An Ultimate Guide On All The Female Overwatch Characters

by  Dana Sydorenko Last update: March 26, 2024

Overwatch provides a vast and diverse cast of interesting female heroes, each with her own well-developed backstory, motives, strengths, and weaknesses. With such a wide selection of heroines, I’m really glad to see that Overwatch sends a powerful message of acceptance and recognition for women. I love playing Overwatch female characters, and my GameTree friends often choose girls as well. Therefore, in this article, I decided to collect basic information about all the female characters in OW to make it easier for you to choose.

The Rise Of Overwatch Girl Characters

Some players are surprised that there are so many female characters in Overwatch 2. Initially, the game had more male heroes, but the OW team has always stated that they want to make their game equal for everyone and strive to show a future in which there is gender balance. In fact, the ratio between female and male characters is approximately 50/50 now and the first non-binary character is going to have their first appearence soon. Way to go!

In addition, there is another reason for adding more girls to Overwatch: people tend to buy female skins more often, and female characters are also more enjoyable for fanart.

Nevertheless, the female heroes in Overwatch are not only visually appealing but also portrayed as strong and capable characters, which many players actively seek out using Overwatch 2 LFG apps like GameTree.

Although there are always to sides to the story, and some players would like to see more male characters in the upcoming seasons, thus being a bit more on the toxic side. But we’ll see how it goes, and as for now, we’re concentrating on female Overwatch characters. so let’s explore what we’ve got.

All The Female Overwatch Characters List

There are a total of 17 female heroes in Overwatch. Each of them appeared in the game at a particular moment and was endowed with specific characteristics, types (damage, support, and tank), and ults. Accordingly, playing as each of these girls will give you a different gaming experience. From the lists below, you’ll learn all Overwatch female characters’ names, as well as their ultimate abilities and perks.

Damage

Damage characters are the heroes who deal the most damage on the team and are responsible for finding and eliminating the enemy using their various tools and abilities. So, below, you will find descriptions of all female Overwatch characters that are damage dealers.

Sojourn

First appearance: Overwatch 2

Weapons: Railgun

Abilities: Power Slide, Disruptor Shot

Ultimate: Overclock

Passive: Damage

Sojourn is one of the top damage female Overwatch characters. She is an effective, versatile, and simple damage hero, provided that the player shoots accurately.

The basic gameplay is to load up the Railgun while shooting at tanks, use Disruptor Shot to slow down the target, and then use Railgun Alt Fire, preferably aiming for the head of anyone within Disruptor Shot’s range. Thanks to the Power Slide ability, if you take too much damage, you can slip out of the fight.

Sojourn is a rather difficult hero to master because you need to shoot accurately. Most of the hero’s power comes from the Railgun’s secondary fire.

Special tips:

• Sojourn is a classic damage hero, so hang around on the front lines, keeping your distance while remaining relatively safe. Use Railgun Alt Fire on any weakened targets, especially support heroes.
• Focus on maintaining your main fire, sliding to stay mobile and avoid damage, and building up your Railgun charge.
• The alt fire does not persist, so use it immediately after charging each time.

Sombra

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Machine Pistol

Abilities: Hack,Translocator,Virus

Ultimate: EMP

Passive: Damage, Stealth

Sombra is among the most difficult damage-dealing female characters in Overwatch 2. She uses her hacks and movement abilities to teleport around the battlefield, supporting her team and eliminating key targets.

Although Sombra doesn’t have the highest damage output, she makes up for it with powerful support, hacking abilities, and high mobility, which allows her to be everywhere at once.

Special tips: 

• Use the translocator to gain high ground and pick off enemies from above.
• Sombra becomes visible briefly when performing a hack. Make sure no one is in sight when you are hacking.
• Only you can see enemies through walls using the Opportunist ability, so be sure to coordinate with your team.
• Hack is the central ability in her set and the key to victory. Plus, hacking health kits near retreat points lets you quickly restore an ally’s health if a healer is not nearby.

Mei

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Endothermic Blaster

Abilities: Cryo-Freeze, Ice Wall

Ultimate: Blizzard

Passive: Damage

Mei is great for 1v1 combat and is one of the most valuable offensive Overwatch female characters, especially if played carefully. Unlike other attackers, Mei is more team-oriented and does not need to be aggressive. This versatile hero can stop the entire team with an ice wall or end the fight by going into freezing and healing herself.

Special tips: 

• Mei interacts well with teammates who can use her abilities, especially Ice Wall. However, thanks to a wide range of abilities, she can play independently and fits nicely into various compositions, except for the dive.
• Before using the Ice Wall, be very careful and ensure your teammates don’t get trapped in the enemy’s backline.

