Pharah facts for kids

Pharah is the call sign of Fareeha Amari, a fictional playable character who first appears in the 2016 video game Overwatch, a Blizzard Entertainment–developed first-person shooter. Pharah also appears in related Overwatch animated and literary media.

Development and design

Gameplay and art

Pharah was one of the first twelve Overwatch heroes introduced at BlizzCon in November 2014. In June 2015, Blizzard published a gameplay preview for Pharah. Her design features her in an experimental combat suit that emphasizes mobility and firepower, dubbed the "Raptora Mark VI". The design is similar in appearance to Gundam mecha, and features a beak-like helmet. Concept art for Pharah included a Porco Rosso-styled version of her design.

Pharah was designed to be an offensive combatant, equipped abilities that allow her to go airborne and a concussive blast ability.

Like other Overwatch characters, Pharah received skins, unlockable cosmetic items to change her in-game appearance. Various skins like "Mechaqueen" and "Mechatron" lean into a Gundam aesthetic and emphasize a mecha appearance for her combat suit. Two notable skins include "Thunderbird" and "Raindancer", which are based on Indigenous imagery. The skins "paint her face in red and white and remove her Eye of Horus tattoo," while also separating her hair into two braids, adorning her armor with "tribal" patterns, and depicting her helmet as a falcon decorated with grass.

In 2018, Overwatch developers made significant reworks to the game's meta. Buffs to hitscan heroes were implemented, making their fall-off damage "devastating even in long-range fights," which caused Pharah's verticality become one of her biggest vulnerabilities, in stark contrast to it being a strength before.

Story and character

Of an Egyptian and Indigenous Canadian background, the character's full name is Fareeha Amari. She is a Giza-based security chief. Her mother Ana was a member of Overwatch, a global peacekeeping force. Aspiring to follow in her mother's footsteps, she enlisted in and rose up through the officer ranks of the Egyptian army. Before being able to join Overwatch, the organization disbanded, and Fareeha would later instead become an officer of the Giza-based Helix Security International. Under the call sign "Pharah", she is tasked with defending an artificial intelligence research facility.

The character was originally named "Mercy", which would later become the name for a character originally named "Angelica". However, during early testing stages of the game, testers would get confused when asked to switch to Mercy (or the character now known as Pharah). Upon these requests, they would often switch to Angelica. To quell this issue, game developers renamed Angelica as Mercy, and temporarily renamed Mercy as "Rocket Dude". The character would later be named "Rocket Queen", before her name was finalized as "Pharah".

Pharah was long-teased as being mixed race, specifically of an Indigenous Canadian heritage, in addition to her already publicly known Egyptian background. In an issue of Overwatch's tie-in comic series, Pharah's father is hinted at, "although Blizzard never confirmed whether the slight, graying man Pharah was seen with in the story was her father or her boyfriend." However, an April 2017 update for the game all but confirmed this character as her father.

The character is voiced by Jen Cohn in the English version of the game. The character's German version voice actress, Ghadah Al-Akel, was replaced in a 2017 update for the game, without her knowledge.

Gameplay

Filling an offensive role in gameplay, Pharah is classified as a "Damage" hero. Along with D.Va, Pharah is the most mobile character in Overwatch, able to reach any point on a map.

Polygon has described her kit as "straightforward". She is equipped with a rocket launcher, which has long range and deals high damage. While her explosive rockets damage all enemies nearby to its impact location, a direct hit on an enemy deals significant damage. Pharah's passive ability, "Hover Jets", allows her to slowly gain height and hover in the air while using her jets. To rapidly gain height, she can use her "Jump Jet" ability. Her "Concussive Blast" ability sees Pharah use her equipped wrist rockets pushing targets far from their blast radius. Finally, her "Barrage" ultimate ability shoots a stream of highly-damaging rockets for a 3 second duration. In Overwatch 2, Pharah enjoys an additional passive ability common to all "Damage" characters: for a short period of time after eliminating an enemy, she has a faster movement speed and can quickly reload her rocket launcher.

Due to their flight abilities working well together, Pharah and Mercy players often paired together in the game's meta during its first two years of release. The combination was dubbed "Pharmercy" by players and video game media outlets.

Appearances

Video games

As Overwatch lacks a traditional story mode its lore and character backgrounds, including Pharah's, are instead shown in-game through its map design and character voice lines. Pharah was a playable character in Overwatch at launch. In Overwatch 2, she is available to new players immediately.

Comics

Overwatch utilizes transmedia storytelling to expand its lore. Pharah has made multiple appearances in Overwatch-related comics. She first appeared in "Mission Statement", a May 2016 issue of the game's tie-in Overwatch digital comic series. In November, she appeared in "Reflections", another Overwatch issue; she appears in a panel with her father having dinner and watching hockey at a restaurant in Canada.

Pharah would appear in a December 2021 issue of New Blood, a five-issue comic miniseries. In it, she meets with Cassidy and also gets in touch with her mother.

See also

• Characters of Overwatch