Disclaimer: This article contains curated tips, guides, other useful information posted on Inven KR by the users. Please note that such guides and information are not objective truths and may not reflect the latest patch or meta changes.

*Original guide from Overwatch Inven KR by 공허의렉사이 [Rek'Sai of the Void]

What is Hanzo’s role?

Although Hanzo is listed as a sniper, Hanzo is not really a sniper. He is a mid-range hero who stays with his team and moves his position when he needs to, in order to flank the enemy from behind or high ground. So we can call him a mid-range hero that requires the player to figure out the situation of the battleground pretty well and also good at aiming.

Hanzo’s strengths

1. Skills with great utility.

[Sonic Arrow] allows you to limit enemies’ movement and shoot first.

[Scatter Arrow] is also helpful, because you can blow a finishing strike or take down an enemy trying to escape. You can attack your enemies from a blind spot as well.

2. 125-damage, without the need to reload.

Hanzo’s given that you can shoot accurately and keep distance from enemies, Hanzo has the highest and most sustainable damage rate from distance. I do feel that a Hanzo with good positioning skills and good judgment can effectively block the enemy trying to push.

3. No presence

This is no joke. Hanzo is so quiet when he walks around or fires an arrow, this makes it hard for enemies to notice him.

As people say, you know there’s a Hanzo in the opposing team, only when he uses his ult, is probably from these reasons.

Hanzo’s weakness

1. Hard to play with his unique, primary weapon, the bow

With his bow, Hanzo is really hard to play. You should consider its curved trajectory and the speed of the arrow, and also you have to know about the situations where you can’t miss the enemy.

2. Low survivability

If you can hit every target coming at you, survivability won’t be a big deal. But that’s hard… You can still make use of his passive ability, the Wall Climb. It’s not as great as other heroes with avoiding abilities. So, always think about your position. Positioning is one of the most important factors to consider while playing Hanzo.

Hanzo’s Abilities

Passive Ability – Wall Climb.

As it says he can climb walls, though it’s not as good as his younger brother. It is often used for positioning or getting to high grounds, but you can also use it when escaping from a fight. Or to buy some time to attack once or twice. I think it’s a decent ability.

If you play on a map where there are a lot of walls, it is a good strategy to constantly climb walls as if you were playing with Genji. Yet, you should focus on your accuracy while moving around swiftly.

To give you some tips:

1. There is a limit of how high you can move up. If you reach that height, you will fall down.

2. Once his off the ground, he can only climb once. You can’t stop climbing or continue climbing, once you’re off the ground. To climb again, you must hit the ground.

3. When he gets to the edge or close to it, he automatically jumps off the wall by grabbing the edge.
Even if he moved his maximum distance, and he’s near the edge he will jump. When the edge is shown to about his head or chest on the screen, he will jump. His feet don’t have to hit the ground, so he can jump off the wall continuously.

4. When you press S while climbing, he will jump down from the wall. This buys some time to attack several times. I climb up walls fairly often. When I encounter a DPS, I just deal with him/her unless it’s a Reaper in close range. But when it’s a tank or Hanzo’s counter, it’s better to climb a nearby wall and attack, or run from battle.

Storm Bow

His primary weapon is Hanzo’s everything and the reason why he is regarded as a difficult hero. It deals damage varying from 35 to 125. Although I’m writing this guide, the only guide for his Primary weapon is to get used to this from experience. If you can’t use it correctly it’s better not to play Hanzo. Practicing on your own can be more useful than reading this play guide.

After the buff, it has become a lot easier to hit a target. When I first started playing Hanzo (Season 1), I thought to myself ‘can someone actually be good with this hero?’. It was so hard to fight against Pharah, not to mention Genji and Tracer, but as I got used to it, it was a matter of who was playing with the hero. These three are still hard to fight for Hanzo. The more you get experienced, the easier it becomes to fight these three DPSs, and the only hero that’s still hard is Winston.

Tips

1. Hanzo’s crosshair is useful

In short-range, use the crosshair on the very top, and in mid-range, place your target in between the first and second crosshair. When attacking a target in distance, use the second crosshair. It’s hard to think about this every time you attack, so get used to this and these crosshairs will assist. I recommend placing your target between first and second one. This works since the arrow drops while traveling unless it’s pretty close.

