How to Unlock Tracer: Changes, Skins, and Abilities

Tracer is a Damage hero in Overwatch 2. Read on to learn more about Tracer, their weapons and abilities, their patch notes history, their backstory, and more!

Tracer Latest Buffs and Nerfs

April 26, 2022 Patch Notes

Tracer Changes

Tracer Day One Patch Notes
Pulse Pistols	• Damage reduced from her Pulse Pistols from 6 to 5.

Tracer Hero Profile

Basic Information

Tracer (Lena Oxton)
	Role	Damage
	Ranking
	Total HP	・ 150 ・ 150 (Base Health)
	Voice Actor	Cara Theobold
	Nationality	British
Affiliations	Royal Air Force (formerly), Overwatch (formerly), Royal Air Force (temporarily rejoined), Overwatch (reformed)

How to Unlock

Unlocked by default.

Tracer Weapons and Abilities

Tracer Main Weapon

Pulse Pistols
	Damage: 12
	Description: Short-range automatic weapons.

Tracer Abilities

Blink	Type: Ability Cooldown: 3 secs
Effect: Teleport in the direction you are moving.
Recall	Type: Ability Cooldown: 12 secs
Effect: Travel back in time to your previous location and health.
Pulse Bomb	Type: Ultimate Damage: 350
Effect: Throw out a powerful sticky explosive.
Role: Damage	Type: Passive
Effect: Eliminations grant a burst of increased movement speed and reload speed.

How to Play Tracer

Muffle Footsteps by Crouch Walking

Improve your flanking capability with Tracer by repeatedly crouching down to muffle your footsteps. Doing this allows Tracer to efficiently sneak toward backline Supports and Damage Heroes.

Practice Trigger Discipline When Flanking

When flanking the enemy team's backline, avoid shooting at them until you're close enough to deal significant damage with your Pulse Pistols. Shooting too early can alert the enemy team to your location before you can even eliminate a single foe.

Use Quick Melee After Emptying Clips

Make it a habit to weave in Quick Melee strikes each time you empty your Pulse Pistol clips as Tracer. You can do this by closing the distance with Blink and quickly landing a Quick Melee strike right after blasting your foe with your Pulse Pistols.

Learning this technique takes practice, but it improves Tracer's overall damage output and leads to fewer situations where your opponents survive with a sliver of life.

Manage Your Blink Charges

Each of Tracer's Blink charges take three seconds to recover, so avoid spending them all in a single burst. Try to use a maximum of two Blink charges in a row when fighting enemies, keeping one charge to save yourself in emergencies.

Disorient Foes with Blink

Creatively apply Tracer's Blink on the battlefield to confuse and disorient your foes. A common strategy is to Blink directly past your foes to end up behind them, then quickly Blinking back to your original position.

Climb Small Elevations with Blink

Tracer's Blink has some vertical leniency with its horizontal teleports. Use this to cross gaps and access elevated places that Tracer usually wouldn't be able to reach.

Use Recall Wisely

Tracer's Recall has a significant 12-second cooldown and is her only form of self-healing and survivability outside of Blink's high mobility. Always make a mental note of your positioning from three seconds ago, and always have a plan in mind before using Recall.

Cancel Quick Melee into Recall

You can squeeze out more damage when using Recall close to enemies by landing a Quick Melee strike before using the ability. Using Recall cancels the recovery of Quick Melee, allowing you to hit your foes and retreat without any drawbacks.

Pulse Bomb Tips

Weaken Tanks Before Planting Pulse Bomb

Tracer's Pulse Bomb often does not deal enough damage to instantly take Tanks down. We recommend wearing Tanks down with your Pulse Pistols first before sticking a Pulse Bomb onto them to reduce their chances of survival.

Disengage After Planting Pulse Bomb

After throwing or sticking a Pulse Bomb onto an opponent, immediately retreat from the Pulse Bomb's explosion radius as it deals potentially lethal self-damage to Tracer.

Place Pulse Bomb Beside Sleeping Enemies

Tracer's Pulse Bomb deals damage on contact, which can interrupt the sleep of enemies affected by Ana's Sleep Dart. To avoid waking them up preemptively, place Pulse Bombs beside sleeping targets instead. This tip is particularly useful against heroes like Mei and Sombra who can quickly avoid taking damage after waking up.

