‘Overwatch 2’ reveals its newest support hero, healing ninja Kiriko

With “Overwatch 2’s” upcoming release, a new support hero has been added to the roster.

The latest hero joining the Overwatch universe is a healing ninja named Kiriko. The fictional character grew up alongside the Shimada brothers Hanzo and Genji, who view Kiriko as a niece.

With her kitsune spirit, Kiriko can throw Protection Suzu to her teammates, making them briefly invulnerable from enemies when hit. Kirko can also heal her allies with ofuda talismans, which channel a burst of health. She can also use Swift Step to teleport directly to a teammate, even through barriers. Similarly to Hanzo and Genji, Kiriko will also be able to scale walls.

Kirko’s ultimate is called Kitsune Rush, which allows her to summon a fox spirit that accelerates movement, attack speed and cooldowns of teammates that follow its path.

Associate Narrative Designer Min Kyung-seo explained that Kiriko will be beneficial in “Overwatch 2’s” new 5v5 team composition.

“She is fast,” Min says in a developer update video. “She can get to your little skirmishes, which happens a lot more often in 5v5 now, so she’s super effective.”

Min adds that players who enjoy playing a DPS role will “love her.”

“One of the starting points of this character was [asking], ‘How can we create a support hero that DPS players [who] like Genji would enjoy playing?’”

A senior hero designer for Overwatch 2, Piero Herrera, stated that Kiriko will be capable of “crazy combos.”

“She plays really well with flanking characters, and mobile characters in general, such as Tracer [or] Genji,” Piero Herrera said. “She’s just going to be able to jump in there and help them out with a cleanse or the invulnerability frames. You can imagine crazy combos to come up because of that interaction.”

Blizzard will be releasing the newest hero in the Season One battle pass for “Overwatch 2.”Those who purchase the Premium Battle Pass or the Founders Pack will have immediate access to Kiriko. She can also be unlocked at tier 55 of the free track battle pass.

“Overwatch 2” will be launching on Oct. 4 and will be available to play on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X. The game will be free to play for all.

Featured Image: PlayOverwatch

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