Overwatch Wiki
Advertisement
Sigma
"Why seek answers when we do not know the question?"

Real Name
Siebren de Kuiper
Status
Active
Birth
March 15th
Age
64
Nationality
Netherlands Dutch
Occupation
Scientist (formerly)
Talon living weapon
Base
The Hague, Netherlands (formerly)
International Space Station (formerly)
Affiliation
Talon
Boris Hiestand (English)

Yann Guillemot (French)
Richard Gonlag (German)
Liu Yijia (Mandarin (China))
Huang Tian-you(Mandarin(Taiwan))
Takahiro Shimada (Japanese)
Luca Semeraro (Italian)
Luis Ferando Ríos(European Spanish)
Marcelo Pissardini (Brazilian Portuguese)
Wojciech Kalarus (Polish)
Igor Taradaikin (Russian)

Cosmetics
Cosmetic page
Quotes
Quotation page
Role
Tank
Health
200 (Open queue)
350 (Role queue)
Shields
275
Character Video

Sigma is a Tank hero in Overwatch. Released on 13 August 2019, he is the 31st hero added to the game.

Overview

Sigma is an eccentric astrophysicist and volatile tank who gained the power to control gravity in an orbital experiment gone wrong. Manipulated by Talon and deployed as a living weapon, Sigma's presence on the battlefield cannot be ignored.

Abilities

Role: Tank
Hero-ability-circle
TankIcon
Type
Passive Ability
Reduces knockbacks and critical damage received. Less ultimate generated by healing and damage received. Increases base health in Role Queue game modes.

Ability details:
  • Reduces the speed of knockbacks received by 25%
  • Ultimate generation is reduced by 40%.
  • Reduces the total damage received from critical hits, such as headshots, by 25%.
    • Weapons with a lower 1.5x headshot modifier ignore this damage reduction completely.
    • The effectiveness on abilities that deal critical damage through other means than headshots is ambiguous: Ability-reinhardt5 Earthshatter and Overrun icon Overrun are affected by the damage reduction, but Ability Sombra Virus Virus and Volatile Chaingun icon Volatile Chaingun's forced critical hits against burning targets are not.
    • The reduction stacks additively with other modifiers affecting damage taken.
  • All tanks have 150 more health in Role Queue. The amount of armor and/or shields remains the same.


Hyperspheres
Key mouse 1
Hero-ability-circle
Abilities-sigma1
Type
Weapon
Effect Type
Arcing projectile Arcing projectile
Area of effect Area of effect
Blocked by barriers.
Ignores barriers.
!
Partially blocked by Defense Matrix/Kinetic Grasp.
Ignores Defense Matrix/Kinetic Grasp.
!
Partially blocked by Deflect/Javelin Spin.
Ignores Deflect/Javelin Spin.
Affected by damage boosts.
Ignores damage boosts.
!
Partially affected by Amplification Matrix.
Ignores Amplification Matrix.
Launch two charges which implode after a short duration, dealing damage in an area.
Damage:
15 (direct hit)
40 – 12 (splash, enemy)
Headshot:
Rate of fire:
0.67 shots/s
Bullets per shot:
2
Ammo:
Max. range:
22 meters
Area of effect:
3 meter implosion radius
Knockback speed:
1.1 m/s (enemy)
0.7 m/s (self)
Projectile speed:
48 m/s
Projectile radius:
0.35 meters
Sigma launches two gravitic balls of matter, which bounce off walls and implode after a short duration, damaging enemies within a sizable radius.

Ability details:
  • Damage per second: ~73.3 while firing
  • Bounces off walls, floors, and ceilings. Hitting a hero or an object causes the charges to implode.
  • The charges automatically implode after travelling 22 meters along the trajectory. However, the maximum reach of Hyperspheres is slightly less than 22 meters due to the fact that the charges also travel downwards.
  • Enemies hurt by the implosion will be slightly pulled towards the center. This effect counts as a knockback.
  • Projectiles can be blocked by Ability-dva3 Defense Matrix, Abilities-sigma3 Kinetic Grasp, Ability JavelinSpin Javelin Spin and Ability-genji2 Deflect before they implode. The implosion itself is unaffected.
  • Baptiste-ability4 Amplification Matrix affects all damage dealt, if the projectile passes through it. Splash damage alone going through is not amplified.


Experimental Barrier
Key mouse 2
Hero-ability-circle
Abilities-sigma2
2 seconds (recalled)
5 seconds (destroyed)
Type
Ability
Hold to propel a floating barrier; release to stop. Press again to recall the barrier to you.
Barrier health:
700
Cast time:
0.03 + 0 seconds
Duration:
Until recalled or destroyed
Max. range:
Area of effect:
4.5 meters height
5 meters width at the poles
6.5 meters width at the middle
Projectile speed:
20 m/s
Sigma propels a floating barrier to a location of his choosing. He can retrieve the barrier at any time.

Ability details:
  • On default settings, the barrier moves forward by holding down the ability key and stops when released.
  • Barrier health starts to regenerate at a rate of 85 per second after being recalled for 2 seconds.
  • Deploying the barrier is a channeled action; use of fire and abilities is limited, and being stunned or knocked down or hacked, including their subsidiary effects, interrupts the cast.
    • Sigma cannot use his primary fire or normal abilities while deploying the barrier. Abilities-sigma5 Gravitic Flux can be used, which will upon activation stop the barrier at its current location.
    • Being stunned or knocked down stops the barrier at its current location, but will not cause an active barrier to be retracted.
  • The barrier is automatically recalled if Sigma is eliminated or Ability Sombra Hack hacked at any time.
  • Walls will block the barrier's path if the center of the barrier is blocked. The barrier will coast along the ground if the angle down is 45° or lower.
  • The barrier can be removed by pressing the ability key again, keeping all its remaining health. This can be done at any time, including in the middle of other abilities such as Kinetic Grasp.
  • The barrier is destroyed if it goes out of bounds.
  • The barrier cannot be deployed while using Quick Melee.


Kinetic Grasp
LSHIFT
Hero-ability-circle
Abilities-sigma3
12 seconds
Type
Ability
Effect Type
Area of effect Area of effect
Blocked by barriers.
Ignores barriers.
Blocked by Defense Matrix/Kinetic Grasp.
Ignores Defense Matrix/Kinetic Grasp.
Blocked by Deflect/Javelin Spin.
Ignores Deflect/Javelin Spin.
Affected by damage boosts.
Ignores damage boosts.
Affected by Amplification Matrix.
Ignores Amplification Matrix.
Absorb projectiles in front of you and convert them into extra health.
Overhealth:
60% of damage absorbed (400 max)
Cast time:
0.05 + 0.5 seconds
Duration:
2 seconds
Max. range:
3 meters
Sigma freezes incoming projectiles in midair, converting them into overhealth.

Ability details:


Accretion
E
Hero-ability-circle
Abilities-sigma4
10 seconds
Type
Ability
Effect Type
Arcing projectile Arcing projectile
Area of effect Area of effect
Blocked by barriers.
Ignores barriers.
Blocked by Defense Matrix/Kinetic Grasp.
Ignores Defense Matrix/Kinetic Grasp.
Blocked by Deflect/Javelin Spin.
Ignores Deflect/Javelin Spin.
Affected by damage boosts.
Ignores damage boosts.
!
Partially affected by Amplification Matrix.
Ignores Amplification Matrix.
Gather a mass of debris and throw it at an enemy to knock them down.
Damage:
80 (direct)
40 – 12 (splash, enemy)
20 – 6 (splash, self)
Headshot:
Cast time:
0.64 + 0 seconds
Duration:
1.2 seconds (knockdown)
Area of effect:
2.5 meter explosion radius
M. speed penalty:
-75%
Knockback speed:
10.9 m/s (enemy, direct)
4.3 m/s (enemy, splash)
3.6 m/s (self, splash)
Projectile speed:
37 m/s
Projectile radius:
0.9 meters
Sigma gathers a mass of debris and flings it at an enemy to knock them down.