2. If you right click or press R, your character lowers his arrow.

Some people just wander around prepared to attack with slow movement speed. This is a huge minus for your mobility. It isn’t late to prepare to attack after you’ve positioned yourself.

3. Some people attack before pulling the bow to its maximum.

This is NOT GOOD. It’s better not to shoot at all. It’s better to attack after you wait for it to be fully charged.

4. It doesn’t help your team by just shooting from a distance. Arrows don’t guide themselves.

Many Hanzo beginners just shoot and shoot thoughtlessly, especially in Point B of Temple of Anubis. This is a useless act, and it only makes your team to fight against the enemy without one teammate. Even if one of the arrows luckily hits the target, that is not your technique. You should consistently change your position, and take down enemies.

That being said, in cases where you need to constantly attack, you should. For example, enemies had to use the narrow entrance together after being eliminated, wherever you shoot it will hit someone. This shows that shooting thoughtlessly can sometimes be effective.

5. Find the moments when the enemy can’t dodge Hanzo’s arrows

This is really important. Knowing this can increase 50 percent of your accuracy. Pharah and McCree activating their ult, an enemy that is jumping, and an enemy that is escaping in a single direction are very easy targets. Don’t feel pressured that you must hit them. It’s better to wait for a while until you can hit them.

6. Practice hitting the target in every situation.

Unlike Widowmaker, Hanzo cannot zoom in. This can be his advantage, but also his weakness, but the best thing is that you can attack in any situations, for instance when you’re in midair, falling or even in the moment when it’s really hard to hit. I even killed a Tracer moving so fast that, it was getting on my nerves and Zenyatta who momentarily came in my sight.

7. Don’t feel too bad because you failed to hit the target.

In distance, Storm Bow misses the target even from a very small difference. It’s natural for your arrow to miss, so don’t feel too bad about it, your accuracy will increase as you get more experienced. But that doesn’t mean you should be too concerned about your accuracy. Since all six arrows of Scatter Arrow counts as one individual arrow, the Scatter Arrow will also heavily affect your accuracy.

And don’t forget that you have to switch to another hero depending on the enemy’s composition or counter heroes. Anyway, find your own style of aiming. Some people prefer to move their aims on the target, while some prefer to flick. I usually use flick my shots, and some people might feel uncomfortable watching my video. Even when I watch my own video, it’s weird. But still, I play better when I flick.

As you can see in the video, rather than moving my aim on the target, I patiently wait and flick. People might have their own styles, but this is how I play.

There are many good Hanzo players who carefully move their aims. So, don’t be obsessed with playing styles. I flick because I got used to this while playing other FPSs like Metal Rage, AVA, Sudden Attack and so on. So please stop asking why I shoot like that. Anyways, to sum up: shoot carefully.

Sonic Arrow

You shoot an arrow that shows the shadows of enemies over the wall. It deals the same amount of damage as the Storm Bow. It’s a very useful skill that allows Hanzo to support his team and provides the opportunity to attack with Storm Bow.

Tips:

1. You can change to Sonic Arrow while drawing your bow

You can flexibly change to Sonic Arrow depending on the situation. If you press shift once more, it changes back to Storm Bow.

2. It covers a wide range, so support your team by using it frequently.

Although you can’t check the area it covers, it has a very wide range. Use it in the areas that covers a lot of space or where the enemies are likely to be. You don’t have to hit anything, use it as if you’re installing it.

3. You can also hit an enemy with it.

You hit an enemy with it? Congratulations! You just earned yourself a ten-second spy! When an enemy is hit by Sonic Arrow, it will stay there showing all the enemies around him/her. It’s particularly good if it’s on Genji or Tracer.

4. Listen carefully for footsteps.

Although this is not related to Sonic Arrow, listening to the enemies’ footsteps is really important in Overwatch. You heard someone’s footstep and it’s sounds like they’re behind you? Install a Sonic Arrow around you and strike the enemy’s head.