Symmetra

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Photon Projector

Abilities: Sentry Turret, Teleporter

Ultimate: Photon Barrier

Passive: Damage

Symmetra is one of the most complex Overwatch girl characters to master. Her abilities give the team both defensive features and the ability to quickly change positions. She can cover chokepoints with Sentry Turret, use Teleporter to move teammates to high ground or ambush the enemy team, and split the map in half with her Photon Barrier ultimate. Her mobility compensates for her low health. 

Special tips:

• Change the location of the turrets to force the enemy team to guess which angles are dangerous.
• Symmetra can teleport her enemies while they are using her ultimates. This can be used to save your team or, for example, move an enemy to the center of your own team.
• Her turrets also slow down enemies and alert you to their attacks so they can be used as alarms.

Echo

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Tri-Shot

Abilities: Sticky Bombs, Flight, Focusing Beam

Ultimate: Duplicate

Passive: Damage, Glide

Echo is a flexible Overwatch female hero that suits different combinations and is applicable to different situations. She can dive next to tanks, cover the back line, snipe enemies from above, or focus on breaking through enemy shields. Thanks to her high mobility, Echo can attack from multiple positions and bypass shields to strike a vulnerable backline with her Focus Beam.

Special tips:

• Don’t overuse flying, as this is Echo’s main means of escape during a firefight.
• Focusing Beam is good only if you’re shooting at enemies below half health.
• Using Duplicate to restore your low health may not be the best idea since you can get killed during the transition period.

Tracer

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Pulse Pistols

Abilities: Blink, Recall

Ultimate: Pulse Bomb

Passive: Damage

Tracer is a melee Overwatch girl character who specializes in speed and single-target damage. With Blink, Tracer can quickly move around the map, flank enemies, deal damage to them, and then escape. Due to her low health and lack of shield regeneration, she must constantly move and use Blink and Recall to avoid or negate damage.

Special tips: 

• Use the Blink and Recall abilities, which are ideal for imposing aggression since they have a low cooldown.
• Tracer is not very suitable for direct combat. Attacking from the side or behind is the best option due to her low health.
• Avoid fighting heroes with strong health when they are out of cooldown.

Widowmaker

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Widow’s Kiss

Abilities: Grappling Hook, Venom Mine

Ultimate: Infra-Sight

Passive: Damage

Widowmaker is a classic sniper hero. Her powerful sniper rifle allows her to take out damage and support heroes with one headshot. She can do this from a long distance, so the enemy will have little to oppose her. Additionally, playing as Widowmaker is relatively easy, provided the player is a good shot. 

Special tips: 

• Don’t stay in one place after a few shots, as it’s only a matter of time before uninvited guests come to you.
• Focus on healers and weak DPS characters first, as they have low HP.
• If you’re having trouble in open areas, move close to corridors and narrow passages to make headshots easier.

Ashe

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: The Viper

Abilities: Dynamite, Coach Gun

Ultimate: B.O.B.

Passive: Damage

Ashe is a DPS Overwatch girl who wields a powerful rifle and can throw explosives at opponents to deal damage at close range or to escape. Ashe is great for mid to long ranges, where her rifle explosions do decent damage.

Special tips: 

• When activated, B.O.B. appears to the right of Ashe. Keep this in mind when using her ultimate to avoid accidentally hitting your allies.
• Ashe is good for destroying supports and heroes with low HP and a lack of capabilities to deal with ranged threats.
• Dynamite works exceptionally well in tight spaces and places where enemies are clustered.

Pharah

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Rocket Launcher

Abilities: Jet Dash, Jump Jet, Concussive Blast

Ultimate: Barrage

Passive: Damage, Hover Jets

Pharah is an Overwatch female character with excellent aerial mobility, and her rocket launcher does excellent splash damage. Jump Jet lifts Pharah into the air, allowing her to position herself for well-directed attacks or run away from danger. She can also use her ability to fly to reach hard-to-reach spots on maps where enemies aren’t expecting her. Barrage is one of the most dangerous ultimate abilities in the game, capable of easily wiping out entire teams. Overall, Pharah is a good backline character, capable of harassing enemies from afar, dealing good damage to shields, and separating the enemy team members from each other.

Special tips:

• The missiles from Barrage deal a lot of damage and can hit you if you use your Ultimate too close to the enemies.
• After the nerf to AoE damage, using the rocket launcher at close range is better for dealing with more direct damage.
• After defeating an enemy, you gain increased speed, which you can use effectively with Jump Jet to escape enemies or close the distance to the next one.

