Pharah facts for kids

Pharah is the special name used by Fareeha Amari, a character you can play in the 2016 video game Overwatch. This game is a first-person shooter made by Blizzard Entertainment. Pharah also appears in Overwatch cartoons and stories.

Meet Pharah: Her Design and Story

How Pharah Was Created

Pharah was one of the first twelve heroes shown for Overwatch at an event called BlizzCon in November 2014. In June 2015, Blizzard showed off a video of Pharah's gameplay.

Her design features a special combat suit called the "Raptora Mark VI." This suit helps her move around easily and has lots of firepower. It looks a bit like the giant robots from the Gundam series, and her helmet even looks like a bird's beak.

Pharah was made to be a strong attacker. Her abilities let her fly into the air and use a powerful blast to push enemies away.

Pharah's Cool Outfits: Skins

Like other Overwatch characters, Pharah has different "skins." These are special outfits that change how she looks in the game. Some skins, like "Mechaqueen" and "Mechatron," make her combat suit look even more like a robot.

Two other cool skins are "Thunderbird" and "Raindancer." These skins are inspired by Indigenous art and culture. They change her face paint, remove her Eye of Horus tattoo, give her braided hair, and decorate her armor with special patterns. Her helmet in these skins looks like a falcon.

Sometimes, game updates change how characters play. For a while, Pharah's ability to fly high became a bit risky. Other heroes could hit her easily from far away, which was different from before.

Pharah's Background Story

Pharah's full name is Fareeha Amari. She is from Egypt and also has Indigenous Canadian family. She works as a security chief in Giza, Egypt.

Her mother, Ana, was part of Overwatch. This was a global group that worked to keep peace. Fareeha wanted to follow her mother's path. She joined the Egyptian army and became a high-ranking officer.

However, Overwatch broke up before she could join. So, Fareeha later became an officer for Helix Security International. This company is based in Giza. Under her call sign "Pharah," she helps protect a special research center for artificial intelligence.

How Pharah Got Her Name

Did you know Pharah was almost named "Mercy"? Another character, who was first called "Angelica," later became the character we know as Mercy. During early game tests, players got confused when asked to switch to "Mercy" (who was Pharah at the time). They would often switch to Angelica instead.

To fix this, the game makers renamed Angelica to Mercy. They temporarily called Pharah "Rocket Dude." Later, she was called "Rocket Queen" before her name was finally set as "Pharah."

For a long time, fans wondered if Pharah was mixed race, with Indigenous Canadian heritage. In an Overwatch comic, a man was seen with Pharah. An update to the game in April 2017 confirmed that this character was her father.

Jen Cohn is the voice actress who plays Pharah in the English version of the game.

Playing as Pharah in Overwatch

Pharah is an "offensive" hero, which means she's good at dealing damage. She is one of the most mobile characters in Overwatch, meaning she can fly and reach almost any spot on a map.

Her abilities are pretty easy to understand. She has a rocket launcher that shoots rockets far and does a lot of damage. Her rockets explode, hurting all enemies nearby. If a rocket hits an enemy directly, it does even more damage!

• Hover Jets: This is Pharah's special ability. It lets her slowly gain height and float in the air using her jets.
• Jump Jet: To fly up quickly, she can use her "Jump Jet" ability.
• Concussive Blast: Pharah can use her wrist rockets to create a blast that pushes enemies far away.
• Barrage: This is her "Ultimate" ability. For three seconds, Pharah shoots a fast stream of super-damaging rockets!

In Overwatch 2, Pharah also gets a special ability that all "Damage" heroes have. After she defeats an enemy, she moves faster and can reload her rocket launcher more quickly for a short time.

Because Pharah can fly and Mercy can also fly and heal, players often team them up. This team-up is so popular that players and game websites call it "Pharmercy."

Where Pharah Appears

Pharah in Video Games

Overwatch doesn't have a traditional story mode. Instead, you learn about the characters and their world through the game's maps and what the characters say. Pharah was a playable character when Overwatch first launched. In Overwatch 2, new players can play as her right away.

Pharah in Comics

Overwatch uses comics and other stories to tell more about its world. Pharah has appeared in several Overwatch comics.

She first showed up in "Mission Statement," a digital comic released in May 2016. In November, she was in another comic called "Reflections." In this comic, she is seen having dinner with her father and watching hockey in Canada.

Pharah also appeared in a December 2021 comic called New Blood. In this story, she meets another character named Cassidy and also connects with her mother.

See also

• Characters of Overwatch