Sombra

“

Everything can be hacked… and everyone.

”

Sombra

Added:

15 November, 2016

Voice Actor:

Carolina Ravassa

Game Info

Role:

Damage

Difficulty:

Health:	Armor:	Shield:	Total:
200	0	0	200

Story Info

Real Name:

Olivia Colomar^[1]

Age:

30

Height:

Unknown

Occupation:

Gang member (formerly);
Hacker;
Terrorist

Base of Operations:

Castillo, Mexico

Affiliation:

Los Muertos (formerly);
Talon

Gallery Page · Quotes Page

Sombra is one of the heroes in Overwatch. She is a hacker who has hidden within the shadows to find a global conspiracy that she once encountered.

In-game, stealth and debilitating attacks make Sombra a powerful infiltrator. Her hacking can disrupt her enemies, ensuring they're easier to take out but she cannot hack while taking damage, while her EMP provides the upper hand against multiple foes at once. Sombra’s ability to Translocate and camouflage herself makes her a hard target to pin down.

Bio[]

One of the world's most notorious hackers, Sombra uses information to manipulate those in power.

Long before she took up the alias "Sombra," ░░░░░░ was among the thousands of children who were left orphaned in the aftermath of the Omnic Crisis. With much of her country's infrastructure destroyed, she survived by utilizing her natural gifts with hacking and computers.

After ░░░░░░ was taken in by Mexico's Los Muertos gang, she aided it in its self-styled revolution against the government. Los Muertos believed that the rebuilding of Mexico had primarily benefited the rich and the influential, leaving behind those who were most in need of assistance.

Following her many conquests, ░░░░░░ was supremely confident in her skills, but she was caught unprepared when she stumbled into the web of a global conspiracy—one that had also noticed her. With her security irreparably compromised, ░░░░░░ was forced to delete all traces of her identity and went into hiding.

She later reemerged as Sombra, upgraded and determined to find out the truth behind the conspiracy she had uncovered. Sombra launched an even more audacious string of hacks, and her exploits earned her no shortage of admirers, including Talon. She joined the organization's ranks and is believed to have contributed to its massive cyberattacks against corporations with strong ties to their governments. These efforts incited a popular revolution in Mexico against LumériCo and breached the security of Volskaya Industries, the manufacturing arm of Russia's anti-omnic defense.

Abilities[]

Besides these abilities, Sombra is able to jump, crouch, reload (only when her ammo is not full), and perform Quick Melee.

Unlockables[]

All seasonal event items, which are marked with special event icons ( • • • • • ), are only available to be unlocked either through their respective Loot Boxes or by Credits within the event's duration. During the event, newly-introduced event items cost three times as much as non-event items of the same rarity, while returning seasonal items are unlocked at the regular price.

Skins[]

For all of Sombra's skins and weapons, see Sombra/Skins and Weapons.

Common

Rare

Epic

Legendary

Emotes[]

Common

Epic

Note:: ^a This emote, after activating, will remain in its animation until the player inputs other actions to interrupt it.

Victory Poses[]

Common

Rare

Voice Lines[]

Normal
▪ Boop	( 25)
"Boop!"	( 25)
▪ Cool	( 25)
"De pelos."	( 25)
▪ Did You Mean To Do That?	( 25)
"Did you mean to do that?"	( 25)
▪ Glitch In The System	( 25)
"You're just a glitch in the system."	( 25)
▪ Good One	( 25)
"Pfft. Good one."	( 25)
▪ Hack The Planet	( 25)
"Hack the planet"	( 25)
▪ In Over Your Head	( 25)
"I think you're in over your head."	( 25)
▪ Just Squishing A Bug	( 25)
"Just squishing a bug."	( 25)
▪ Mess With The Best...	( 25)
"Mess with the best and die like the rest."	( 25)
▪ Playing Fair	(default)
"Where's the fun in playing fair?"	(default)
▪ Show Me What You Got	( 25)
"Asústame Panteón."	( 25)
▪ Taking This Very Seriously	( 25)
"You're taking this very seriously."	( 25)
Event
Try And Keep Up	()
"Try and keep up."	()
What's Up?	()
"¿Qué pecs?"	()
▪ I Know Who's Been Naughty	()
"I know who's been naughty."	()
▪ You're Easily Impressed	()
"You're easily impressed."	()
▪ Don't Be A Coward	()
"¡No le saques!"	()
▪ I'd Love To Stay And Chat	()
"I'd love to stay and chat, but... I'm not going to."	()
▪ I Need A Drink	()
"I need a drink."	()
▪ Were You Done Talking?	()
"Were you done talking?"	()

Sprays[]

For Sombra-specific sprays, see Sombra/Sprays.