This video features headshotting an enemy approaching. Before engaging I position myself, install Sonic Arrow, after hearing the footstep, I struck his head by looking at his shadow. 

In this video, you can see me taking down three players. As you can see, having an initiative is a great advantage. With this advantage, you can play Hanzo more tactically.

Scatter Arrow

The ability increases Hanzo’s usefulness and also it has a lot of ways to be used. Scatter Arrow… is such a nice ability. I personally like this ability a lot. It can be used as a deathblow that deals 450 damage, and as picking off an enemy running away from you. It’s also good when you just use it.
It’s fragmented into six arrows and when fully drawn each arrow deals 75 damage. When you hit all arrows to one target it deals 450 damage.But be careful when you use it because the arrow can fly away when it hits something.

How to use it:

1. The best way of using it is by shooting it at the feet of an enemy as a deathblow like a shotgun.

It’s easy to land all the six fragments on big champions like Winston or Roadhog, it’s relatively hard to use it on small champions. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible to make all six arrows hit a small champion, but you don’t really need to because you can kill with only three arrows bouncing towards them. It gives you a lot of advantage in terms of your survivability and effectively if well used for a chase, survival, or support.

One shot one kill

Reinhardt getting killed out of the blue.

If you can make all fragments hit an enemy, use it to a tank who is the pivot of a team. Once landed, you can eliminate him/her straight away, dealing damage that surpasses the enemy’s HP.

2. Kill an enemy that can’t be killed with your primary arrow.

Be a little bit more creative when shooting an enemy that’s escaping from you or in a spot you can’t see. You may as well shoot an enemy behind a barrier or in a narrow building to stop their progress. It’s very useful to kill an enemy escaping behind a wall. If you shoot an enemy and if one fragment bounces towards him/her again, you can kill any DPS hero who has a HP of 200. Here’s a video for reference.

There are several things I want to mention about this video. First, you can see me flicking and cancelling. As I mentioned in the Storm Bow section, it is a huge disadvantage for your mobility to keep your bow drawn. If you’re uncertain that you can hit an enemy, cancel it and wait for another chance. And this is a video of me making the arrows bounce at an appropriate place to kill the Reaper running away.

I didn’t think that I could hit him with Storm Bow, so I took him out by shooting Scatter Arrow to the next wall.

In this video, after realizing it would be hard to use it on the ground, I decided to use it on the wall instead and succeeded in striking Reinhardt with all the arrows.

And in this video, I could have got shot if I exposed myself a little more. As I already shot McCree once with a primary arrow, I killed him by shooting Scatter Arrow over his head and making them bounce towards him.

It can be used in various ways. It can be used when damaging an enemy behind a barrier or taking cover behind a wall, and for the final blow to a target you’ve already hit. You can also use it like your deathblow or for your survival.

Dragonstrike

The skill that makes Hanzo shine! It’s Hanzo’s “ultimate” ability that can turn around a losing fight. After casting for a second, he launches a huge dragon-shaped projectile that travels towards the end of the map. It deals a damage of 200 per second. I usually use my ult when the enemy team initiated a fight, or to picks off some enemies while exchanging fire. You can use it a lot, because it charges faster as you hit enemies with your Storm Bow.

Eventually hitting the enemy multiple times with Storm Bow determines how much you are good with Hanzo. Many people say Hanzo’s ult is shit, but in fact, it’s a very useful. The reasons people say this is because they don’t know how to use it.

You should use it while keeping distance. After casting for one second, the arrow which travels some distance before it turns into a dragon projectile. Knowing when the arrow changes is very important, it won’t hit the enemies if they’re too close. Before its transformation, it’s same as Storm Bow, which means it will deal the same amount of damage (125).


Since it makes a lot of noise, don’t expect the enemies to sit there and wait for it to come.
If you used to the transformation distance I just mentioned, the enemy DPSs will perish as it transforms right in front of their eyes.

You use this when:

1. Blocking enemies trying to pass through a narrow passage

2. Picking off your priority targets after checking their locations with Sonic Arrow

3. Blocking the routes, where they can take to escape

Here are some videos to illustrate my point.

