Trancer

"Cheers, Love! The Cavalry's Here!"
Real Name	Lena Oxton
Age	26
Occupation	Adventurer
Affiliation	Overwatch (formerly)
Role	Offense
Health	150
Abilities	Pulse Pistols Blink Recall Pulse Bomb See This Hero On OverPwn

Summary[edit | edit source]

With a unique ability to control the speed of her own passage through time, Tracer zips and blinks around the battlefield, eluding attackers and sneaking past defenses. A perfect skirmisher hero, Tracer is fragile but hard to hit, keeping one step ahead of her attackers while she harasses and harries the enemy team. Tracer excels at getting behind enemy lines, but it is inadvisable to move her through chokepoints.^[1] Should she find herself blinking into an ambush, she can rewind time to her position and state a few seconds earlier, giving her a second chance.

The developers consider Tracer to have one of the most unique playstyles in Overwatch.

Abilities[edit | edit source]

Tracer's abilities are regulated by energy.^[3]

Ability	Icon	Description
Pulse Pistols		Tracer rapid-fires both of her pistols.
Blink		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.
Recall		Tracer bounces backward in time, returning her health, ammo and position on the map to precisely where they were a few seconds before.
Pulse Bomb (Ultimate ability)		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.

Ability Breakdown[edit | edit source]

Ability	Ammo	Fire Rate	Damage	Headshot	Healing	Reload/Cooldown
Pulse Pistol	40	40 rps	1.5 - 6	✓	-	1s
Blink	3 charges	-	-	-	-	3s
Recall	-	-	-	-	amount of damage taken	12s
Pulse Bomb	-	-	400	-	-	-

Strategy[edit | edit source]

Tracer is a close-range skirmishing hero who specializes in speed and single target damage. Tracer can quickly traverse a map with the use of Blink to outflank her enemies, deal damage to them, and then retreat before they have a chance to respond. Her low base Health and lack of regenerating shields means that she must make good use of Blink and Recall to avoid or reverse damage.

Weapons & Abilities[edit | edit source]

Tracer's primary weapon is her dual Pulse Pistols. Her primary fire rapidly shoots both pistols, dealing heavy damage. These pistols have a large cone of fire and heavy damage dropoff, making them ineffective beyond short range engagements.

Tracer's Blink is her most important ability. Blink teleports Tracer a short distance in the direction she's currently moving. This allows Tracer to move unpredictably: she can Blink past an enemy to attack their back, or Blink to the side to dodge an enemy's attacks. Multiple Blinks can be chained back-to-back, allowing Tracer to travel across gaps that normally can't be reached with just her jump (such as the large gap leading to the last point on Hanamura).

Recall is equally important for Tracer. When activated, Tracer will "rewind" to three seconds in the past, setting her health, ammunition, and position to whatever they were at that time, as well as removing all debuffs from her (such as Zenyatta's Orb of Discord). Recall is mainly used to restore Health, but it can also be useful for escaping: jump off a ledge, wait for an enemy to follow you, and then Recall back up the ledge. Recall has a short animation that plays when activated, during which time Tracer is invulnerable. This can be used to avoid potentially deadly attacks by activating Recall right before Tracer is hit.

Tracer's ultimate is Pulse Bomb. When activated, Tracer tosses her bomb forwards a short distance. If it impacts an enemy, it will stick to that enemy. Otherwise, the bomb will stick to the first solid surface it lands on. After a short delay, the bomb explodes, dealing a heavy amount of damage to enemies in a small area around the bomb. Note that this explosion will also damage Tracer. Pulse Bomb is devastating on clustered groups or static defenses like Torbjorn's turret. A common ability combination to safely bomb a target is to use Blink to get in close, toss the bomb on them, and then Recall to get back out of danger.

General Strategies[edit | edit source]

When playing Tracer, do your best to avoid fighting your opponents head on. Tracer can only deal good damage when close to her enemies, as opposed to other Assault heroes like Soldier: 76, and she lacks durability. Take advantage of her speed to travel rapidly through side routes so that you can get behind your opponents before attacking. Try to find single targets that are separated from their team and take them out. Be wary of diving into large groups to try and kill a target, unless you have Pulse Bomb ready, as a full enemy team can quickly turn and kill you before you can Recall or Blink to safety.

If you're starting to lose a fight and are low on Health, don't be afraid to retreat, as Tracer's speed can let her get to Health Packs well before her opponents can. This gives her an advantage in dueling single targets, as she can simply outlast them through good use of Recall and retreating to grab Health Packs before returning to battle.

Alive[edit | edit source]

A few hours after her talk with Winston,^[7] Tracer was present in King's Row, as Shambali leader Tekhartha Mondatta addressed the crowd. She came to suspect there would be an assassination attempt, which would be correct and she confronted Widowmaker among the rooftops, but ultimately failed to stop her.^[8]

Day at the Museum[edit | edit source]

"You know, the world could always use more heroes."

Widowmaker and Reaper attacked a museum dedicated to Overwatch, trying to steal Doomfist's gauntlet. Tracer fought them alongside Winston and the villains were forced to retreat. Tracer complimented two young boys that had helped her in the aftermath, commenting that the world could always use more heroes.^[9]

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Story[edit | edit source]

"Cheers, Love! The Cavalry's Here!"

The former Overwatch agent known as Tracer is a time-jumping adventurer and an irrepressible force for good.^[4] She hails from London.^[5]

Overwatch[edit | edit source]

" So, you want to hear my story. It all started a few years ago. Overwatch was looking for a hotshot pilot to test their next-generation teleporting fighter: The Slipstream. Enter: Lena Oxton (call sign: “Tracer”). [giggles] That’s me! It was the opportunity I had trained for my whole life. But on my first flight, the teleportion matrix malfunctioned; and I disappeared."

Tracer by the Slipstream

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.

Tracer, suffering from chronal disassociation

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.^[4]

Post-Overwatch[edit | edit source]

Since Overwatch's dissolution, Tracer continued to right wrongs and fight the good fight wherever the opportunity presented itself.^[4]

Recall[edit | edit source]

Years after Overwatch's disbandment, Tracer was contacted by Winston as he issued a recall order for Overwatch agents. She commented that they'd been out of touch for too long; an assessment that Winston agreed with.^[6]