Highlight Intros[]

Common

Epic

Note:: ^a If Play of the Game is achieved, another player's Highlight Intro will play for a few seconds before this one interrupts.

Weapons[]

One purchase of an alternate weapon skin will apply to the Machine Pistol of all unlocked skins when equipping it.

Default

Alternate

Achievements[]

Hack The Planet

Hack 15 enemies without dying as Sombra in quick or competitive play.
Reward: Pixel Spray

Power Outage

Hack 6 enemies at once as Sombra in quick or competitive play.
Reward: Cute Spray

Story[]

Sombra notice — Sombra being discovered by the "conspiracy."

As a young girl, Olivia Colomar had learned to hack after losing everything she had during the Omnic Crisis. Even though she was a child at the time, she started to manipulate and even blackmail people, noticing how they could be manipulated just as easily as computers could. Sooner or later, she was taken in by the Los Muertos gang for her technical prowess, helping them in rebuilding her country.

While growing up, her hacking skills continued to improve. Eventually, she stumbled on to what she concluded was a "global conspiracy" that united several organizations around the planet, including Overwatch. She began to investigate this "conspiracy"; that is until it noticed her. Panicked, she hastily wiped all trace of her existence, including her name and was forced into seclusion.

SombraCyborg — Sombra becoming a cyborg.

She came back as "Sombra" some time after, augmented by hardware that integrated her talents into grafted cybernetics. She continued to pursue her passion and her mission, and her exploits earned the admiration of many, including terrorist organization Talon; even after joining them, she still hasn't abandoned her pursuit, and she continues to search for clues as to her new prey, regardless of who she works for.

In Blizzard's animated short "Infiltration", Sombra teamed up with Reaper and Widowmaker to assassinate Katya Volskaya, using her technical prowess to open doors and disable turrets. After both Talon agents were cut off from their target, Sombra left it to herself to use her combat skills to knock out and evade the guards. After finally cornering Katya, Sombra reveals that she never planned to kill her, and instead showed her information about her making deals with the omnics to blackmail Katya. Realizing that she had no choice, Katya agreed to become Sombra's "friend". Delighted by this, Sombra retreated and informed Reaper that the mission had been a failure. The short ends with Katya meeting with Zarya, in response to Sombra's blackmailing. What Chairwoman Volskaya wants Zarya to do is never said, but Zarya may already know - and she's eager to help keep her country's hero safe. ^[2]

During the holidays, Sombra was seen at Calaveras, Dorado. McCree was also passed out at the same bar.^[3]

At one point, Alejandra saw her while she was in Dorado after she (Sombra) hacked into LumériCo and helped Zarya and Lynx Seventeen find her hiding place. Sombra, knowing Katya Volskaya sent them, combats the two, and is caught when Zarya traps her in a graviton surge. Sombra reveals to Zarya that Katya buys her tech from Omnics, and is genuinely surprised Zarya did not know, but tells Zarya she has no intention of killing or overthrowing Katya, as she is more useful in power, thus Sombra hopes using her will draw her closer to the Conspiracy. Sombra then tells Zarya the hideout will explode and Zarya sees Sombra had already hacked and disabled Lynx. Sombra is freed, while Zarya saves the Omnic. Sombra's real name is revealed to be Olivia Colomar. ^[4]

Appearance[]

Sombra is a young Mexican woman with a slender build. She has tan skin and dark hair, shaved to one side and the ends are dyed purple. She wears a purple-blue ombre suit under a black and purple coat with a wide collar. Her nails are purple. She also has slits in the middle of each of her eyebrows and a beauty mark under her left eye.

