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Our world is worth fighting for.

Mei is one of the heroes in Overwatch. She is a climatologist who is on her own adventure to preserve the environment and ecosystem after waking up from a decade-long cryostasis sleep.

Mei’s weather-altering devices slow opponents and protect locations. Her Endothermic Blaster unleashes damaging icicles and frost streams, and she can Cryo-Freeze herself to guard against counterattacks or obstruct the opposing team's movements with an Ice Wall.

 

Bio[]

Mei is a scientist who has taken the fight to preserve the environment into her own hands.

Though many blamed the planet's escalating, unexplained climate phenomena on the advent of new technologies, the rapidly growing omnic population, and drastically increased consumption of resources, the true cause remained unknown. To find a solution, Overwatch established a series of eco-Watchpoints at remote, critical locations worldwide.

Mei-Ling Zhou was a member of this multiyear initiative. A peerless climatologist, she had introduced cutting-edge innovations in the field of climate manipulation that protected at-risk areas in Asia and beyond. She was assigned to the program's monitoring station at Watchpoint: Antarctica when disaster struck: a sudden, catastrophic polar storm battered the installation and cut it off from the outside world, leaving the facility damaged and the scientists stranded. As their supplies dwindled, they entered cryostasis in a last-ditch effort to survive until a rescue attempt could be made.

But that rescue never came. It was years later when the team's cryogenics chamber was finally discovered. Mei, still in hibernation, was the only survivor. The world Mei awoke to had gone through considerable changes: Overwatch was no more, the serious climate issues had worsened, and none of the eco-Watchpoints were in operation. Any clues that they had uncovered were lost.

Mei has decided to continue her work on her own. Equipped with a portable version of her climate-manipulation technology, she travels around the world, hoping to re-establish the eco-network and track down the causes of the threats to the planet's ecosystem.

Abilities[]

IconEndothermicBlaster
Endothermic Blaster
120 rounds per clip
1.5-second reload
Primary fire: Freeze Spray
Debuff piercing projectile beam type
2.75 damage per round
  55 damage per second
20 rounds per second
30 m/s projectile speed
10 m range
1.5 seconds to freeze an enemy
Lasts 1.5 seconds (frozen), 0.5 - 1.0 second (slowness)
✘ Cannot headshot
Secondary fire: Icicle
Linear projectile type
75 damage
~1.17 shots per second
10 rounds per shot
120 m/s projectile speed
~0.38 seconds charging
✔ Can headshot

Mei's blaster unleashes a concentrated, short-range stream of frost that damages, slows, and ultimately freezes enemies in place. Mei can also use her blaster to shoot icicle-like projectiles at medium range.
Default Key: (PC LMB, PS R2, XB RT)
Secondary Fire Key: (PC RMB, PS L2, XB LT)
IconCryo-Freeze
Cryo-Freeze
Self healing type
+15 rounds per clip
50 HP per second on self
Caster is immobilized
Lasts 4 seconds or until cancelled
12-second cooldown
Mei instantly surrounds herself with a block of thick ice. She heals and ignores damage while encased, but cannot move or use abilities.
Default Key: (PC LShift, PS L1, XB LB)
IconIceWall
Ice Wall
Obstacle building type
400 HP per pillar
2000 HP total (5 pillars)

35 m range
Lasts 4.5 seconds or until broken
12-second cooldown
Mei generates an enormous ice wall that obstructs lines of sight, stops movement, and blocks attacks.
Default Key: (PC E, PS R1, XB RB)
IconBlizzard
Ultimate Ability: Blizzard
Cast-time ultimate type
Arcing splash projectile ability type
20 damage per second
  Max 100 damage per enemy
10 m radius
20 m/s projectile speed
1.5 sec cast
Lasts 5 seconds

Mei deploys a weather-modification drone that emits gusts of wind and snow in a wide area. Enemies caught in the blizzard are slowed and take damage; those who linger too long are frozen solid.

Default Key: (PC Q, PS Tri, XB Y)
"冻住,不许走!"

