Sojourn, or Vivian Chase to her friends (should that be the other way around?) is one of Overwatch 2’s three new heroes available at launch. If you can get into the game to play as her, anyway.  

This Canadian former special forces captain offers a suite of abilities to be effective in the mid-range as a damage hero, with the added bonus of a dash and jump to get in or out of pretty much anywhere at pace. Her pared-back and reasonably straightforward moveset make her a viable choice for newcomers to Overwatch who are familiar with FPS games more generally.

Sojourn has been referenced in Overwatch lore pretty much from the off, making her first appearance in Ana’s animated origin story. She also served alongside Soldier: 76 during the Omnic War before joining Overwatch, and oversaw the Storm Rising mission, which was included as a lore event in 2019. 

And now that Sojourn has made her long-overdue appearance in the game, we go over how her abilities work, her skins, and how to play as her effectively. 

Sojourn’s Abilities

Railgun (Primary Fire): This nifty bit of kit blasts out 14 projectiles per second at 9 damage each. It’s absurdly accurate, quick to reload its 45-capacity mag, and each projectile that hits either an enemy or their barrier generates energy for your secondary fire, which encourages aggressive play. 

Railgun (Secondary Fire): While it can be used from the first hit of primary fire that you land, you can store up to 100 units of energy to hit the top end of the 30-130 damage range. The shot’s area of effect also scales up with the amount of energy stored to a maximum of 0.1 metres, so accuracy is vital here. 

Power Slide (Ability): The dance move of choice for all young lads at their school disco. Cover ground at pace, keep firing, and cancel out into a huge jump – there’s some real mobility here. On a six second cooldown. 

Disruptor Shot (Ability): Chuck out a little AOE snare vortex, slowing down and sapping at enemies health for 210 damage over four seconds over an effective area of five metres. Follow this up with some Railgun fire and really let ‘em have it. Has a thrown range of 30 metres, and  a 15 second cooldown. 

Role: Damage (Passive): Like all the other damage heroes, Sojourn benefits from a quick burst of heightened reload and movement skill after eliminating a hero, helping to keep you in the fight a little longer. 

Overclock (Ultimate): Be your best self – for nine seconds, anyway. Overclock fully refills your energy every 1.2 seconds, which lets you keep peeling off secondary shots. Which, by the way, pierce through enemies while your Ultimate is active. 

Overwatch 2 Sojourn Skins

Sojourn has eight skins in Overwatch 2 at launch. You can see their names, rarity, and cost or unlock conditions below.

Name	Information
Borealis	Rare skin 300 Overwatch Coins
Prairie	Rare skin 300 Overwatch Coins
Tundra	Rare skin 300 Overwatch Coins
Woodland	Rare skin 300 Overwatch Coins
Runner	Epic skin 1000 Overwatch Coins
Captain Chase	Legendary skin 1900 Overwatch Coins
Commando	Legendary skin Battle pass tier 30
Troop Commander	Legendary skin 1900 Overwatch Coins

Overwatch 2 Sojourn Tips

Move! You can cover some serious distance with the Power Slide and its jump cancel, and can use this both to traverse the maps and to escape sticky situations. The jump cancel itself gets you seriously high – like, woah, man – and so you can position yourself above the fight for some verticality, or just fall screaming into the enemy team letting off your Disruptor Shot and blasting away. And to that point:

Aim! Sojourn’s Railgun relies a lot on accuracy – this is not a hero for a spray and pray approach to DPS. This is particularly felt when you miss a fully charged secondary fire, which is easily done if you’re not on the ball. 

Fire! As detailed above, the Railgun’s secondary fire is charged by hitting opposing heroes, or their shields. The amount of energy stored is visible as number under the crosshair, between 0 and 100. The catch here, however, is that this energy starts to decay after six seconds, so you’ve got to use it or lose it. Enemy tank heroes are a good way to get some charge back in your secondary too, as the more of your bullets they soak up, the closer they’ll be getting you to your next secondary fire.

