Overwatch 2 Mercy guide: lore, abilities, and gameplay
In Overwatch 2, Mercy isn’t the most popular support hero
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
InOverwatch 2,Mercy is the most notable support hero, both in and outside of the FPS game. However, this notoriety is more like infamy for many players who see Mercy as a broken mechanic.
Being one of the oldest heroes on the roster Mercy has undergone many changes throughout her time in Overwatch; it seems like only yesterday that Mercy’s ultimate involved resurrecting her entire team in one go.
However, inOverwatch 2,Mercy is a somewhat different beast now. No longer obsessed with going for big plays, her character does best hiding in the bushes and quietly keeping her team alive.
Overwatch 2 Mercy
Overwatch 2 Mercy: story and background
InOverwatch 2,Mercy is wise beyond her years and more intelligent than some of the brightest scientists this world has ever seen.
With this intelligence came big responsibility as she decided to dedicate her life to researching nanobiology, something that would allow this young scientist the opportunity to heal the world of its illnesses and wounds.
Despite being opposed to military intervention after her parents died in the Omnic War, Mercy joined Overwatch to further her research. Unfortunately, her doubts were realized after members of the stealth organization Blackwatch (namely Reaper andMoira) betrayed the heroic team and went off on their own.
After many years of traveling the world and saving people on her own, Mercy has decided to return to Overwatch, answering Winston and Tracer’s call.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
Overwatch 2 Mercy: abilities breakdown
Primary Weapon: Caduceus Staff
Description:A weapon that can latch on to allies and either heal or damage boost them.
Mercy’s Staff is one of the most reliable ways of healing allies inOverwatch 2.Dishing out 45 health per second if a teammate is above 50% of theirHPor 67.5 per second if they are below this, Mercy is one of the best support heroes for a reason.
This weapon can also switch from healing to damage-boosting an ally. Mercy can boost an ally’s damage by 30%, which is quite a terrifying statistic for more damage-heavy heroes likeSoldier 76, Reaper, and Sojourn.
Some tips and tricks for this weapon:
Secondary Weapon: Caduceus Blaster
Description:An automatic pistol.
InOverwatch 2,Mercy only has one way of defending herself: this Blaster. While you shouldn’t fall into the trap of becoming a frowned upon ‘battle Mercy,’ this Blaster is a good last option for defending yourself.
This weapon is most useful when Mercy is in her Ultimate form when her mobility is maximized, and she is harder to hit.
Some tips and tricks for this weapon:
Ability: Guardian Angel
Description:Fly towards the selected ally.
This ability is the root of Mercy’s mobility. With the ability to move 17 meters per second over a range of 30 meters, Guardian Angel has the power to get Mercy out of some very sticky situations.
This ability also has some extras for those who want to maximize Mercy’s mobility. Pressing space while using Guardian Angel will propel Mercy forward, while hitting the back key will force her back from the target, and finally, using crouch will launch Mercy vertically into the sky. These moves make Mercy hard to kill and are the secret to any great Mercy main.
Some tips and tricks for this ability:
Ability: Resurrect
Description:Revive a dead teammate
InOverwatch 2,Mercy’s Resurrect is one of the more controversial abilities. Stemming from Mercy’s original ultimate that saw her reviving her entire team,Blizzardbroke down this ability to make her character less frustrating to play against.
While this ability is nowhere near as annoying as Mercy’s old ultimate, it is still relatively overpowered. With a cooldown of 30 seconds, if you time it right, Mercy can single-handedly prevent any of her teammates from ending up back in spawn.
Some tips and tricks for this ability:
Passive Ability: Angelic Descent
Description:Mercy falls very slowly.
Mercy can fall very slowly to the ground by holding the jump key. This is a great tool when trying to stay out of reach of the enemy team and buying Mercy more time to look around and fly off to a distant teammate who is out of harm’s way.
Some tips and tricks for this passive ability:
Passive Ability: Sympathetic Recovery
Description:Healing allies with Caduceus Staff heals your wounds as well.
InOverwatch 2,Mercy does not share the automatic self-heal ability seen in all other support heroes. Instead, this medic heals herself when helping her teammates with her Staff. This ability allows Mercy to heal herself with 25% of the healing she bestows to others.
Some tricks and tips for this passive ability:
Ultimate: Valkyrie
Description:Gain the ability to fly and heal all allies within a radius.
Mercy’s ultimate allows her to chain heal her allies, meaning that while she directly heals one hero, others surrounding said character are healed by proxy. However, if an ally breaks the chain by going behind a wall, it can no longer be cured.
This ultimate also dramatically increases the strength of Mercy’s other abilities. If this is engaged, Mercy can heal 60 health per second, with an omnidirectional movement speed of 9 meters per second and 25 meters per second when using Guardian Angel.
Some tips and tricks for this ultimate:
Overwatch 2 Mercy: gameplay breakdown
InOverwatch 2,Mercy is one of the more proficient support heroes, with many seeing this hero as so broken that she’ll win almost every fight she’s in. Of course, Mercy isn’t the one fighting; instead, she can damage, boost and heal her teammates so much it’s almost impossible to counter it without the enemy team also picking Mercy.
In this sense, Mercy is the best support when it comes to just aiding her team. Her damage boost ability is so powerful that this alone can turn a mediocre teammate into a terrifying force of nature. Unfortunately, this power is also why there are so many frustrations against this medic, with many seeing her power as too strong for anyone’s good.
The other way to make the enemy team want to uninstallOverwatch 2is by using her resurrection power. This relatively short cooldown can undo a significant kill in an instant. There’s nothing more demoralizing than seeing Mercy resurrect your kill in the kill feed.
Elie is a Features Writer for TechRadar Gaming, here to write about anything new or slightly weird. Before writing for TRG, Elie studied for a Masters at Cardiff University JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs or editing the gaming section for their student publications.
Elie’s first step into gaming was through Pokémon but they’ve taken the natural next step in the horror genre. Any and every game that would keep you up at night is on their list to play - despite the fact that one of Elie’s biggest fears is being chased.
The PS5 Pro’s PSSR upscaling gives multiple games a huge visual upgrade – can it compete with Nvidia’s DLSS 3 successor?
I’m a Nintendo Switch expert, here are the best early Black Friday deals right now
Quordle today – hints and answers for Saturday, November 9 (game #1020)
