Skins are an incredibly important part of a long-running franchise like Overwatch, and keeping up with new designs for over thirty characters can be a real chore! This list will help you sort out the basic from the brilliant.
Echo is Overwatch’s 32nd playable character and was released in April of 2020. Originally underrated by players, Echo has spent the last year living up to her legend as one of the hidden gems of the original Overwatch lineup (and the last of the heroes to be released for Overwatch before Overwatch 2 launches!). Here we take the task out of picking a new skin by breaking down the best of Echo’s Epic (non-league) and Legendary selections.
10 Carbon Fiber
As one of the first skins available to Echo players on the launch of her character, Carbon Fibre was a great nod to the ongoing cast-wide set of skins established within Overwatch. It reimagines Echo in black and white, her wings wrapped in textured carbon fiber. Green accents are added to give her that ’tech’ glow, including detail points on her fingers, joints, and face.
While it may have a pleasing color scheme, sadly, the lack of detail on both the wings and body makes this skin rank low on the list. It’s just a bit too unadorned, something that’s especially obvious to the eye considering Echo’s overall design.
9 Hot Rod
Hot Rod — also released as a character launch skin for Echo — might be just as simplistic in design as Carbon Fiber as far as details, but something must be said for the awesome firetruck-red gleam designers chose for this skin. It’s a color selection rendered so completely bang on the money that you can almost smell the gasoline.
Both Carbon Fibre and Hot Rod can be unlocked by players for 250 gold, making them good starter skins for new Echo players.
8 Camo
Camo not only fits with the larger set of Camo skins seen already in Overwatch heroes but also has a cool reimagining of Echo’s HUD, making her all the more robotic in feel. This design was also a base Legendary skin for Echo, and will put players back 1,000 gold.
Both Camo and Stealth are good skins for players wanting to add an Echo to their pre-existing military or robotic-styled team skin sets.
7 Stealth
Edging only slightly ahead of the Camo skin is Stealth, the second of the two base Legendary skins that Echo launched with. Stealth, like Camo, reimagines Echo in a slightly more militarised fashion — complete with missile-laden wings and light-up HUD.
Am I rating Stealth slightly higher because it gives me some mad Neon Genesis Evangelion vibes? Maybe.
6 Moth
One of the two fantasy base skins for Echo, Moth dresses Echo up as a firefly-like-moth, complete with papery wings, glowing yellow detail points, and giant green antenna.
This is undoubtedly a great skin, but it also feels slightly subdued when compared to higher-ranked fantasy skins for Echo. The color palette of green, yellow, and hints of red make this skin soft and neutral, rather than completely showy, and as such it ranks a little lower.
5 Ragdoll
Ragdoll could easily beat most skins on this list based on its darkly arresting design, but its’ rarity is also a huge factor. The skin is simple yet still lovingly detailed — just check the red touches on Echo’s fingers, the torn stockings, and the dangerously spikey, wooden crown. It manages somehow to be inherently creepy, but still PG.
Unfortunately for new players, Ragdoll was a player reward awarded only during the Overwatch Halloween Terror 2020 season. It’s unknown yet as to whether it will be offered again for purchase, or whether it, like many other ‘one-off’ skins, will not return.
4 Butterfly
Possibly the best of Echo’s launch skins is the Legendary Butterfly skin. With a color scheme that screams “Illidan Stormrage,” this beautifully vivid fae skin will cost players 1,000 gold to unlock.
As Overwatch’s 32nd hero, Echo’s skins show the high level of detail development we’ve come to appreciate from more recent Overwatch skins, and being able to get Butterfly at such an affordable price only sweetens the deal.
3 Kkachi
Released as part of the 2021 Lunar New Year update, Kkachi wraps Echo in a ‘magpie’s overcoat’ and gives her some of the most exquisite wings in the game. Adorned with gold filigree, soft gradients, and a feathered crown, this skin is definitely one for players wanting a more fantastical skin to their Echo.
Kkachi takes its’ name from the overcoats worn by Korean children on New Year’s Day, making it a fitting release for the Lunar New Year theme.
2 Special Mention: Evil Echo
Whilst this list covers mainly non-league-based skins it would be remiss to not mention the freshly released Legendary skin made for Echo in honor of Overwatch League 2020 MVP Byung-sun “Fleta” Kim. It is also the last MVP skin Blizzard has said it will produce.
Evil Echo was unlockable for 200 League Tokens, but on a limited basis, and as such, has now become unobtainable. Cutting Echo’s torso in two, the skin imagines a dualistic Echo, half-good, half-evil, her feet dipped in flame (or blood?) and her wings tipped in gold. It’s stunning, and without question lovingly designed — we’re just sad it’s not available all the time.
1 Surf’s Up
What can we say — it’s hard to beat having surfboards for wings! Released as part of the 2020 Summer Games update, this mind-boggling skin crowns all other Echo skins in its attention to detail and surreal, campy badassery.
It revisions Echo as, gosh, we don’t even know what — a surfboard? A beach hut? The sea itself? Who knows?! We just know it looks amazing! Selling at release for 3,000 gold, Surf’s Up can only be purchased — or won in loot boxes — during the annual Summer Games, but just one look and you’ll know it’s definitely worth the wait.
NEXT: Overwatch: The 15 Easiest Heroes For Beginners
