In Overwatch 2, Echo doesn’t seem to have found her place yet. Melding multiple hero abilities into one character, our robotic friend doesn’t have a voice of her own, but hopefully, as the seasons progress, she’ll be able to find one.
The last new character introduced to the original Overwatch, Echo, didn’t have much time to settle into the game before it was overhauled into Overwatch 2. Despite being made for a 6v6 game, with more shields and fewer skirmishes, she had to adapt quickly to the new 5v5 battles.
Unfortunately, in Overwatch 2, Echo often finds herself at the wrong end of a Roadhog’s Hook or Reinhardt’s Firestrike, as she is more vulnerable than ever. This is mainly because she has one less tank to hide behind in Overwatch 2, making her a prime target for other DPS heroes when she takes to the skies. But there's still a lot to love about this omnic, so if you’re up to the challenge, here’s everything you need to get to grips with Echo.
Overwatch 2 Echo
Overwatch 2 Echo: story and background
Designed by Dr. Mina Liao to aid Overwatch during combat missions, in Overwatch 2, Echo now takes physical form to aid her teammates. Despite the numerous fail-safes and multiple layers of protection in place to prevent this next-gen omnic from going rogue, Overwatch leadership was reluctant to put her in full service.
However, it turns out that Dr. Liao had programmed Echo to have an advanced AI that learns through observation. After thousands of hours of tests and trials beside the doctor, Echo began to adopt her mannerisms. Unfortunately, this relationship was cut short when Dr. Liao was killed during an attack on her Overwatch facility. Fearful of this unknown omnic, leadership decided to discontinue the programme and send Echo into hibernation.
Thankfully, this rest didn’t last long as our favorite cowboy Cassidy Cole freed Echo and called her back into battle for the sake of Overwatch and the rest of the world.
Overwatch 2 Echo: Abilities breakdown
Primary Fire: Tri-shot
Description: Fires three shots in a triangle pattern.
Dealing 51 damage per shot with the ability to release three shots per second, Echo can be deadly if you have the proper aim to complement her flying style. You’ll get 12 bullets before you reload, but this should be enough to secure a kill or scare away an over-zealous Genji.
However, this is a projectile, so it can be difficult to land shots when you need to account for how long it will take for the bullet to hit your enemy, along with your movement speed and their movement direction.
Some tips and tricks for this weapon:
- You can get a headshot with the Tri-Shot so go for the kill.
Ability: Sticky Bombs
Description: A volley of sticky bombs that detonate after a short delay.
These bombs do a total damage of 180, meaning if you land these on a damaged support hero or DPS, then you’ll likely get the finishing kill. However, these will stick to whatever it hits first, so if you miss your target and they get out of the two-meter explosion radius; then you’ll be left with nothing to show for your work.
You also need to be careful who you target. While these Sticky Bombs can take a significant chunk out of a tank’s health, some heroes like D.Va or Sigma can swallow these incoming explosives.
Some tips and tricks about this ability:
- You cannot get a headshot with this ability.
- Baptiste’s Damage Matrix can increase the lethality of your Sticky Bombs if you shoot them through the window.
Ability: Flight
Description: Echo surges forward rapidly and can fly freely
Echo can travel some serious distances at eight meters per second with this ability. In Overwatch 2, Echo is only one of three heroes who can fly freely. The others being Pharah and, debatably, D.Va, thanks to her Boosters.
While this ability only has a max duration of three seconds, this skill has a short cooldown of six seconds. So if you time it right and learn how to glide, you can stay airborne for a long time.
Some tips and tricks about this ability:
- Vertical and horizontal speeds are related, so you cannot have eight meters per second of horizontal and vertical velocity at the same time.
- Abilities like Ana’s Sleep Dart cannot interrupt this ability.
- You can manually cancel this skill by activating it again.
Ability: Focus Beam
Description: Channel a high-damage beam for a few seconds.
In Overwatch 2, Echo isn’t the only character that beams out the competition. You may think of Zarya or Symmetra when you think of a terrifying bright light coming your way. But rest assured; Echo’s can be equally as scary.
This ability does 100 damage over the max duration of two seconds with a fall-off range of 16 meters. However, if you’re targeting something (including turrets or barriers), this skill deals 3.5 times more damage.
Some tips and tricks for this ability:
- You cannot get a headshot with this ability.
- If the power is interrupted before the end of casting time, the cooldown will not start.
Ultimate: Duplicate
Description: Echo can become a copy of the targeted enemy hero.
There are many heroes in Overwatch for Echo to target, so this ultimate can be a lot of fun. Your max range is pretty far for this ultimate to work at 40 meters, but even if you get caught up in battle, your health instantly restores itself when transforming into the chosen enemy hero.
While in this form, you have a duration of 15 seconds and can charge your ultimate ability 6.5 times faster, meaning you can easily use a second ultimate within this time. However, her health is capped at 300, so she won’t be mimicking Ramattra’s strength in this aspect. This means a team can focus and kill Echo’s ultimate relatively quickly, as she will revert to her original form when her health hits one.
Some tips and tricks for this ultimate:
- Echo cannot switch heroes for the duration of this ability.
- When Echo reverts to her original form, she also gets the health she had before using the ultimate
- Reverting to her original condition cancels any abilities she was using.
- Echo cannot mimic another Echo who has transformed.
- Echo cannot target non-playable characters like Ashe’s ultimate B.O.
- Duplicate is one of the hardest ultimates to charge up, so keep in mind that it could take a while.
Overwatch 2 Echo: Gameplay breakdown
In Overwatch 2, Echo got the short end of the stick. Too new to the original Overwatch to fit among the roster neatly and too old to slide into Overwatch 2’s fresh style of fighting, it’s hard knowing what to do with this airborne menace.
You’d be forgiven for playing this hero as you would Pharah, the other flying character in Overwatch 2. However, these two are actually vastly different. Pharah is almost like a flying tank, not healthwise, but in the sense that she is stocky, slow, and does a lot of damage in small amounts. In this vein, Echo is genuinely a DPS. She is quick and less stable than Pharah and does less damage but is more consistent.
Instead of hovering in the sky and blasting shots down below as you would with Pharah, Echo’s agility is her greatest asset. You can quickly scale buildings and dive into the backline attacking vulnerable support heroes. However, ensure you keep an eye on how much juice you have to get back to safety, as this AI is like a sitting duck by herself.