The Alt-Fire Ult: You can get seven secondary fire shots out over the nine second span of Overclock if you’re really on it, as it takes just over a second for the Ultimate to give you a full charge. But that’s not to say just keep on firing just anywhere – a second is a long time if you’re in the thick of it waiting for a recharge. Keep firing with your primary if in doubt, but take those shots and make it count. 

Use the Disruptor Shot strategically: While it may not have the biggest range or damage output, it’s an incredibly versatile tool. The slowdown effect on your enemies, particularly if you manage to snare a group of them, makes lining up those all-important headshots easier, and your team can take advantage of the opponent’s immobility too. Another sound tactic is to throw it at your feet if another player is coming in close, and pair this with the Power Slide to put some distance between you while getting some shots in. One thing to bear in mind however is that the Disruptor Shot has no weight to it at all, and will activate at the end of its 30 metre range (or if it hits something first) having travelled in a straight line from where you threw it. This too can be used to your advantage – for example, hindering a sniper.

Zarya is an already-known character that is coming back in Overwatch 2 as part of the game’s roster. Overwatch 2 has brought considerable changes especially for tank characters since now there aren’t two of them in each party. This just gives Zarya the sweet spot to shine as a tank who brings a lot of utility to the team and can change the flow of a match if played correctly. 

Zarya’s Abilities

Zarya’s kit is pretty simple, but it will demand from players some experience with the character to better understand the timing for each skill. First, let’s cover our bases going through Zarya’s attacks.

Basically, Zarya fights using the Particle Cannon which holds a total of 100 rounds before needing to reload the weapon. Her Primary Attack is a short-range beam of energy. Since you need to hold the button to use it, the amount of rounds utilized depends on how long you keep it pressed. It’s the best option when fighting other players that engage your team or when pursuing someone, for example.

The Secondary Attack is a grenade of energy. You can reach farther locations depending on the inclination you aim, turning this mode into a great option for poking the enemy team while you are waiting for your cooldowns or to farm your ultimate. The grenades also have the effect of knocking back enemies and they are great to farm your ultimate skill. On the other hand, they are really difficult to hit flying enemies or anyone who can dash, like Genji. It’s important to know that each grenade costs 25 rounds, so keep in mind that for every four shots you are going to need some time to reload your Particle Cannon. 

Zarya’s ultimate skill Graviton Surge is a game-changer if used correctly. When activated, she launches an orb that creates a gravity field that pulls enemies to it. This is more of a utility skill, since it doesn’t have the potential to deal a lot of damage by itself.

In terms of skills, Zarya is a pretty straightforward character. Both of her skills are different versions of a bubble-shield. Although they are simple, shields are fundamental to how the character works and her kit. The first one is called Particle Barrier and it’s a shield cast instantaneously to herself. The second skill is the Projected Shield which casts a shield to one of your teammates.

The shields last around two seconds and a half or until they are broken. It’s important to keep in mind that you have up to two shield charges that are split between the first and second skill. So, you can, for example, shield yourself and a teammate at the same time by spending the two charges. However, since each charge has ten seconds of cooldown, it’s important to analyze the situation and avoid spending unnecessary shields. 

Both her attacks and skills are strictly connected with one of Zarya’s passive skills.

Zarya receives the passive role skill Tank, making her more resistant against knockbacks. She also generates less ultimate through healing and damage received. 

Her second passive is called Energy and this is fundamental to her kit. Thanks to this skill, the Particle Cannon damage increases based on the damage blocked when using one of Zarya’s shields. So, whenever you or a teammate with a shield takes damage, the energy level will increase and both of Zarya’s attacks will deal more damage.

To check how high your energy level is, there are two indicators on the screen. The first is a half-circle with a number in the middle. The second one is the sphere of energy on Zarya’s Particle Cannon that gets bigger depending on the Energy level. Your energy level will begin to decrease after some time without taking damage with a shield up.