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

Unlocks[]

All seasonal event items, which are marked with special event icons (Summer Games Item IconHalloween Terror Item IconWinter Wonderland Item IconYear of the Rooster Item IconUprising Item IconAnniversary Item Icon), 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 Mei's skins and weapons, see Mei/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
A-Mei-Zing! (Credits 25)
"A-Mei-zing!"
Chill Out! (Credits 25)
"Hey! Chill out!"
Fight For Our World (Credits 25)
"这个世界值得我们奋战!"
Hang In There (default)
"Hang in there!"
Learned Your Lesson (Credits 25)
"I hope you learned your lesson."
Okay! (Credits 25)
"Okay!"
Ouch, Are You Okay? (Credits 25)
"Ouch! Are you okay?"
Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry (Credits 25)
"Sorry! Sorry! I'm sorry-sorry…"
That Was Great (Credits 25)
"Haha, that was great!"
Yay! (Credits 25)
"Yay!"
You Have To Let It Go (Credits 25)
"You have to let it go." b
Event
I Tried My Best (Summer Games Item Icon)
"I tried my best!"
Overcome All Obstacles (Summer Games Item Icon)
"Overcome all obstacles!"
▪ Did You Hear Something? (Halloween Terror Item Icon)
"Did you hear something?"
Scary! (Halloween Terror Item Icon)
"Scary!"
I Got You Something! (Winter Wonderland Item Icon)
"I got you something!"
Wishing You Prosperity (Year of the Rooster Item Icon)
"恭喜发财!"
Science This (Uprising Item Icon)
"I'm going to have to science the heck out of this!"
Scientific Explanation (Uprising Item Icon)
"I'm sure there's a reasonable scientific explanation for this."
I Was Only Trying To Help (Anniversary Item Icon)
"I was only trying to help!"
So Mean! Honestly… (Anniversary Item Icon)
"So mean! Honestly…"
Note:
b When equipping the skin Mei-rry, Mei will say "You have to let it snow" instead.

Sprays[]

For Mei-specific sprays, see Mei/Sprays.

Highlight Intros[]

Common
Epic

Weapons[]

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

Default
Alternate

Achievements[]

Iceblocked
Mei pixel
Ice Blocked

Block 1200 Damage with a single use of Mei's Ice Wall in quick or competitive play.
Reward: Pixel Spray

Coldsnap
Mei cute
Cold Snap

Freeze 4 enemies at once with Mei in quick or competitive play.
Reward: Cute Spray

Story[]

Mei riseandshine

Mei in Rise and Shine.

Mei-Ling Zhou was an innovative member of Overwatch's ecological studies whose technology was used around Asia for climate preservation. She was assigned to work with other scientists at Ecopoint: Antarctica when a polar storm cut off their communications and left them stranded. They entered cryostasis to survive until a rescue mission was made.

After approximately nine years had passed, Mei awoke from her cryostasis. Subsequently awakening Snowball, her assistant drone, from its inactivity and preparing for the day, Mei checked on the atmospheric fluctuations above the anomaly only to find out that they had been much worse than her team had predicted. Anxious about the sudden appearing data, she asked Snowball about long they had been dormant only to discover terrible news thereafter: Not only had Overwatch shut down, but all of her team had expired during their nine-year stasis, leaving Mei as the only survivor. As Mei cried for hours over the death of her friends, she came to the slow realization that their newfound data could save millions of lives, and promised that she will show her work to the world by any means necessary.

Following many failed attempts to leave the ecopoint, Mei became aware that their base had been broadcasting on the Overwatch emergency frequency and began the process of building the Endothermic Blaster, which could aid her in getting up to the radio tower. Unfortunately, when her creation was almost finished, the power had gone out, leaving the last battery dead. The power eventually came back on, but it came at the cost of Snowball's battery life, leaving Mei in a saddened state once again. When the blaster was completed, Mei returned outside and used its ice to her advantage on her dangerous climb to the top of the tower. Once she reached the summit, she gained a signal and received an announcement from Winston on recreating Overwatch. Eager to get the organization back together, Mei set out to rejoin civilization, but not before recharging Snowball with a solar-powered device and leaving warm cups of cocoa on the cryostasis pods.

Mei appeared to have met Winston before her decade-long trip to Ecopoint: Antarctica. Winston also recommended that Mei keep a journal of her travels. After the rescue, Mei had traveled to remote regions around the world, investigating Overwatch's abandoned Eco-watchpoints.[2] On her trip, she went to Mount Logan, Canada to test her technology, took a quick stop in Los Angeles on Halloween, then went to Nepal for an unknown project.[3] At some point, Mei saved a nest of endangered arctic wildlife from a collapsing glacier.[4]

Mei appeared on live TV in Christmas, reporting a snowstorm striking the United Kingdom.[5]

At some unknown point Mei joined both Winston and Tracer in the newly reformed Overwatch's first public mission in Paris, France to deal with Null Sector who was invading the city, She expressed concern however about their chances, do to the fact she and Lena were the only agents so far to answer the recall leaving them with a three-person strike-team. After joining the battle the team was doing well until they encountered a giant omnic who destroyed their dropship and ruptured a gas line causing an explosion. While Mei was able to put up an ice wall to protect two French police officers and a little girl from the explosion, the shock wave flung here backward into a car injuring her shoulder.

