Mercy is a fictional
player character
A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...
developed by
Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, ...
for their ''
Overwatch
''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: '' Overwatch'' released in 2016, and '' Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games f ...
'' franchise. She was introduced at launch in their 2016
first-person hero shooter video game
of the same name and again appeared in its 2022 sequel, ''
Overwatch 2''. Mercy has also featured in its related animated and literary media.
Lucie Pohl voices Mercy in English-language ''Overwatch'' media.
Within the ''Overwatch'' narrative, "Mercy" is the callsign of
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
*Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internati ...
doctor Angela Ziegler, who provided key medical support for the original Overwatch group. In-game, she is a Support class character who can heal and
buff teammates and resurrect fallen teammates.
The character is one of the more popular in the game, being noted by Blizzard to be the most played support character during the game's beta. However, her resurrect ability has been criticized in competitive and professional play levels, given the swing in momentum the ability creates. Her gameplay mechanics have undergone various reworks and patches in an attempt by Blizzard to make her a more well-rounded playable hero.
Development and design
Gameplay and art
Mercy was one of the first twelve ''Overwatch'' characters introduced at Blizzard's
BlizzCon 2014 event.
A ''
Polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed '' polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two t ...
'' story covering the event noted Mercy was equipped with feathery wings, a healing stream, and a pistol.
[ Mercy is voiced by Lucie Pohl, a German-American voice actress.] While Blizzard had been trying to find an actor native to the area that could perform a good Swiss-German accent, they found Pohl's accent to be good for the character and selected her instead, according to lead writer Michael Chu.
In concept art for ''Overwatch'', prior to her final design, Mercy had been represented as a black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...
man with white hair and a broad build, but otherwise having similar outfits and abilities as the released version.
In addition to her default skin
Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation.
Other cuticle, animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have diffe ...
, Mercy has received themed cosmetics, such as during the game's 2017 "Year of the Rooster" event. During May 2018, Blizzard partnered with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to offer a limited-time "Pink Mercy" skin that can be purchased by players, as well as a corresponding tee shirt with all proceeds going to the charity to support breast cancer awareness
Breast cancer awareness is an effort to raise awareness and reduce the stigma of breast cancer through education on symptoms and treatment. Supporters hope that greater knowledge will lead to earlier detection of breast cancer, which is assoc ...
(akin to the pink ribbon). Blizzard reported that the charity sale raised over , the largest single-year donation that the Breast Cancer Research Foundation had seen.
While Blizzard has made various changes to all of the heroes since the game's release, Mercy has seen very significant changes, including a complete rework of her skill kit, maintain to address how her ability to resurrect downed team members has impacted the game. At release, Mercy's ultimate ability was "Resurrect", which revived any recently eliminated teammates within a certain range, granting them full health and a brief invulnerability. Blizzard's developer notes on their July 21, 2016, patch for ''Overwatch'' referred to Resurrect as "one of the most powerful abilities in the game." Timely and strategic use of Mercy's Resurrect ability was considered by players to be a game changer, either saving a defending team from a defeat, or allowing an attacking team to continue an offensive push despite several eliminations. In August 2016, Blizzard added a buff to Mercy's "Resurrect" ability, as well as her general healing abilities, in order "to solidify her role as a strong, single-target healer." Prior to a patch in September 2016, post-match Plays of the Games in competitive play were frequently dominated by a Mercy player using the Resurrect ability, requiring Blizzard to rework how the game selected Plays of the Game to reduce this frequency.