More on how to synergize her kit in the Strategy section of this guide.

Overwatch 2 Zarya Changes

In general, Zarya hasn’t changed that much in Overwatch 2. She has become more resistant to damage thanks to her base health having been increased by 50 points and her base shield by 25 points. This is mostly because of the change in the team composition which now has only one tank character. 

Besides that, there are other changes in her kit:

• There are two charges for shields split between the Projected Barrier and the Particle barrier.
• The shields’ cooldowns begin right after you use the skill.
• Zarya’s Energy level decreases faster now (2.2 energy every second).

Zarya Strategy and Team Composition

As a Tank, Zarya is supposed to be the front line of the team and mitigate the damage. After the changes that she received for Overwatch 2, she can handle more damage but it all depends on how well you manage your shields. It’s because of the Graviton Surge that Zarya shines, making farming your ultimate top priority. So, your main concern while playing Zarya is to find an angle from where you can throw energy grenades to poke enemies and fill your ultimate.

Because of how her kit works, your secondary goal is to focus on tracking shield availability and Energy level. She won’t do much in battle without a charge of her Particle Barrier to protect herself. Besides that, engaging an enemy with high energy is always the best option.

Try to always call the enemies’ attention and use your shield. When you do that, avoid using a Particle Shield to anticipate damage. Zarya already has a good amount of base shield, so wait until you’re taking damage to cast your skill. The same idea works for the Projected Shield: do not waste it trying to anticipate the damage your teammate is going to take. 

Last but not least, knowing when to use your ultimate is key to playing Zarya well. Check your teammates’ ultimates and see if they are ready. Nothing is more frustrating to a Zarya than grabbing four enemies with your ult and having no follow-up. 

Now that Zarya takes the seat of the main tank, it’s important to consider that she is not a Reinhardt or a Winston in terms of shielding the group. Because of that, in terms of team composition, Zarya works pretty well with characters with a considerable level of sustainability so they don’t rely totally on her shield.  

Overwatch 2 Zarya: Skins 

As of the time of writing this guide, Zarya has 23 different skins. While some are from seasonal events, most of them can be bought using the in-game currency.

• Overwatch 1 – Automatically unlocked
• Overwatch 2 – Automatically unlocked

Rare (75 credits)

• Violet
• Brick
• Goldenrod
• Taiga

Epic (250 credits)

• Dawn
• Midnight
• Frosted – Seasonal event
• Racer – Seasonal event

Legendary (1900 credits)

• Arctic
• Barbarian
• Cybergoth
• Champion
• Cyberian – Seasonal event
• Industrial
• Polyanitsa – Seasonal event
• Siberian Front
• Snowboarder – Seasonal event
• Totally 80’s – Seasonal event 
• Weightlifter – Seasonal event
• Workout – Seasonal Event
• Xuanwu – Seasonal Event

That’s all you need to know to start your journey as Zarya in Overwatch 2!

Mercy, the team’s leading doctor, is one of Overwatch’s original support heroes, and while she’s changed a lot since 2016, she hasn’t changed much in the transition to Overwatch 2. Mercy is an ideal support hero for Overwatch beginners. Her various abilities and modes of healing are relatively easy to understand, and players of any level can make a difference with Mercy.

Overwatch 2 Mercy Guide – Weapons & Stats

Caduceus Staff

Mercy’s staff allows her to heal allies and increase an ally’s damage output. Holding the staff’s primary fire (RT/R2 on a gamepad) allows Mercy to heal one ally at a time as long as they’re in your line of sight and generally close-by. The staff heals 55 damage per second. 

You can hold the staff’s secondary fire (RB/R1) to amplify an ally’s damage by 30%. Healing or boosting damage will contribute to Mercy’s Ultimate Ability gauge. The staff locks on to targets, so as long as you aim at an ally and hold the button, Mercy’s staff will latch onto them. 