Personality[]

Sombra is very deceptive and clever, using her expertise to her advantage at all times. She is very calculating when the circumstances require it, and is also unafraid to manipulate people to get what she wants, as shown in Infiltration where she lies to her allies about failing the mission and even blackmails Katya to her will.

In battle, Sombra comes off as cool-headed and unafraid, sometimes smug and cheeky, and slightly sarcastic, as shown by her pre-game interactions with Reaper and her voicelines. Even in the middle of a serious mission, she still shows herself as a rather playful and whimsical character.

Merchandise[]

Tips[]

For hacking match-ups and priorities, see Sombra/Strategy.

General[]

Like Zarya, using voice chat can sometimes make the difference between winning and losing certain skirmishes. Due to the inactivity required in order to type into team speak and the number of passive skills she carries, it is highly recommended you use voice so you can call out when enemies are low on health or have their ultimate ability ready, as well as when you're about to use EMP.
Once locked onto a player or object, Hack can be interrupted if your target leaves range or you take any damage whatsoever, forcing you to wait a very brief cool-down before retrying. Note that crowd control or status effects that deal no damage, such as Concussive Blast, will not interrupt the hack provided you stay within range of the target. EMP can only be interrupted if you are stunned or killed in the very brief window between activation and the effect.

Hack[]

Overview

Hack can interrupt abilities with cast times, though sometimes this is easier said than done. For example, hacking Mei in the brief window between using Blizzard and Snowball's model spawning will prevent the ultimate.
Hack often affects passive or channeled abilities, but this is sometimes a case-by-case system:
- Passive movement abilities will stop, so Lúcio's Wall Ride and Hanzo's Wall Climb will only allow for a standard jump.
- Passive healing abilities will often 'not stop, e.g. Mercy will still have Regeneration and Moira will still have healing on her secondary fire. The exception seems to be Lúcio's Crossfade, which is technically an ability and will stop altogether.
- Channeled ultimates will be affected to varying degrees: while Roadhog's Whole Hog and McCree's Deadeye will immediately stop, Genji's Dragonblade will continue (though he will still be unable to use Deflect or Swift Strike).
While hack time is short, it is balanced by being very conspicuous to victims and allies. The victim hears the hacking sound effect and will see a pixelated effect around the screen border, and all players will see three lines drawn between her and the victim and see animated pixel particles on the victim while under hack's effect.
Due to the cool-down when hack succeeds, it is very important to plan ahead, coordinate with your team, and to remember that Sombra is quite fragile. Just because a Roadhog player may depend a lot on Take A Breather and Chain Hook doesn't mean he can't wipe you out in a few shots, nor does it mean you can kill him before he regains his heal and hook abilities.

Health Packs

Hacking a health pack drastically decreases the cooldown time for the pack to respawn, and it also blocks access for the enemy team as long as Sombra is alive.
Try hacking the packs most used by enemies and teammates, or in key or high traffic areas. Holding or taking a chokepoint is much harder if the enemy has exclusive access to healthpacks that respawn faster.
Hacked health packs no longer contribute to ult charge when used.

Stealth[]

While in stealth mode, Sombra can still throw her Translocator, allowing her to get to an objective faster. She also can reload her weapon. Note that translocator does not receive the benefits of cloak, so enemies will be able to see it arc through the air and land.
- This can be helpful when Sombra is at low health or in a mid- to long-range fight. When possible, try to stealth, throw a beacon far away, and teleport. If done right, the enemy should not know where she is, allowing for some pretty nasty attacks on that enemy. This is also helpful when getting more quickly to a health pack, an enemy, a teammate, or a point.

Translocator[]

Sombra's Translocator can be used both as an escape route and a way to sneak past enemy defenses. This is useful if strong enemies like Bastion are blocking access to a point.
Using it as an escape route can also backfire in case of enemies camping the location of the planted translocator, especially a camping Junkrat who may put down traps right next to the translocator.
The Translocator is useful as a "Plan B" when running straight into enemy fire. Sombra can scout ahead and warn the team of any danger (characters automatically announce events like turrets, snipers, and teleporters).
A way to perform a quick escape is throwing the translocator directly up, teleporting to it as soon as possible, and stealthing. Enemies will usually be confused by this but if you land on any of them they will detect you.
Note that when Sombra translocates, there will be a flash of light in the direction of her Translocator.
Sometimes, it is necessary to abandon a Translocator, as it can be used to distract the enemy. The cooldown is very quick too, so you can place a new one in barely any time.
If you know an enemy is camping your translocator, consider exploiting that to make them waste time. Simply do not use your translocator and do not delete it for as long as possible, leaving the enemy chasing cheap kills sitting doing nothing for as long as possible.