Blizzard found that Mercy players overemphasised the "Resurrect" ability, as "it incentivized Mercy players to hide away from important battles, instead of taking part in them". With a September 2017 update, Mercy's "Resurrect" was moved out from being an ultimate ability to a standard skill with a long cooldown. Blizzard introduced her new ultimate, "Valkyrie", which significantly buffs all of Mercy's abilities and reduces cooldowns for fifteen seconds. Blizzard felt by keeping the Resurrect as a skill and adding the new Valkyrie ultimate, it "gives her the opportunity to make big game-making plays and opens a number of new options for her". Even with her kit change, Blizzard has continued to fine-tune the abilities within the public test servers to try to achieve a proper balance. Jeff Kaplan said that Blizzard continued to find that with the new kit, Mercy players still kept out of battle save to use Resurrect, when they want the character to be treated as great healer for all team members.[ A further adjustment was made to Mercy in a January 2018 patch; whereas the Valkyrie ultimate originally had reset the Resurrect cooldown and provided a second Resurrect that could be used immediately, the patch eliminated the reset and second Resurrect. The ''Overwatch'' developers stated that they found that many Mercy players were still holding back and using the immediate Resurrects granted by Valkyrie to swing control of the game and which was difficult for opposing teams to counter.][
During the beta development period of '' Overwatch 2'', Blizzard developers reworked Mercy's mobility.] Developers noticed if made to jump during this ability at a specific time, Mercy would be launched into the air, and noted that many players were incorporating this into their gameplay.[ However, Blizzard stated this was a bug, and reworked the ability so that a jumping mechanism would be included as a feature.][ Blizzard received backlash over these changes,] and in response to player feedback they further tweaked the ability in a subsequent patch.
Character and lore
On ''Overwatch''s accompanying website, Blizzard published a fictional biography for Mercy, listing her real name, age, and base of operations: Angela Ziegler, 37, and Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon
, twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco
Zürich () i ...
, Switzerland, respectively.[ The fictional bio also describers her as "a peerless healer, a brilliant scientist, and a staunch advocate for peace."][ In the ''Overwatch'' universe, she is known to have been affiliated with Overwatch, being their head of medical research,] and operating as a field medic
Field Medic is the stage name of American lo-fi musician Kevin Patrick Sullivan.
History
He began releasing music with his older brother Sean in 2009, initially as Westwood & Willow and then with drummer Andrew Skewes-Cox as Rin Tin Tiger. He de ...
and first responder
A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency, such as an accident, disaster, medical emergency, structure fire, crime, or ...
while with them.[ She ascended to these positions in Overwatch via becoming the head of a prominent Swiss hospital, after which she developed a breakthrough in the field of applied ]nanobiology
Nanobiotechnology, bionanotechnology, and nanobiology are terms that refer to the intersection of nanotechnology and biology. Given that the subject is one that has only emerged very recently, bionanotechnology and nanobiotechnology serve as blan ...
, which attracted the attention of Overwatch. Although she disagreed with the militaristic methods implemented by Overwatch, she used their resources to develop her winged Valkyrie swift–response suit.[ Mercy found herself at odds with her superiors and others in Overwatch, despite her medical contributions.][
Mercy is also mentioned in Genji's fictional biography, with one line stating, " Hanzo believed that he had killed his brother, but Genji was rescued by Overwatch and the intervention of Dr. Angela Ziegler."]
In a fictional news report published by Blizzard, Mercy is quoted as commenting on the end of the Overwatch organization, describing the growing negative relationship between Soldier: 76 (Jack Morrison) and Reaper
A reaper is a farm implement or person that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used in Rom ...
(Gabriel Reyes): "after Morrison's promotion to strike commander, his relationship with Reyes changed, the tension became more pronounced as time went on. I tried to mend things. We all did. Sometimes when the closest bonds break, all you can do is pray you stay out of the cross fire."
The character was originally named "Angelica", with "Mercy" being the name of the character now known as " Pharah". Confusion among the game's beta testers arose, which involved players switching to Angelica when requested to switch to Mercy. As a result, Blizzard renamed Mercy as "Rocket Dude", before the character became known as Pharah, while simultaneously, Angelica was renamed Mercy.[
]
Gameplay
In ''Overwatch'', Mercy is classified as having a "support" role, specifically as a healer for her team. As a healer, a player using Mercy can see colored ghost images of their teammates through any obstacle, with the color indicating their health levels, and when in-sight, can see the health bar of the teammate. Mercy is equipped with the "Caduceus
The caduceus (☤; ; la, cādūceus, from grc-gre, κηρύκειον "herald's wand, or staff") is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology. The same staff was also ...
