Overwatch Tracer guide: How to play, abilities, tips, lore, skins

Fancy leading the cavalry as Overwatch’s iconic DPS hero Tracer? Our guide will help you master the spunky Englishwoman, giving you as much as you need to know about her lore, gameplay, skins and abilities.

It’s pretty clear that Tracer has become the poster child of Blizzard’s iconic FPS, Overwatch. The adorable English hero with the purest of hearts features in everything from the title’s cinematic universe to the game’s cover art.

Despite her renown she isn’t the easiest hero in the world to master, so we’ve gone ahead and broken down everything you need to know about Tracer. And if you wanted to know about Overwatch 2 changes for this character, well we’ve got you covered there too.

Overwatch Tracer lore

Tracer hasn’t always been the time jumping hero we know her as today.

The face of Overwatch began her journey with humble origins. Born in London, UK, young Lena Oxton was quite the party animal. With an unquenchable need for speed, she traded in her motorcycle for the high flying planes of the Royal Airforce (RAF) and became known by her callsign, Tracer.

Renowned for her upbeat attitude and fearlessness, she enlisted in the Overwatch experimental flight program. While apparently a huge step forwards, for Lena it became quite the ordeal. Chosen to test the RAF’s new teleporting fighter jet, the Slipstream, she vanished into the space-time continuum with the device and was presumed deceased.

Appearing months later, it transpired that her trip through time had altered her cells, desynchronizing them from the flow of time. She was a ghost, unable to materialize in one place until Overwatch leader Winston tethered her to the Chronal Accelerator that lets her dart through time today.

After Overwatch disbanded she took to the streets of her home town as a vigilante, hoping that she’d be able to take up the mantle of hero once more. Turns out, her wish came true with the events of Overwatch 2.

Tracer weapon

Tracer’s weapons of choice are dual automatic pistols, nicknamed her Pulse Pistols. Wielding them with picture perfect precision, she sinks Earth’s enemies with a spray of bullets and a cheery smile.

Damage:
- 1.8 – 6 per bullet
- 3.6 – 12 per shot

Falloff range:
- 12 to 20 meters
Spread angle:
- Max: 3.6 degrees
Num. of pellets:
- 2 bullets per shot
Rate of fire:
- 20 shots per second
Ammo:
Ammo usage:
- 2 rounds per shot
Reload time:
- 1.15 seconds

NOTE: Tracer rapid-fires both of her pistols.

Overwatch Tracer Abilities

Using Winston’s Chronal Accelerator, Tracer darts around the battlefield with lethal precision.

If you’re going to try and master Tracer, you’ll need to make sure you get her abilities in check. Focused around mobility, you’ll be zipping around the battle in an attempt to breach the backlines, as well as dealing a huge amount of damage.

Blink
- Max. range: 7.5 meters
- Ammo: 3 charges
- Duration: 0.1 seconds
- Cooldown: 3 seconds per charge, 9 seconds for all three charges

NOTE: Tracer zips horizontally through space in the direction she’s moving, and reappears several yards away. She stores up to three charges of the blink ability and generates more every few seconds.

- Healing: Health returned to the highest value in the past 3 seconds
- Duration: 1.25 seconds rewinding, rewinds 3 seconds back
- Cooldown: 12 seconds

NOTE: Tracer bounds backward in time, returning her health, ammo and position on the map to precisely where they were a few seconds before.

Tracer Ultimate Ability: Pulse Bomb

- Damage: Stick: 5, Explosion: 70-350, Self: 70-350
- Projectile speed: 15 meters per second
- Area of effect: 5 meter explosion radius
- Casting time: 0.15 seconds (throw), 1 second (after stick)

NOTE: Tracer lobs a large bomb that adheres to any surface or unfortunate opponent it lands on. After a brief delay, the bomb explodes, dealing high damage to all enemies within its blast radius.

How to play Tracer: tips

“Cheers love, the cavalry’s here!”

If you fancy a more chill Overwatch experience, then Tracer isn’t for you. The DPS hero is all about darting into the front and back lines, dealing damage and getting right back out. She’s the best example of a skirmisher in the game.

The best way to cause chaos as Tracer is by taking out squishier targets. If you can Blink in, drop a Pulse Bomb, and Recall out, you can obliterate low HP targets in an instant.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be using your Pulse Bomb on bigger targets; that can also be a great idea. If you attach the bomb to the enemy team’s main tank, who all of the supports and DPS are rotating around, then you can chunk the entire team with one good stick then get out of there unscathed.

Finally, it’s worth trying out just throwing your Pulse Bomb. If you drop it as the enemy team make their way through a choke point, it’s the perfect way to cause some chaos and deter further advances.

Overwatch Tracer skins

Overwatch 2 Tracer changes

Tracer’s got an upgrade coming into Overwatch 2.

As well as getting an additional speed boost coming into Overwatch’s highly anticipated sequel, Tracer’s got a whole new look too. Her iconic orange sports leggings have been transformed into a camouflage style, with “Tracer” emblazoned on the left leg.

Her iconic goggles have also been switched up a little, and are now totally orange without the white frame.

Finally, her fur lined pilot’s jacket has been replaced by a more combat style one, likely reflecting her vigilante status. All in all, this version of the spunky English hero seems a lot more hardcore than her previous iteration.

Additionally, we’ve seen some snippets of Tracer’s talent tree, a new feature that’s going to be implemented in Overwatch 2. For more info on that, check out our detailed breakdown.

Overwatch 2 has snatched the iconic talent system from Blizzard’s MOBA, Heroes of the Storm.

In true Heroes of the Storm style, it appears that players will gain a new Talent every time Tracer gains 10 levels. You’ll have to pick between two Talents, which will influence how your game plays out.

Here are the different levels that we’ve seen so far:

Level 1:
- Adaptive Reload: Pulse Pistols reload when using any ability OR
- Hindsight: Recall causes damage to all recent damaged enemies.
Level 10:
- Flash: Blinking through enemies damages them OR
- Pulse Bomb causes secondary explosions on enemies that are damaged by it.
Level 20:
- Vortex: Enemies are pulled towards the point of Recall and snared OR
- Speed Kills: Killing blows speed up your cooldowns.

While it’s assumed that this will system is for the PvE experience and its respective story missions, we know little else other than what’s encapsulated in this screenshot. The abilities above are also likely to change before the final release, so don’t take them as set in stone!

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