EMP[]

If using EMP in the air, Sombra double-jumps. This is useful on Payload maps such as Dorado, as she can Hack the enemy team and then jump to cover. However, this takes tricky positioning to pull off.
Sombra's EMP disables not only abilities and ultimates but also removes shields from an enemy's health. This can halve the health pool of Zarya and reduce Zenyatta's health to 50.
- The temporary shield from Sound Barrier and The Best Defense… is also removed by EMP.
EMP is a perfect match for friendly ultimates with status effects or a large area of effect, like Mei's Blizzard or Reinhardt's Earthshatter. Using it beforehand can prevent enemies from escaping, while using it after can make it easier to clean up any enemies that survived.
EMP goes perfectly with Zarya's Graviton Surge, as it often nullifies any survival attempts. Timed correctly, EMP can disable any shields, healing abilities, or counter ultimates like Transcendence, allowing your team to deal significant damage while they are defenseless.

Counters[]

Ashe's Dynamite will prevent Sombra from using Hack or Stealth for five seconds. Even when hacked, the Viper does more damage than Sombra's weapon at close range.
Sombra cannot hack Soldier: 76's Biotic Field when deployed, and so Soldier: 76 can still be a serious threat.
Genji's Deflect ability can quickly use Sombra's fire rate against her. However, her Hack can still prove to be a threat.
Hanzo's Sonic Arrow and Widowmaker's Infra-Sight can reveal Sombra even when she is in stealth mode, allowing teammates to easily track down and kill her.
Pharah can stay out of Sombra's effective range, meaning she cannot hack or deal any substantial damage to her while she is in the air and in maps with high skybox or lack accessible high grounds.
Winston's Tesla Cannon auto-locks onto Sombra, meaning she cannot escape using her Stealth ability. And due to her inaccurate weapon and his large health pool Sombra will find it difficult to win against Winston in most cases, especially against a skilled Winston effectively using his barrier.
- ... with 2 exceptions. Winston does constant damage in a cone, but the damage itself isn't great. Notably, if Sombra parks herself on top of a health pack she has hacked, she can either stave off a significant portion of the damage (small health pack), or create a situation where Winston can literally never kill her (large health pack) until the kit is no longer Hacked. Always work in concert with your team whenever possible and don't duel him if you don't need to. Should you find yourself caught by his Tesla Cannon however, don't bother running without a Translocator; you will not be able to escape.
- Should Sombra be played by a player with skilled aim and is facing a Winston with his barrier on cooldown, her Machine Pistol (which has potential to do up to 480 damage with no headshots) combined with Winston's large hitbox may result in Winston's surprisingly rapid death. Her weapon vastly outdamages Winston's, especially so should Sombra manage to hit some headshots. At the very least, you could cause him to retreat.
Symmetra has no ability worth disabling via Hack, so she has little reason to fear Sombra. EMP will cut half of her Health (and disable her turrets if any are in the radius), but otherwise, Symmetra will be a nightmare to play around. If you can't track headshots, just steer clear.
Junkrat's Steel Trap is an inconvenience for Sombra. Even if she spots it and chooses to destroy it, she will be forced out of her Stealth. Walking into his Steel Trap will force her out of Stealth and prevent her from using her Translocator.
- Even worse, a more skilled Junkrat player can drop traps on top of Sombra's Translocator, immediately trapping an unaware Sombra if she happens to use it anyway. If Junkrat has also laid down his Concussion Mine close to the trap, that's enough to kill her.
Brigitte's Shield Bash and Whip Shot will make Sombra significantly much harder to commit to a Hack or EMP because they not only damage her, they will either displace her positioning (Whip Shot) or worse, stun and leave her an easy kill (Shield Bash). In addition. Brigitte's Rally and Repair Pack also make it significantly harder for Sombra to kill her teammates due to the copious amount of Armor.
Mercy's incredible mobility when she is not casting Resurrect means that she can very effectively avoid Sombra's Hacking effective range and Sombra herself cannot reliably kill Mercy due to her low burst damage. In addition, Valkyrie is still very effective when she is Hacked, not to mention a very effective peeling Ultimate for Mercy's Hacked teammate.
Moira's Biotic Grasp has the same range as Hack and will lock onto Sombra if she gets close. This can prevent Hack attempts and Stealth attempts. Moira can also use Fade to avoid Hack and EMP.