Tanks will require most of your healing since they’ll be soaking up most of the damage. But if an ally like Soldier 76 or Pharah activates their Ultimate Ability, they’ll be vulnerable and might require support. When your team is generally healthy, you should focus on amplifying damage. 

Caduceus Blaster

Even though Mercy is a healer, she still has access to an equipable automatic pistol. This means Mercy cannot deal damage while supporting other characters. One blaster projectile deals 20 damage and has a solid rate of fire, so it’s possible to survive one-on-one encounters if your aim is good enough. You should only switch to your pistol if you’re alone or want to finish off an enemy your team is neglecting.

Overwatch 2 Mercy Guide – Abilities

Guardian Angel

If you’re looking at an ally, you’ll be able to fly towards them from a distance. If you’re attached to a teammate through the Caduceus Staff, you won’t need to face them to activate Guardian Angel. 

While you’re in flight, a bar on the screen will begin filling up; this gauge measures how far you can leap afterward. If you press the jump button, you’ll launch forward, and if you press the crouch button, you’ll launch upward.

Guardian Angel is an evasive ability. Use it to fly towards your team and away from danger. This ability only has a cooldown of 1.5 seconds, so you should use it regularly to reach allies in critical conditions.

Angelic Descent

While Mercy is in the air, you can hold the jump button to use Angelic Descent to fall very slowly. There’s no cooldown on this ability so you can use it at any time by holding the button it’s assigned to. Angelic Descent is best used in unison with Guardian Angel to stay above the action – watching your teammate’s health while staying away from enemies. 

Resurrect

Resurrect is one of the most valuable abilities in the game and spawned one of Overwatch’s most iconic lines: “Heroes Never Die!” 

Resurrect allows you to revive an ally to full health before they respawn. It takes 1.75 seconds to cast and it reduces your movement speed drastically. So it leaves Mercy vulnerable to enemies. 

Resurrect also has a cooldown of 30 seconds, so use it sparingly. Your main priority with this ability should be your team’s tank since you’ll only have one tank in most modes, which soaks up most of your team’s damage. Apart from tanks, try to resurrect support heroes whenever possible, as they’ll be helping you with healing.

Overwatch 2 Mercy Guide – Passive Abilities

Mercy has two passive abilities in Overwatch 2.

Role: Support

Every support hero in Overwatch 2 receives a passive heal of 10 health per second after 1 second of not being damaged. 

Regeneration

Mercy receives even more passive healing than other supports. Mercy receives 20 health per second after 1 second of not being damaged.

Overwatch 2 Mercy Guide – Ultimate Ability: Valkyrie

Valkyrie is an Ultimate Ability that changes Mercy’s form and movement. For 15 seconds, Mercy can fly in any direction. Mercy’s healing and damage amplification will chain across nearby targets, so you can support your entire team if they’re close together. In addition, movement speed and healing are increased in this mode.

You should activate Valkyrie when your team is together and engaging the enemy team. Mercy’s chain healing or damage amplification will give your team the edge in contentious stand-offs. 

Valkyrie has an ultimate cost of 1820. Ultimate charge is dependent on the amount of healing or damage you’ve dealt with a 1:1 ratio. So essentially you’d need to heal 1820 points of health to charge Mercy’s Ultimate. As you can imagine, this means her Ultimate will charge relatively quickly, so don’t save it for too long.

Overwatch 2 Mercy Changes

Mercy isn’t a character that has changed all too much since the first Overwatch. The biggest change to the character is perhaps the changes to the Guardian Angel ability, allowing it to become more mobile.

• Mercy’s Regeneration passive ability has increased by 50% due to the Role: Support ability.
• Guardian Angel now has a bar on the side that charges in flight for increased mobility. Players can now launch themselves forward or upward during flight.

