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Overwatch 2 characters list: Every character and their abilities detailedAn introduction to every character in Overwatch 2 and how to play them effectively
An introduction to every character in Overwatch 2 and how to play them effectively
Looking for a full list of all the characters in Overwatch 2?Only if you’ve been living under a rock for the past 6 years (goodness, has it really been 6 years?) could you not have heard about at least some of the colourful, larger-than-life characters in theOverwatch 2roster. These characters hail from all over the Earth - or beyond, in some cases - and they each come equipped with a set of unique abilities that allows you to play them completely differently from any other character.
If you’re fairly new toOverwatch 2, then allows us to catch you up with our list of every character in the game. Below we’ll go into detail on each of the 35 characters in Overwatch 2 and their abilities, along with handy tips and information on their strengths and weaknesses, and how to play them effectively.
To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settingsOverwatch 2 is not a sequel, in the traditional sense, but we still think it’s really good.Watch on YouTube
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Overwatch 2 characters list
Here’s the full list of all Overwatch 2 characters:
That’s a grand total of 35 characters making up the overall Overwatch 2 roster. Quite the selection! If you’re new to the world ofOverwatchor if you’ve simply been away from the game for a while, then below we’ll provide a brief rundown of each character’s abilities and strengths so you know what to expect from each one.
If, on the other hand, you want to get a feel for which are the best characters in the game, then take a look at ourOverwatch 2 tier list. You can also check out the ideal hero matchups with ourOverwatch 2 countersguide.
D.Va
Role:Tank |Origin:Busan, South Korea |First appearance:Overwatch 1
D.Va spends most of her time piloting a powerful and highly durable mech. This mech is fantastic at soaking up huge amounts of firepower thanks to its Defensive Matrix, which can block projectiles in front of it when activated. Because of this, D.Va is an excellent frontline tank character.
D.Va’s mech also has considerable firepower of its own, thanks to a combination of fast-firing fusion cannons, Micro Missiles, and - most dangerous of all - the ability to plow forward and self-destruct in a massive explosion capable of wiping out whole teams. But if the mech is destroyed, D.Va herself is very vulnerable. As a pilot, she’s a flimsy character with a simple pistol for a weapon, and should try to remain out of danger until she can call down her mech once more.
D.Va Abilities:
Doomfist
Role:Tank |Origin:Oyo, Nigeria |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Doomfist likes to get up close and personal with enemies. A strong character with a massive mechanical arm concealing a powerful short-range hand cannon, he’s surprisingly durable thanks to his Passive, The Best Defense…, which gives him temporary health whenever he damages enemies with his abilities.
Despite his stature, Doomfist is a very mobile character. His Rocket Punch allows him to charge towards enemies, dealing high damage particularly if he ends up pinning them against a wall. And his Ultimate, Meteor Strike, sends him leaping into the air to target a large area in which to land, dealing massive damage. A good Doomfist player looks for opportunities to barrel towards unsuspecting opponents and dismantling them without overextending himself too much.
Junker Queen
Role:Tank |Origin:Junkertown, Australia |First appearance:Overwatch 2
Junker Queen was added specifically for Overwatch 2. Her whole toolkit revolves around wounding enemies with her axe and throwing knife. Each wound inflicted deals damage over time, and heals Junker Queen up simultaneously, making her quite a self-sufficient character on the frontline.
Orisa
Role:Tank |Origin:Numbani |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Reinhardt
Role:Tank |Origin:Stuttgart, Germany |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Reinhardt is the quintessential tank of Overwatch. His modus operandi is to hold the frontline and wade through the enemy team’s attacks from behind his massive Barrier Field. He can also charge forward into the fray at will, and fire off damaging projectiles with his Fire Strike - useful for ensuring the kill against a retreating low-health enemy.
Pushing as a Reinhardt can be dangerous, as he and his Barrier are such massive targets. But if he does get in melee range, he can deal huge damage with his primary hammer attacks, as well as his Earthshatter Ultimate, which knocks down all enemies in front of him, potentially stunning the entire team if they’re grouped together.
Roadhog
Role:Tank |Origin:Junkertown, Australia (formerly) |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Roadhog is a big beefy tank whose signature Chain Hook is one of the most feared abilities in Overwatch. His ability to grapple enemies towards him combines perfectly with his devastating short-range shotgun blast, and makes him a terror for frail Damage and Support characters who thought they were safe.
Roadhog’s Ultimate gives him access to a torrent of powerful automatic shotgun blasts which damage and knock enemies backwards. He can be focused down more easily than some Tanks, although his Take A Breather ability gives him a quick and powerful heal during times of need. He’s big, slow, and requires a fair bit of skill to make use of his grapple. But in the right hands, he’s a terror.
