda
- Throws glowing talismans that seek out nearby injured allies and heal them.
- Talismans move at 20 meters/second with a max range of 35 meters.
- Each talisman pack heals for 26 HP. Fully refreshes ammo every 1.8 seconds.
- Can continuously spam them towards teammates from safety thanks to homing.
Strategy Tips
Memorize teammate health pools. Focus on keeping priority heroes (main tank/main dps) healthy with Ofuda.
Secondary Fire – Kunai
- Throw single sharpened kunai at enemy targets to deal high damage.
- Each kunai deals 40-120 damage based on shot location. Headshots deal 3x damage.
- Kunai have great velocity at 90 meters/second and tight spread.
Strategy Tips
Practice leading shots on aerial targets. Kunai have no damage falloff so spam them from afar at enlarge targets.
Ability 1 – Swift Step
- Target an ally and instantly teleport behind them within 35 meters.
- Become invulnerable to damage for 0.25s during the teleport.
- 7 second cooldown means this can be used frequently.
Strategy Tips
Swift Step towards flankers in danger to bail them out quickly. Communicate with divers like Genji before diving.
Ability 2 – Protection Suzu
- Protects an ally target from all damage/debuffs for 0.85 seconds.
- Also heals the target for 50 health during protection.
- 14 second cooldown but can completely negate enemy ultimate abilities.
Strategy Tips
Hold this ability to save critical teammates from certain death. React fast to enemy ultimates to deny their impact.
Ultimate – Kitsune Rush
- Summons an ethereal fox spirit that charges ahead through obstacles.
- Allies within the fox aura get 30% movement speed and 50% cooldown reduction.
- Lasts 10.5 seconds total. Extremely valuable during late teamfights.
Strategy Tips
Look for opportunities to speed boost your main tank into the backlines. Or enable your dps to use ultimates more frequently.
Advanced Tips from a Kiriko Main
Now that you understand Kiriko‘s complete ability kit, let‘s get into some more detailed combat tactics you can use to truly master her.
I‘ve spent over 15 hours playing Kiriko in Competitive mode matches in Overwatch 2 at this point. I‘ve carried teams before thanks to clutch plays and even earned the prized Lifesaver highlight at times!
Here are some high elo tips from my first-hand experience for dominating matches with Kiriko:
Keep wall climbing to flank enemies
Kiriko‘s passive wall climb lets her take unexpected angles. Most enemies won‘t look up allowing easy kunai takedowns on their supports. This harassment distracts them heavily too.
Punish overextended targets
Thanks to Swift Step‘s low cooldown, look to punish isolated enemies that carelessly overextend. Teleport behind them and finish them quickly with kunai before escaping.
Enable your best playmaker
Figure out which dps player or tank on your team is performing the best early on. Enable them by focusing heals/buffs using Kitsune Rush. Ride their strong playmaking towards victory.
Cleanse Graviton Surges instantly
Stay vigilant for enemy Zarya‘s looking to combo their gravitation ultimate. Use Protection Suzu on allies immediately when they get caught to save your whole team.
Keep track of enemy ultimate %s
Use Tab often to check enemy ultimate status. If say Pharah has close to Barrage, save Suzu to deny any picks she may attempt to get.
Temporarily ditch losing fights
Don‘t go down with sinking ships. If your teammates get caught in say a Reaper ult at a disadvantage, immediately reposition yourself to safety using Swift Step. Stay alive to support the next fight.
Closing Thoughts
Kiriko is currently one of the highest skill-capped supports in Overwatch 2. But the returns are massive once you learn all the intricacies around her mobility-heavy playstyle.
As someone who has invested over 500 hours into playing support heroes alone, I find Kiriko to be such a breath of fresh air. I love the high mechanical ceiling and creative technical plays she enables.
Hopefully this extensive guide gives you the confidence to add Kiriko into your competitive hero pools as well. She really starts to shine once you figure out how to smoothly chain all her abilities together.
So don‘t get discouraged if you struggle initially. Put in some dedicated practice with these tips in quickplay first before taking her into ranked.
I‘m sure after some honing, you‘ll also have many clutch Lifesaver-worthy moments that make mastering Kiriko all worth it! Let me know your own tips in the comments after you‘ve played her more too.
Thanks for reading! Game on.
