Overwatch Tips: How to Play Junkrat

Junkrat in Overwatch

If you’re looking for a good defense character to play as, Junkrat is a great starter choice. Most of his abilities are very defensive, but if you use them right, he can also be quite the lethal attacker. Junkrat has a Frag Launcher that fires grenades, making it a very useful weapon to keep enemies away from your team. He also has mines and traps at his disposal, which can be used to immobilize and hurt enemies. What’s cool about the mines, however, is that Junkrat can also use them to propel himself into the air, allowing him to make a quick escape if he gets swarmed. This comes is rather handy if you ever get caught in Mei’s Blizzard attack. If you find yourself trapped by the ice attack, simply set down a mine, detonate it, and you’ll fly into the air.

First off, Junkrat’s Frag Launcher might seem a bit unwieldy at a glance. However, the grenades that you fire can actually bounce off walls and the ground, and this allows you to hit enemies from around corners. If you position yourself right, you can even hit your foes while still staying out of their line of sight. If you’ve got Widowmaker on your team, her radar ability will let you see where all your enemies are, making it easier for you to hit them without even alerting them.

The Concussion Mines and Steel Traps are items that you can place around the map, potentially trapping your opponents, making them easy to kill. Of course, it’s best to hide your traps in hard-to-see areas so that your enemies won’t have the chance to disarm them before making their approach. When in the middle of a firefight, these traps might come in handy against Tracer. Since she can Blink around the map with high speed, chances are she’ll fall into some of these traps before even noticing they’re there. These traps won’t hurt your teammates, so you don’t have to worry about them accidentally triggering a Mine or Trap.

Junkrat also has a cool ultimate ability called Rip-Tire. When you activate it, you can control a tire and drive it towards the enemy team before detonating it, causing a lethal explosion. The tire has its own HP bar, so keep an eye on it to make sure the enemies don’t destroy it before you even have a chance to hit them. The tire can also run on walls, allowing you to hit the enemy team from dead angles they won’t expect. Just be sure to place Junkrat in a safe area before activating Rip-Tire; you’ll be completely vulnerable once the ultimate ability is triggered, and you can be attacked.

Lastly, Junkrat has a passive ability called Total Mayhem, and he’ll drop live grenades right when he dies. This will cause an explosion around your dead body, killing off any enemies who happen to be standing near you. While this likely won’t affect long range characters, you’ll still be able to pick off anyone silly enough to stand near you after taking you down.

Abilities

Frag Launcher

Feel free to lob all of your grenades at your enemies. If you have good aim, you can even toss a grenade over Reinhardt’s shield, damaging him and anyone he’s protecting.

Concussion Mine

Set your Mines on the ground, and then hit a button to detonate them. I recommend placing these around corners, where your enemies won’t see them.

Steel Trap

They won’t do a lot of damage, but they will hold your enemies in place, making them an easy kill for your team.

Total Mayhem

If killed, Junkrat drops several live grenades. This will damage a lot of close range attackers such as Reinhardt, McCree, and D.Va.

Rip-Tire

While this ultimate ability can be devastating, remember to watch the tire’s HP bar, and make sure to detonate it before your enemies realize what’s going on.

Backstory

Here’s Junkrat’s official backstory in Overwatch, straight from Blizzard:

• Real Name: Jamison Fawkes, Age: 25
• Occupation: Anarchist, Thief, Demolitionist, Mercenary, Scavenger
• Base of Operations: Junkertown, Australia (formerly)
• Affiliation: Junkers (formerly)

Junkrat is an explosives-obsessed freak who lives to cause chaos and destruction.

The attack on the Australian omnium’s fusion core forever altered the landscape of the Outback. After the detonation, the area was transformed into a harsh, irradiated wasteland, littered with debris and the twisted fragments of the ruined facility, and unlivable to most.

But there were some who survived. Calling themselves the Junkers, they scavenged the husk of the omnium and formed a lawless, cutthroat society in its shadow. Junkrat was one of them, eking out a living reclaiming metal and components from the ruins. Like many others, he was affected by the lingering radiation. This touch of madness made him ideal for handling dangerous explosives, a love which he turned into an obsession.

He came to notoriety when he discovered an extremely valuable secret in the bones of the omnium. Though few knew the nature of what he found, he was nonetheless pursued by bounty hunters, gangs, and opportunists wherever he went, until he made a deal with the Junker enforcer Roadhog, who grudgingly agreed to be his personal bodyguard in exchange for a fifty-fifty share of the spoils.

Now, with Roadhog in tow, Junkrat has left the Outback, and embarked upon an international crime spree leaving nothing but havoc and bedlam in his wake.