Sigma
Role:Tank |Origin:The Hague, Netherlands (formerly) |First appearance:Overwatch 1
The first thing to understand about Sigma is that he packs a lot of damage into his primary weapons. They’re slow and limited in range, but they hit hard. He’s not the tankiest Tank in the game, but his Experimental Barrier provides some Reinhardt-esque team protection, and his Kinetic Grasp can be used to absorb projectiles and replenish his shields, giving him a fair bit of personal survivability.
Winston
Role:Tank |Origin:Horizon Lunar Colony (formerly) |First appearance:Overwatch 1
One of the most familiar faces of Overwatch, Winston is a giant gorilla with a huge amount of mobility and survivability thanks to his Barrier Projector sphere, and his leap, which he can activate at a moment’s notice to pounce upon a vulnerable enemy. With his electric Tesla Cannon he can easily burst down weaker characters, and his abilities all synergise very nicely, allowing him to pounce on the backline, Barrier himself to avoid punishment, and then take out an enemy healer or DPS character before leaping back to safety.
Winston isn’t capable of soaking up as much damage as many other Tanks in Overwatch 2, but his speed makes him one of the best at hit-and-run attacks. What’s more, his Primal Rage Ultimate allows him to send a fortified enemy team into absolute chaos in seconds, and is extremely hard to deal with for anyone who isn’t called Ana.
Wrecking Ball
Role:Tank |Origin:Horizon Lunar Colony (formerly), Junkertown (formerly) |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Zarya
Role:Tank |Origin:Krasnoyarsk Front, Russia |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Ashe
Role:Damage |Origin:Deadlock Gorge, Arizona, USA |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Ashe is a very effective mid-range sniper. Like Widowmaker, she can aim down sights to zoom in with her rifle, slowing her fire rate in exchange for increased damage and accuracy. The dual purpose nature of her primary weapon allows her to cover a decent range as the situation requires.
Bastion
Role:Damage |Origin:Unknown |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Bastionmay look like a tank, but it actually sacrifices survivability for some amazing damage potential. It can switch at will between two configurations: a mobile bipedal mech, and a slow-moving tank. Particularly in tank mode, Bastion’s DPS is off the charts, which makes it a great hero for bursting down Tanky characters like Reinhardt or Orisa.
The trick with Bastion is how to stay alive. It’s a high-value target because everyone knows how quickly it can kill its enemies, but it’s not able to withstand much damage even with its Ironclad Passive - and with its size, it’s fairly easy to hit. Really it needs the reliable protection of a strong Tank to hide behind. If left unchecked though, it can sweep through enemies like very few other characters can - particularly if they can’t get out of the way of Bastion’s Ultimate artillery shells quickly enough.
Cassidy
Role:Damage |Origin:Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Cassidy is the quintessential glass cannon of Overwatch 2. With his very low health, he can be burst down extremely easily, making it difficult to play him well. This is his downside; even with his quick Combat Roll to get out of danger, he is liable to be focused and killed quite quickly - as you’d expect from a sniper character.
Echo
Role:Damage |Origin:Switzerland (formerly) |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Echo’s signature ability is her Ultimate, Duplicate, which turns her into a copy of the targeted enemy, able to use their character’s abilities for the duration. The ability to quickly turn into a Roadhog and hook an enemy in, or a Reaper to deal with a pesky enemy tank, is extremely powerful when used well.
Without this ability, she’s a fairly ordinary, albeit surprisingly mobile, damage-dealing character. Her Tri-Shot deals decent damage, particularly when combined with her volley of Sticky Bombs. Her Focusing Beam is fantastic for finishing off low-health enemies, as it deals extra damage to targets under half health. And, similarly to characters like Pharah or Mercy, Echo can fly and glide in the air, making her very manoeuvrable - albeit vulnerable if she spends too much time in the air.
Genji
Role:Damage |Origin:Shambali Monastery, Nepal |First appearance:Overwatch 1
The most dangerous aspect of Genji’s skillset is, of course, his Dragonblade Ultimate. Particularly when combined with a damage-boosting ability like Ana’s Nano Boost, an Ulting Genji can easily wipe out an entire team with his extremely high damage melee weapon, which can be used alongside his Swift Strike dash to tear apart enemies faster than they can react.
Hanzo
Role:Damage |Origin:Hanamura, Japan (formerly) |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Hanzo is a powerful DPS sniper character whose Storm Bow arrows are fast, accurate, and extremely damaging, particularly with headshots. He’s not very survivable, but just like Cassidy he can fire off a burst of arrows in quick succession when forced into a close-range engagement, and with his wall-climbing and double-jump capabilities he’s almost as mobile as his brother Genji.
