Echo

Echo
"It's good to be back."
Real Name	Echo
Status	Active
Age	Classified
Occupation	Multirole Adaptive Robot
Base	Switzerland (formerly)
Affiliation	Overwatch
Relations	Mina Liao (creator)
Role	Damage
Health	200

Echo is an upcoming Damage hero in Overwatch.

Overview

Echo is an evolutionary robot programmed with a rapidly adapting artificial intelligence, versatile enough to fill multiple battlefield combat roles.

Abilities

Glide

Type

Passive Ability

Echo can glide while falling.

Move. speed:

Horizontal: +50% buff
Vertical: 4 m/s (down)

• Details

Ability details:

Tri-Shot

Type

Weapon

Effect Type

Shotgun (projectile)

Echo fires 3 shots at once, in a triangle pattern.

Damage:

17 per pellet
51 per shot

Headshot:

✓

Rate of fire:

0.33 second recovery
(3 shots per second)

Bullets per shot:

3

Ammo:

15

Reload time:

1.8 seconds

Projectile speed:

75 meters per second

• Details

Ability details:

Sticky Bombs

6 seconds

Type

Ability

Effect Type

Projectile

Echo fires a volley of sticky bombs that detonates after a delay.

Damage:

6 bombs, each:
5 impact damage
30 explosion damage
15 self damage

Headshot:

✕

Rate of fire:

1 bomb per 0.65 seconds

Cast time:

1 second (after stick)

Area of effect:

2.5 meter explosion radius

Projectile speed:

50 meters per second

• Details

Ability details:

Flight

6 seconds

Type

Ability

Echo surges forward quickly, then can fly freely.

Duration:

3 seconds

Move. speed:

8 meters per second

• Details

Ability details:

• Can be manually cancelled by pressing the ability key again.

Focusing Beam

8 seconds

Type

Ability

Effect Type

Beam

Echo channels a beam for a few seconds, dealing very high damage to targets with less than half health.

Damage:

50 per second
200 per second (on low targets)

Headshot:

✕

Duration:

2.5 seconds

Max. range:

20 meters

• Details

Ability details:

• Deals 4 times more damage if she is targeting something (including turrets or barriers) whose HP is 50% or lower.
• Can be manually cancelled by pressing the ability key again.

Duplicate

Q

1680 points

Type

Ultimate Ability

Echo duplicates a targeted enemy hero and gains use of their abilities.

Duration:

15 seconds

Max. range:

40 meters

• Details

Ability details:

• Echo passively generates 1% Ult Charge every 3.36 seconds.
• Echo's HP instantly become the base HP of her target.
• Echo's target cannot switch heroes for the duration of the ability.
• When the duration ends, or if Echo's HP reaches 0 while duplicating, Echo reverts back and her HP becomes her full base HP.
• Player owned objects such as turrets, mines, B.O.B, among others will stay for a few seconds after the ultimate ends.
• While duplicating, Echo's ultimate generation is 6.5 times faster than normal.
• Echo cannot target an enemy Echo.
• Echo cannot target behind enemy barriers.

Match-Ups and Team Synergy

Tank

Hero	Match-Up	Team Synergy
D.Va	(To be added)	(To be added)
Orisa	(To be added)	(To be added)
Reinhardt	(To be added)	(To be added)
Roadhog	(To be added)	(To be added)
Sigma	(To be added)	(To be added)
Wrecking Ball	(To be added)	(To be added)
Winston	(To be added)	(To be added)
Zarya	(To be added)	(To be added)

Damage

Hero	Match-Up	Team Synergy
Ashe	(To be added)	(To be added)
Bastion	(To be added)	(To be added)
Doomfist	(To be added)	(To be added)
Genji	(To be added)	(To be added)
Hanzo	(To be added)	(To be added)
Junkrat	(To be added)	(To be added)
File:Icon-mccree.png McCree	(To be added)	(To be added)
Mei	(To be added)	(To be added)
Pharah	(To be added)	(To be added)
Reaper	(To be added)	(To be added)
Soldier: 76	(To be added)	(To be added)
Sombra	(To be added)	(To be added)
Symmetra	(To be added)	(To be added)
Torbjörn	(To be added)	(To be added)
Tracer	(To be added)	(To be added)
Widowmaker	(To be added)	(To be added)