Ability details:
  • Accretion is a channeled ability; The use of fire and other abilities is limited, and the ability is interrupted, if Sigma is stunned, knocked down or hacked, including their subsidiary effects.
    • Abilities-sigma2 Experimental Barrier can be retracted without interrupting the ability.
    • Sigma cannot use primary fire or any other ability while casting Accretion.
  • Sigma cannot crouch while casting Accretion.
  • Hitbox for wall explosions is smaller. The stone can visually touch the wall, but not explode and fly past it.
  • Enemy heroes hit by the rock directly are knocked down and knocked back. Enemies hit by the splash are only knocked back.
  • Baptiste-ability4 Amplification Matrix affects all damage dealt, if the projectile passes through it. Splash damage alone going through is not amplified.


Gravitic Flux
Q
Hero-ability-circle
Abilities-sigma5
2300 points
Type
Ultimate Ability
Effect Type
Area of effect Area of effect
Movement Movement
Blocked by barriers.
Ignores barriers.
Blocked by Defense Matrix/Kinetic Grasp.
Ignores Defense Matrix/Kinetic Grasp.
Blocked by Deflect/Javelin Spin.
Ignores Deflect/Javelin Spin.
!
Partially affected by damage boosts.
Ignores damage boosts.
Affected by Amplification Matrix.
Ignores Amplification Matrix.
Manipulate gravity to lift enemies into the air and slam them back down.
Damage:
50 (lift)
50% max HP (slam)
Headshot:
Cast time:
0 + 0.6 seconds (activation)
1.0 + 0 seconds (lift)
Duration:
5 seconds (targeting)
1 second (activation delay)
2.3 seconds (suspension)
0.6 seconds (high gravity after slam)
Max. range:
35 meters
Area of effect:
8 meters radius (horizontal)
~8-10 meters (vertical)
Movement speed:
7.15 m/s
Unleashing his full powers, Sigma takes flight, lifts enemies in a targeted area, and launches them into the sky before slamming them back down.

Ability details:
  • Gravitic Flux's targeting area is cylindrical: Its bottom is a flat 8m radius circle situated 5.5m below the targeted (ground) location and the upper limit of the area is defined by a 15.5m radius sphere centered on this point at the bottom, resulting in ~8-10m upward range from the ground level.
  • Targeting is based off line-of-sight from the dark center circle of the selected area. Any enemies who can block line of sight from the center, such as by hiding behind a wall, will not be affected by the initial lift.
    • This means certain physical Objects that prevent line of such, such as Tree of Life Icon Tree of Life and Petal Platform Icon Petal Platform, can prevent targeting. In fact, due to the large size of Tree of Life Icon Tree of Life, if placed directly on the center of the selection area, it will block all targets ending the ultimate early.
    • Gravitic Flux will target enemies through barriers.
  • The selected area is visible to the enemy team briefly before the effect activates.
    • Gravitic Flux’s Area of Effect is slightly larger than the marker indicates, so enemies within 0.5-1 meter of the edge of the indicator will also be affected.
  • Does not affect deployed objects, such as turrets or D.Va's mech during Ability-dva4 Self-Destruct, or the map objective.
  • If no enemies are lifted the effect ends immediately. However, if all lifted enemies escape the suspension or are eliminated, the ability will continue until the end.
  • Affected enemies are rooted, disabling all movement abilities.
  • Gravitic Flux's lift cannot be prevented or removed by effects that grant invincibility or phased out, such as Ability-zarya3 Personal/Projected Barrier, Ability-mei2 Cryo-Freeze or Protection Suzu Icon Protection Suzu, but the damage portions can be prevented.
    • Mauga's Overrun icon Overrun and Venture's Burrow can prevent the hero from being lifted, however it cannot remove the effect once they cannot remove the effect once they have been lifted and can't be used during once lifted as they are movement abilities.
    • Heroes affected by Abilities-sigma5 Gravitic Flux can use Symmetra's Ability-symmetra4 Teleporter, however, it will not remove the effect.
    • Orisa can prevent and remove the effect using Ability Orisa Fortify Fortify.
    • D.Va can remove the effect from herself using Ability-dva4 Self-Destruct, leaving the exploding mech in the suspension.
      • Re-entering mech will also allow D.Va to escape the suspension, however, as Ability-dva6 Call Mech will be disabled during the suspension, it must be activated before being hit by Gravitic Flux for this to happen.
    • Lifeweaver can pull targets out of Gravitic Flux using Life Grip Icon Life Grip.
  • The slam deals damage equal to 50% of the target's maximum HP, which is increased by temporary HP, such as overhealth or armor, gained from abilities.
    • If the ability is interrupted before the slam or a target escapes the suspension the target(s) will fall down naturally without taking damage.
    • Slam damage ignores all damage modifications, both on Sigma and the targets.
  • Sigma can fly while Gravitic Flux is active. Holding the Jump key causes Sigma to rise, and holding Crouch makes him descend.
    • Being rooted or hindered make Sigma temporarily unable to fly, but do not prevent the activation or immediately end the ability.
    • Gravitic Flux is a channeled ability and it is interrupted by becoming hacked, stunned, knocked down or asleep.
    • Vertical and horizontal speed are related. Sigma cannot move faster than 7.15 meters per second of horizontal and vertical speed in same time.
      • If the vertical speed is <0.25, then the horizontal maximum can be no more than 7.15 and vice versa.
      • If your crosshair is exactly centered and you pinch forward/back and jump/ctrl then your vertical and horizontal speed will be 5.06 meters per second.
      • If your crosshair is exactly centered and you pinch forward/back and jump/ctrl and right/left then your vertical speed = 3.58 and horizontal = 6.19.


Hero-specific options

Setting name Options Description
Toggle Experimental Barrier Off (default) Experimental Barrier stops propelling forward when player stops holding the button.
On Experimental Barrier stops propelling forward when player presses the button again.
Gravitic Flux confirmation input Primary Fire (default) Pressing Primary Fire activates Gravitic Flux.
Secondary Fire Pressing Secondary Fire activates Gravitic Flux.
Experimental Barrier UI On (default) Experimental Barrier UI element is displayed above the crosshair.
Off Experimental Barrier UI element is hidden.
Reload recalls Experimental Barrier Off (default) Experimental Barrier is recalled only by pressing Secondary Fire.
On Experimental Barrier is recalled either by pressing Secondary Fire or Reload.
Hide Gravitic Flux timer Off (default) Timer UI element is displayed around the crosshair.
on Timer UI element is hidden.
Rise during Gravitic Flux with Ability 3 Off (default) Holding Jump causes Sigma to rise during Gravitic Flux only.
On Holding Jump or Ultimate Ability button causes Sigma to rise during Gravitic Flux.

Strategy

Sigma is a Tank Hero boasting both consistent offensive and defensive abilities. However, his lengthy cooldowns requires one to think ahead rather than freely using his abilities. While he is capable of high damage output, he is most useful when fighting at a distance with Accretion and Hyperspheres while making openings and defending his team with his versatile Experimental Barrier. Quick thinking and superb situational awareness is needed when using Kinetic Grasp to protect himself and his team.

Sigma's abilities can give off the perception that he is stronger than he is, which can make it tempting for players to play overly aggressive with him. While Sigma has the capability to deal a lot of damage, his lack of mobility will make any situation where you're stranded alone and surrounded by enemies a disaster. Overextending with Sigma will in most cases result in dying a swift death; likewise, if you believe your teammates are nearby but they've already fled from a fight, you're just as likely to be eliminated. With that being said, Accretion and his Hyperspheres can quickly take out a singular escaping enemy, such as Lúcio or Tracer; in these cases, finishing them off before they can flee is the correct play. Being able to distinguish when it's a good time to push forward and when it's better to stay behind your team will be instrumental to the survival of both yourself and your team.