Staff" and "Caduceus Blaster".[ The Caduceus Staff possesses two firing modes: the primary fire, when connected to an ally heals them for as long as they are tethered to the healing stream, while the secondary fire ]buffs Buffs may refer to:
* Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), British army regiment 1689–1961
** Buffs (football club), an early 20th-century Hong Kong team formed from players from the regiment
* Queen's Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment, British Ar ...
an ally's damage output.[ The Caduceus Blaster is a small pistol which can deal effective damage at close range, but is otherwise weak.][ Although Mercy comes equipped with the Caduceus Blaster, a close-range pistol, '']Kotaku
''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.
History ...
'' noted that many ''Overwatch'' players ridicule offensive-minded Mercy players, referred to as "Battle Mercies", as firing the pistol detracts time from healing teammates.
Her abilities include "Guardian Angel" and "Angelic Descent". Mercy can use Guardian Angel to fly directly towards a targeted teammate, including those that have recently been eliminated, either to move quickly across the field or near a teammate to apply her staff's powers, or to dodge enemy fire. While aloft, Mercy can use the Angelic Descent ability to slow her rate of falling, provide more maneuverability.[ She also has her "Resurrect" ability, allowing her to revive one fallen teammate shortly after they are killed, though leaving her vulnerable for a few seconds during the process and has a long thirty-second cooldown. Her Ultimate ability is "Valkyrie", which gives her omni-directional flight and several boosts for fifteen seconds: passive self-healing, increased "Guardian Angel" range and speed, increased five healing per second and damage boost range, chain healing and damage boost to all nearby allies of the target for the same amount, increased sidearm fire rate, and infinite sidearm ammo.]
Appearances
Video games
Mercy first appeared in the 2016 video game ''Overwatch
''Overwatch'' is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of online multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment: '' Overwatch'' released in 2016, and '' Overwatch 2'' released in 2022. Both games f ...
''. Lacking a traditional single-player campaign, ''Overwatch'' had minimal in-game lore and character backgrounds. These were instead shown through map designs and character voice lines, and elements established in tie-in media.
Blizzard added seasonal events
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...
to the game to support ongoing interest, with some events including story elements; Mercy made an appearance in several of these events. In April 2017, Blizzard launched the Uprising event, which included a player versus environment
Player versus environment or player versus enemy (PvE, also known as player versus monster (PvM)), is a term used for both single player and online games, particularly MMORPGs, CORPGs, MUDs, other online role-playing video games and survival ga ...
co-op
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
game mode. The default version of the mode limits players to four characters, which included Mercy.[ The mode was set seven years before the events in the main game, in which a strike team consisting of Mercy, ]Torbjörn
Torbjörn, Thorbjörn, Torbjørn, or Thorbjørn (given name) are modern Swedish language, Swedish, Norwegian language, Norwegian and Danish language, Danish forms of the Old Norse and Icelandic language, Icelandic name ''Þorbjörn'', meaning thund ...
, Reinhardt, and Tracer
Tracer may refer to:
Science
* Flow tracer, any fluid property used to track fluid motion
* Fluorescent tracer, a substance such as 2-NBDG containing a fluorophore that is used for tracking purposes
* Histochemical tracer, a substance used for tr ...
are tasked with thwarting an attack on London perpetrated by an extremist group. Mercy also appeared in the Mercy's Recall Challenge event, launched in November 2019.[
Mercy appears in '' Overwatch 2'', which launched in October 2022.]
Comics
In the tenth issue of the ''Overwatch'' digital comic book, Mercy is briefly featured and seen reading a letter, implied to be Genji's.
Short stories
Mercy was the focus of a short story, "Valkyrie", released on November 11, 2019, written by Michael Chu, which focuses on the period around her joining of the Overwatch team. The story tied into Mercy's Recall Challenge.
Reception
Mercy received praised among both fans of ''Overwatch'' and video game journalists alike. In the week of the game's launch, IGN noted Mercy as among a shortlist of characters "more popular than others when it comes to fan art." Her "Witch" skin for the game's Halloween-themed event was noted by ''Polygon
In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed '' polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two t ...