Zenyatta couldn’t even react as it transforms right in front of him and dies.

Blocking the narrow passage after checking the enemies coming with Sonic Arrow, and taking them down one by one with ease.

In this video, Reinhardt used his ult very well, it was the moment when the enemy was pushing through a narrow passage with Reinhardt in the lead. They couldn’t escape from the ult that narrow passage.

Nobody can escape from the ult that just transforms in front of them. 

One of the best examples of when to use ults. Before you use it, if possible, know where the enemies are with Sonic Arrow. This is really important.

About Composition

In many respects, composition is one of the most important things in Overwatch.

NOTES: If you don’t happen to play Hanzo, please consider him more of a mid-range nuker than a sniper. To define his play-style, his play-style is pretty similar to McCree’s, I would say. Hanzo is hated, so learn to play other heroes as well for an easy win.

Tanks that work well with Hanzo

1. Zarya

The most picked hero at the moment! She can protect her allies by distributing barriers, and we all know how powerful her ult is. She’s a useful tank who can deal damage at the same time, and her synergy with Hanzo is great. SIMPLE MATH: [Graviton Surge] (Her ult) + [Dragonstrike] (Hanzo’s ult) = Hexakill!

2. Reinhardt

We all love Reinhardt. Thanks to his barrier, you can position yourself more easily in a safer place. Hanzo’s ult can offer him more chances to charge into the enemies. Dragonstrike with [Earthshatter] is also a great combo.

How to Counter Other Heroes

Since I’ve already written about his synergies before, in this post I will write about how to counter most heroes. Whoever you’re fighting against, run away if things don’t work out. Knowing when to retreat also tells if you’re a good Hanzo player or not.

Genji – Difficulty Level: Intermediate or Hard

Genji is one of the heroes that you will see and fight against most. He’s also one of those heroes that is hard to beat with Hanzo. He has highest mobility and can fool you with his double jumps. The difficulty level pretty much depends on how good Genji is. It’s a duel of skills and mind games.
Your eyes will get used to Genji’s movement as you get more experience. But Genji is still hard to fight against due to his [Deflect]

This damn ability can even deflect the projectiles that were fired before its activation. Even if your arrow doesn’t get to him, it will still be deflected as the ability covers a wider area than his hitbox. Things won’t be that bad if the deflected arrow missed you. But if it hits you after being deflected, that means you’ve lost. You can’t even run away from Genji because his passive ability is far

You can’t even run away from Genji because his passive ability is far superior to yours. Yet Hanzo will have the advantage when Genji’s Deflect isn’t ready yet.
And it’s better to save your [Scatter Arrow]. Again, Genji’s Deflect covers a wider space than it looks. So, if you use it not being certain, you might see all 6 arrows coming at YOU, which means… Do I really need to explain further?

Reinhardt – Difficulty Level: Relatively Easy

When at a distance, just shoot—no doubt. But if he’s near, in any case, climb a wall and run. That’s because if you choose to confront him in a close range, you’ll be mashed like potato at his third swing, while you must hit him four times with fully charged arrows.

It’s a losing match once he starts to swing at you. That being said, if you’ve made his HP low enough, then you can beat him. Lay your Scatter Arrows on the barrier as much as you can. It’s best to land all six of them on the barrier at an unseen spot.


Roadhog – Difficulty Level: Intermediate

My favorite guy to hit. It feels so good... Strike his head twice and he’ll leave to use [breather]. He’s easy to take down if you keep harassing him from a distance. But if you get [chain-hooked], you’d better pray.Even if you’re positioned on a high ground, you’re still at risk. The hook’s hitbox is wider than it looks, and it often yanks you by

Even if you’re positioned on a high ground, you’re still at risk. The hook’s hitbox is wider than it looks, and it often yanks you by hair. So always be careful when you’re dealing with a Roadhog, even when you have the high-ground advantage.

It may have been pure chance, but I recommend sitting down immediately after you’re yanked. Sit down asap, and if you survive, then strike him with your shots while jumping backwards. Even in this case, you’re still likely to be killed soon, but this at least decreases the chance of getting killed right after you’re hooked. Also, beware of his right attack [the ranged ball attack] which might beat you down at once.

