Health: 90
Speed: 450
Time to arm C4: 5s
Time to defuse C4: 8s

Kira is a fire support merc. Let's start by analyzing her most important statistics. As we can see in the section above, she has 90 health and a movement speed of 450. These are the exact same values Proxy has. Does this mean Kira should also rush the enmy position and thrive in cqc (close quarters combat)? Absolutely not, but let's see why. Kira has access to a particular set of burst fire and semi-automatic weapons. Despite being somewhat and only sometimes decent in cqc, these weapons will be, more often than not, outclassed by others: smgs (submachine guns), assault rifles, shotguns, miniguns, lmgs (light machine guns). Why? Firing with a fully automatic weapon means you will always have one shot after the last fired. So if you happened to miss the target with your first bullet, you will always be able to readjust your aim and immediately hit your enemy with the second bullet, especially with fast firing weapons. More often than not, you will not be able to do so with semi-automatic weapons or burst fire ones, even if clicking at incredible speed. Kira's ability are also not really effective in cqc. Her second ability is an ammo station which, as the name suggests, is completely stationary. Placing it too close to the enemy positions means someone will probably be able of destroying it either by sniping it from afar or throwing explosives around the corner. Her first ability, the orbital laser, is also not very effective in cqc: you need time to charge it, and while doing so you will be exposed to enemy fire without being able to shoot back. Her laser also doesn't work in the usual cqc scenarios like rooms, corridors,... .Kira's is also not very effective from log ranges. Her weapons are indeed really accurate, but none of them have the right scopes to engage enemies from afar. You can indeed get a wider view of the battlefield from far away to see where your laser would be most effective, but you will probably struggle at redirecting it since enemies will be so far away, therefore hard to see and chase. The best range in which Kira should in my opinion play is medium. Not to close to the enemy, but not too far either, so that she can make the most out of her equipment

To use the orbital laser you'll need to aim at the ground and hold the default Q until the charge is complete. You can redirect the beam by moving your mouse to a new location. The beam can be constantly redirected until it expires. The color of the cylinder appearing when aiming with the laser pointer tells if you can or cannot spawn the laser in that location. You cannot spawn the laser indoors or while aiming at a vertical surface: a wall, a truck, ... .When aiming at the ground to charge the laser and when redirecting it, a clearly visible red circle and line will appear showing the exact location you are aiming at. The best way to use the laser in my opinion is to first find a safe spot where no enemy can see you, charge the laser in an area where the enemy team will not be able to see the pointer (near you for example, avoiding friendly fire of course) and only then redirecting quickly it to the enemy position. The laser is fast enough to chase any enemy and this strategy will allow you to surprise the other squad leaving them no time to react. Once deployed, the orbital laser can actually be redirected aiming at vertical surfaces. So, if you want to move the laser to the general enemy position, just aim for a distant building; all that matters is that while traveling the laser's trajectory will cross the enemies' killing them on the spot. Most of the time you will not be able to safely aim at the enemies' feet without getting shot: use the tip i just gave you to solve the problem. Keep in mind that if aimed at a distand building the laser will generally travel faster than usual allowing you to quickly catch up to enemy. To achieve incredible accuracy and not hinder your movements while using the laser, equip it by pressing default 4, than deploy it by holding the mouse button. Doing so you means you will have all your fingers available to move your merc. You can also quicly press default Q while having your primary or secondary equipped to quicly move you laser to a new location: this will allow you to control it even while firing drastically increasing you combat effectiveness. The color of the laser itself changes depending of which Kira used it: if it's an ally (or your own laser) it will be coloured light blue. if an enemy is using it it will be coloured bright red/orange