'' to be extremely popular with Mercy players. In addition to fan art featuring the skin being made, some players changed their desktop background to the game's official menu screen featuring Mercy in the skin.[
Mercy has been noted as one of the more popularly used characters in ''Overwatch''; during the game's open beta she was the most played support class character. Following her major revamp in September 2017, Mercy was found to be universally picked as at least one healer on a team in competitive play, and because these changes require her to be closer to combat, the concept of a "Battle Mercy" who mixes both healing with attacks gained popularity at higher-ranked play. Some criticized this change, and felt it was a sign that Blizzard was trying to cater the game towards the competitive players over casual ones; high-level players felt that Mercy was a "zero aim" character prior to the September 2017 revamp, making it easy for new players to learn, but subsequently, the character requires more decision making and choices that can be difficult to casual players to learn.
A '']Eurogamer
''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson.
Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...
'' article referred to her as "gaming's greatest healer." In his review of ''Overwatch'', Phil Savage of ''PC Gamer
''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...
'', expressed, "I particularly love how varied the movement is between characters," praising Mercy's glide ability and citing Mercy as "the perfect example of how every aspect of a character can, in the best cases, support a specific style."[ Savage elaborated, "alone, she's vulnerable and slow – easily ambushed and dispatched. But, with line-of-sight to a teammate, she can spread her wings and fly towards them. It's fun to do, and also reinforces the symbiotic partnership between healer and healed: Mercy needs her teammates as much as they need her. It's masterful design."]
Due to her Resurrect ability being able to cause such an impact on the flow of a game, ''Kill Screen''s Joshua Calixto referred to Mercy as "the most terrifying character in ''Overwatch''." In professional play, such as the Overwatch League
The Overwatch League (OWL) is a professional esports league for the video game '' Overwatch'', produced by its developer, Blizzard Entertainment. The Overwatch League follows the model of other traditional North American professional sporting l ...
, some have argued that Mercy's Resurrect ability was still too much of a game-changer in these competitive matches; this concern persisted even after Mercy's September 2017 rework. Damian Alonzo for ''PC Gamer
''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...
'' said that strategy for competitive ''Overwatch'' is generally about achieving a player advantage, which could be achieved with an early kill and which can snowball into greater advantages throughout the match, but Mercy's Resurrection completely undoes that advantage, nullifying such early kills and without any consequences. ''PCGamesN
''PCGamesN'' is a British online video game magazine focusing on PC gaming and hardware. It has a full-time team of over a dozen writers and is the oldest owned-and-operated site within publishing group Network N.
History
Parent company Net ...
''s Ben Barrett also said that because Mercy can undo the effects of short-term gain strategies like flanking with Resurrection, these strategies become futile, and resorting to more standard attack patterns slows down the pace of the game.
A relationship between Mercy and Genji was hinted at in voice lines added in early 2017; fan reception to these voice lines was mixed, particularly among fans who engage in "shipping
Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ex ...
" characters from the game. Fans of the game created a couple name, Gency, for the duo's possible relationship. The relationship is one of the more popular fan-created ones, based on Genji's fictional biography, which includes Mercy saving his life. Gita Jackson of ''Kotaku'' wrote that, "while some fans don't like the idea of the characters being canonically straight, there are other concerns that go beyond preference for a particular elationship Some fans believe that 'shipping Mercy and Genji is inappropriate because Mercy is the Overwatch foundation's doctor. For them, the conflict of interest in a doctor/patient relationship is enough to make the ship feel inappropriate," adding that "some fans see the relationship as predatory on Mercy's part."[
]
References
{{good article
Comics characters introduced in 2016
Female characters in animation
Female characters in comics
Female characters in video games
Fictional biologists
Fictional characters with healing abilities
Fictional combat medics
Fictional female doctors
Fictional female scientists
Fictional scientists in video games
Fictional Swiss people
Fictional United Nations personnel
Nanotechnology in fiction
Overwatch characters
Video game characters introduced in 2016