Overwatch 2 - Sombra Hero Guide

Overwatch 2 Season 7: Rise of Darkness brings a rework to Sombra, changing all of her abilities and introducing a new one: the Virus ability. While Sombra is still a stealth-focused flanker, it now requires a bit more thought to get in and out of trouble. That said, this rework does give Sombra a bit of a nerf, reducing the amount of damage she can do in short bursts since she no longer does 40% more damage to hacked enemies. Below you can find everything you need to know about playing Sombra with her new abilities.

You can see how all heroes, including this one, stack up in our Overwatch 2 tank tier list, DPS tier list, and support tier list. Where did your favorite land?

Sombra overview

Overwatch 2's resident hacker comes equipped with a high-powered machine pistol, which has a short effective range, but is deadly at short distances. Sombra is designed to be a flanker and a disruptor. Stealth is now a passive ability, with Sombra entering stealth after being out of combat for two seconds. The translocator now functions as a short range teleport, with Sombra throwing it and teleporting shortly after. To best utilize Sombra, you want to sneak up on an enemy, Hack them, hit them with the Virus, and shoot them, before throwing the Translocator to escape the area.

Sombra abilities

• Machine Pistol: Short-ranged automatic weapon.
• Hack: Hold to hack. Hacked enemies cannot use abilities for a few seconds and can be seen through walls. Hacked health packs respawn faster and cannot be picked up by the enemy team. Taking damage interrupts the hack attempt.
• Stealth: Become invisible and move faster.
• Translocator: Throw a beacon and teleport to it automatically after 0.25 seconds. Reduces Stealth passive cooldown.
• EMP ultimate: Deals damage equal to 30% of nearby enemies health, hacking them, and destroying any nearby barriers.
• Virus: Fire a projectile at an enemy that deals 10 damage on impact (20 damage if hacked.) Virus deals 100 damage over 4 seconds (2 seconds if hacked.)

Not a head on fighter

When playing Sombra, you should pretty rarely be pushing with the rest of your team. Sombra's abilities aren't effective when trying to fight head on, so you want to always be sneaking into their back line. You will want to use the Hack ability while still in stealth, as your enemy likely won't notice you quickly enough to stop you. It's important to note that while enemies' abilities are only disabled for a few short seconds, the hack lasts longer than that, making them visible to you through walls and weak to Virus. While hacking a tank so they can't use their abilities briefly can be useful in certain situations, the priority should be support heroes, followed by damage heroes. If you aren't sure who to prioritize, keep an eye on the kill feed and the scoreboard. You can use this information to target whomever is performing the best in the match or even bully the enemy team's weak link.

The best way to maximize the Translocator

Sombra no longer gets to set up her Translocator on a health pack to continuously return to. Now, if you want to exit a fight, you need to throw your Translocator, which automatically teleports you to it after 0.25 seconds. The important thing to remember with this change is that you won't go very far, since the Translocator can only travel so far before you teleport to it. The other thing is that when you want to exit a fight, you need to wait for the throwing animation to complete, so it's no longer instant. The teleport does reduce your stealth cooldown, so you will re-enter stealth shortly after teleporting to the Translocator.

Infecting enemies

Sombra's new ability is Virus, which you will need to land on an enemy if you want to take them out. Instead of the 40% damage boost on hacked enemies, you now need to land this projectile, which deals a small amount of damage on impact, followed by 100 damage over four seconds, or two seconds if the enemy is hacked. This means the strategy to kill enemies is to hack them, hit them with the virus, and use your pistol to finish the job. Something to keep in mind is that when enemies get hacked, they have a tendency to move erratically when it happens, making it difficult to land the virus. In some cases, it might make more sense to wait a moment or two to throw the virus.

The EMP blast

The EMP blast is best used when the enemy team is all together, either pushing the objective or trying to stop your team. Just like the normal Hack, their abilities will be shut down for a few seconds, giving your team a chance to push hard. Since Sombra can get right into the middle of the action using Stealth before pulling the EMP, it's easy to wait for a good opportunity. Another great time to use the EMP is if the enemy team is using an ongoing ultimate ability, like Soldier 76's or Moria's. The EMP will shut down some enemies' ultimate abilities, making them a complete waste for the enemy team.

Other Sombra tips

• Sombra can see enemies through walls when they are low on health. If you see an enemy retreating to heal, go pay them a visit.
• Sombra's normal hack ability can also stop some enemy ultimate abilities, but since it takes a moment for the ability to work, it can be harder to pull off than the EMP. You will also need to learn which ultimates it cancels and which ones it doesn't.
• Throwing your Translocator straight up in the air can be very effective, as your Stealth passive will kick back in before you hit the ground.
• The hack on health packs doesn't last forever, so make sure you are regularly topping it off.
• If you get too close to an enemy in Stealth, you will be exposed and become briefly visible, but it doesn't break your Stealth unless they do damage to you.
• Not every Hack needs to result in a kill, sometimes getting the enemy team to turn around to deal with you can make an opportunity for your team.
• Sombra is better suited for quickly eliminating an enemy, so don't sweat if you aren't dealing as much damage as your other damage hero, the eliminations are what matters.