Weapons & Abilities

  • Abilities-sigma1 Hyperspheres: Sigma's primary fire. Utilizes a two-round burst projectile fire which detonate shortly after firing, capable of damaging multiple enemies at one time and bouncing around corners to deal with heroes out of your direct view. Their detonations have a minor gravity effect similar to Orisa's Halt!, though much weaker.
    • The projectiles' damage is moderate and consistent, though incapable of headshots. These are best utilized in close spaces, where the Hyperspheres can bounce around obstacles and deal damage to multiple enemy players or players hiding behind corners.
    • The short range of the projectiles limits their ability to fight in open areas; try to stay within an area that enemies congregate in, such as near enemy cover or in small quarters.
    • The minor gravitational effect can be utilized to slow down quick heroes such as Lucio, Soldier: 76, and Genji.
    • Though their range is limited, their moderate damage can be used to whittle away at enemy barriers without exposing yourself.
    • If Melee is used correctly after the second projectile, the time until the next attack will not be increased. As such, weaving in melee attacks inbetween shots greatly increases your DPS up close.
    • Although Hyperspheres are arcing projectiles, like Junkrat’s grenade launcher and Torbjörn’s rivet gun, Sigma’s Hyperspheres’ downward movement is very minimal and aiming them does not require you to account for their downward movement unless enemies are near their maximum range.
  • Abilities-sigma2 Experimental Barrier: A sizable barrier which can be deployed and retracted at will, and can be deployed at any area within Sigma's line of sight.
    • The barrier is most of the time best used selfishly to allow Sigma cross dangerous areas and block burst and important abilities coming his way. If the situation requires, it can be used to provide cover for your team, but it should primarily be used for your own survivability.
    • Experimental Barrier is able to be used in a multitude of situations to save yourself and your team, and will rely heavily on your ability to respond quickly to the situation at hand.
    • Using the speed of the barrier, you can block the usage of Ultimates from Soldier 76, Pharah, Reaper, Reinhardt, Cassidy, Ashe (B.O.B.), Bastion, Roadhog, and sometimes D.Va (although she might destroy the barrier). This can potentially deny a game-changing enemy play, and it can help contest the objective by delaying/neutralizing an enemy's ability to use their Ultimate.
    • Using your barrier, you can advance through choke-points quickly and relocate your barrier after passing through it.
    • Placing Experimental Barrier close to enemies who use explosive weapons (e.g. Pharah's Barrage or Echo's Sticky Bombs) will cause the explosive weapons to stick to the barrier, detonating close to the enemy and killing them. This is, however, usually at the cost of the barrier.
  • Abilities-sigma3 Kinetic Grasp: Kinetic Grasp is similar to D.Va's Defense Matrix, though its range is shorter. Where it lacks in length, it makes up in width. It can protect not only Sigma himself, but the heroes directly besides and behind him.
    • You want to use this ability to save your teammates more than yourself, or in the event of a large amount of projectile damage coming towards the team.
    • A keen sense of situational awareness is needed for this ability, to be able to remove projectile Ultimates going on in a fight that could potentially result in game-changing plays.
    • Using this ability during Barrage can buy your team valuable time, as well as make Sigma into a physical shield to absorb the Ultimate. Combining Kinetic Grasp and Experimental Barrier can stop Barrage's damage output altogether while giving Sigma a full shield charge.
  • Abilities-sigma4 Accretion: Sigma's Accretion ability grants him a unique stun ability in Overwatch, given it cannot be stopped by anything other than a physical barrier. It has the ability to stun heroes for an extended period of time, while also dealing moderate damage.
    • Use this ability sparingly, as the large cooldown will leave you without the ability later in the fight when a quick pick can be achieved using it.
    • Accretion can be used to save supports being punished by either flanking Damage heroes or bruiser type tanks like D.Va by stopping them from escaping or pursuing their target.
    • Best used when a enemy hero is caught in the open by themselves, or are generally low enough to be picked off by Accretion or by some follow-up damage.
    • Tossing this ability into a hero using a channelled Ultimate ability will stop that ultimate. These include Reaper, Pharah, Moira, and Sigma, among others.
    • Though a high skill-gap comes with using Accretion, the ability to land long-range tosses will set your team up for an easy pick or simply disable one enemy player for 0.8 seconds for longer tosses.
  • Abilities-sigma5 Gravitic Flux: A powerful ability that can be used to disrupt an enemy team that is hunkering down in one location, or to end a team's contesting of the point in critical points. As powerful as the ability is it can be easy to want to use it on a few heroes at a time, try to limit its use to when the enemy is congregated together or multiple heroes are low.
    • Because of the similarities to Meteor Strike, you will want the enemy team distracted while you are using this, as they will disperse to avoid being caught in your Ultimate. Try combining your Ultimate with Earthshatter and Graviton Surge to ensure you have heroes in your Ultimate when cast.
    • Communicate with your "DPS" heroes when you are casting Gravitic Flux, as they will be able to capitalize on it with either damage output or usage of an ultimate while they are suspended in the air.
    • While this Ultimate is amazing in open areas and on objectives, don't neglect the lethality of it in enclosed spaces. Casting this Ultimate in an enclosed space can open up opportunities that aren't viable out in the open, such as RIP-Tire and Death Blossom.
    • With some practice, this ability can be used with Minefield and Self-Destruct. Timing and communication will be key, as all three Ultimates have a warm-up before they are able to deal damage.
    • Using this ability over the objective can cause Overtime to end during the suspension phase, so it is highly recommended to use this to your advantage if there is only a few heroes on point contesting to force them off or force them into the air.

General strategies

  • Keeping the right distance from enemy heroes is key to playing Sigma, as he has longer effective range compared to most other tanks. Being able to pull back as necessary and utilizing walls to bounce your Hyperspheres will prove more useful than a front-on fight.
  • Sigma excels at covering weak points in the team's defenses and pressuring enemies from a distance. Use your shield to allow Sigma and potentially a friendly damage dealer to safely shoot from an off-angle, and then use kinetic grasp to help yourself survive when the enemy team attempts to deal with you.
  • Barrier management is the core of Sigma’s kit. It’s recommended to play around his cool downs, using Experimental Barrier to protect yourself until Kinetic grasp is ready. Then, you drop your barrier and absorb all incoming damage, which will allow you to be much more aggressive.
  • Accretion is a powerful tool for warding off aggression, but it is also useful for interrupting a wide range of abilities. Against an opposing Sigma for example, landing Accretion while they are using Kinetic Grasp will deny them the extra shields from that ability and force them to play safer.

Advanced tips

  • Sigma floats like Zenyatta, meaning he makes no audible footsteps. This can be quite useful if attempting to flank, hide from enemies, or capture the objective while the enemy team is distracted.
  • The Experimental Barrier can be used to mass clear mines from Wrecking Ball's ultimate ability.
  • By placing your Experimental Barrier in front of an enemy Pharah using her ultimate, it is quite likely she will eliminate herself with the splash damage. This has to be done very precisely as your shield will get melted before you know it, and the time frame is very small.
  • The barrier can also be used offensively to block off heals to the enemy by placing it between them and their support.

