Overwatch 2 launches next month and Blizzard has announced the third new Hero that will join the line-up when for the very first season. And it’s a Support Hero, Kiriko, who will support her team with “gentle healing, deadly precision, and fluid mobility”. Armed with Kunai that can be thrown with deadly precision (and increased critical damage), the fast on her feet warrior can even teleport to allies and even through walls.

Check that out, alongside her fox spirit summon in the following gameplay trailer.



Even though teleporting through walls might sound like a game hack from the early days of Counter-Strike, Blizzard assured that the Hero will slot into the roster without causing any sort of space-time shift to the meta.

Here’s a look at Kirko’s Kit.

Protection Suzu

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Upon impact, allies in the area become briefly invulnerable and are cleansed of most negative effects.

Kunai

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Thrown projectile that deals increase critical damage.

Swift Step

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Teleport directly to an ally, even through walls.

Healing Ofuda

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Channel a burst of healing talismans that can seek targeted allies.

ULTIMATE - Kitsune Rush

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Summon a fox spirit that rushes forward, accelerating the movedment, attack speed, and cooldowns of allies that follow its path.

PASSIVE - Wall Climb

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Jump at walls to climb up them.

With Overwatch switching to a 5v5 format, this has factored into the design of Kiriko. “Kiriko was a hero where we had 5v5 in mind [during development],” Narrative Designer Kyungseo Min told us. “And you can tell from her high mobility because 5v5 is so much faster than 6v6. We didn't want her to feel clunky in any way.”

Hero Designer Piero Herrera added to this by explaining that Support heroes in Overwatch 2 will feature more defensive utility. “Changing to the 5v5 format, we did get feedback during the Beta that playing as a Support Hero was a little bit harder because they had to be a lot more focused,” Piero says. “The way that we are responding to that is by making sure that new Support heroes have defensive utility. An example of that for an existing Hero, we gave Zenyatta the kick. And players loved that when it came into the Beta. Kiriko can use her cleanse and her invulnerability on herself if she chooses to. Those are some of the really subtle design differences we are exploring to make sure that Support characters feel really good in 5v5 format, which is very different than 6v6.”

Even the existing maps from the original Overwatch have been overhauled with new cover options as having one less Tank on the battlefield means less of that for Support characters.

Overwatch 2 releases on October 5 AEST.