The ammo station is pretty simple: press and hold default E to select, move and finally place the ammo station. Be sure to place it not too close but neither too far from the enemy. Always put it near large group of allies so the most can enjoy it benefits. If possible, always reclaim by pressing default F while being near it to shorten the cooldown and quicly replace it when needed. Do not be afraid of picking up ammo from Skyhammer's packs or from crates: you will not be always able to deploy your ammo station safely. This should go without saying: always, always deploy your ammo station if possible. Just leave it behind and go fight if you want, your allies will still love you for it. You can also use your ammo station as a sort of mobile cover: not the best use you can make out of it since it will probably be quickly destroyed but still worth mentioning. A really good use that you can make out of your ammo station is placing it near a friendly healing station. Aliies will then be able to replenish both health and ammo at the same time saving time and energy looking for two different stations

Trainyard 1st Objective: as an attacker you are able to quickly get a line of sight to the bridge just a couple of seconds after spawning. From here you are able to call in your laser and sweep over the C4 plant area by moving your laser targetter under the bridge. This is useful for defending your planted C4 nearly instantly after you spawn, it also buys the rest of your team valuable time to run from the spawn point to protect the C4. A riskier but more efficient way of attacking here would be to wait until you see the blue defuse bar start increasing before calling in your blind laser strike. The risk with waiting is that even if your aim and reaction time are perfect, if it's an enemy engineer doing the defusing they will be guaranteed to get the job at least 50% done. This opens the door for a non-engineer class to viably finish the defuse, or a 2nd engineer to quickly rush in and defuse before they can be gunned down fast enough

Trainyard 3rd objective: the brick building opposite the drug samples has an open roof, the laser can be swept through here to easily clear out all opponents. Very useful when both attacking and defending

Underground 1st objective: in this map the laser is able of covering quite a lot of the area in the 1st phase, including the entire roof of the plant spot. This might not be obvious to some people as I know personally the laser is very hard to call in and only works in a few small areas

Underground 2nd objective: another useful one on Underground is at the final plant, if your team just suffered heavy losses and the barriers are closed (still useful if they are open actually) plus you suspect the enemy is going for a plant, after you respawn you can quickly call the laser from a small area behind the barriers and sweep the plant area to buy time for your team to regroup. I think this could be another situation where some Kira players might not be aware they can actually call in the laser from behind the closed barriers, since there only some small areas where the game allows you to activate it

Terminal 1st objective: an ideal spot on Terminal is as a defender when the enemy has captured the forward spawn. You then spawn behind the wall where the enemy must plant C4. Instead of running all the way around to guard the wall, Kira can simply call in the laser mere seconds after respawning and sweep over the plant area. Another very good way of buying time for your teammates to get on site

Bridge 1st objective: Kira's laser is capable of being directed over the EV area which can be useful for clearing out entrenched defenders. This may not be immediately clear as the game prevents you from calling in the laser anywhere near the EV. First you must call in the laser on an open air part of the map (for example the nearby road) and then direct the laser over the EV. In practice it may be tricky staying alive long enough to pull this off since you have to be quite close to the action to get line of sight on the EV, but it's nice to know the option is there

EXTRA SUPPLIES: 20% cooldown reduction to support abilities
This ability will shorten your ammo station's cooldown but noy youe orbital laser's. No that great of an augument since Kira's ammo station is not meant to be constantly moved. Her ammo station should instead be placed in one safe spot near her allies so that you can easily reclaim it to move it further once an objective is completed
USEFUL



BOMB SQUAD: adds a more vivid highlight to enemy Proximity Mines and deployed explosives
With this augument you will be able to spot some enemies' deployables more easily. Still not a really useful augument in my opinion since Proximity Mines are pretty easy to spot on their own: they glow red and make a specific constant sound. I'm pretty sure this will also work with equipment like frag grenades, but a good Fragger will always cook his grenade before throwing it leaving you no time to react
USEFUL



EXPLODYDENDRON: 10% increase to blast radius to AoE (area of effect) abilities
There's not much to say about this augument: it will make your laser even bigger and even deadlier. Really good augument in my opinion since it permanently improves your main ability
USEFUL