Overwatch 2 Mercy Guide – Strategy & Team Composition

Mercy can be useful in many situations, but the change to 5v5 in Overwatch 2 has somewhat diminished her standing in the meta. In the original Overwatch, Mercy was a great hero to ensure that both tanks were healed quickly and revived. Now there’s only one tank in competitive, and Mercy’s role is non-essential. Instead, some heroes can keep the main tank healed while dealing lots of damage, like Zenyatta, Ana, and Moira. 

Players can use Mercy well alongside various characters. For example, if the second support is Lucio, Mercy can provide faster, targeted healing. Mercy is also helpful alongside Moira since she has great offensive capabilities and might not solely focus on healing the team.

Mercy is an excellent match with several damage heroes too. In the first Overwatch, Pharah and Mercy dominated the meta for months, and that strategy is still viable in the sequel. If there’s an annoying Bastion or Torbjorn behind enemy lines, use Pharah and Mercy to flank them. Mercy will ensure that Pharah doesn’t immediately die. Additionally, when Bastion is in the Assault configuration, he can deal massive damage. If you amplify Bastion while in this mode, you’ll be able to shed through shields and quickly be done with enemy tanks. 

Overwatch 2 Mercy Guide – Skins

Mercy has 21 unique skins in Overwatch 2. Skins can either be unlocked through the Battle Pass or bought in the Shop with two types of in-game currency. First, there are Legacy Credits that have been transferred over from the original game. Then there are Overwatch Coins that can be bought with real money or unlocked through the Battle Pass.

Skins	Details
Overwatch 1	Common Skin Automatically Unlocked
Overwatch 2	Common Skin  Automatically Unlocked
Celestial	Rare Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Mist	Rare Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Orchid	Rare Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Verdant	Rare Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Fortune	Epic Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Amber	Epic Skin Sometimes available in the Shop 250 Legacy Credits 1000 Overwatch Coins
Cobalt	Epic Skin Sometimes available in the Shop 250 Legacy Credits 1000 Overwatch Coins
Eidgenossion	Epic Skin Sometimes available in the Shop 1000 Overwatch Coins
Sigrun	Legendary Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Valkyrie	Legendary Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Devil Imp	Legendary Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Witch	Legendary Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Winged Victory	Legendary Skin Sometimes available in the Shop 1900 Overwatch Coins
Sugar Plum Fairy	Legendary Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Seolbim	Legendary Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Zhuque	Legendary Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Combat Medic Ziegler	Legendary Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Dragoon	Legendary Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Mage	Legendary Skin Sometimes available in the Shop
Miko	Legendary Skin Available in the Battle Pass at Tier 50

Overwatch 2 launched on October 4th with Kiriko as the newest support hero. Kiriko learned the deadly art of ninjutsu from her mother Asa. When the Shimada can fell, Kiriko’s father was taken hostage and Kiriko had to be moved to her grandmother’s home. After years of training in the healing arts, she has returned to take on her enemies.

Overwatch 2 Kiriko’s Abilities

Kiriko’s Abilities in Overwatch offer a mix of offensive and defensive capabilities. She is primarily a healer, but her damage output is quite strong. Here is a rundown of all her Abilities.

Wall Climb (Passive): Her passive allows her to jump at walls and climb up them. It is the same passive as Genji and Hanzo, and it gives her added mobility and survivability. 

Healing Ofuda (Primary Fire): Her main source of healing is her Healing Ofuda. She can store up to 10 charges that rapidly refresh. You can burst heal by holding down your primary fire button or you can toss them at your allies one at a time. Each talisman heals allies for 13 HP each and throwing them out in a burst heals allies for 26 HP.

Kunai (Secondary Fire): Kiriko’s secondary fire does 40 damage per body shot and 120 damage per headshot and holds up to 12 ammo before needing to reload. Her secondary fire has pinpoint accuracy and can potentially two-tap most heroes in the game.

Swift Step (Ability): Kiriko’s first Ability is Swift Step which allows her to teleport to allies even through other characters. It has a short 7-second cooldown and allows you to traverse up to 35 meters.

