Overwatch 2: A Guide to Echo

Echo is a DPS, or Damage character in Overwatch 2. She is a highly mobile burst carry that can swoop into the fight from afar or up close, take out a target, and return safely. She is super versatile and super strong, but may take a bit of learning to get used to.

Echo may be newer than most characters, but she definitely doesn't lack in the outfit department. If you want to pick up Echo, then check out our skin review to find out her best skins. Once done, let's get onto the guide.

Echo's Weapons and Abilities

Ability 1: Tri-Shot (Primary Fire)

This friendly Omnic has a not-so-friendly primary fire. Echo fires a triangular pattern of shots. With no falloff and good damage, Echo can easily take down enemies from afar, as a sniper would.

Damage	Fire Rate	Ammo
17 per pellet 51 per shot (3 pellets)	3 shots per second	12

These shots can headshot, but, due to their pattern, you might lose out on some damage if aiming directly for the head.

Ability 2: Sticky Bombs (Secondary Fire)

Echo fires a volley of bombs that will stick onto enemies and surfaces, exploding after a short duration. These bombs are great for damage in a quick panic; their high damage and big AoE will scare off enemy damage characters.

Damage	AoE	Cooldown
5 Impact damage 25 Explosion damage 180 Total damage	2 meters explosion radius	6 seconds

Ability 3: Flight

As the name indicates, Echo surges into the air in her chosen direction, then flies freely for a short while. You can choose to rise or descend, and even cancel the flight.

Move Speed	Duration	Cooldown
8 meters per second	0.2 - 3 seconds	6 seconds

Combined with her passive ability, this is the reason Echo's mobility is so potent.

Ability 4: Focusing Beam

Echo has yet another damaging ability, there's no crowd control in this Omnic. Echo channels a laser beam from her hands, dealing damage over time during the beam's duration. If the target is under half health, the beam's damage nearly quadruples.

Damage	Range	Duration	Cooldown
50 - 175 per second (depending on enemy HP)	16 meters	0.24 - 2 seconds	8 seconds

Like her flight, this can also be cancelled if you're in a scary situation.

Ability 5: Duplicate

Echo duplicates the selected enemy with her ultimate ability, gaining their abilities, health pool, and even skin. During this time, Echo's ultimate point accumulation is increased by 6.5x, allowing her to spam the duplicated hero's ultimate. 

Range	Duration	Ultimate Cost
40 meters to select target	15 seconds	2254 points

Passive Ability 1: Glide

Echo can glide while falling, useful after using her Flight. She gains a 50% movement buff when moving horizontally, and falls to the ground at 4 meters a second.

Echo's Playstyle

• Echo is squishy, and wants to flank enemies most of the time, dealing a huge burst of damage with her Tri-Shot and Sticky Bombs, then finishing them off with a Focusing Beam.
• Echo can also snipe targets from afar, her abilities except for her Beam do not have any falloff, so she can poke pretty well from any range.
• Focusing Beam is vital versus tanks, if the enemy tank is half health, which can be a whole 350 HP, Echo will still shred them in two seconds.
  
• Echo's Duplicate is very complex, and can either be useless, or win a fight. Knowing which character to duplicate, and getting value out of it in the form of ultimates, is a major part in Echo's playstyle.
• Countering this highly-mobile high damaging carry can be a real tough job outside of certain characters, so check out this guide for help.

How do I unlock Echo?

A very sad part of the article for new players. As Echo is complex, a newer addition to Overwatch, and requires the knowledge of essentially all other characters, she requires the most amount of games to unlock. 150 completed games are necessary to unlock Echo, as part of the new player experience from Blizzard. These can be completed in any game mode outside of Custom games, so enjoy the grind.

Echo's Tips and Tricks

If you've finally got Echo, or already had her, and are ready to go out and wreck with her, be sure to read these tips and tricks.

• Get a basic knowledge of Overwatch's cast. You'll need to know their abilities if you want to Duplicate them effectively.
• Use Flight wisely. Like with other characters' mobility, it is strong but you will regret misusing it when you actually need it.
  
• If they have two or more hitscan characters, switch. This is mostly a tip to not throw games whilst trying Echo, as she is very vulnerable to hitscan carries.
• Use your Focusing Beam whenever you can. And by can, I mean when the enemies are low. This ability is broken, and can clean up multiple enemies after a rough teamfight.
  
• Find interesting flanks. Echo's Glide and Flight allow her to get to spots not many other characters can get to. Surprise your enemies with these.
  
• You are a very strong scout. Like Pharah can, use your height advantage to get information for your team.

Echo's Lore

Echo was designed by the brilliant doctor Mina Liao. Her personality is pretty much based off of Liao. She is an Overwatch doctor, and dreamt of improving Omnics through the Echo Project. After getting the green light from Morrison and Reyes, she started her work on an Omnic who could help Overwatch in any type of combat.

After the Omnic Crisis, this project would slow down, as Overwatch were restricted on developments in AI. Liao had to thus create a weaker Omnic than what she had anticipated, but still a useful one, and one that would go on several Overwatch missions. However, she had also installed an extremely adaptable and intelligent AI in Echo, allowing to to reconfigure itself and evolve, essentially becoming stronger by herself. This secret was only known by a few, including Cassidy, a part-time bodyguard for Liao.

Unfortunately, Liao was killed in an attack on Overwatch, and the project halted again. Echo was shutdown and put into custody of the U.S. government.

Many years later, Winston recalled all Overwatch members to team up once again. Cassidy intercepted an attack on Echo as she was being transported to Overwatch HQ, and reunited with her.

Echo became a part of Overwatch once more, fighting off Null Sector in Paris and Rio, and looks to continue supporting the main Overwatch team with her infinite adaptability. Her surroundings and experiences will continuously mould her into who she is, but Overwatch will certainly be a good influence on her.