Match-ups and team synergy

Tank

Hero Match-Up Team Synergy
Icon-dva
D.Va
While D.Va can block your Hyperspheres with her Defense Matrix, she won't be able to block Accretion; if D.Va is trying to shield her team from oncoming damage, feel free to hit her with a big rock. If she attempts to rush you, you can use Kinetic Grasp to block her Micro Missiles. Your Experimental Barrier can shield your team from Self-Destruct, but because it's a smaller barrier than that of most other Tanks, it may be tricky to successfully save your team in the heat of the moment. With a friendly D.Va on your team, you'll have an incredibly easy time negating incoming projectiles and covering each other's bases. That being said, you'll have a much greater difficulty against beam weapons such as the likes of Zarya and Symmetra. Play a more defensive role, as your D.Va will most likely be playing more offensively.
Icon-doomfist
Doomfist
Doomfist is capable of damaging Sigma through his Kinetic Grasp and Experimental Barrier with Seismic Slam and Rocket Punch, making Doomfist a very threatening character to fight. You need to look for him to use his Rocket punch before using Kinetic Grasp, and save your Accretion Mass for when he attempts to use Power Block. Do note that if you hit him with one Hypersphere and an Accretion, you will charge his Rocket Punch. Be careful to use Gravitic Flux while he has a Rocket Punch available, as he may be able to knock you out of flux. Outside of his abilities, Doomfist cannot deal notable damage to Sigma considering his low damage and Sigma's high health shield and Kinetic Grasp. Doomfist is a highly aggresive brawl hero, meaning you can play back and poke and let the Doomfist set up their team for your poke. He can look to use Meteor Strike after you cast Gravitic Flux and hit their enemy team for nearly unavoidable damage, and he can also punch the enemy team into your Flux to lift more people up.
Icon-Junker Queen
Junker Queen
You need to be setting up angles and long sightlines into a Junker Queen as Sigma, as once she closes the distance on you, your low health-pool and her high self sustain combined with your self damage from Hyperspheres will probably mean that you will not survive long. Look to force out her Commanding Shout by poking her and dealing heavy damage to her. Look to use Accretion Mass to cancel Carnage and Rampage, as they have a decent cast time and very predictable choreography. Try to absorb her Jagged Blade and by using Kinetic Grasp or Experimental Barrier. You can also block her rampage using Experimental Barrier to block LOS. There are no notable synergies between these heroes.
Icon-orisa
Orisa
Even though you have a range advantage, Orisa is very capable of closing distance and becoming an extreme threat. You need to look to play angles and long sightlines, as this will force Orisa to use her abilities to survive, which will make her extremely vulnerable after they go on cooldown. Be careful to get to close into an Orisa, as she can Fortify to bodyblock you into a corner along with a Javelin Spin to push you into the corner. Try to make her use Energy Javelin early, as she is able to cancel your Gravitic Flux with it, fairly easily considering its high projectile speed. Terra Surge is completely unblockable as Sigma, so you need to play around corners when you know an enemy Orisa has it. This is a very high damage composition. Orisa is able to displace enemy players and put them into your effective range, Terra Surge can be used to pull enemies together for Gravitic Flux, and the damage from Terra Surge can be used to finish off the enemy team after Gravitic Flux.
Icon-reinhardt
Reinhardt
While you have the advantage at medium-range, at close range Reinhardt has the upper hand with his unblockable primary weapon and higher health pool. In addition, your Hyperspheres and Accretion deal self-damage at close range, making directly engaging a Reinhardt at close range very risky. However, you are still capable of nullifying some of the threat he poses. Kinetic Grasp is an excellent tool to deny Reinhardt long-range ultimate charge from his Fire Strike, giving you a small chunk of extra shield health in the process. You can fire Hyperspheres at an angle above his shield, or attempt to ricochet them around to deal damage to both him and any of his teammates close by. If he attempts to charge into your team, you can cancel it with Accretion, potentially saving any pinned teammates, and leaving Reinhardt vulnerable. Experimental Barrier and Accretion can also completely deny Earthshatter if timed properly. Having a friendly Reinhardt means running a barrier-heavy team composition. Because Reinhardt will be more planted in place, this give you a little more freedom to be aggressive, but you still shouldn't stray too far from Reinhardt so that neither of you get ambushed. If Reinhardt hits a large number of opponents with Earthshatter, you can follow up with Gravitic Flux to easy kill all of the stunned opponents. Experimental Barrier travels at the same speed as a charging Reinhardt, so consider coordinating with your allied Reinhardt to protect him during a risky charge.
Icon-Ramattra
Ramattra
While you win the long-range poke battle, once a Ramattra closes distance on you, it becomes a very one-sided duel as his Nemesis Form and Pummel is unblockable and does massive damage to you and your team. Look to force out his Nemesis Form and Void Barrier with heavy poke, and save Accretion Mass for when he gets close. If he is in Nemesis Form and is blocking while low health, try to use Accretion Mass to stun him and make him extremely vulnerable. Annihilation is also very difficult to deal with as your Experimental Barrier is static and has a cooldown, making it hard to block Annihilation. Ramattra and Sigma are an extremely powerful synergy, as they cover eachother's weaknesses. Ramattra has difficulties closing the enemy team without using Void Barrier, but Sigma's Experimental Barrier can reduce this risk as it is a much lighter investment. Ramattra's Nemesis Form also helps put pressure on an enemy team trying to brawl a Sigma. An interesting interaction is that Ravenous Vortex will pull lifted enemies in Gravitic Flux back to the ground before they are slammed down by Sigma.
Icon-roadhog
Roadhog
You and Roadhog are both primarily effective at mid to close range. However, if he grabs you with his Chain Hook, he will easily gain the upper hand. It's important to keep your Experimental Barrier between yourself and Roadhog to keep him from Hooking you. Him being so large and slow makes him an easy target for your Hyperspheres as well as Accretion and Gravitic Flux. It's best to use Accretion on him when he's using Take a Breather, which will disrupt his healing and damage-reduction to render him easier to finish off. If he unleashes Whole Hog on you and your team, try to quickly cancel it out with either Kinetic Grasp or Accretion; Experimental Barrier won't do much, as his high damage with low spread will shred your barrier apart in an instant. A Roadhog being your team's second tank will force you to play a defensive, team-supporting role. Your slow mobility will also make it difficult for the two of you to flank enemies. However, so long as you keep track of each other's position, you can work well together. An enemy snagged by Roadhog's Chain Hook makes for an easy target for your Hyperspheres or Accretion if you want to stun them even longer. If Roadhog stays by your side, he can also help pull flankers off of you with his Chain Hook.
Icon-sigma
Sigma
You should focus on putting pressure on an enemy Sigma's Experimental Barrier, forcing him to recall it to recharge. Your Hyperspheres can be absorbed by Kinetic Grasp, but Accretion cannot, so focus on attempting to stun Sigma out of Kinetic Grasp where possible, to deny him extra shields. You should also try to block his Accretion with your Experimental Barrier. If you know an enemy Sigma has Gravitic Flux, save your Accretion to attempt to stun him and cancel the ultimate. With Sigma's abilities such as a retractable barrier, a damaging and stunning rock, projectile absorption, and a slam. One Sigma can protect the team from behind while another from the front. Another thing you can do is one Sigma uses an ability and the other one can use that same ability while the others is on cooldown.
Icon-wrecking ball
Wrecking Ball
Wrecking Ball's high mobility and knockback-based attacks can make him difficult to deal with on your own. Kinetic Grasp can block his Quad Cannons, but its damage output does not give a lot of bonus shields. Focus on attempting to hit Wrecking Ball with Accretion to stop him from plowing through your team, especially if he uses Piledriver in the middle of your group. Accretion is also a valuable tool to halt Wrecking Balls attempting to stall the point by spinning. You can use Experimental Barrier to block the damage from Piledriver to anyone behind it, as well as being able to clear a path through his Minefield, although this will probably destroy your shield. Sigma's almost non-existent mobility can make synergising with a friendly Wrecking Ball difficult. The best thing you can do to help him is to provide your Experimental Barrier to protect him, however this will leave your team short of a shield. You can also stun enemies knocked up with Piledriver with Accretion, which should be easy to hit as enemies hit by Piledriver have a locked trajectory. In addition, Gravitic Flux can be used in combination with Minefield to quickly eliminate a group of enemies.
Icon-winston
Winston
Winston's Tesla Cannon damage cannot be blocked by either Experimental Barrier or Kinetic Grasp, so save both for more important sources of damage. You have a longer effective range than Winston does, and his large hitbox makes your Hyperspheres easy to hit, but his Barrier Projector can make doing damage to him difficult if he engages with it. If Winston attempts to dive directly into your team, his predictable path can make hitting him with Accretion easy, however Winston can counter it with his Barrier Projector. Instead, focus on attempting to stun Winston as he moves to disengage with Jump Pack. If you can hit him, his momentum will be cancelled, and he will be left vulnerable. Your low mobility and large hitbox makes you easy to juggle around for a Winston in Primal Rage, and his high health and lowered Jump Pack cooldown will make stunning him with Accretion largely ineffective unless your entire team is focusing him at the moment you stun, so focus on drawing an ulting Winston's attention away from your squishier teammates by shooting at him. There are no notable synergies between these heroes.
Icon-zarya
Zarya
At high energy, Zarya is capable of shredding your Experimental Barrier in seconds, and its beam cannot be blocked by Kinetic Grasp, however you can absorb her secondary fire projectiles. Avoid shooting into her bubbles to reduce her damage output, and wait for her to use her bubbles before casting Gravitic Flux, as they are capable of nullifying the slam damage for both her and any of her teammates that she protects, in addition to giving her a massive amount of energy. Kinetic Grasp is capable of absorbing Graviton Surge, however its short range and fairly long cooldown can make this tricky. Zarya can work with Sigma in a similar way to Reinhardt, however your smaller and weaker barrier in addition to your lower health pool makes it a less optimal duo.