Reaper – Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Reaper outdoes any hero in short-range fights, so climb a wall when he is near.If you mess with him at close range and fail to strike his head, he’ll beat you into pieces right away.

But as you get away from him, you can beat him into pieces by carefully landing two fully-charged shots on him, or with Shattered Arrow. As for his [Shadow Step], it’s very loud when it’s activated. So pay attention to the sound. You may as well activate your sonic arrow to let your allies know where he has moved.

McCree – Difficulty Level: Intermediate-Kind of Hard

Unless it’s short-range, Hanzo is better. You should be more careful when the McCree is good. When he’s not, Hanzo has the upper hand. But if you’re [flash-banged], RIP.

Mei – Difficulty Level: Intermediate-Hell

You may wonder “Why hell?” That’s because when you encounter her in short range, you can never ever run away from her.

As you get better at Hanzo, you will bump into her much less as you’ll be able to keep distance from her at the right position. But if you find she’s right there… RIP Your afterlife will be wonderful.

This one time, I jumped and climbed up a wall thinking I might be able to run away. But that only made my death look even more ridiculous. Your character’s climbing motion does not get slowed, but doesn’t go up, either. So, you can watch yourself wriggling desperately like a glitch on the wall on kill cam in high definition. That will make you feel quite miserable.

So, we need to confront with her without turning back. So if you meet her in short-range, don’t worry and try to kill her with two shots, because you can’t run away. When it’s mid-range, Hanzo gets the upper hand. When she uses her shift[Cryo-Freeze], you can pierce her head right after she unfreezes if your timing is good.

Beware of her ult[Blizzard], too. It doesn’t mark the area it covers while up in the air. If you’re in the area and can’t step outside, accept your fate and be happily killed.

Bastion – Difficulty Level: Easy

It’s very very easy to hit a fixed target 2.5 times. Smash him. Bastion has to be Hanzo’s target priority. Yet, when you hear it activating its ult[Configuration: Tank], I recommend you escaping. He will beat you down with just one shot. I personally think Hanzo is better to play on the attacking side, because he can easily make Bastion and Torbjorn useless. Countering Bastion is that easy.

[Soldier: 76] – Difficulty Level: A bit easy-Intermediate

Hmmm.. Either if it’s short-range or midrange, Hanzo has more advantage. Keep calm and shoot him. If at least hit him with one scatter arrow, you can take him down with your next arrow. Still, be aware of his [Helix Rockets]. They hurt. When his [Tactical Visor] is on and there’s no cover to take, die peacefully. Take cover when you hear his ult.

Symmetra – Difficulty Level: A bit easy

You must be mindful of her [Sentry Turret] indeed. Symmetra is a boss in short-range battles, so countering her is similar to countering Mei: When you bump into her, you must take her down before her projector fully builds up. If you fail… RIP

Update: Her rework is done now. If she approaches you behind her shield, run away and confront her again from distance.

Widowmaker – Difficulty Level: Intermediate

Not as scary as before the nerf. Still, you should keep in mind of her when she’s distant. If your flick’s on point, you can kill her from distance. Don’t try too hard to hit her. Leave a [Sonic Arrow] around her and fire at her behind a wall. Widowmaker still has more advantage in distance. Test her, and if she’s good, avoid fighting.

Winston – Difficulty Level: Hard

A hero you must be really careful of. It’s really hard to beat him one-on-one, unless you can pierce his head more then once. Confronting him one-on-one is very hard. His barrier makes the match-up hard, too.

Use the geography. Again, use the walls. Climb up the wall and get the high-ground advantage. You’re okay to fight against him if you’ve successfully hit him with one or two shots. Or you can also play tricky: If he gets to you with his Jump Pack, you can fall to the ground and then go up the wall again.

One more tip. If he’s jumped to your team, break his dome barrier quickly with Scatter Arrow. Take him down with your allies. It’s still best to land all the six scatter arrows on his body if possible, though.