Prioritize Supports and Damage Heroes

When flanking as Tracer, prioritize taking down Supports and Damage Heroes as they are the some of the most impactful members of the enemy team, and are also the most susceptible to being shot down with one clip of your Pulse Pistols.

Evade Sniper Shots by Looking Down

When entering the sightline of sniping Damage Heroes, you can prevent your head from being shot by turning around 180 degrees and facing downward while you retreat toward cover. Doing this reduces the size of Tracer's head and can save you from dying in one shot.

Remember Health Pack Locations

With Tracer having a flanking playstyle and being one of the most fragile Heroes in the game, memorizing Health Pack locations is key to improving her overall survivability. Learning about Health Pack locations also allows Tracer to rely less on her Recall for healing, allowing her to save it for team fights and skirmishes.

Memorize Crucial Paths and Routes

Knowing the quickest paths toward objectives and the enemy backline on each map is extremely useful when playing Tracer. These routes allow you to spend less time and Blink charges toward your destination, improving your survivability and uptime as a Damage Hero.

How to Counter

Slow Tracer Down or Use Turrets

In terms of mobility, Tracer is one of the best heroes in the game. Her blink and reset make her a hard target to attack. Using Mei can slow down Tracer and make it easier for your teammates to shoot her.

Torbjörn is also a great pick as his turret auto-aims its targets. Winston is also a great pick as he can keep up with Tracer's speed with his jump ability. His weapon's long reach will kill Tracer more quickly.

Tracer Hero Counters

Tracer Skins

Base Game Skins

Hero Skins
Enlarge Mach T (Legendary)	Enlarge Punk (Legendary)	Enlarge T.Racer (Legendary)
Enlarge Ultraviolet (Legendary)	Enlarge Posh (Epic)	Enlarge Sporty (Epic)
Enlarge Electric Purple (Rare)	Enlarge Hot Pink (Rare)	Enlarge Neon Green (Rare)
Enlarge Royal Blue (Rare)	Enlarge Classic (Common)

League Skins

Hero Skins
Enlarge Atlanta Reign (Epic)	Enlarge Boston Uprising (Epic)	Enlarge Chengdu Hunters (Epic)
Enlarge Dallas Fuel (Epic)	Enlarge Florida Mayhem (Epic)	Enlarge Guangzhou Charge (Epic)
Enlarge Hangzhou Spark (Epic)	Enlarge Houston Outlaws (Epic)	Enlarge London Spitfire (Epic)
Enlarge Los Angeles Gladiators (Epic)	Enlarge Los Angeles Valiant (Epic)	Enlarge New York Excelsior (Epic)
Enlarge Paris Eternal (Epic)	Enlarge Philadelphia Fusion (Epic)	Enlarge San Francisco Shock (Epic)
Enlarge Seoul Dynasty (Epic)	Enlarge Shanghai Dragons (Epic)	Enlarge Toronto Defiant (Epic)
Enlarge Vancouver Titans (Epic)	Enlarge Washington Justice (Epic)

Event Skins

Hero Skins
Enlarge Cadet Oxton (Legendary)	Enlarge Cavalry (Legendary)	Enlarge Graffiti (Legendary)
Enlarge Hong Gildong (Legendary)	Enlarge Jingle (Legendary)	Enlarge Nezha (Legendary)
Enlarge Slipstream (Legendary)	Enlarge Sprinter (Legendary)	Enlarge Tagged (Legendary)
Enlarge Track and Field (Legendary)	Enlarge Will-O'-Wisp (Legendary)	Enlarge Lightning (Epic)
Enlarge Overwatch Contenders (Epic)	Enlarge Rose (Epic)	Enlarge Wooltide (Epic)

Tracer Cosmetics

Victory Poses

Enlarge Heroic (Common) Base Game	Enlarge Over the Shoulder (Rare) Base Game	Enlarge Salute (Rare) Base Game
Enlarge Sitting (Rare) Base Game	Enlarge Medal (Rare) Summer Games Event	Enlarge Pumpkin (Rare) Halloween Terror Event
Enlarge R.I.P. (Rare) Halloween Terror Event	Enlarge Toast (Rare) Winter Wonderland Event	Enlarge Fireworks (Rare) Lunar New Year Event
Enlarge Wink (Rare) Anniversary Event