Trivia[]

She reveals in a dialogue interaction with Hammond that she has a stuffed bear named Arturito.
Before her announcement, she was the subject of a long alternate reality game and officially introduced at BlizzCon 2016. She was officially added to the Official Overwatch game (not counting the PTR for PC) as of 15 November, 2016.
"Sombra" is Spanish for "shadow or "shade"."
- Her "skull symbol" is known as a calavera, which indeed is Spanish for "skull".
- This could be a reference to her abilities and life as a hacker
The ammo counter on the top of the machine pistol expresses the remaining ammo in hexadecimal/hex-code (base-16), a common element in computer programming. Concept art originally had the counter display the remaining ammo in binary (base-2; 60 would display "111100" from top to bottom) but it was found to be too obtrusive.
- Sombra's Rime skin's gun has unknown symbols in place of the hexadecimal code; however, they follow the same format with each symbol standing for 0-9 or A-F
Sombra's rare skins are not Spanish for the color, but rather objects that share the color. (i.e. Noches is Spanish for "night", Mar is Spanish for "sea", Citro is Spanish for "Citron" or "Citrus" and Incendio is Spanish for "fire")
Sometimes Sombra may mock Tracer by saying "Cheers, love!" when teleporting to her Translocator due to the similarities in some of their abilities.
In the Summer Games, Sombra's signature sport is High Jump.
Sombra's "Hacking" highlight intro is very unique: while equipped, if a player is playing as Sombra and has been selected for Play of the Game, the intro actually starts with another player's highlight intro, that then gets interrupted by a black screen with the signature calavera skull along with the selected player's name and highlight intro following up afterwards.
Sombra's Translocator has a similar appearance to the device used for Winston's Barrier Projector, and likely uses the same technology as Tracer's Chronal Accelerator, as referenced in her in-game dialogue with Tracer; "don't think I don't recognize that device of yours, I know you stole it!"
Sombra appears to be interested in McCree in some way, judging by their in-game dialogue where she professes that she's pleased to be working with him, she also has a picture of him on her computer in her secret hideout in Castillo next to Ana and a photo of him next to Soldier: 76. She is also seen sitting opposite side him in Calaveras during Reflections.
It's revealed in What You Left Behind that Sombra has some kind of friendship with Baptiste. This is shown because Baptiste calls her to ask for a favor and she calls him "mijo" which is a Spanish slang term for a male friend.
Eurogamer questioned Jeff Kaplan about whether or not it was strange that fans had theorized that Sombra would be featured in Hero. Jeff replied with: "No, it was not strange. We have put a lot of hints, all over the game and out of the game, so I would say it's about time that people are concerned with who Sombra is. I hope they keep researching more and find more hints that are out there."
- When asked about Sombra in an interview with Kotaku, Jeff Kaplan stated: "I think people have learned that she’s a fun character for them to search and to learn more about and that, like the X-Files, the truth is out there. We’ll see what players discover over time....I think that’s up to Sombra, to give you a cheeky answer. Sombra will let people know when she wants more to be known about her. She’s very good at that sort of thing."
- Her score at the arcade in Blizzard World is 9999 beating D.VA with 850.

