Echo
Developed by Overwatch roboticist Mina Liao, the highly adaptable, advanced AI-driven robot Echo derives her personality from her creator. But after Liao was killed, her project was shut down and Echo placed in military quarantine. Years later, she was freed by Cole Cassidy and joined the new Overwatch in the fight to save the world.
- Tier
- C
- Win rate
- 49.0%
- Pick rate
- 3.6%
- Ban rate
- 0.4%
How to play Echo: abilities with their keys, perks, Stadium powers and how Echo does in competitive, from Blizzard's official stats.
BalancedUtilityAbilities
LMBTri-ShotFires 3 shots at once, in a triangle pattern.
RMBSticky Bombs6sFire a volley of sticky bombs that detonate after a delay.
ShiftFlight6sFly forward quickly and then free-fly briefly.
EFocusing Beam8sChannel a beam for a few seconds. Deals very high damage to targets under half health.
QDuplicateUltimateBecome a copy of the targeted hero. They cannot swap heroes for the duration.
GlidePassiveHold jump to glide while falling.
Echo's perks and Stadium powers
Perks →During a match you unlock a minor perk and, later, a major perk: you pick one of the two each time.
Minor perk
Aerial MunitionsFlightEcho has infinite ammo during Flight.
Partial ScanDuplicateDuplicate starts with 30% of its ultimate charge.Major perk
Full SalvoSticky BombsSticky Bombs fires 2 additional projectiles.
Focused RushFocusing BeamFocusing Beam's range is increased by 8 meters and movement speed is increased by 25% when active.Echo builds
View all builds →From the guide «Echo guide»
One minor and one major perk, chosen by what each one's text adds to a damage hero. Blizzard doesn't publish how often each perk is picked, so this is a reading of the perks, not a pick rate.
The other option of each perk level. Perks are chosen during the match, so switch to these when the enemy composition or the map asks for what they do.
Story
- Location
- Switzerland (formerly), United States (formerly), Watchpoint: Gibraltar
- Birthday
- Feb 5
- Age
- 14
Mina liao
To chart the origins of the Echo project, it is important to delve into the personal history of Singaporean scientist Dr. Mina Liao, one of the founding members of Overwatch. Prior to joining the organization, 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 later 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 of artificial life and its power to transform the world for the better. After the Crisis, she dreamed of improving upon the original omnic designs, but Overwatch’s restrictions on artificial intelligence research and development forced her to limit the parameters of her new Echo project. Instead, she created 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, including multiple layers of protections, fail-safes, 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.
Overwatch
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 was known by very few, including Blackwatch agent Cole Cassidy, who had, at times, been assigned to guard the scientist. When Liao was killed in an attack on an Overwatch facility, Overwatch’s leadership feared the potential of such a robot without Liao’s careful stewardship. All development on Echo was shut down, and the robot was placed into quarantine. Having been freed by Cole Cassidy from an attempted heist by the Deadlock Gang, Echo 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.
Hero