OverwatchOverwatch Junkrat Guide and Overview

Junkrat uses his explosives to take over tight spaces, punish predictable movement, and dominate enemies through relentless explosive spam. Thriving on mayhem rather than precision, Junkrat turns choke points and objectives into death traps. Much of his value comes from preventing the enemy Tank from being able to play the game. Tanks have a difficult time surviving his high damage output and dealing with crowd control abilities.

In a team comp, Junkrat excels at controlling space with bouncing projectiles and shutting down flanks with his trap. He is strongest when fights funnel through chokes or objectives, where he can bounce frags off of walls for unpredictable eliminations. While he is less effective in open map areas, Junkrat specialists have mastered the art of using mine jumps to quickly traverse open areas or take to the skies and battle fliers.

TLDR

Play As

• Spam chokes relentlessly. Look for walls you can ricochet Frags off of to attack enemies that don’t have LoS on you.
• Control space with traps and mines. You should always have a Trap out to cover the enemy's forward approach or protect your flank. 
• Target large and slow enemies like Tanks instead of trying skill-shot small mobile heroes.

Play Against

• Avoid tight corridors, rooms, hallways, and low areas. These are the perfect places for Junkrat’s frags to farm your team.
• Keep an eye on the floor. Break traps for your teammates so they don’t walk in and die.
• Heroes with long-range capabilities or small, high-mobility characters have favorable matchups against Junkrat.

Strengths

Burst Damage

Concussion Mine combos allow Junkrat to instantly delete squishy targets or heavily damage tanks. When executed cleanly, his burst potential is among the best in game.

Frequent Crowd Control

Two Concussion Mine charges, a Trap, and even his Frags have a bit of knockback. Altogether, Junkrat makes it difficult to walk forward. He can control enemy movement better than they can.

Random Eliminations

Choke spam really is Junkrat’s specialty. Partly due to his Frags bouncing around and hitting targets he completely missed or didn’t even know were standing there. Even better when he’s shooting over structures or bouncing shots off of walls.

Weaknesses

Limited Effectiveness at Long Range

Junkrat struggles in open maps where enemies can outrange and avoid his projectiles. Smart opponents can exploit range to maintain the advantage. The slow projectile speed makes his consistency fall off the farther away he gets.

Vulnerable During Ultimate

Junkrat is one of the only heroes who cannot protect himself during his ult. If an enemy finds you, it’s a free kill. Additionally, if you send Tire straight at the enemy, they can easily break it.

Very Little Counterplay Against Fliers

Even though we’ll see crazy clips of flying Top 500 Junkrats, the reality is that fliers destroy Junkrat. If you are doing really well, expect to see Pharah and Jetpack Cat counter-swaps.

Primary Fire: Frag Launcher

Tips for Frag Launcher

• Position where the enemy players cannot see you. Aim grenades to bounce off surfaces and around corners rather than shooting directly at your targets.
• Spam chokes early to pressure the enemy team and build ult charge. As the enemy takes space and moves up, reposition to maintain optimal spacing.
• Grouped up enemies are the optimal target for Frags and Mines. You’ll output more damage thanks to the AoE, and even if you miss one, you may hit another enemy.

[SHIFT]: Concussion Mine

Tips for Concussion Mine

• Use mines offensively for burst combos. Frag > Mine will insta-kill 225 HP heroes like Juno.
• Mine jumps can quickly reposition you to high ground for a better angle or surprise attack.
• When getting overtaken by the enemy, Mine jump away to escape.

[E]: Steel Trap

Tips for Steel Trap

• Place traps just out of direct sight, around corners, in front of doorways, on staircases, or in high-traffic paths.
• Leave a Concussion Mine inside of Steel Trap and instantly detonate it when you see the trap triggered.
• Throw trap behind retreating enemies to stop them in their tracks and secure the kill.

(Passive): Total Mayhem

Tips for Total Mayhem

• Never try to activate Total Mayhem by dying on purpose when you could've lived.
• Sometimes you may get a free kill post-death by as a nice bonus, so if you are for sure going to die, you can try to die right on top of the enemy.
• Technically most effective in tight spaces where it’s difficult for the enemy to move away.

Ultimate: RIP-Tire

Tips for RIP-Tire

• Use RIP-Tire while safely positioned away from enemies to avoid being killed while driving it around the map.
• Take unexpected routes, climb walls, go over buildings, and zig-zag to avoid Tire getting destroyed.
• Typically, you should avoid Tanks as most will survive the explosion unless they are already damaged. 
• Track enemies' escape tools such as Moira’s Fade. If they haven’t used it yet, try to bait them out by driving into them without detonating. Then chase them down after to outplay them and get the KO.

Minor Perks

Mine Recycling

• Rewards efficient mine usage. Try to purposely save a Mine for landing the final blow.
• Very powerful and enables hyper-aggressive play. You can use one Mine to jump in, another to kill with the Frag-Mine combo, then a refreshed third to jump back out.
• Recommended Minor Perk

Nitro Boost

• Makes it much more challenging for the enemy to predict Tire movement and destroy it.
• Particularly valuable on vertical or open maps.

Major Perks

Bomb Voyage

• Makes your Mine jumps more lethal. Especially when paired with Mine Recycling and using the aforementioned three Mine jump-kill-jump method.
• Best used when playing flanks or surprising enemies by jumping over a wall and quickly raining Frags on them.
• Pick Bomb Voyage when you want to position more aggressively. 

Frag Cannon

• Increased projectile speed makes landing direct hits more consistent.
• Best on maps with longer sight lines, but never a bad choice.
• • The increased speed throws some players' muscle memory off, but most find the adjustment very helpful.
• Take it when you are focusing on long-range spam.

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