Cultural References[]

Her Machine Pistol may be inspired by the Heckler & Koch MP7 Personal Defense Weapon (PDW), as seen by the slanted front of the receiver, integrated vertical front grip, a rail mounting interface on top, and the magazine being inserted into the weapon's grip.
- There are also several nods to the MAC-10, including the very high rate of fire (1200 rounds per minute, about the same as 2 variants of the MAC-10), the name of the weapon being the same as the MAC-10's classification (a machine pistol), and the vertical front grip being replaced with a flexible chain on the Azucar and Los Muertos skin, similar to the cloth strap commonly seen on the subcompact version of the MAC-10, the MAC-11. The MAC-10 also has a pistol grip magazine-well and modern iterations also have the charging handle on the side, like Sombra's weapon.
Her voice lines "Mess with the best and die like the rest" and "Hack The Planet" are references to the 1995 movie Hackers.^[5]
Sombra's Translocator shares the name and exact function as the Translocator from Unreal Tournament (1999). The differences between the two are that you can destroy the beacon in Unreal Tournament and should a player teleport in the same spot as another, the teleporting player will kill the other top of the beacon.
When Sombra activates Stealth, she makes a hand motion similar to John Cena's infamous "You can't see me" motion, but it more likely comes from Ghost in the Shell's Motoko Kusanagi in accordance with how she goes invisible.
Sombra's "boop" is identical to a similar action performed by Nora Valkyrie, from Rooster Teeth's RWBY. However, it is unclear whether this is an intentional reference or simply a coincidence.
Sombra's dance emote is an EDM dance named "Shuffle".
Sombra makes a reference to the movie Groundhog Day with her line “I’d love to stay and chat...but I’m not going to.”

Patch changes[]

For changes made to Sombra's abilities, see Machine Pistol, Hack, Stealth, Translocator, Opportunist, and EMP.

August 9, 2018 Patch: Reduced the size of Sombra’s head hit volume.
December 13, 2016 Patch: Added a new “Boop” unlockable voice line for Sombra.
November 15, 2016 Patch: Sombra added.

References[]

Sombra Navigation
General	Main • Quotes • Gallery • Skins and Weapons • Sprays
Abilities	Machine Pistol • Hack • Thermoptic Camo • Translocator • Opportunist • EMP
Lore	Organizations	Los Muertos • Talon • LumériCo • Volskaya Industries
	Character relationships	Reaper • Katya Volskaya • Guillermo Portero
	Locations	Dorado • Castillo • Volskaya Industries
	Others	Omnic Crisis
Media	Articles	LumériCo Revelations • LumériCo CEO Steps Down
	Comic Shorts	Masquerade • Searching
	Animated Shorts	Sombra Origin Story • Infiltration
	Others	Alternate Reality Game

Talon Navigation
Members	Leaders	Doomfist • Reaper • Moira • Maximilien • Sanjay Korpal
	Agents	Widowmaker • Sombra • Hakim
	Former	Akinjide Adeyemi • Vialli • Antonio Bartalotti
Media	Shorts	Cinematic Trailer • Recall • Alive • Infiltration
	Comics	Train Hopper • Legacy • Masquerade • Retribution
	Articles	Attack On Helix
Enemies		Overwatch • Gérard Lacroix • Soldier: 76 • Shrike • Tekhartha Mondatta • Katya Volskaya

Heroes in Overwatch
Tank	D.Va Orisa Reinhardt Roadhog Sigma Winston Wrecking Ball Zarya
Damage	Ashe Bastion Doomfist Echo Genji Hanzo Junkrat McCree Mei Pharah Reaper Soldier: 76 Sombra Symmetra Torbjörn Tracer Widowmaker
Support	Ana Baptiste Brigitte Lúcio Mercy Moira Zenyatta

[1] Searching

[2] Infiltration

[3] Reflections

[4] ttps://comic.playoverwatch.com/en-us/zarya-searching

[5] Hackers (1995) - Hack the planet

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

Sombra

Contents

Bio[]

Abilities[]

Unlockables[]

Skins[]

Emotes[]

Victory Poses[]

Voice Lines[]

Sprays[]

Highlight Intros[]

Weapons[]

Achievements[]

Story[]

Appearance[]

Personality[]

Merchandise[]

Tips[]

General[]

Hack[]

Stealth[]

Translocator[]

EMP[]

Counters[]

Trivia[]

Cultural References[]

Patch changes[]

References[]

Fan Feed