Support

Support Overwatch women are the backbone of a team’s survival. They are the only heroes who can heal their teammates, making their role incredibly important. Support heroes also help their team by increasing damage and providing various vital utilities. So, here’s the list of all female Overwatch characters of this type.

Kiriko

First appearance: Overwatch 2

Weapons: Healing Ofuda, Kunai

Abilities: Swift Step, Protection Suzu

Ultimate: Kitsune Rush

Passive: Support, Wall Climb

This female Overwatch character boasts one of the most powerful support sets and a useful teleport ability. An experienced Kiriko player can easily damage heroes with low health. Kiriko can move a lot to avoid getting knocked down. While her secondary fire, kunai, doesn’t do as much damage as other healers, its fire and reload speed allow Kiriko to take down an enemy that comes too close.

Special tips: 

• Healing Ofuda moves quickly and covers a long distance, so even if a teammate is far away, you can easily heal them.
• The kunai has a very long range and deals massive damage when it hits the head, so you can quite easily kill an unwary enemy with a successful hit.
• It is important to remember that Kitsune Rush does not provide healing. It increases your fire rate and reload speed, so you can heal faster, but you still need to use healing.

Ana

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Biotic Rifle

Abilities: Sleep Dart, Biotic Grenade

Ultimate: Nano Boost

Passive: Support

Ana used to be one of the best supporting female characters in Overwatch 1. In Overwatch 2, she still excels in her role if the player knows how to use her abilities. Ana is a backline hero, and with her sniper rifle, she can heal teammates from afar, keeping them healthy while staying out of trouble. Ana’s kit is suitable for players with high skill and accuracy, as her sniper rifle, biotic grenade, and sleep dart are small but mighty skills.

Special tips: 

• When aimed, Ana’s shots leave a trail that reveals her position.
• Due to her lack of movement abilities, Ana requires proper positioning. Otherwise, she will be much easier to kill.
• The most effective way to play as Ana is to pump healing into your tank.

Brigitte

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Rocket Flail

Abilities: Repair Pack, Whip Shot, Barrier Shield, Shield Bash

Ultimate: Rally

Passive: Support, Inspire

Brigitte is a support hero with abilities that almost make her a tank. Using her shield and hammer, Brigitte can get up close to enemies to heal her allies, then retreat and restore their health from a distance with repair packs. She can charge her shield to deal damage and make ranged attacks with her weapon, knocking enemies back. Her ultimate gives excess health to herself and everyone in the circle around her. This Overwatch girl is a powerful support hero for players who prefer to heal on the front lines. However, she is challenging to master since she radically differs from other support heroes in the game.

Special tips:

• The whip shot will knock enemies back quite far, so take action if you see an enemy near a ledge.
• You can store a maximum of 3 repair packs, so use them regularly.
• Repair packs provide healing for a few seconds, so they can be thrown proactively before entering combat.

Mercy

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Caduceus Staff, Caduceus Blaster

Abilities: Angelic Descent, Guardian Angel, Resurrect

Ultimate: Valkyrie

Passive: Support, Sympathetic Recovery

Mercy is one of the easiest-to-learn female characters in Overwatch. She focuses almost entirely on healing. Mercy provides one of the highest amounts of healing among supports but deals very little damage. She is armed with a Caduceus Staff, which can connect to an ally and give them healing or a damage boost, depending on the situation. Mercy can also fly to her allies and even revive a fallen teammate with her ability.

Special tips:

• Revive takes a while to prepare and a few seconds to complete the animation, so it’s essential to make sure you’re safe before using it.
• The damage boost is most effective when paired with a friendly ultimate, causing it to deal even more damage.
• Use Mercy’s flying abilities, since high mobility is very important for a support hero, and the team depends on timely help.

Moira

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Biotic Grasp

Abilities: Biotic Orb, Fade

Ultimate: Coalescence

Passive: Support

Moira is a support hero who heals well and has high damage ability. She heals by spraying healing mist with her primary fire, which is limited by the meter. This meter can be refilled with alt-fire, a beam attack that damages enemies within its radius. She has an orb that she can throw, choosing to either heal teammates or damage an enemy, depending on the situation. Her ultimate also does double duty as it is a long-range beam that heals teammates and damages enemies.

Special tips: 

• While in Fade, Moira jumps higher than usual. This way, you can get to places that are usually inaccessible.
• Biotic Orb can pierce enemies but has no effect on those standing behind obstacles.
• Moira can damage enemy heroes to charge her healing beam.

Tank

All these Overwatch 2 female characters absorb damage, protect their team members, and initiate attacks. They have large health reserves and defensive abilities that allow them to last longer in battle and divert enemy fire from their allies. 

