We look into Kiriko’s hero abilities and the best ways to keep everyone alive as The Protector of Kanezaka.

Find Your Own Path

Kiriko Yamagami was raised by a family sworn to protect their quiet countryside town. Growing up, she took from the gentle lessons of her grandmother, and the disciplined training of her mother to form her own brand of thinking. Bridging modernity and cultural traditions, she now protects Kanezaka with the vigilante group “Yōkai”, boasting seemingly supernatural abilities while still keeping the humor and slyness of her animal spirit companion.

Ever since Kiriko released on the day of Overwtach 2’s launch, people have been keen to fully maximize her kit’s potential. But getting to the point of mastery is a tougher journey than it seems. Strike your enemies with unexpected precision as Kiriko with this guide on what this fully kitted-out ninja can do, as well as the best tips and tricks we could find.

Read about the new Season 2 hero updates here.

Restore Balance

Rocking an especially versatile skillset, Kiriko’s Fox spirit grants her the power to save her teammates from potentially game-ending scenarios. Additionally, her ultimate ability Kitsune Rush can completely turn a bad match around. This spunky protector’s got some high-value tricks up her sleeve. So the sooner you get familiar, the more you will be able to maximize their utility.

Wall Climbing lets you clamber out of dangerous situations in true ninja fashion. Holding the spacebar near any vertical structure lets Kiriko climb it. The Season 2 update gave Kiriko a new “auto wall-climb” hero option to help with new player mobility.

Healing Ofuda locks on to an ally within range and heals them with a stream of Kiriko’s talismans. Each one does about 13 points of healing, with a single burst recovering 130 HP. The Ofuda is yellow when it goes towards your target, and turns blue when it can’t find one. Any ally, targetable or otherwise, can intercept a blue Ofuda to get healed. Hitting terrain or enemy barriers destroys an Ofuda.

Kiriko prefers fighting with traditional Kunai in team engagements, but don’t let the low fire rate fool you. These projectiles pack a huge punch when you score headshots.

Swift Step allows Kiriko to teleport to any targeted ally within 35 meters, even through walls. You should always keep an eye on the ability’s cooldown whenever you enter engagements. Keeping track of allies who are a stone’s throw away can bail you out when Overwatch 2’s firefights get too hot. Swift Step can now be activated by holding the keybind.

Protection Suzu is an AOE healing ability, cleanse, and invulnerability buff all in one neat package. Allies affected by Protection Suzu become completely non-physical for 0.85 seconds. This powerful hero ability symbolizes Kiriko’s role in the world of Overwatch, and is arguably her most important skill in the game.

Kitsune Rush summons blue spectra torii gates that frame the path of the fox spirit. When you or an ally enter the path, they get 50% more attack speed, movement speed, reload speed, and faster cooldowns on all of their skills. Kiriko’s ultimate has recently had its point cost ability increased by 10%.  Players under Kitsune Rush’s effects now only gain a 30% movement speed boost to help with player aim, and cooldowns are now sped up by 2x instead of 3x.

Cut Like the Gale

Find hard-to-reach vantage points with Wall Climb to get a bead on your teammates’ positions. The extra mobility will also help you evade flankers and make yourself a harder target to hit. Another important note to consider is that your healing talismans are blocked by hard terrain. With that in mind, take to the rooftops to avoid losing sight of your allies.

The default settings for Healing Ofuda releases all 10 talismans with a single click. This can be adjusted within Overwatch 2’s settings for the heroine. Furthermore, your main healing talent gets cancelled by Defense Matrix, Javelin Spin and Kinetic Grasp, so it’s best to avoid enemy tanks whenever possible. Your Ofuda can even be deflected by an enemy Genji.

Headshots with your Kunai deal increased critical damage (with a whopping 3x critical damage multiplier), making your projectiles deadly even at long range. On the other hand, hitting anywhere else doles out less hurt. So make headshots your main goal by keeping your crosshair along the enemy team’s horizontal “head” line. That isn’t to say that you can’t occasionally try flick shots for your sick highlight reel, though. Always remember, aim where they’re going, not where they’re at.

Swift Step is your best way out whenever you become the main focus of dive heroes. When you’re face to face with a Genji main who’s on their 4th energy drink, maybe it’s best to “bamf” out of there and regroup for better chances of not-dying. This skill boosts her survivability significantly. On top of that, Kiriko also cleanses herself of any debuff and becomes invulnerable for a short period when she teleports. Swift Step’s invulnerability period was nerfed recently (0.4s to 0.25s), so have Protection Suzu handy before you relocate!

The ninja healer’s Swift Step can’t get her away from everything unfortunately. Despite being able to drop Junkerqueen’s “Jagged Blade” or Hanzo’s “Sonic Arrow” off of you when you relocate, some enemy abilities seem to stick with you. These include Cassidy’s “Magnetic Grenade”, Tracer’s “Pulse Bomb”, and Echo’s “Sticky Bombs”. Kiriko is also unable to teleport whenever she’s caught in Junkrat’s traps, Zarya’s “grav”, and Sigma’s ult.

Save Protection Suzu for devastating enemy ultimates like “RIP-tire” and D.Va’s “Self-destruct”. Burst damage in Overwatch 2 can send you straight back to spawn. Alternatively, you can use Suzu immediately after Swift Stepping to critically injured teammates and give everyone time to heal and retreat. Kiriko also cleanses numerous harmful effects and statuses with her E ability, namely:

• Biotic Grenade’s anti-heal
• Blizzard’s frozen status
• Dynamite’s burn
• Earthshatter’s prone
• The Hacked status
• Orb of Discord’s vulnerability
• Rampage’s anti-heal
• Sleep Dart’s Sleeping status
• Venom Mine’s Poisoned status

Using Protective Suzu against certain abilities only mitigates the damage involved without stopping the full effect. This applies to the following hero abilities:

• Steel Trap
• Charge
• Chain Hook
• Gravitic Flux
• Graviton Surge

Much like Healing Ofuda, your Suzu can get destroyed if you throw it at a Defense Matrix, a Javelin Spin or a Kinetic Grasp. On a more positive note, it also gives 50 HP to you and friendlies.

Kitsune Rush is an incredibly important tool in your arsenal that’s best used when your team wants to start a fight. Save your ultimate until your DPS can fully capitalize on it with their own ults. The huge buffs that your ultimate gives can swing any team fight to your favor. That is to say, you won’t get much value from Rush if you press it in a panic while you’re getting solo-dived.

The Kitsune’s path lasts around 10 seconds, continues off ledges onto lower ground and passes through enemy barriers. Other than that, the buff also increases the tick time of beam-type weapons (ie. Winston’s “Tesla Canon” and Zarya’s “Particle Canon”).

Kiriko can hold her own in mid-ranged engagements and is the preferred healer to join dive comps. Staying on the battlefield can be an issue for new players, especially when they don’t consider their cooldowns or the whereabouts of their team members. If you find yourself confused with proper microplay, or frustrated at your death count, you aren’t the only one. The fox spirit protector is a tough hero to get the hang of for a lot of players. But once you learn every aspect of her playstyle properly, you’ll see improvements in your own games. And so will your team.