Blizzard is providing the first information regarding the new support heroine in Overwatch 2. Kiriko will be the first heroine to be unlocked via Battle Pass. What can Kiriko do and how does it work with the Battle Pass?
Rumors regarding a fox hero have been circulating in the Overwatch community for years. It’s finally official: Kiriko is the newest heroine to appear in Overwatch 2. She’s the first new support character in more than three years, and she brings with her some incredibly interesting kit. Includes wall climbing, next-level mobility, and temporary invulnerability.
Kiriko is described by the developers as a “single-target hybrid healer”. Most of the time, she’ll throw herself into the thick of things and heal like hell from there. But it can also deal damage. And climb walls.
Primary Weapon: Healing Ofuda Paper
Kiriko can heal her allies with Ofuda Paper. She throws a series of five projectiles that automatically fly to the nearest ally. The Ofuda Papers fly very slowly, so you can throw the papers before the damage is even done to your ally and heal them “instantly”.
Secondary Weapon: Kunai
A ninja without a kunai? Impossible. Kiriko can deal a lot of damage with fast-flying knife projectiles.
Swift Step
This ability gives Kiriko a lot of mobility. She can use it to teleport to an ally, selecting allies works similar to Mercy’s flight. The teleport does not need any channel time and even works through walls.
Additionally, we want to mention here that Kiriko (like Genji and Hanzo) can climb walls.
Protection Suzu
Kiriko throws a small bell at the ground or at allies. In a small area of effect, allies hit gain an immortality buff for a brief moment and are struck by allen Debuffs healed.
This is the first ability in Overwatch that can also remove debuffs from ultimates (such as knocking down a Reinhardt ult or Sombra’s EMP). However, the cooldown of the ability will be correspondingly long.
Ultimate Ability: Kitsune Rush
Kiriko creates a path that buffs all teammates in it. According to the developers, allies get increased Movement Speed, Attack Speed and Reload Speed.
The kit looks complex and almost a little overloaded. But the devs promise that the whole thing will be balanced.
“We have processes in place to make sure we can achieve balance even following she’s released, in the first couple of weeks. She’s packed up with a lot of utility but I think we nailed the balance really well.”
“We have procedures in place to ensure that we can balance them even following their release, for the first few weeks. She has a very full skill set, but I think we managed to balance it really well.”
Kiriko will be playable when Overwatch 2 launches on October 4th. Well, not quite for everyone. Players who own Overwatch 1 will receive all launch characters: Junker Queen, Sojourn and Kiriko. New players must first unlock Kiriko. There are two different ways to do this.
Overwatch 2 comes in a Season model. Blizzard delivers new content every nine weeks, loot boxes disappear from the game. Players can earn 80+ Battle Pass levels in each season and unlock various cosmetics for this. Or just new heroes.
Anyone who buys the Premium Battle Pass for $10 unlocks Kiriko immediately. If you want to save the money, you have to play the game. In the free Battle Pass, Kiriko only waits at level 55. It’s not clear how many hours of gameplay that is. But it is also important that new heroes can only be played in competitive mode two weeks following their release. Overwatch 2 Commercial Lead Jon Spector ranks roughly how long it will take to unlock the character:
„What that actually looks like, and we’ve used some of the existing data that we have on Overwatch 1 players to do this tuning, is that if you are a more hardcore player and you’re playing a lot of Overwatch 2, with the goal of unlocking Kiriko as fast as you possibly can, you’ll get there within the first few weeks before we move her into Competitive ranked play.
„On the more… We don’t have a typical player, there’s no average Overwatch player […] But the more average player, we expect to unlock new heroes a little bit later on in the season, but to be able to get there well before our season ends.”
“We used some of the existing data we have from Overwatch 1 players to do this tuning. If you’re a hardcore gamer and play a lot of Overwatch 2 with the goal of unlocking Kiriko as quickly as possible, you’ll be able to do that within the first few weeks before we bring her into ranked competitive play.
“By the way… We don’t have a typical player, there is no average Overwatch player […] But the more average player, we expect him to unlock new heroes a bit later in the season but be able to complete the goal before our season ends.”
If you don’t reach the required level, you still have the opportunity to unlock the new heroes through free challenges in the later seasons.
On Reddit many fans are shocked. Level 55 is too extreme, Blizzard definitely doomed Overwatch 2 to failure with this decision. But you have to say: Overwatch 2 is free. And $10 for a Battle Pass with that much content is actually pretty much within the realm of tolerability. In addition to Kiriko, the Battle Pass should contain a good number of cosmetic items. Among other things, new weapon charms that can now be attached to the heroes’ equipment in OW2.
In my opinion, it only becomes a problem when it becomes almost impossible to unlock the new hero in the two-week ranked grace period. Because then I see the “competitive integrity” of Overwatch 2 attacked. The game thrives on the fact that all players can choose any hero at any time to counter the opposing lineup.