Hanzo’s Ultimate, Dragonstrike, has the potential to annihilate whole enemy teams in one go, but it has to be used at the right time, because when an enemy sees or hears it coming, it’s not too difficult to avoid. Hanzo’s real strength is simply to pick off smaller targets with his bow, and also to provide situational awareness around corners and the like using his Sonic Arrows to peek at enemies through walls. He’s a fairly well-rounded sniper character with a lot of DPS potential.
Junkrat
Role:Damage |Origin:Junkertown, Australia (formerly) |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Junkrat is very strong when it comes to raining damage on enemies without having to expose himself to return fire. His arcing, bouncing grenades are easy to use, and don’t require great accuracy to deliver high damage to enemies, and his Rip-Tire Ultimate, if it isn’t destroyed quickly enough, unleashes a massive explosion that can wipe an entire team in one go.
One-on-one, he’s not very strong at all - though don’t discount his ability to break apart a melee fight with his Concussion Mines, which deal high damage and blast both himself and the enemy backwards. He can also use his Concussion Mines to reach high places and travel quickly, because thanks to his Passive he is invulnerable to damage from his own explosives. He’s a strong anti-Tank pick, and provides decent overall DPS in almost any team comp.
Mei
Role:Damage |Origin:Xi’an, China (formerly) |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Mei is a rather unusual character in Overwatch. Her primary weapon is a spray that deals damage and slows enemies, which is best when used in the midst of a teamfight because it doesn’t really have the DPS output to ensure a 1v1 victory. Her long-range icicle launcher, on the other hand, is surprisingly punchy and can make her very useful as a mid-to-long-range sniper.
Pharah
Role:Damage |Origin:Giza, Egypt |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Pharah is like an airborne version of Junkrat. Her rocket launcher primary weapon deals high damage but with their slow movement speed they’re hard to land on quicker enemies. For this reason, she’s mainly used as a counter to slow-moving Tanks.
Pharah should spend most of her time in the air. She can hold Jump to hover (at the cost of fuel), and her Jump Jet ability launches her upwards quickly to gain extra height or get out of a dangerous spot. Her Ultimate is high-risk, high-reward. It deals colossal sustained damage to enemies and can potentially kill the whole enemy team - but while using it she’s a still target, and very easily burst down.
Reaper
Role:Damage |Origin:Unknown |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Reaper is the obvious pick when you need someone to deal with a strong enemy Tank. His Hellfire Shotguns are incredibly damaging at close range, and he has a lot more personal survivability than his health pool suggests thanks to his lifesteal attacks and his Wraith Form, which allows him to become invulnerable and move faster for a short time.
Sojourn
Role:Damage |Origin:Toronto, Canada |First appearance:Overwatch 2
Sojourn is a versatile and powerful soldier character newly added to Overwatch 2. Her Disruptor Shot is a decent zoning and damage-over-time ability, but it’s her primary weapon that makes her so fearsome. Her fast-firing Railgun deals consistent high damage and charges up her secondary fire - a hitscan beam attack which is fantastic for finishing off retreating enemies even at long range.
Her Power Slide gives her some strong mobility, as it can also be transitioned into an extra high jump that allows her to reach high ground with ease. From such vantage points, she can make great use of her primary weapon and her Ultimate, which auto-boosts her beam attacks so she can unleash six or seven full-power beams in the space of as many seconds. She doesn’t have much health, but she can deal huge damage if left unchecked.
Soldier: 76
Role:Damage |Origin:Unknown |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Soldier: 76, like Sojourn, is a versatile damage-dealing soldier who excels at delivering steady damage to any enemy in sight. His Pulse Rifle delivers strong damage-per-second, and his Helix Rockets can be fired off fairly regularly for an extra burst of damage that can finish off opponents.
One big part of Soldier: 76’s success is his unique ability to sprint at will. This ability isn’t on cooldown - he can just sprint whenever he feels like it, which makes him a very manoeuvrable character. Add to this his Biotic Field, which delivers a really solid amount of team healing (particularly for a non-Support character) and his Tactical Visor Ultimate, which can quickly wipe up multiple enemies at once as long as he isn’t being focused, and you’ve got a very adaptable and able-bodied character.
Sombra
Role:Damage |Origin:Dorado, Mexico |First appearance:Overwatch 1
She’s an extremely strong flanker who excels at cleaning up vulnerable backline characters. Thanks to her Passive, she can detect hacked and low-health enemies through walls, and with her Stealth and her Translocator abilities, she has fantastic mobility that allows her to move unseen through an enemy team’s defences. Of course, misuse her abilities and you’ll end up dying quite a lot as you tend to spend most of your time away from your team while playing Sombra.