Damage

Hero Match-Up Team Synergy
Icon-ashe
Ashe
You can use your Experimental Barrier to block Ashe's line of sight, but this will only momentarily faze her while she repositions. Instead, focus on using Experimental Barrier to block Dynamite, as the burn damage is a major part of Ashe's ultimate charge gain. Do not bother using Kinetic Grasp against B.O.B, as you will not gain a lot of shields, so use Experimental Barrier to block off B.O.B from doing damage. If you and a friendly Ashe time the activation of B.O.B. and Gravitic Flux just right, you can have B.O.B. crash into a team to stun them long enough to be stuck in place and grabbed by Gravitic Flux, at which point B.O.B. will have free range to gun them all down in the air.
Icon-bastion
Bastion
Bastion's Turret mode fire will demolish your Experimental Barrier extremely quickly. Only use it momentarily to block bursts of damage while your team attempts to cross an area covered by Bastion. Using Kinetic Grasp to close the gap between you and Bastion is the best move, as you will gain a massive amount of shields from Bastion's high damage output. If the Bastion has no barrier protecting him, you can use Accretion to stun him and follow up with damage. Bastions using Artillery mode will often hide behind cover, but you are able to block Artillery shots using Experimental Barrier and (maybe) absorb the shots using Kinetic Grasp. You can also stun him out of Artillery Form if you find him using Accretion Mass. Look to support a Bastion using Experimental Barrier while he is in turret form. While he is outside of Turret form, your team's potential power is much lower.
Icon-cassidy
Cassidy
(To be added) Experimental Barrier's mobility can provide good cover for a friendly Cassidy to get up close and damage enemies while giving him ample protection. If you lift the enemy team into the air with Gravitic Flux, Cassidy can easily gun them down with Deadeye. Just be careful about a lifted Reinhardt, as he'll still be able to deploy his barrier to protect any teammates floating behind him.
Icon-echo
Echo
(To be added) (To be added)
Icon-genji
Genji
With some practice, Gravitic Flux can be used effectively to counter Dragonblade (and preferrably one assisted with nano boost). First, you have to wait for the genji to pull out his blade, after which he will dash to his first target. As soon as he dashes to, for example a friendly ana, use your Gravitic flux on him while he is relatively still. The time frame here is quite small, but more than long enough to get him in the flux and finish him off. This play is always worth it, as trading 2 ults for 1 and saving many friendly's is worth it. Once you grab a large number of opponents and crash them down with Gravitic Flux, any survivors will be greatly weakened, serving as easy targets for a friendly Genji to run through with Swift Strike or Dragonblade.
Icon-hanzo
Hanzo
(To be added) Sigma has no notable team synergy with Hanzo.
Icon-junkrat
Junkrat
Junkrat's heavy spam damage will quickly destroy your Experimental Barrier. Close the gap with Kinetic Grasp, as the high damage output of Junkrat's explosives will give you plenty of extra shield health to work with. You can also destroy RIP-Tire with a single burst of your Hyperspheres. An enemy team lifted into the air with Gravitic Flux serves as an easy target for a friendly Junkrat to blow apart with RIP-Tire.
Icon-mei
Mei
(To be added) Blizzard combos excellently with Gravitic Flux; enemies slowed to a crawl will be unable to escape Gravitic Flux's reach, and once they come crashing down, they will be quickly finished off by either your teammates or the gradual damage from Blizzard's freezing. Outside of your Ultimates, enemies frozen by Mei serve as easy targets for Hyperspheres or Accretion, while Mei can also use her Endothermic Blaster to freeze quick enemies trying to heckle you up close.
Icon-pharah
Pharah
Due to her ability to constantly be hovering in the air, it will usually be easy for Pharah to hover out of your Experimental Barrier's area of protection, making it difficult to block her shots. However, a quick deployment in response to her Rocket Barrage can both save your team and cause Pharah to die from the recoil. Barring this, you can use Kinetic Grasp to absorb both her standard rocket fire as well as her Rocket Barrage. Unless Pharah is hovering extremely close to the ground, don't expect to land much damage on Pharah, if at all; focus on keeping your teammates safe so they can gun her down. Sigma has no notable team synergy with Pharah.
Icon-reaper
Reaper
Out of all the shield tanks, Sigma arguably has the best match up against reaper. A good combo to remember against reaper is as follows: Hit him with hyperspheres until he uses wraith form, then use accretion and finish him off with some more hyperspheres. Do all of this after using Kinetic grasp for shield gain and while shield dancing with your Experimental Barrier to minimize the amount of damage received. Hitting your accretion and all hyperspheres is crucial, however this is very easy since reaper's combat style forces him to be up close. Sigma has no notable team synergy with Reaper.
Icon-Soldier 76
Soldier: 76
(To be added) Soldier 76's ultimate ability, tactical visor works very well with sigma's ultimate in open areas. By elevating everyone caught in your ultimate above any possible cover (besides barriers), you are essentially giving your friendly soldier 76 a free firing range. Use this combination of Gravitic flux + Tactical visor to pick off valuable targets in the backline, or a few isolated targets such as healers to turn the fight in your favour.
Icon-Sojourn
Sojourn
Sojourn is able outrange a Sigma with her primary fire and railgun and her Slide's rapid repositioning potential. Look to use Kinetic Grasp when she is trying to build charge on you, as her primary fire is a projectile and it's fairly easy to absorb. When she uses Slide, she is extremely vulnerable considering her large hitbox, so look to use Accretion Mass to stun her and have your team follow up to kill her. Overclock is countered quite well by your kit, as Overclock does poor damage to barriers, and you are able to grasp her shots. Be careful while using Flux against a Sojourn with Slide, as she will probably just slide out. Sigma allows Sojourn to play off angles much safer, as you are able to effectively peel for her and make sure she doesn't get killed. Gravitic Flux is also a good combo with Overclock, as it lines the enemy team up and makes them immobile for a short period of time.
Icon-sombra
Sombra
Hack will force your Experimental Barrier back to you, so make any effort you can to avoid being hacked. With quick reaction times, you can place a shield between you and Sombra to block line of sight for her Hack, and it can also block her bullets to deny her ultimate charge. You can also attempt to stun her with Accretion if your team is focusing her, to prevent her from trying to teleport away. Hack will completly cancel your Gravitic Flux, so wait for her to use it before casting your ultimate. EMP is a massive threat to you, as your Experimental Barrier will be pulled back to you and have considerable damage dealt to it. Should a friendly Sombra use EMP to neutralize an enemy team, this can render them easier targets to grab with Gravitic Flux and kill in one go.
Icon-symmetra
Symmetra
Symmetra's Photon Projector beam will charge up and gain ammo from your Experimental Barrier, and can shred it in seconds if you do not manage it carefully. The beam cannot be blocked by Kinetic Grasp, which can kill you quickly at high charge, and her small frame can make her difficult to hit with your Hyperspheres, so avoid directly confronting a Symmetra if possible. You do have a slight range advantage however, so try to engage her beyond the range of her beam if possible. Kinetic Grasp can absorb her secondary fire orbs, however their low fire rate will make absorbing more than one unlikely, so only try to absorb them if they are part of additional spam. You can use Experimental Barrier to block the damage of her Sentry Turrets while you or your team destroy them, and you can ricochet Hyperspheres off surfaces to destroy hidden ones. Symmetra's teleporter can help improve your low mobility, getting you to high ground or other locations that would normally be difficult for you to reach. When she activates Photon Barrier, you'll typically want to retract your Experimental Barrier so that you can save its energy while the massive health of her barrier absorbs the brunt of enemy attacks.
Icon-torbjörn
Torbjörn
Torbjörn's smaller stature will make him harder to hit with Hyper Spheres than some other characters. Due to Torbjörn's turret being stationary, blocking it with Experimental Barrier would help out your squishier flanking and flying teammates and reduce Torbjörn's ultimate gain and his overall chip damage. You can also absorb Torbjörn's Molten Core with Kinetic Grasp. When using Gravitic Flux, be aware of the position of Torbjörn's turret. Since it cannot be picked up with Gravitic Flux, and if you are low enough on health, it can do enough damage to kill you and deny you your ultimate. In a pinch, you can use your Experimental Barrier to keep Torbjörn's turret safe.
Icon-tracer
Tracer
Tracer's erratic movement and small hitbox will make it difficult for you to hit her. You can try and stun her with Accretion, but its relatively slow cast speed will make it easy for Tracer to reactively dodge it. However, hitting one or two Hyperspheres on her will usually force a Recall out of there. You also can use Kinetic Grasp to absorb Pulse Bomb. Sigma has no notable team synergy with Tracer.
Icon-widowmaker
Widowmaker
If you spot an enemy Widowmaker trying to snipe your team, you can deploy your Experimental Barrier to block off her shots by covering her sniping location, which can prove to be very annoying. Just be aware that this is a temporary solution, as the Widowmaker can eventually relocate and this act is depriving your team of a shield. Only use this tactic until a friendly flanker can approach Widowmaker and take her out, or at least disrupt her long enough that you can focus on your team again. Kinetic Grasp can absorb her shots, but she's unlikely to fire more than once, instead waiting until your ability has worn off, so be sure to be behind cover as soon as you're on cooldown. Sigma’s ultimate can allow a friendly Widowmaker to get a few headshots while enemies are in the air.