Zarya – Difficulty Level: Intermediate

She’s a tank. So, unless you can hit her head or use Scatter Arrow successfully, it won’t be an easy match. You can use the same strategy to play against her. Climb up a wall, get to the high ground, and kill her. Make sure you don’t shoot her while her barrier is generated. Since she’s a tank and has a large hitbox, you can start engaging her by taking some HP off with Scatter Arrow.

Junkrat – Difficulty Level: Relatively Hard

Junkrat can be dangerous, too. Good Junkrat players can easily blow Hanzo up by exploding his Concussion Mine right after his frag strikes the target. Keep in mind, especially when it’s narrow. Hanzo is strong in narrow zones, but so is Junkrat. So be very very careful. If it’s open and mid-ranged, you can beat him down with no sweat. Always watch out for mine and trap. If you can destroy his [RIP-Tire], destroy it. It has hit points of 100, so you can destroy it with just one shot.

Torbjorn – Difficulty Level: Relatively Hard

As I mentioned above in the Bastion, I think Hanzo is pretty good on the attacking side as well, because he can easily make his turret useless. Destroying the turret must be Hanzo’s job. When his turret is destroyed, Torbjorn loses 50% of his strength.

But Torbjorn can be really threatening when his ult is active. In short range, his shotgun (secondary fire) deals 150 damage, which is pretty high. So it’s really hard to fight against him when his ult is on, as his attack speed will be increased.

It’s still an easy match-up when his ult is not ready because his big head makes it easy to land headshots. Other heroes’ heads start up from their shoulders, but Torbjorn’s head starts from his chest. Like, I shoot his body, and it still counts as a headshot.

Tracer – Difficulty Level: Relatively Hard

It depends on whether the Tracer is good or not, but basically you can make her health very low with just one shot or even get a kill with your Scatter Arrow when two of the fragments hit her. I know this is hard. But you’ll get the hang of it as you die more… no, I mean, as you get more experienced. It’ll get easier when you can measure how much she’ll travel when she blinks. It’ll be a lot easier if your flick shot is good, too. You may check your phone when your hit by her [Pulse Bomb].

Phara – Difficulty Level: Intermediate-Hard

It’s a hard match. It’s obviously a disadvantage for Hanzo to exchange fires in an open place. When you’re in danger, you should escape to take cover, where you’re safe from her rockets. It’s hard to shoot her down from the air. You need a lot of practice. But it’s also hard for Pharah to shoot you when your movement is tricky. When you’re engaging with her face to face, it’ll come down to who kills first.

At first, I thought it was hard to shoot her, too. But you’ll get better as you get more experience.
(Update) It’s a lot easier after the Hanzo got buffed. Pharah can’t change her direction quickly when she’s in the air. So her movement direction is easy to predict. Think about her altitude. And when she gets lower to the ground, get to a point that’s as high as her altitude, and shooting her will be very easy.

D.Va – Difficulty Level: Intermediate-Relatively Hard

If D.Va is coming towards you and she’s right in front of you, again, climb up a wall.
If it’s not close to you yet, you can just simply move backwards. The mech’s movement speed drops when it’s shooting. Shoot its head if you have enough distance. Also, beware of her Defense Matrix, it was buffed.

D.Va is one of the heroes you can easily use your Scatter Arrows against. When she’s calling a new mech, you can still deal damage to the mech. So destroy it with Scatter Arrow. When her mech is destroyed, the high-DPS Hana will jump out. With her small hitbox it’s very hard to shoot her. Use the fact that she can’t change her direction while she’s hopping out. So that’s the easiest moment to kill her. So try to kill her when she’s jumping out.

Strategy Guide

Like I said before, Hanzo is more of a mid-ranged hero than a sniper. He specializes in getting on high ground, or positioning in a narrow zone and preventing the enemies from coming through.
What you should be concerned about when playing Hanzo is positioning yourself. And don’t move around by yourself. Hanzo is a hero that should be fighting with his allies.

In-game Examples

The last point in Dorado is geographically ideal for Hanzo. The video features him starting to deal massive damage after he takes the column.

Depending on the enemy’s comp, a mere hill can be used as a very good cover. This video features him succeeding in defending the point against 6 enemies on his own. Memorize good positions in each map and use them later on.