Symmetra
Role:Damage |Origin:Utopaea, India |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Symmetra is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. She can place up to threeSentryTurrets at a time - weak on their own, but combined with each other and herself, they can do very well at fortifying a position, particularly indoors. And with her Teleporter, she can move her entire team in unexpected ways, giving them opportunities to flank that other teams don’t have.
Torbjörn
Role:Damage |Origin:Gothenburg, Sweden |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Torbjörn isn’t the most survivable damage character out there, as he lacks any real mobility. But if he can use hisOverloadto buff his health, speed, and damage, and then get up close and personal with enemies so he can use his close-range shots to melt them down quickly, then he can really prove his worth. His Molten Core Ultimate is a good teamfighting ability, and can also be used to lock down an area such as a capture point or chokepoint, forcing enemies to reconsider their approach or die.
Tracer
Role:Damage |Origin:London, England |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Widowmaker
Role:Damage |Origin:Annecy, France |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Ana
Role:Support |Origin:Cairo, Egypt |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Ana comes equipped with a powerful Sniper Rifle with a dual function. If she shoots an enemy, she damages them. If she shoots an ally, she heals them. This duality is reflected in her Biotic Grenade, which heals allies while also damaging and - crucially - preventing healing on enemies in the area.
A player with good aim can make fantastic use of Ana, healing up allies while also neutralising enemies. Her Sleep Dart is her most important ability, as it can be used to instantly stop extremely dangerous threats like an Ulting Winston or Genji. And her Nano Boost Ultimate is a fantastic damage-boosting ability which should be combined with a high damage output ally like Genji, Roadhog, or Sojourn. Overall a fantastic character with great utility, but one which relies on very good aim.
Baptiste
Role:Support |Origin:Tortuga, Haiti (formerly) |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Baptiste’s Immortality Field is particularly potent, preventing allies from dying around the thrown device for a full 5 seconds. It’s rare for a non-Ultimate ability to be able to completely nullify an Ult like Reaper’s Death Blossom, but it has to be used correctly, because the device can be destroyed with ease if enemy players notice what’s happening. Add to this Baptiste’s Ultimate, which creates a pass-through barrier that double the damage of allied projectiles passing through it, and Baptiste is a fantastic Support character to have on your team - provided he can use his abilities in the right ways at the right times.
Brigitte
Role:Support |Origin:Gothenburg, Sweden (formerly) |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Kiriko
Role:Support |Origin:Kanezaka, Japan |First appearance:Overwatch 2
But Kiriko also has surprising damage potential with her Kunai, throwing knives which deal massive headshot damage. An accurate player can fell even tanks at high speed as Kiriko, particularly when they don’t see her coming. And thanks to her fast Wall Climb and Kitsune Rush, which dramatically increases the fire rate and cooldowns of all allies along its path, she has potentially the highest overall DPS potential of any Support character. The only downside, of course, is that she’s very easy to kill.
Lúcio
Role:Support |Origin:Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Mercy
Role:Support |Origin:Zürich, Switzerland |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Mercy is probably the best so-called “Pocket Healer” in the game - that is, a healer who focuses all their energy on keeping one specific ally alive. With her Resurrect she can also bring recently killed allies back to life, and her Valkyrie Ultimate makes her an incredibly mobile airborne character who can easily travel to where she’s most needed on the battlefield.
Moira
Role:Support |Origin:Oasis, Iraq |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Moira has a surprising amount of potential as a DPS character, thanks to her primary damage dealing weapon also healing her over time. And if she gets into trouble, she can fall back on her Fade, which renders her invisible for a moment while she moves elsewhere at high speed. Her most dangerous weapon is her Ultimate, which fires a strong beam that either dramatically heals allies or severely damages enemies in a short space of time.
Zenyatta
Role:Support |Origin:Shambali Monastery, Nepal (formerly) |First appearance:Overwatch 1
Zenyatta, like Kiriko, is a combination of healer and sniper. He also has the benefit of being very easy to get to grips with. One ability targets an ally and provides constant healing for a time, and another ability targets an enemy and increases the damage they take for a time. Very straightforward, but also very powerful when used proactively.
That’s every single one of the characters in the Overwatch 2 roster explained, so hopefully you now have a better idea of what each of them can do ready for your next match. If you want to get a better idea of what’s changed since you last played the first Overwatch, then check out our list of thebiggest Overwatch 2 changeshere. Alternatively, consult our primer onhow to unlock heroes in Overwatch 2, andhow to level up fast in Overwatch 2so you can get stuck into playing each of the above characters!