Support

Hero Match-Up Team Synergy
Icon-ana
Ana
You can place your Experimental Barrier between Ana and her team to stop her from being able to heal them. One of the most important things you should be doing is using Experimental Barrier to block her Biotic Grenade and Sleep Dart. You're modestly powerful when Nano-Boosted by Ana; your high-powered Hyperpheres can plow through enemies, but their low range and your low mobility means that you should only be asking for Ana to hit you with her Nano-Boost in a dire situation where you need to defend an objective. Try to stick with Ana at most times; you both have low mobility, and you can protect each other from flankers.
Icon-baptiste
Baptiste
While you are planning on using your ultimate ability, be very wary of Baptiste's signature ability, immortality field, as it is a very hard counter to your ultimate. Baptiste's Amplification Matrix will amplify the damage ouput of any projectiles that pass through, so absorbing the damage with Kinetic Grasp is a good idea, as you will be able to gain a massive amount of bonus shields. Sigma has no notable team synergy with Baptiste.
Icon-brigitte
Brigitte
Your Hyperspheres can quickly break Brigitte's weak barrier, and your Accretion can knock down any over-zealous Brigittes. Your Experimental Barrier and Kinetic Grasp will do nothing against her melee primary, but Experimental Barrier will block Whip Shot, so try and block as many Whip Shots as possible to deny her Inspire healing. You and Brigitte lack mobility and range; if you stick together, though, you can keep each other and your team alive and allow your teammates to wreak havoc.
Icon-lúcio
Lúcio
While Lúcio's speed and small size can make him obnoxious to hit, your Hyperspheres have a mild gravity effect, meaning they can slow him down just enough for you to land more shots or for your team to gun him down. An accurate Accretion hit can also grind him to a halt, letting you or your team easily finish him off. Be careful about using Gravitic Flux around Lúcio; his Sound Barrier will easily block off the damage from your Ultimate, rendering it moot. Instead, wait until he's dead, too far away to save his team, just after he uses up his Ultimate, or if you have a friendly Sombra ready with EMP to cancel his Sound Barrier. Lúcio's speed boost can help you keep up with your team. His area-of-effect healing generally means he'll want a large number of teammates to rally around, so try to focus on keeping him and your team safe so he can keep them healed.
Icon-mercy
Mercy
Mercy's high mobility and self-healing can make her difficult to shoot down. One of the most important things you can do against a Mercy is cancelling her Resurrection with your Accretion. If you know a Mercy has Resurrection available, save Accretion to stun her out of it, which should be easy to hit considering Resurrection has a slow cast time and Mercy is almost completely still while using it. Mercy can boost all of your damage making you a powerful tank due to your increased damage.
Icon-moira
Moira
A common strategy Moira's do on defence is throwing a biotic orb at the enemy spawn. It is always your job as Sigma to destroy this orb with your Kinetic grasp in order to deny the enemy moira any free ult charge. Sigma has no notable team synergy with Moira.
Icon-zenyatta
Zenyatta
You and Zenyatta heavily lack in mobility, but a fight between you will come down to your proximity. At a distance, Zenyatta easily has the upper hand; if Zenyatta spots you from far away, put up your Experimental Barrier or block his shots with Kinetic Grasp, otherwise he can easily pick you off. He can't deploy his Orb of Discord through your barrier, so try to keep it up at all times when he's in the vicinity to deny him his Orb. Should you catch Zenyatta up-close, the fight is yours; his low mobility means it will be nearly impossible for him to avoid Accretion, and it only takes a few Hyperspheres to kill him. While it's good to dance around your Experimental Barrier to block his shots, he might take this opportunity to back off and create distance between the two of you, so be wary and don't let him back away. Sigma has no notable team synergy with Zenyatta.

Story

Icon-sigma
"There is no obligation for the universe to make sense to you."

Fantastic astrophysicist Dr. Siebren de Kuiper's life changed forever when an experiment gone wrong gave him the ability to control gravity; now, Talon manipulates him to their own ends.[2] Now a living weapon, Sigma's presence on the battlefield cannot be ignored.[3]

De Kuiper is mentally damaged. He thinks about the universe, gravity, and physics all through the same 'prism', seeing them as being akin to music.[4] He has high regard for the work of Mei-Ling Zhou, finding it "brilliant."[5]

Background

Sigma-theory

De Kuiper works on his theories

A brilliant astrophysicist[6] Dr. Siebren de Kuiper was considered a pioneer in his field. His life's work involved devising a way to harness the power of gravity,[2] which he regarded as the greatest untapped resource humanity had remaining to them.[7] Equally known for his groundbreaking research and eccentric personality, he conducted most of his studies from his lab in the Hague.[2]

Sigma-lev

De Kuiper developers maglev technology

Before the Omnic Crisis, he developed a successful maglev prototype. While maglev technology had existed prior to his invention, the technology had previously only been available to corporations and governments. de Kuiper's invention proliferated in the public sphere, so that by the Omnic Crisis, cars were using maglev technology as standard. It has been commented that if not for de Kuiper's work, it might have taken decades to bridge the gap between fossil fuels and a truly sustainable future.[7]

de Kuiper spent a year on the Horizon Lunar Colony,[7] where he visited his good friend Dr. Harold Winston. Winston showed him one of the gorilla test subjects.[5] Over the year, de Kuiper continued his gravitational studies and advised the colony's staff on the installation of their advanced low-gravity hydroponics system. He would later credit much of his research, including access to the moon's lower gravity, the null gravity of space, and artificial gravity of the colony, as key to his understanding of the universe.[7]

At some point, years before his accident, he had lunch with Dr. Angela Ziegler after a seminar.[8]

The Accident

Gravity... Gravity is a harness. My entire career has been devoted to this idea... to this moment. Decades! If the unifying theories are correct, we will soon be able to harness the power of a black hole! Nothing will ever be the same.
~ Dr. De Kuiper
Sigma-black hole

The experiment goes awry

Decades of study and research led de Kuiper to the belief that "gravity is a harness;" if the unifying theories were correct, through his work mankind would soon even be able to command nature's most potent expression of gravity, a black hole, and it would change everything forever. Believing that he was close to achieving his goal, he performed his most important experiment on the International Space Station. However, something went terribly wrong. The field containing the experiment began to fail; as De Kuiper desperately tried to figure out why it was happening and how to stop it, the brief formation of a black hole was triggered. Screaming, De Kuiper was only exposed to its power for a moment, but he suffered serious psychological damage. The area around him began to experience strange fluctuations in gravity, peaking and dropping in time with his reactions. He had to be evacuated immediately.

