Overwatch: How to Play Tracer

Tracer in Overwatch

The Overwatch lineup is full of all sorts of colorful, wacky characters, but for some reason plenty of them just aren’t your speed. If you’re craving the need for speed, then look no further than the cheerful Brit, Tracer.

Tracer is an offense-based character armed with twin pulse pistols and the ability to blink around time and space. Tracer players will want to focus on pushing objectives and flanking enemies, but be warned – Tracer doesn’t take too well to damage. Good Tracer players avoid damage entirely and take out their enemies before they know what hit them.

Due to Tracer’s small health pool, it’s important to make good use of Tracer’s base run speed and blink ability which allows her to teleport  short distances. But plan accordingly! Her blink ability has a limit of three uses, and each use requires a cool-down before it’s replenished. Blinking around the map if perfect for circle-strafing slower tank characters, putting Tracer just out of harm’s reach while distracting the enemy for long enough for your team to lay down the heavy firepower. Also, Tracer’s blink ability is perfect if you find yourself in a hopeless King of the Hill battle where the enemy team seemingly has you locked down. The key is map awareness. Learn the lay of the land and find protected blink paths to navigate unharmed to the objective.

When you finally arrive at the objective, ready your recall ability which allows Tracer to turn back her personal timeline, restoring her physical placement on the map, health, and ammo to seconds before the use. When used correctly at the objective, it can give your team just enough time to catch up to you and conquer the objective.

Finally, Tracer’s super is a sticky pulse bomb that has a high-powered blast radius. Best place to use the pulse bomb is in tight-quarts, and objectives packed with enemies. And if possible – aim for the bigger heroes. A bigger hero means a bigger target.

Tracer’s Abilities

Pulse Pistols – Left Mouse Button/Left Trigger/L2

Tracer’s standard attack does a decent amount of damage, but remember to keep moving. Reloads should always be on the move, and hard to hit. Circle-strafe your target until there’s nothing left.

Blink – Shift/Right Bumper/R1

Tracer’s blink ability allows her to traverse the map horizontally for a maximum of three bursts. Each burst requires a cool down of a few seconds before it’s ready for use again. While many players may be tempted to use their blink as soon as it’s available, the best players bank their blinks for objectives or enemy-heavy checkpoints.

Recall – E/Left Bumper/L1

Tracer’s recall ability allows her to turn back her personal timeline a few seconds, and in doing so, places her back where she used to be along with her health and ammo. Great for maintaining control/contesting objectives.

Pulse Bomb (Super) – Q/Y/Triangle

The pulse bomb is sticky and powerful. While it lacks range, its sticky nature makes it the perfect portable bomb. Aim for tanks for an almost surefire stick, or if you’re feeling lucky, try and stick a healer. Healers mean closer player proximity. And that means more kills for you.

Backstory in Overwatch

Here’s Tracer’s official Overwatch backstory and background information from Blizzard itself:

• Real Name: Lena Oxton, Age: 26
• Occupation: Adventurer
• Base of Operations: London, England
• Affiliation: Overwatch (formerly)

The former Overwatch agent known as Tracer is a time-jumping adventurer and an irrepressible force for good.

Lena Oxton (call sign: “Tracer”) was the youngest person ever inducted into Overwatch’s experimental flight program. Known for her fearless piloting skills, she was handpicked to test the prototype of a teleporting fighter, the Slipstream. But during its first flight, the aircraft’s teleportation matrix malfunctioned, and it disappeared. Lena was presumed dead.

She reappeared months later, but her ordeal had greatly changed her: her molecules had been desynchronized from the flow of time. Suffering from “chronal disassociation,” she was a living ghost, disappearing for hours and days at a time. Even for the brief moments she was present, she was unable to maintain physical form.

Overwatch’s doctors and scientists were stumped, and Tracer’s case seemed hopeless until a scientist named Winston designed the chronal accelerator, a device capable of keeping Tracer anchored in the present. In addition, it gave Tracer the ability to control her own time, allowing her to speed it up and slow it down at will. With her newfound skills, she became one of Overwatch’s most effective agents.

Since Overwatch’s dissolution, Tracer has continued to right wrongs and fight the good fight wherever the opportunity presents itself.