Overwatch 2: How to Play as Kiriko Guide

Kiriko was released with Overwatch 2’s debut in October 2022, and has ever since occupied a large focus in the game's meta, standing out in the support role to this day.

Her skill kit and consistency in competitive play have made Kiriko one of the most popular heroes in the game! Her visual concept along with her Japanese origin that brought ninja and spiritual abilities to her are also responsible for her great success in the community.

With that said, we at UmGamer are happy to share a complete guide on how to play Kiriko in Overwatch 2!

Healing Ofuda

Press the left mouse button to fire a series of healing talismans at your allies. This restores a good amount of health and is quite effective.

Kunai

With the right mouse button, you throw a kunai that deals damage to enemies. In fact, a headshot with this kunai is one of the biggest sources of damage among all supports, which makes Kiriko stand out offensively as well.

Note: It’s a bit counter-intuitive to have your weapon on the right mouse button (equivalent to L2/LT) instead of the left mouse button (equivalent to R2/RT). If you want, swapping the Kunai command with the Healing Ofuda might be a good idea.

Swift Step

Casting this ability makes you teleport to an ally. This skill reaches allies at a great distance, and can be useful in numerous occasions, such as approaching to save an injured companion, or simply for you to escape from an enemy advance.

Protection Suzu

Casts an area of effect that makes allies hit invulnerable, also removing most negative effects, and granting a small healing.

Kitsune Rush

In her Ultimate, Kiriko sends the spirit of her fox to run while marking a location.

Allies in this field, including yourself, will be granted increased movement speed, attack speed, and ability cooldown.

Pay attention to the healing and damage potential provided to you during the Ultimate, keeping in mind that other allies will also receive this benefit. The difference is clearly noticeable.

Passive Ability

In addition to the passive of all supports, which grants you health regeneration, Kiriko offers another resource for you, which is climbing.

By holding space near walls, you will climb them, which is very interesting to distance yourself from enemies, and to have the advantage of high ground, to have a better vision to heal and land headshots.

Overall, all of her skills are strong, but they have a longer cooldown than the average hero in Overwatch. I just recommend not using them if you’ll get nothing in return, or exposing yourself without them available.

Kiriko is very versatile and can be used in any type of team composition. Along with Poke heroes, stay back, heal your team and prioritize being on the high ground to hit the kunai in the head of your enemies.

In Brawl compositions, her Ultimate will be the star, focus on charging it as soon as possible and know the best situation to launch it, usually in closed spaces and when your team is about to advance.

She also has an enormous movement capacity with Swift Step to keep up with Dive characters, who focus on infiltrating enemy DPS and supports. Be careful when teleporting to your ally, and remember to use Protection Suzu wisely, as it’s a high cooldown ability.

In general, going a little outside the context of composition, you can act more aggressively thanks to the safety that Swift Step and Protection Suzu offer you with their high damage potential.

Starting from this more offensive style focused on eliminating enemies, it’s possible to make a play where you will hide next to the enemy spawn point. Wait for an enemy hero to come out, preferably one with low maximum health, and try to land two headshots, you will probably get a kill even as a support. If other opponents see you, just use Swift Step to escape.

I made a quick video simulating this play in a training mode, to see that with just two shots I can eliminate a hero.

Just be careful with the distance to your team, you can get into a bad situation if the allies are not in range of your Swift Step.

Kiriko works well with

The fact that Kiriko is versatile and fits into any comp means she performs well regardless of her allies' choices. But here I'll highlight three heroes who really shine with her.

Starting with another support, Ana is known for always being well positioned and safe, making her a great refuge when you need to teleport. Her grenade increases your team's healing potential, making Healing Ofuda even more efficient.

Finally, the two DPS who benefit the most from her Ultimate are Bastion and Soldier 76. The first is capable of transforming into a turret with high defensive stats in addition to the ability to eliminate enemies quickly. His only weak point is his low mobility, but this will keep Bastion in the Kitsune Rush field.

Soldier 76's ultimate ability allows him to not miss any shots for a period of time, and its potential will be increased if used during the Kitsune Rush, since these accurate shots will be fired at a higher speed and with faster reloading time.

Remember that Kiriko works well in many cases, the most important thing is to know how to behave based on the choices of your allies. Don't limit yourself to these three options.

Kiriko is bad against

Kiriko is a fragile character, apart from Protection Suzu, which has a high cooldown, her defense mechanism is mobility. Some heroes who have enough mobility to hunt her down are her main threat.

I listed the five most worrying foes: Genji, Sombra, Tracer, Winston and Doomfist. If they get to you, it's basically certain death.

I hope this article has helped you understand more about Kiriko! I invite you to also read our other guides How to play as Juno, Overwatch 2’s new Support

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