Sigma-asylum

De Kuiper, now designated "Subject Sigma"

Upon returning to Earth, de Kuiper was quarantined in a secret government facility[2] in New Mexico.[9] Between his ravings about the patterns of the universe, the psychic damage he sustained, the gravitic anomalies happening around him, and concerns for his mental wellbeing, he was deemed a danger to himself and others and detained for years under the name "Subject Sigma," with himself and his inexplicable abilities being researched. Isolated and unable to control his powers, De Kuiper retreated into his own mind. He thought he would never see the outside world again.[2]

Talon

SigmaMoiraSombraWidowmakerReaper

Sigma, now in the service of Talon

When Talon discovered De Kuiper's existence, they infiltrated the facility and broke him out, planning to use his brilliance and research to further their plans. In their custody, De Kuiper slowly gained control of his powers. Now, gravity moved according to his will, and he was closer than ever to achieving his life's goal. But the same experiment that had opened his mind had also fractured it, and he struggled to keep the pieces together. De Kuiper continued to develop his powers in hopes of unlocking the secrets of the universe, unaware that Talon was using both him and his research.[2] He spent most of his time working off-site in a lab Talon granted to him.[4] In his mind (such as it was), he didn't consider himself a prisoner, and Talon provided everything he needed.[8]

At some point, Sigma was in Paris where he saw Widowmaker at Luna's cabaret.[8]

Achievements

Name Icon Description Reward
Conservation of Energy
Abilities-sigma3 Gain 350 shields with a single use of Sigma's Kinetic Grasp in Quick or Competitive play.
Spray Sigma Pixel
Pixel
Event Horizon
Abilities-sigma5 Get 3 killing blows during a single use of Sigma's Gravitic Flux in Quick or Competitive play.
Spray Sigma Cute
Cute

Trivia

  • Sigma is Hero 31 and the tenth new hero added to the game.
  • Sigma is currently the oldest character in the hero line-up.
  • Sigma's Experimental Barrier is very similar to Symmetra's old Photon Barrier that existed prior to patch 1.25, though Sigma's is bigger, travels three times faster, can be placed anywhere, and can be recalled at any time.
  • Although some heroes have sound effects that play in their hero selection and heroic highlight animations, Sigma is one of the few that plays music, specifically. The piano music that plays is presumably the "melody" he hears and ponders. His actions during the highlight imply he has memorized, or at least is well familiar with this precise melody.
    • Along with this, and if one listens carefully, similar piano music also plays while he unleashes his ultimate. Unlike with his highlight, the music follows no melody and becomes chaotic and sharp. With even closer attention, one can hear his echoed, crazed laughter as well.
  • Sigma is the only hero with no Summer Games voice lines.

Cultural References

  • Sigma (Σ) is the 18th letter of the Greek alphabet, and has various uses as a symbol in science and mathematics. It is displayed on his inmate suit as "Subject Σ."
  • At the beginning of Sigma's Origin Story video, there are yellow letters that appear on the screen which spell out "EM DJIRVEB." When reversed, it spells "Bevrijd me," which is Dutch for "Release me."
  • The number 31 is the Dutch International Calling Code.
  • Sigma's hostile ultimate voice line, "Het universum zingt voor mij!" (English: "The universe sings for me!"), was contributed by Chris Metzen, who acted as a creative consultant for the Origin Story video.[10]
  • Sigma's hero select voice line, "There is no obligation for the universe to make sense to you," is a quote from famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
  • Sigma is possibly inspired in part by the Dutch scientist Gerard Kuiper.
  • Sigma's Asylum skin is heavily influenced by Hannibal Lecter as portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (white suit with number during the cage scenes and the face restrainer).

Misc. Character Information

Disputed Information

Note: The following information is from gameplay trailers and is of dubious canon status.

Sometime after Null Sector's return, Sigma and his fellow Talon members engaged Overwatch in a firefight at Petra. Talon was forced to retreat.[11]

Development

Qiu-fang-sigma-final-concept

Overwatch Skin Concept Art by Qiu Fang.

Qiu-fang-sigma-movement-studies

Movement Studies Concept Art by Qiu Fang.

Blizzard began development of Hero 31 with the intent to further flesh out the Talon organization as well as to provide another barrier tank option in addition to Reinhardt and Orisa, both heavily requested by players. The creative team initially planned for Mauga to fulfill this purpose, and initially prototyped the hero dual-wielding rocket launchers, but found it difficult to convey how he would deploy his barriers with both hands occupied, and began to iterate on other concepts for his kit. In the process of developing Mauga's character for Alyssa Wong's short story, What You Left Behind, they decided that the kit being developed by Geoff Goodman and Joshua Noh no longer meshed with Mauga's violent, aggressive personality.

Rather than scrap the kit, which they found to be exceptionally fun, they pivoted and began developing a new Hero, who would become Sigma, to better reflect the more defensive and cerebral nature of the Hero's abilities. To that end, they brainstormed a physicist who would manipulate gravity, who could act as a tragic villain being manipulated by Talon without even realizing it, due to his psychological trauma, and began prototyping the character with concept artist Qiu Fang, initially using existing art. As a result of this pivoting, he was created on a tighter schedule than usual and was slightly delayed compared to previous heroes. The team consulted physics programmer Erin Catto, who holds a PhD in physics and wrote the physics engines for all of Blizzard's games, to make Sigma's physics references more scientifically accurate.

Blizzard has a campus in The Hague and as such has several Dutch employees both in Europe and North America, so they were able to consult with their employees on names and quotes, and incorporated a lot of Dutch influences into the character.[10]

Sigma was leaked four days before his official reveal on July 18th, 2019 by the Mexican blog post detailing the new role queue feature. That image was then tweeted by Team Mexico of the Overwatch World Cup.

Sigma generated some controversy with his reveal, with some claiming he was based on mental illness stereotypes. This was seen with his "asylum" look (plus, his asylum skin), including the lack of shoes. The barefoot look was chosen to "sell the ‘asylum’ look a bit more" (many psychiatric patients are not allowed to wear shoes as they might cause harm with the laces). In response to the controversy, Michael Chu stated "with the idea of the character, we never intended him to be an example of someone who’s going through mental health issues. He’s really supposed to be more focused on this very specific thing that happened to him, which is that his body and his mind were literally ripped apart by the momentary exposure to a black hole."[12]

In an interview at Comic-Con when Overwatch developers were talking about the development of Wrecking Ball, they stated that his original ultimate idea consisted of pile driving players into the air to then have them sent back down to the ground to damage the players sent into the air. The developers instead changed to have a minefield as Wrecking Ball's ultimate but the idea wasn't scrapped. Later, the ultimate seems to have been transferred to Sigma.

Media

Concept Art

Videos

Balance Change Logs

For more information, see Patch Notes.

Overwatch 2 PvP
Patch
Description
Developer Comment: This shift in damage from the Hyperspheres direct impact into the explosion component is to improve the effectiveness of the airburst explosion when playing at max range and makes it more threatening against tightly grouped enemies.

Abilities-sigma1 Hyperspheres

  • Impact damage reduced from 25 to 15.
  • Explosion damage increased from 30 to 40.
  • No longer deals damage to self.
Developer Comments: Sigma is a tank that does not currently have an issue with survivability when cycling between managing his barrier, Kinetic Grasp, and weapon range. We are however increasing the damage of Accretion to bring back more of the threat it used to pose and increase the satisfaction in landing it, as it also did not benefit from the global increase to projectile sizes.

Abilities-sigma4 Accretion

  • Impact damage increased from 40 to 80 (120 damage total).
Developer comments: Our last patch aimed to make some Tank ultimates more forgiving to use during combat. Sigma’s Gravitic Flux can suffer from missing due to slight line of sight checks but we don’t believe this change had proper communication for all instances. We may return to this change for Sigma down the line with updated visuals.