Voice Lines

Hero Voice Lines
You Got It	“You got it!” Base Game
Aw, Rubbish	“Aw, rubbish.” Base Game
Be Right Back!	“Be right back!” Base Game
Check Me Out	“Check me out.” Base Game
Cheeky	“Cheeky.” Base Game
Cheers, Love	“Cheers, love. The cavalry's here.” Base Game
Keep Calm	“Keep calm, and Tracer on.” Base Game
She Shoots, She Scores	“She shoots, she scores.(laughs)” Base Game
The World Need Heroes	“The world could always use more heroes.” Base Game
Under Control	“I have this under control.” Base Game
You Need A Time Out	“Looks like you need a time out.” Base Game
Déjà Vu	“Ever get that feeling of déjà vu?” Base Game
Bit Dodgy	“Bit dodgy, don't you think?” Summer Games Event
Eat My Dust	“Eat my dust.” Summer Games Event
Time Out!	“Time out!” Summer Games Event
Boo!	“Boo!” Halloween Terror Event
Is That A Costume?	“Is that a costume?” Halloween Terror Event
Ooh, Scary!	“Ooh, scary!” Halloween Terror Event
Trick Or Treat	“Trick or treat!” Halloween Terror Event
Ho Ho Ho!	“Ho ho ho!” Winter Wonderland Event
It's In The Bag	“It's in the bag.” Winter Wonderland Event
Ready For Some Pudding	“I'm ready for some pudding.” Winter Wonderland Event
I'm Over The Moon	“I'm over the Moon.” Lunar New Year Event
Ready For Some Fireworks?	“Who's ready for some fireworks?” Lunar New Year Event
Don't Be Daft	“Don't be daft.” Archives Event
Sorry I'm Late	“Sorry I'm late.” Archives Event
Time is On My Side	“Time is on my side.” Archives Event
Did I Miss Something?	“Did I miss something?” Anniversary Event
Give Up?	“Give up? Me? No way!” Anniversary Event
I Knew I Forgot Something	“I knew I forgot something.” Anniversary Event
I Love This Part!	“I love this part!” Anniversary Event
Too Slow!	“Too slow.” Anniversary Event

Emotes

Hero Emotes
Heroic Base Game	Bomb Spin Base Game
Cheer Base Game	Finger Guns Base Game
Having A Laugh Base Game	Sitting Around... Base Game
Spin Base Game	Warm Up Summer Games Event
Charleston Anniversary Event	Kickin' Anniversary Event

Tracer Story

Time in Overwatch

With her fearless piloting skills, Lena Oxton was the youngest to be handpicked for the experimental flight test program of Overwatch called the Slipstream, a teleportation technology. But due to the malfunctioning of the teleportation matrix, she vanished along with the aircraft and was presumed dead.

Re-emergence

Some months later, she emerged, but she was a very different person; the trauma she had caused her molecules to become uncoupled from the passage of time. She was a living ghost because of her chronic dissociation, which caused her to vanish for hours or even days at a time. She could not keep her body together even for the short time she was there.

Gaining Control

Winston, an Overwatch scientist and Tracer's friend invented the chronal accelerator to maintain Tracer in the present. It allowed Tracer to manipulate time, speeding it fast and slowing it down at will. Using what she her new abilities, she became Overwatch's most effective agent.

Overwatch 2 Related Guides

List of Heroes

Heroes Tier List

Tank Heroes

Junker QueenNEW
D.Va	Orisa	Reinhardt	Roadhog
Sigma	Winston	Wrecking Ball	Zarya
Doomfist

List of All Tank Heroes

Damage Heroes

SojournNEW
Ashe	Bastion	Cassidy	Echo
Genji	Hanzo	Junkrat	Mei
Pharah	Reaper	Soldier: 76	Sombra
Symmetra	Torbjörn	Tracer	Widowmaker

List of All Damage Heroes

Support Heroes

KirikoNEW
Ana	Baptiste	Brigitte	Lúcio
Mercy	Moira	Zenyatta

List of All Support Heroes