Junker Queen

First appearance: Overwatch 2

Weapons: Scattergun

Abilities: Jagged Blade, Commanding Shout

Ultimate: Carnage

Passive: Tank, Adrenaline Rush

Junker Queen is an aggressive tank in the meta who is not easy to kill. Her skill set is relatively simple and focuses on dealing damage over time. She also closes the distance between herself and enemies to deal maximum damage with her shotgun. In addition, her abilities give her speed and stability, which provide her with survivability.

Special tips:

• Aim her ultimate carefully, as once the skill is activated, you won’t be able to change its direction easily.
• Junker Queen is a 1v1 threat. Regenerating health when wounded and having access to the Commanding Shout ability, she can be virtually invincible for some time.
• The HP buff for allies from Commanding Shout is weak and should not be relied upon to heal others. But the movement buff is handy; use it to give everyone a boost.

D.Va

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons:  Fusion Cannons, Light Gun

Abilities: Defense Matrix, Boosters,Micro Missiles

Ultimate: Self-Destruct

Passive: Tank, Eject!

D.Va is a pilot in a mech suit, which means when you run out of health, the pilot leaves the mech. D.Va is armed with two machine guns with unlimited ammunition, missiles, and a protective matrix that absorbs projectiles. The mech is also capable of flight for short periods. D.Va deals serious damage but has less survivability than other tanks.

Special tips:

• After self-destructing, you automatically gain a full charge to summon a new mech.
• The Defense Matrix does not affect beam weapons like Moira, Mei, and other similar Overwatch girls. So, if the enemy team has many such heroes, perhaps you should choose another tank hero.
• Defense Matrix can absorb ultimate projectile abilities, like those from Zarya or Hanzo.

Zarya

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Particle Cannon

Abilities: Particle Barrier, Projected Barrier

Ultimate: Graviton Surge

Passive: Tank, Energy

Zarya protects her allies with barriers that enhance the damage of her Particle Cannon, balancing offense and defense with her energy system. The Particle Cannon fires either short-range beams or longer-range projectiles. Zarya has two barrier charges that can be shared among teammates or herself. Zarya is perhaps the most versatile tank in Overwatch 2. She uses the enemy team’s aggression to power up her attacks while also protecting her allies and draining the health of her opponents.

Special tips:

• The Graviton Surge ultimate is a potential team killer, so it’s worth coordinating with your team regarding its current cooldown and casting strategy.
• Alt fire is better than main fire. When you fire it at a group of enemies, you deal more damage and charge up faster.
• Zarya is useless without energy, so you must maintain high energy levels.

Orisa

First appearance: Overwatch 1

Weapons: Augmented Fusion Driver

Abilities: Energy Javelin, Fortify, Javelin Spin

Ultimate: Terra Surge

Passive: Tank

This Overwatch girl perfectly protects her team while simultaneously posing a threat up close. Her total HP is slightly lower than that of other tank heroes, but her armor compensates this by slightly reducing the damage dealt. Orisa is one of the most popular tanks in Overwatch 2. Her ability to protect her team with her spear and stop enemies in their tracks makes her a key choice in many Overwatch team compositions.

Special tips: 

• Orisa’s biggest weakness is other tanks, such as Reinhardt, who can deal more damage at close range.
• Don’t attack alone; make sure you have the necessary support, as you won’t have enough HP to survive multiple encounters.
• You can use Javelin Spin to help Orisa get closer or retreat, as the speed boost and shield help her cover space with minimal damage.

Enjoy Playing Overwatch? Find People Who Share Your Interests

I invite everyone who likes to play Overwatch to GameTree, a free application created specifically for gamers. Here, you can meet other players who share your love for video games, communicate, discuss news, and agree on matches together.

AI-based matchmaking allows you to find other players who play Overwatch, have a similar level, and play as a specific character, for example, a tank or support. This way, you can assemble the optimal comp as quickly as possible. As you probably already know, game coordination and the proper selection of characters are vital for winning in Overwatch. So, I’m waiting for you at GameTree!

Final Thoughts

Overwatch 2 shows an example of growing diversity in video games, showcasing a wide range of female characters representing different ethnic backgrounds, nationalities, and beauty. The Overwatch female characters are not limited to supporting roles and simple archetypes but are dynamic and powerful figures in their own right. If you prefer to play as a girl, you definitely have plenty to choose from in Overwatch. In this guide, I describe all the female characters, and I hope my article will help you get to know the Overwatch girls better.

Also, you can check out our article on Overwatch 2 matchmaking, if you want to dig deeper into the game.

Images by Overwatch 2 Official Website.