Abilities-sigma5 Gravitic Flux

  • Gravitic Flux now requires line-of-sight to lift targets again.
Developer Comment: Similar to how Graviton Surge functions, Gravitic Flux no longer needs line of sight to affect enemy targets in its area. There are a fair amount of counterplay options to deal with this ultimate so we're making it more reliable to grab enemy targets within its area of effect.

Abilities-sigma5 Gravitic Flux

  • No longer requires line of sight to the center of the effect.
Developer Comments: This change will improve Sigma’s ability to protect allies that are further away from him.

Abilities-sigma2 Experimental Barrier

  • Movement speed increased from 16.5 to 20 meters per second.
General updates

Most damage-dealing projectile sizes have been increased by a new global modifier added to their base size.

  • +0.05 meters for hitscan projectiles with a high rate of fire or spread (e.g., Tracer's Pulse Pistols or Reaper's Hellfire Shotguns).
  • +0.08 meters for hitscan projectiles that are more precise (e.g., Cassidy's Peacekeeper or Soldier:76's Heavy Pulse Rifle).
  • +0.05 meters for travel time projectiles that are shotguns or have a very high rate of fire (e.g., Roadhog's Scrap Gun or Ramattra's Void Accelerator).
  • +0.10 meters for travel time projectile with a speed greater than 50 meters per second (e.g., Zenyatta's Destruction Orb).
  • +0.15 meters for travel time projectile with a speed less than or equal to 50 meters per second (e.g., Pharah's Rocket Launcher).
  • Very large projectiles with a base size greater than 0.5 meters have been excluded from these increases (e.g., Orisa's Energy Javelin or Reinhardt's Fire Strike).

Hero combined HP (base health/armor/shields) increased by 15-25%.

  • 150-175 HP heroes increased by 25 HP.
  • 200-300 HP heroes increased by 50 HP.
  • 300+ HP (Tanks) increased by 75-100 HP.
  • Each hero's precise health increases are listed in their patch notes below.

Ultimate Charge

  • All Ultimate ability costs increased by 10%.

Regenerative Passive for All Heroes

  • All heroes now regenerate 20 health per second after 5 seconds of not taking damage.

Quick Melee

  • Damage increased from 30 to 40.
Hero updates
  • Shields increased from 200 to 275.
Developer Comments: Sigma has very effective defensive options between his Experimental Barrier and Kinetic Grasp. The barrier regeneration rate is being reduced in order to create more opportunity to attack Sigma directly.

Abilities-sigma2 Experimental Barrier

  • Regeneration rate reduced from 100 to 85 health per second.
Developer Comments: Sigma has always had somewhat floatier movement controls than most heroes in order to match his character movement animations. However, this led players to feel like his Tank role passive ability wasn’t reducing the amount he would be knocked back since it took him longer to stop than other tanks. We’ve now adjusted this to the standard hero movement values to make the gameplay interactions feel more consistent.
  • Base movement ground deceleration increased to match standard heroes movement.
Developer Comment: Like Roadhog’s Chain Hook, Sigma’s Accretion and primary fire combo can be highly lethal and can feel like a guaranteed kill against 200 health targets. We're reducing the damage slightly to require an additional volley of primary fire but are also increasing the stun duration to provide allies with more opportunity to follow up on successful impacts.

Abilities-sigma4 Accretion

  • Impact damage reduced from 60 to 40 (80 damage total with explosion)
  • Knockdown duration increased from 0.8 to 1.1 seconds
  • Base health in Role Queue modes remains the same at 350
  • Base health in non-Role Queue modes reduced from 350 to 200

Abilities-sigma5 Gravitic Flux

  • Ultimate cost increased 7%
GENERAL
HERO
  • Base shields increased from 100 to 200

Abilities-sigma4 Accretion

  • Damage increased from 70 to 100

Abilities-sigma2 Experimental Barrier

  • Barrier regeneration rate reduced from 120 to 100

Overwatch 1
Patch
Description

Abilities-sigma2 Experimental Barrier

  • Cooldown reduced from 2.5 to 2.0 seconds

Developer Comment: While the previous cooldown increase for Experimental Barrier had the intended effect of opening up more counterplay, there may be a tuning value that feels less restrictive for Sigma and still achieves those goals.

Abilities-sigma2 Experimental Barrier

  • Redeploy cooldown increased from 1 to 2.5 seconds

Developer Comment: We're increasing the cooldown of Sigma's barrier to require a higher commitment to its placement and open up additional opportunities for counterplay.

Abilities-sigma2 Experimental Barrier
  • Health reduced from 900 to 700
  • Barrier health regeneration rate reduced from 120 to 80 health per second

Abilities-sigma3 Kinetic Grasp

  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds
Abilities-sigma4 Accretion
  • Knockdown duration is now a fixed 0.8 second instead of scaling with distance
  • Cast time reduced from 0.75 to 0.65 seconds
Abilities-sigma5 Gravitic Flux
  • Ultimate cost reduced 10%
  • Flight speed increased 30%
Abilities-sigma5 Gravitic Flux
  • Can now be interrupted before targets begin falling
  • Impact slow duration reduced from 0.9 to 0.6 seconds
Abilities-sigma2 Experimental Barrier
  • Health reduced from 1500 to 900
  • Barrier health regeneration rate reduced from 150 to 120 health per second

Abilities-sigma3 Kinetic Grasp

  • Cooldown reduced from 13 seconds to 10 seconds
  • Damage-to-shield gain ratio increased from 40% to 60%
Abilities-sigma3 Kinetic Grasp
  • No longer blocks Chain Hook and Whip Shot

Abilities-sigma5 Gravitic Flux

  • High gravity effect duration reduced from 1.2 to 0.9 seconds

Abilities-sigma2 Experimental Barrier

  • Regeneration rate reduced from 175 to 150 per second
  • Now has a 1 second cooldown after recalling the barrier
  • Initial 0.2 second cast time removed

Developer Comment: Sigma can often feel difficult to counter since he can so quickly reposition his shield and use Kinetic Grasp to block from other directions. We’re opening up some weaknesses in these abilities to allow for more counter play from his enemies.

Abilities-sigma1 Hyperspheres
  • Explosion damaged reduced from 35 to 30

Abilities-sigma2 Experimental Barrier

  • Added a toggle option for deploying Sigma’s Experimental Barrier
  • Being hacked by Sombra will now recall his barrier if it is deployed. (EMP will still destroy the barrier first if both are in range)

Abilities-sigma4 Accretion

  • Explosion damage increased from 50 to 60

Abilities-sigma5 Gravitic Flux

  • Intro cast time increased from 0.4 seconds to 0.6
New Hero: Sigma (Tank)

References

  1. Joshua Noh clarifies on Sigma's abilities. Twitch, accessed on 2019-7-24
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Sigma (Overwatch), PlayOverwatch. Accessed on 2019-09-20
  3. [https://overwatch.blizzard.com/en-us/heroes/sigma/ Sigma (Overwatch 2), Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed on 2022-10-05
  4. 4.0 4.1 2019-07-31, Blizzard explains new Overwatch hero’s design, mental health, and baby-soft feet. Polygon, accessed on 2019-08-20
  5. 5.0 5.1 Overwatch, Sigma Quotations
  6. 2019-07-24, Developer Update | Introducing Sigma | Overwatch. YouTune, accessed on 2019-08-20
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Overwatch: Declassified
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Overwatch 2, Sigma Quotes
  9. Reaper (Overwatch 2), Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed on 2022-10-05
  10. 10.0 10.1 Sigma Gameplay Reveal with Seagull and Jeff Kaplan. Twitch, accessed on 2019-7-23
  11. 2024-03-28, Venture | New Hero Gameplay Trailer | Overwatch 2. YouTube, accessed on 2024-03-28
  12. 2019-08-04, Sigma's New 'Asylum' Skin Raises Concerns About Overwatch's Handling Of Mental-Illness Tropes. Kotaku, accessed on 2019-08-20

External Links

Advertisement