When the comp isn’t good or the enemy comp is too good, switch to another hero. It’ll get worse is it’s in Control. You’ll only get bashed by your team if you stick with Hanzo, when there are Phara, Genji, and Trace on the enemy team. In my case, I keep going when they’re not that threatening and promptly switch when things are not working out.

I play Hanzo a lot both on the attacking side and the defending side, but the roles are different. On the attacking side: Destroy Bastion Sentry, Torbjorn’s turret, and enemy tank’s barrier, and open the way with Dragonstrike.

Don’t hate me, but I personally think Hanzo is better on the attacking side. Sorry if that offends you. That’s because you can move to the battle ground more quickly, open the way for your team with the ult, and make some of the defense characters useless. If you have a Reinhardt in your team, you can open the way behind his barrier without putting yourself at risk.

Use your Scatter Arrow, which has a total damage of 450, to break the enemy’s barrier. You should also pick off the enemies that are lit with the ability, too. Use your Sonic Arrow, too, whenever it gets ready.

But that doesn’t mean you should always position yourself behind the Rein’s barrier. You can also consider positioning yourself a bit distant from the team and shoot at an unnoticeable spot if it’s not too risky. Your position should be flexible depending on the situation.

This video features him initiating a brawl and his team pushing through.

On the defending side: Block narrow passages and use the ult to hinder the enemies from coming through. When you’re on the defending side, block the entrance and get kills as they come in and use your ult to mess up the enemy team’s position. If it’s unable to beat the enemies, try at least to hit them and force them to retreat. Wisely use the geography, too.

If it’s necessary, flank in and pick off the enemy that’s annoying you. You should also let your team know with your Sonic Arrow, when an enemy flanker is coming from behind. Again, it’s really important to pay attention to the sounds of the enemies’ footsteps, no matter which map you’re on, no matter which character you’re playing.

If I hadn’t heard those footsteps, I most likely would’ve died from his Helix Rockets. Be a good listener if you don’t want to be assassinated. Hanzo is relatively more sensitive to the geography than other heroes. Here are some good maps for Hanzo. This is very subjective, so you might have different opinions.

Maps that Work Out for Hanzo Very Well: Hollywood and Temple of Anubis

Hollywood is my favorite map. Hanzo is very strong through the entire game. Whether you’re on the attacking side or the defending side, or whether it’s near the choke point or not, Hanzo can be played insanely. When you’re attacking, help your team move forward by firing with them.

When you’re on defense and defending the first objective, position yourself around the small room and pick off the incoming enemies. Enemies coming in through the main gate will likely take a detour through the alley. If you can, kill them, if not, you should at least hit them so they’ll have to play more passively.

I usually deal damage here. You can make it hard for the enemy to get in the small room on the left, and deal damage to the enemies firing Scatter Arrow towards the main gate.


In the second phase, you must try to occupy the rooftops in the middle of the map. Their attitudes are about the same as Pharah’s flying altitude, allowing you to kill her much more easily. Even if you’re on the ground, it’s a narrow passage where Hanzo has much more advantage.

As for Temple of Anubis, things work slightly different. It’s hard to say Hanzo is a very good pick when capturing A, but you can still go through the left room, climb up the wall, and pick off the enemy targets positioned on the second or third line. But the left room is likely to be already taken by Junkrat or Symmetra, so I can’t really say Hanzo is good when capturing A.

But when capturing B, Hanzo is very effective as the geography is in Hanzo’s advantage. I recommend you taking the right path, as Bastion and Torbjorn are usually positioned on the right.
When you’re on defense, occupy the room where Symmetra or Junkrat usually position themselves and take down the enemies as they come in. As I mentioned earlier don’t fire blind arrows, but you can do so after checking the enemies’ location with Sonic Arrow.

The geography of Point B is entirely in Hanzo’s favor. Make use of the walls to harass the enemies, and flank. Focus on the left side of the (defending team’s) spawn room, and let your allies take care of the right side (the room). You can see through the room with Sonic Arrow, and when you notice someone sneaking into the room, deal some damage with Scatter Arrow.

Play tricky by making use of the walls.