OverwatchOverwatch Kiriko Guide and Overview

The ninjutsu master of the Shimada clan, Kiriko, fights swiftly for peace and against injustice. She’s a well-rounded, versatile Support who provides both defensive and offensive support. 

When teamfights get scrambly, and it's every player for themselves, Kiri survives and thrives in the chaos. Her mobility enables her to quickly reposition to escape danger or help an ally secure elims. Generally, she’ll position herself as the mid-line to ensure she’s always within Swift Step and lock-on healing range.

TLDR

Play As

• Play within Swift Step and Healing Ofuda lock-on range at all times so you can quickly save allies or escape danger without overcommitting.
• Rotate between healing and Kunai pressure to build Kitsune Rush quickly while still threatening enemy backliners with headshots.
• Save Protection Suzu for high-impact debuffs or lethal moments rather than using it purely for healing value.

Play Against

• Force out Swift Step or Protection Suzu early, then re-engage while those cooldowns are unavailable.
• Pressure her from multiple angles to deny safe teleport targets and limit her escape options.
• Treat Kitsune Rush like the best offensive ult the enemy team has. Save defensive utility to survive, retreat when possible, or use your own ultimates to prevent her from overwhelming your team.

Strengths

Auto-tracking healing

No matter your skill level, everyone misses shots. Kiri never has to worry about that with her forgiving lock-on hitbox. Once locked on, the Healing Ofuda will even chase allies around corners. Comes especially in handy with small and mobile teammates.

High survivability

Supports are often the first players targeted by the enemy team. Kiriko is one of the most difficult Supports to eliminate because she has so many survival tools. Kunai counts as well since it poses a decent threat to attackers.

Fight-winning Support Ultimate

Most Support ults need to be comboed with a Tank or DPS ult to win a fight. Kitsune Rush empowers the whole team and is often enough of an advantage all on its own to win the teamfight.

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 sent Tire straight 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: Healing Ofuda

Tips for Healing Ofuda

• Focus on mobile allies
• • When your team has highly mobile heroes like Genji, Tracer or Doomfist, be sure to prioritize healing them since your other Support may struggle to consistently heal them.
• Auto-tracking range
• • Swift Step and Healing Ofuda lock-on effects have the same 35m range. Therefore, if you see the Swift Step indicator around an ally, you know they are in range for the auto-tracking Ofuda
• Always active projectile
• • Even if an ally isn’t being locked on, they will still absorb and be healed by the Ofuda if they come into contact with it. This applies when teammates walk in front of one another or when they are outside of the lock-on range.
• Doesn’t penetrate barriers
• • Don’t forget that deployable barriers like Winston bubble or Sigma shield will block your allies from receiving your healing.

Secondary Fire: Kunai

Tips for Kunai

• Kunai between healing
• • Kiri has time to fire one Kunai between every Healing Ofuda without sacrificing healing output. This increases her overall damage output and ult charge generation. 
• Go for headshots
• • Even though you may miss more Kunai, the burst damage from landing a single critical hit is greater than hitting two body shots in a row.
• Infinite range
• • Kiri is good at pressuring the enemy backline because she has no falloff damage. Try shooting a few shots at the enemy Ana, Ashe, Zen, and other heroes who sit far behind their team.

[Shift]: Swift Step

Tips for Swift Step

• Keep track of ally positions
• • If you don’t know where an in-range ally is positioned, you won’t be able to quickly use Swift Step when being attacked. Be sure to know where and if any teammates are in range.
• Teleport to safety
• • 99% of the time, you’ll want to TP to where enemies are not able to attack you so that you’re more likely to survive until your next Swift Step

[E]: Protection Suzu

Tips for Protection Suzu

• Save when the enemy team has debuffs or negative effects
• • Ana Anti-Nade, Junker Queen wounds & anti, and Ashe or Mauga burning, are all examples of abilities worth using Suzu on. 
  • If Junker Queen sees you use Suzu just for healing, she knows she can get an easy team wipe with her ultimate Carnage.
• Swift Step Suzu combo
• • When a teammate is outside of your LoS or behind a wall, AND you have Suzu available, you can TP to them and save them with Suzu and healing.
• Doesn’t cleanse certain abilities like Rein charge or Shatter, but the brief invincibility will prevent them if timed perfectly.

Ultimate: Kitsune Rush

Tips for Kitsune Rush

• Memorize Kitsune Counters
• • Aside from healing Support ults like Transcendence, be cautious of AoE ults like Tectonic Shot, Molten Core, D.va Bomb, Downpour, Dragonstrike, and Earth Shatter. Ults like these will either hit your whole team, or force everyone to leave Kitsune Rush's AoE
• Kitsune alone or combo?
• • If your team has ults like Tactical Visor or Dragonblade, save your ult to combo with your allies. Doing so greatly increases the power of both ults.
  • If your team doesn’t have a specific combo, then use Kitsune on its own as it can easily be a one-ult fight win if the enemy doesn’t have counter ults available. 

(Passive): Wall Climb

Tips for Wall Climb

• Get LoS without committing
• • Instead of using Swift Step to assist a teammate behind a wall, Kiri can climb and shoot or throw Suzu over the wall, then immediately fall back behind cover.
• Additional survival tool
• • When combined and rotated with Suzu and Swift Step, Wall Climb makes Kiriko extremely evasive. Most enemies aren’t going to be able to chase you if you climb up and over a wall.

Minor Perks

Urgent Care

“Healing Ofuda projectile speed is increased by 50% when seeking critical health allies.”

• Take if you’ve already noticed your team demanding a lot of healing.
• • Receiving healing sooner when at critical health can mean the difference between life or death for your ally. The farther they are from you, the greater benefit the Perk gives.

Fortune Teller

“Kunai hits launch 2 Healing Ofuda to an ally in front of you.”

• Free healing when attacking
• • If you are able to be aggressive and attack frequently, Fortune Teller is the better Perk to take.
  • With the Fortune teller perk, it's worth shooting two Kunai between every Healing Ofuda. For a slight delay in primary fire, she has the chance to deal damage and increase healing potential from the extra 2 Ofudas per hit.

Major Perks

Shuffling

“Swift Step can be used again within 4 seconds of its initial cast.”

• The better Major Perk
• • Shuffling enables Kiri to aggressively TP to a frontline or flanking ally, assist them with securing elims, then TP back to safety. 
  • Against dive comps it's also extremely useful and makes Kiriko nearly impossible to chase down.

Foxtrot

“Protection Suzu grants 40% movement speed to allies for 2 seconds.”

• Generally not worth taking
• • 40% movement speed is really strong, but only lasts two seconds. If your ally wasn’t expecting it, they likely won’t get much benefit from the buff.
  • If playing with a Reinhardt, however, the movement speed is really strong as he can chase down squishies that would otherwise be just barely outside his range.

Kiriko’s mobility and versatility make her a solid choice on every map. But because she can climb and teleport through walls, maps with lots of structures or rooms give her more outplay potential. Long sight lines are good for her Kunai, but bad for Healing Ofuda if her allies get too far away from her. Be mindful of the map area you are in and adjust accordingly. Just make sure to always be within lock-on and Swift Step range to your team.

Best maps

• Dorado
• King’s Row
• Colosseo

Worst Maps

• Hanaoka
• Junkertown
• Oasis

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!