Key Takeaways
- Kiriko’s best maps feature lots of natural cover, which allows her to teleport around the map and assist teammates safely.
- Kiriko’s worst maps are those that force her to fight in close quarters, like King’s Row. If everyone is grouped together, her ability to teleport around the map becomes significantly less useful.
- Kiriko counters stationary heroes like Cassidy thanks to her mobility—she is able to assist with dives from teammates, and can reposition to take angles on wherever the enemy team is set up.
- Kiriko is countered by dive heroes due to her lack of dueling threats. Although she can teleport away from danger once, if her teleport ability is on cooldown, she is easily bursted down unless she manages to land one or multiple hard-to-hit headshots and kill her opponent.
Kiriko Quick Tips
- Kiriko has 200 total health, with no armor or shields.
- Kiriko has a thin hitbox. Use this to your advantage by strafing and crouching when engaged in duels. Due to Kiriko’s high damage output when her projectiles land, surviving an extra second with skilled strafing has the potential to change the outcome of the fight in your favor.
- Kiriko can easily use her teleport ability to get herself killed if she teleports to a teammate that is hopelessly out of position. Good game sense will allow you to know which allies genuinely need your help—and which ones need to learn from their mistakes by walking back from spawn.
- Download the Z League app for free to find skilled teammates in your Competitive rank bracket who can play around your Kiriko gameplay.
Kiriko Abilities Explained
Img via Blizzard Entertainment
Wall Climb (Passive)
Like Genji and Hanzo, Kiriko can climb up walls. This ability should be used to contest high ground and escape from enemies. It’s also possible to climb up a wall and land a well placed shot with her primary fire.
Healing Ofuda
Healing Ofuda is Kiriko’s primary healing ability. It shoots projectiles which lock on to allies within Kiriko’s line of sight. The healing output for Healing Ofuda is low—just above 70 healing per second when the recovery (reload) time is factored into the equation. Therefore, Kiriko should not be thought of as a healbot—she needs to do more than just heal if she wants to get maximum value from her kit.
Kunai
Kunai are quick projectiles that are unique in that they deal 40 damage per bodyshot, but have a massive 3x multiplier for headshots, which do 120 damage each. As such, Kiriko players must land headshots if they want to do significant damage to the enemy team. And, by landing headshots, Kiriko players can quickly bring most damage (DPS) and support heroes, such as Echo and Junkrat, to below half health, making it easy for her or a teammate to follow up and secure the kill.
Swift Step
Swift Step allows Kiriko to teleport through walls to any ally within a 35 meter radius. Aside from Wall Climb, Swift Step is Kiriko’s only mobility tool, and she lacks any abilities which displace enemies. Therefore, Kiriko players should be careful to not waste the ability or teleport into danger—the seven second cooldown is just long enough for enemy players to easily focus you down.
Protection Suzu
Protection Suzu removes all debuffs from affected allies, including stun and anti-heal. It also heals for 50 health instantly and provides a small knockback to any enemies in its radius.
Protection Suzu is a game-changing ability that can counter many abilities—even ultimates. The difference between a good and great Kiriko player is knowing exactly when to use Protection Suzu to turn the tide of a teamfight.
Kitsune Rush (Ultimate)
Kitsune Rush buffs a rectangular area where allies receive +30% movement speed, +50% rate of fire, and +50% reload speed. With its potential to affect multiple allies, Kiriko should ensure that she places her ultimate where multiple allies can immediately get value from it. Enemy players will retreat out of range of the ultimate quickly, so perfect timing is everything. The ultimate pairs particularly well with heroes like Reinhardt, Reaper, and Junkrat, as they are able to close the gap quickly and output tons of damage with their short-range burst weapons.
Recommended Overwatch 2 Streamers
- Shadder2k – This former player for both Team Liquid and Gigantti continues to top the leaderboard in Overwatch.
- Eskay – She is top 500 in every role and member of Dart Monkeys. She plays tournaments on stream. She is often live by 5 PM ET on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and the weekend.
- Emongg – Associated with the San Francisco Shock and can be seen playing every Monday through Saturday starting around 9 AM ET.