Protection Suzu (Ability): Kiriko’s Protection Suzu is an arcing projectile that makes allies immune upon impact. It also cleanses all negative effects and heals allies for 50 HP. The Ability can be used to completely shut down certain Ultimates.

Kitsune Rush (Ultimate): Kiriko’s Ultimate Ability summons a fox spirit that rushes forward and buffs all allies. Kitsune Rush buffs movement speed by 50%, maximum range by 25 meters, rate of fire by 25%, reload time by 50%, and all allied Abilities have a 60% cooldown reduction. The buffs last for 10 seconds.

Overwatch 2 Kiriko Skins

Here are all of the skins available in Overwatch 2 for Kiriko: 

• Athleisure (Legendary)
• Sukajan (Legendary)
• Hinotori (Legendary – Battle Pass)
• Matsuri (Epic)
• Ajisai (Rare)
• Fuji (Rare)
• Take (Rare)
• Tanpopo (Rare)

Most of Kiriko’s skins can be purchased using legacy Overwatch tokens as well as Overwatch 2 coins. However, the Hinotori skin is exclusive to the Battle Pass. The Sukajan skin for Kiriko can be obtained for free as a Twitch drop from October 7th to October 16th by watching any Overwatch 2 stream on Twitch for six hours.

Overwatch 2 Kiriko Tips

Kiriko is designed as an aggressive support character. She can heal allies, deal tons of damage and buff her teammates. To truly master her, players need to figure out team synergies and develop an understanding of when to use her important Abilities. Here are some tips that can help you master Kiriko in Overwatch 2: 

Aim for Headshots: It is important to aim for headshots with Kiriko as she has a 3X multiplier to her damage. If you are caught out of position by an enemy or need to take out an important target, always aim for the head. Since your Kunai does increase critical damage you will be able to take most enemies out in just over a second. The hero is very mechanically demanding but she has pinpoint accuracy on her weapon, which should make it easier for you to master the most lethal component of her kit.

Combine Spirit Step with Protection Suzu: Supports can see when their allies have critical health and you can use your Spirit Step to run into allies who are in danger even through walls as long as they are in range. Your Protection Suzu will grant yourself and your ally in danger immunity and you should be able to recuperate from the situation.

Use Protection Suzu to Make Game-Winning Plays: Many Ultimate Abilities can be shut down if you time your Protection Suzu right. You can completely negate all damage from D.Va or Cassidy’s Ultimate or even shut down important Abilities. You should also identify Abilities that do not get cleansed by the Ability which currently include Junkrat’s Steel Trap, Reinhardt’s Charge, Roadhog’s Chain Hook, Sigma’s Gravitic Flux, and Zarya’s Graviton Surge.

You can also enable plays with Protection Suzu by setting up Abilities for your teammates. If we use Earthshatter as an example, Reinhardt is typically prone to getting his Ultimate Ability canceled by other heroes. By making Reinhardt immune for a short duration, he can pull off his Ultimate without any disruption.

Combine Kitsune Rush With Other Abilities: Kitsune Rush can make already devastating Abilities and Ultimates become even more lethal. Storm Arrows and Whole Hog receive a massive fire rate buff which allows them to deal increased damage in a shorter duration. However, there are some inconsistencies and abilities like Particle Barrier, Projected Barrier, and Sentry Turret do not receive  

When Should You Play Kiriko?

Kiriko is suitable for all maps but she works best in more aggressive team compositions. Her healing output is not that high compared to Ana or Moira but she can definitely hold her own. If your team’s other healer is a Lucio or Zenyatta, then it can be difficult to go up against enemy teams that have a lot of splash damage.

Her Protection Suzu can save your team in a pinch and she is hard to kill thanks to Spirit Dash which can get her away from danger. She is arguably on par with Lucio and Zenyatta in terms of utility and is a strongly recommended pick if you want to play her. However, the meta needs to settle down before we truly realize where she is positioned among the current roster of healers.