Support

Hero	Match-Up	Team Synergy
Ana	(To be added)	(To be added)
Baptiste	Try to place immortality field after him, you should win the duel.	(To be added)
Brigitte	(To be added)	(To be added)
Lúcio	(To be added)	(To be added)
Mercy	(To be added)	(To be added)
Moira	(To be added)	(To be added)
Zenyatta	(To be added)	(To be added)

Story

Origins

To chart the origins of the Echo project, it is important to delve into the personal history of Singaporean scientist Dr. Mina Liao, who would later become perhaps best known as one of the founding members of Overwatch. But prior to joining the organization, Dr. Liao was widely considered one of the preeminent experts in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence, and an employee of Omnica Corporation. There she worked on the team that was responsible for the design and creation of the omnics that would ultimately wage war against humanity during the Omnic Crisis. Ultimately, it was this expertise that led her to be recruited into Overwatch to help stop her creations.

Even that catastrophe was not enough to dissuade Liao of her firmly held belief in the potential artificial life and its power to transform the lives of humanity for the better. She dreamed of improving upon the original omnic designs. These theories would become the foundation of the Echo project. However, due to Overwatch's restrictions on artificial intelligence research and development after the Omnic Crisis, Liao was forced to limit Echo’s capabilities. What she created was a multirole, adaptive robot that could be programmed to learn different functions: anything from medical support to construction: but had serious limits to its independent decision making. Critically, Echo had multiple layers of protections, failsafes, and security to keep it under control. Echo was used successfully on test missions alongside Overwatch strike teams, but Overwatch leadership was reluctant to put it into full service.

Reunion

Echo is rescued by McCree.

However, the truth was that Liao had programmed Echo with a powerful, general artificial intelligence that learned by observation. After thousands of hours in the scientist's presence, much of Liao’s behaviors (including her speech), were adopted by the Echo robot. This secret that was known by very few, including Blackwatch agent Jesse McCree, who had, at times, been assigned to guard the scientist. When Liao was killed in attack on an Overwatch facility, Overwatch's leadership was reluctant to continue pursuing such a dangerous project, and all development on Echo was shut down, and the robot was placed into quarantine.

Overwatch 2

Having joined up with the new Overwatch team to defend Paris against the Null Sector incursion, for the first time, Echo is seeing action as a full-fledged team member. But as she is exposed to new people, new ideas, and new situations without Dr. Liao to guide her, no one knows how she might evolve in the future.

Achievements

Name	Icon	Description	Reward
Focused		Earn 2 killing blows with a single use of Echo's focusing beam in Quick or Competitive play.	Pixel
Adaptability		Use 2 other heroes' ultimates as Echo without dying in Quick or Competitive play.	Cute

Trivia

• Echo is Hero 32 and the eleventh new hero added to the game.
• Echo was inside the payload in Route 66 (although she could not be seen). She was later removed alongside the release of the Reunion animated short. She was being transported from Hurlburt Field to Davis–Monthan Air Force Base.
• Her original concept name, Iris, may be related to The Iris, a concept connected to omnics.
• Her concept design appears alongside other heroes in the holovid on display at the Overwatch Museum during the Overwatch cinematic trailer.
• Echo's 'face' is a holographic projection. This would allow her a wide degree of facial expressions, similar to other robots like Snowball as opposed to omnics, who are generally more static in their facial expression.

Development

Early concept art of Echo, then named Iris.

Echo, initially named Iris, was first conceived as a hero for the pitch meeting for Prometheus, which became Overwatch. Her initial design was taken from unused Project Titan concept art, and she was one of the marquee heroes prominently featured in the Prometheus "hero lineup" key art. In the original Prometheus pitch deck, she had the following abilities: Particle Beam, Speed Boost, and Shield, which may have served as inspiration for Zarya and Lucio.

In early concept art for Echo, her design featured both the Athena and Vishkar Corporation logos at different points, but they were only added to fill in empty spaces on the design and did not accurately reflect her lore.

According to Jeff Kaplan, Echo is a very important character and a large story is going to unfold that involves her. Though choosing to remain vague, he indicated that the development team is very interested in making her a playable hero.

In October 2019, Echo was seen among other heroes in leaked Overwatch 2 artwork. During the 2019 BlizzCon, she is shown in the cinematic trailer for Overwatch 2, Zero Hour.

In March 2020, she was announced to be the 32nd playable hero in the game.