With the odds against them, Winston ordered Tracer to take Mei to safety while he held off Null Sector. Despite Mei's protests that they were supposed stick together, the scientist promised to join them soon. Luckily, Winston was saved by the timely intervention of Genji before Reinhardt, Brigitte, Echo and Mercy, who provided healing for Mei, joined the fight. Mei soon combined her backpack with Tracer's pulse bomb as an improvised cryo bomb that snap froze and destroyed the giant omnic. In the aftermath, Tracer introduced Mei to her colleagues; Reinhardt made an ice pun while shaking hands with her, to Brigitte's annoyance.

Appearance[]

Mei is a petite woman with a medium build. She has fair skin, medium long brown hair held in a bun by a hairpin, and a pair of black glasses. She wears a white and blue snowsuit with fur trim, gloves, dark blue leggings, and brown snow boots, also with fur trim. A backpack of ice substance is slung on her back with her robot friend, Snowball, attached to the top.

In Overwatch 2, Mei now wears gear more suitable to the warm environment. Her white and blue suit is now more detail and lacks fur trim, with the exception of her hood. She also maintains her dark leggings, glasses, and backpack. The boots now don a bright blue color. Her hair is now held in a small ponytail by a pin, with her bangs clipped to her right side by a smaller hairpin.

Personality[]

Mei is very kind-hearted and positive, showing compassion for others and having a desire to preserve Earth's ecosystem for generations to come. As a scientist, she is willing to learn new things and is even inspired by Tracer as well as Winston. She also hates bullies, as shown by one of her quotes and an interaction with Junkrat.

At times, Mei appears to be slightly bashful. She is also very apologetic, often saying "Sorry!" when defeating enemies.

Mei is also shown not to have a fear of heights, as seen in Rise and Shine while she was climbing the tower with her endothermic blaster.

Merchandise[]

Tips[]

For more detailed tips as well as hero matchups, see Mei/Strategy.
  • Mei slows and freezes enemies, making them vulnerable to attack.
  • Mei's ice theme is purely cosmetic: she does not give or receive greater damage from fire-related weapons.
Cryo-Freeze
  • The end of Mei's Cryo-Freeze is signaled by the sound of cracking ice. However, there is no special sound other than a brief crack if Mei ends the Cryo-Freeze early. Use this to Mei's advantage, as enemies may be caught off guard.
  • Mei in Cryo-Freeze can negate certain abilities such as McCree's Deadeye and D.Va's Self-Destruct, making it good as an impromptu shield for allies. However, it cannot negate abilities like Hanzo’s Dragonstrike or Reinhardt‘s Earthshatter, only blocking the damage for herself.
  • Mei can still be healed by outside sources such as Mercy's healing during its duration.
Ice Wall
  • Try placing the wall at a precise position so as to effectively block abilities that deal high amounts of damage.
  • Ice wall has many uses beyond stopping attacks and movement:[6]
    • Placing it in front of Torbjörn's Turret effectively disables it (as it obstructs its laser guidance) for as long as the ice wall stays up.
    • The ice wall can also be used for Mei and her team's movement, as it can be placed under her or others to get them to higher places they normally couldn't get to.
    • Players can toggle between perpendicular and parallel placement of ice wall by pressing the ice wall button again. Alternatively, if they place a wall unintentionally, they can click the ice wall button again (while it is up) to take it down. This starts the cooldown timer right away.
    • The ice wall can be used to stop a weak enemy from running away or falling back or can be used by Mei as a defense mechanism for running away and blocking her opponent's path as she escapes.
    • The ice wall can have its individual columns broken if they receive too much damage, so be wary and prepared for if the enemy breaks it apart.
    • The Ice Wall can stop several ultimates. Reinhardt's Earthshatter, Pharah's Barrage (if placed properly), , D.Va's Self-Destruct, and Orisa's Supercharger. However, ultimates like Tactical Visor and Dragonblade can go around the wall. Roadhog's Whole Hog deals enough damage at a time to break through the wall, and Dragonstrike can pass through.
    • The Ice Wall cannot obstruct or delay the payload. The payload instantly destroys any deployed object it hits when moving.
    • Mei can free herself from Junkrat's Steel Trap by placing an Ice Wall directly underneath herself.
    • It can be used for crowd control. The first, to completely block an entrance. The second, to split an oncoming rush of enemies to better pick off the first few before their teammates can back them up.
    • Unlike other interactions with deployables like, Torbjorn's turret, and Orisa's Supercharger, placing a wall underneath Symmetra's teleporter simply raises it.
Blizzard
  • Use the Blizzard ultimate on map objectives to freeze enemy defenders.
  • Although the drone that produces the Blizzard field is visible, shooting it has no effect.
  • Blizzard can be deflected before it hits the ground, so be careful when using it near Genji.
  • Sometimes throwing the Blizzard into the air can be effective, as normally, people expect the drone to hit the ground right away.
  • Many people have various counters to escape the Blizzard. Reinhardt's Charge, Reaper's Wraith Form, Zarya's Particle Barriers, and Sombra's Translocator, to name a few, can escape the radius quickly.

