Overwatch 2 is out now, and its first season brings three brand-new characters into the fight. Together, Kiriko, Junker Queen, and Sojourn make up the game’s three core Support, Tank, and Damage classes. However, like all new Overwatch 2 characters, they take a bit of getting used to. Below, we’ll run through each hero’s moveset, and offer a few tips for getting the most out of them.
Let’s start with Kiriko.
Kiriko
Kiriko is one of Overwatch 2‘s new Support characters, a Japanese healer with a high skill ceiling similar to that of Genji or Hanzo. Her primary fire is a Healing Ofuda. Ofuda are traditional Japanese talismans often found within religious shrines, said to be infused with the power of deities or Buddhist figures. Kiriko’s Healing Ofuda are fired in a burst pattern and can seek targeted allies to top them up. Her secondary fire is a sharp Kunai, a throwing dagger that deals greatly increased critical damage.
Kiriko’s abilities are Swift Step, which is a teleport that allows you to quickly close the distance to an ally, similar to Mercy’s Guardian Angel move. Kiriko’s secondary move is Protection Suzu. This allows her to throw a protective charm, or suzu, that renders allies temporarily invulnerable to incoming fire and cleared of any debuffs.
Her ultimate is called Kitsune Rush, in which Kiriko summons a spectral fox spirit which charges forward in a straight line. If Kiriko and any of her allies follow in the fox’s path, they will be granted an acceleration to movement and attack speeds, as well as reduced cooldown timers.
Finally, Kiriko’s passive abilities are similar to that of other healers. She can regenerate her own health over time, and she can climb walls like Genji and Hanzo.
So, what’s the best way to play Kiriko? Of the three new Overwatch 2 characters, Kiriko is one of two that play quite similarly to pre-existing heroes. Because she’s so nimble and able to climb walls, Kiriko has the feel of a backline or harassment hero. This makes her the perfect support for teams that prefer to open their DPS assault with a Genji diving behind enemy lines. Her Swift Step will let her keep up with him and keep him healed while he cuts through the enemy team. On the other hand, her Kitsune Rush ult, similar in deployment to Hanzo’s Dragonstrike ultimate, works best when deployed from the middle of the pack. It’s perfect blasting your entire team through chokepoints in a deathball before the enemy team can do anything about it.
Most support players already know that cooldown management is important, but this goes double for Kiriko. The reason for this is that she is particularly powerful in the ultimate fight. Her Protection Suzu is a must-have when tracking enemy ults, because it can effectively cancel out certain plays. D.Va’s bomb and Mei’s blizzard, for instance, can’t get through the Protection Suzu, so keeping it off cooldown and in your pocket is essential. If you can’t save your team from an enemy ult, you may be able to save yourself — Kiriko’s Swift Step gives her a fleeting moment of invulnerability, so if you time it right you may be able to survive incoming ultimates unscathed.
Because she is a hero with a high skill ceiling, Kiriko will take a bit of getting used to. Because of this, she may be considered one of the weaker heroes in the roster until more experienced players can get their heads around her kit.
Junker Queen
The Junker Queen is a new hero briefly teased in the original Overwatch‘s Junker Town map. Another Australian lunatic, the Junker Queen is a tall, buff tank hero weilding a pump-action shotgun.
Her Scattergun is her primary fire, and keeps things simple — just shoot and reload. Where things get a little more interesting is her abilities. The Junker Queen has three main abilities, the first of which is Jagged Blade, which works in a similar fashion to that of Roadhog’s hook. You can use the Jagged Blade in one of two configurations — active, or passive. The active config lets you throw the blade at an unwary enemy, re-activate it when it finds its target, and pull it back in along with your impaled quarry. The passive config lets you use the blade as a melee or thrown weapon, which deals a bit of damage-over-time.
Her remaining abilities include Commanding Shout, which grants temporary health and movement speed to the Junker Queen and her allies. The final ability is Carnage, which wounds any enemies directly in front of you, also dealing damage-over-time.
Her ultimate is called Ramage, and is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s like a souped up version of her Carnage ability, which lets her charge headfirst into the enemy team, wounding everyone any dealing damage over time. Anyone wounded by the Junker Queen on a Rampage cannot be healed until it is over. This makes it a great move for mopping up damaged enemies trying to flee a team fight.
Junker Queen passives include her role as a tank, which grants her convenient buffs like reduced knockback and reduced ultimate charge gained from healing and damage taken. However, she has a second passive called Adrenaline Rush, which allows her to heal all damage-over-time inflicted by wounds.
This very Australian willingness to Get Amongst It is a big part of successfully playing the Junker Queen. She’s more of an offensive tank, like Doomfist or Roadhog, a bullet sponge with high damage output. Being a tank means she can use her larger health pool to safely wade into a fight and unleash big, close-range burst damage. You’ll want to be placing the Junker Queen at the head of the pack, leading the charge through chokepoints and clearing the path for your squishies. Carefully combining her Adrenaline Rush move with a well-timed Rampage ult, or yanking an enemy over a cliff with her Jagged Blade can swing the fight quickly in your team’s favour.
Sojourn
Sojourn is a DPS hero that sits somewhere between Soldier: 76 and Zarya.
Her primary fire is a Railgun, similar to the one Zarya carries, but with a difference. The primary fire is a short barrage of burst damage projectiles, similar to Soldier’s rifle, and these generate energy on a hit. This feeds her secondary fire, which is a single, powerful charged shot. Just like Zarya, using the secondary fire expends the energy collected by the primary fire.
Sojourn has two abilities. The first is a Power Slide, familiar to players of Battle Royale games like Apex Legends, which Sojourn can use to get low to the ground and scoot towards her enemy. The Power Slide can be cancelled into a high jump, as well, allowing her to get some height on incoming foes. Her second ability is Disruptor Shot, a burst of energy that holds foes still and deals damage to any enemies that get caught in it.
Her ultimate is a move called Overclock, which auto-charges the railgun’s energy for a short period, allowing Sojourn to pop off several high-powered shots that pierce through enemies. If you were crafty with this ultimate and lined your shot up right, you could theoretically snipe multiple squishy heroes with a single shot.
Sojourn has one passive, part of her role as a DPS hero. Racking up eliminations grants her a short burst of movement and reload speed. So if you’re notching kills, not only will be fast as hell, you’ll also be able to reload your railgun in a flash.
The thing about Sojourn’s kit, despite being excellent for crushing enemies with a torrent of gunfire like 76, is that she can be used to zone enemies out of places you don’t want them to go. Her Distruptor Shot doesn’t have to catch anyone in its gravity well — you could theoretically fire it into side laneways to block or divert an enemy team on the march, holding them up long enough for your dive or harassment heroes to get in the mix. Similarly, you can use it to cut squishy enemies off from the rest of their team, making it a valuable tool for isolating healers. The Disruptor Shot is kind of perfect for this, because it is technically an Orb and not a Dome, like Winston’s shield move. Because of its shape, you can stick it to walls, floors, or ceilings to cover off any points of entry or egress.
And there you go! Hopefully these tips and tricks for playing the three new characters in Overwatch 2 gave you some insights that will help take your game to new heights. Got a new favourite hero? Are you enjoying Overwatch 2? Is the drama overblown or bang on the money? Have you even been able to log in since launch? Let us know how you’re getting on with it in the comments down below.
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