Trivia[]

  • Mei was announced on November 6, 2015, alongside D.Va and Genji. She was added to the Closed Beta three days later on November 9. Before that, she was teased in an in-universe story, Mei's Adventures.
  • Mei started as a character called 'Frostbite' and drew inspiration from ice carving festivals in northern China.[7]
    • Mei was originally meant to be something like a bounty hunter, but a piece of concept art by Arnold Tsang steered her character towards being more of a normal person.[7]
  • Mei has the most emotes out of all the heroes.
  • It is an ongoing theme that every game by Blizzard has at least one character with an ability named Blizzard. In this case, it's Mei.
  • Mei was the first hero to have a skin redone due to large amounts of criticism from fans who stated that her Lunar New Year skins showed her having an extremely small waist and her back was at the point where it appeared caved in.
  • Mei's listed age (31) refers to her biological age. Since she was frozen for nine years, her chronological age would be about 40.[1]

Cultural References[]

  • Her Voice Line "You have to let it go!" and random line "Do you want to build a snowman?[8] are references to the 2013 Disney film Frozen.
    • The movie Frozen and the line "Let it go" were mentioned multiple times in the Overwatch Visual Source Book as a joke between the developers.
    • Mei's Voice Line "You have to let it go" is changed to "You have to let it snow" when the Winter Wonderland-exclusive Mei-rry skin is equipped. This is a reference to the popular Holiday song, Let it Snow.
  • Mei will quote two lines from a poem A Song of White Snow in Farewell to Secretary Wu Going Home by Cen Shen, a Tang Dynasty poet, at the spawn of any snowy map such as Volskaya Industries or Nepal. The two lines are: "忽如一夜春风来,千树万树梨花开。".[9]
  • The "Science This" voice line may be an indirect reference to the theatrical release trailer for the 2015 film The Martian, as the protagonist, astronaut Mark Watney quotes "I'm going to have to science the hell out of this".
  • Some of her skills may be a reference to Blizzard's Warcraft franchise. Cryo-Freeze seems to be a reference to Ice Block, an ability the mage class can use for exactly the same purpose (only it lasts 10 seconds in that game). Additionally, Frost Bolt, one of Jaina's mage abilities in Heroes of the Storm, is remarkably similar to Ice Spike.
  • Mei's dance emote resembles the "Hare Hare Yukai" dance routine from the first outro of the popular anime "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya."
  • In connection with protests in Hong Kong, some protesters have made Mei a symbol of protest in an attempt to have Overwatch banned in China.[10]

Patch changes[]

For changes made to Mei's abilities, see Endothermic Blaster, Cryo-Freeze, Ice Wall, and Blizzard.


References[]

Mei Navigation
General MainQuotesGallerySkins and WeaponsSprays
Abilities Endothermic BlasterIce WallCryo-FreezeBlizzard
Lore Organizations Overwatch
Character relationships WinstonSnowball
Locations Ecopoint: Antarctica
Media Articles Mei's Adventures
Animated shorts Rise and Shine
Overwatch Navigation
Members Founders Jack MorrisonGabriel ReyesAna AmariReinhardt WilhelmTorbjörn LindholmMina Liao
Agents MercyWinstonTracerGérard Lacroix
Blackwatch McCreeGenjiMoira
Other MeiDirector PetrasMirembeKimikoSinghBaylessAl-FaroukSoundquakeFusionator
Media Shorts Cinematic TrailerRecallKing's Row Uprising Origin StoryDoomfist Origin StoryRise and ShineHonor and Glory
Comics LegacyJunkensteinUprisingRetribution
Articles Fading GloryOverwatch is Back
Lore Bases Swiss HeadquartersWatchpoint: GibraltarEcopoint: AntarcticaWatchpoint: Grand Mesa
Vehicles MV-261 OrcaOSS-7 Aurora
Enemies Omnic Rebel ArmyTalonNull SectorShimada ClanDeadlock Gang
Missions Omnic CrisisUprising
Heroes in Overwatch
TankIconTank
OffenseIconDamage
SupportIconSupport
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