QUICK DRAW: 30% reduction to the time taken to raise and lower weapons
This augument will allow you to switch between weapons and equipment even faster. It can be useful to increase the speed at which you take out your sencondary to finish an injured enemy when your primary's magazine is empty or to quickly change from your laser pointer to your rifle when an unxpected enemy suprises you. Not the best augument in my opinion since Kira is meant to be played from a distance where you already have time to change between weapons and can't be flanked easily
NOT SO USEFUL



MECHANIC: improves any repair tools and disarm rates by 20%
This augument will increase the speed at which you interact with most objectives if not all (i'm not completely sure). It can be invaluable if the allied objective specialist has been killed or no one in your team has selected such a merc. Still, it will prove almost useless in a competitive scenario and if your allied objective specialists are actually doing their job
USEFUL/NOT SO USEFUL



BIG EARS: enemy footsteps and other appropiate noises are 30% louder to you
I feel like, despite being generally useful, this augument doesn't really fit into Kira's playstyle sice she's meant to be played from a safe distance where you can make the most out of your abilities and where you can't be easily flanked
NOT SO USEFUL



COOL: increases the time it takes Mounted MGs to overheat by 50%
This augument will allow you to shoot with Mounted MGs longer than before. Not a fan of this bonus since shooting with a Mounted MG makes you an incredibly easy target for snipers and players in general. A good player will probably try to kill you or flank you as soon as she or he hears the distinctive sound of the MG firing
NOT SO USEFUL



DRILLED: 20% reduction to reload time
This augument will allow you to reload faster, eliminating some of the time spent unable to defend youself from enemies. This is genrally a really good bonus, but it is worth pointing out it is not as useful on Kira as with other merc specialised in cqc, since Kira shines in medium to long range engaements where reloading safely is not an issue
USEFUL



UNTRACKABLE: Turrets, Mines and other automated defenses react 30% more slowly to you presence
Not a really good augument in my opinion since Turrets and Mines are already pretty easy to spot. Check your corners, listen carefully for the distinctive sounds Turrets and Mines make and you will able to neutralize them without relying on this augument
NOT SO USEFUL



CHOPPER: 20% increase to melee damage
There's only one merc this augument is good with in my opinion: Phantom. To make the most use out of it on any other merc means you'd have to run around with a knife equipped which is of course not a good strategy. You might as well rely on your primary and secondary weapons to engage your enemies. Chopper is also pretty useless at helping you finish doowned enemies since all that is required is a normal knife swipe
NOT SO USEFUL

BR-16: i must start by saying i love this weapon. There's not too much to say about it: it has good rate of fire, good damage and a good magazine size. It's an overall great weapon, capable of killing enemies even in cqc if used properly. Versatile and efficient, you can't go wrong with this weapon. It doesn't only have 3 extra shots for magazine, it also carries 11 more rounds as max ammo: quite a useful benefit given the combination of burst fire wepaons and Kira's ammo station



Stark-AR: statistically wise this weapon is identical to the br-16. Basically by using this weapon instead of the br-16 you trade 3 extra shots in the magazine for a scope and, probably (couldn't find actual stats) a different recoil pattern and spread. Thes Stark-AR though seems to be kicking a lot with the third shot of every burst. This could be used to your advantage to more easily land headshots while aiming at the chest neck area, but it may screw up some of your more accurate shots from afar so it worth considering when selecting the weapon or compensating for its recoil. Also it should be pointed out that the Stark-AR actually doesn't offer any extra magnification, just a reticle and different vision of the enemy that some may find better over the BR-16. Still, iron sights have the tendency of being clearer so keep that in mind



Dreiss AR: i used to love this weapon, it was one of my favourites but they recently nerfed it by decreasing its rate of fire.Now it's pretty much inferior to any other weapon in cqc. It's still a great weapon if you can constantly aim for the head and keep yourself at a safe distance but its low rate of fire and low accuracy when fired from the hip make it in my opinion one of the hardest weapons to use effectively

A generally good tip while using burst fire wapons is to aim for the head. I know it might sound obvious, but if shot with great accuracy, burst fire wapons can land many heashots in quick succession. Also while being extremely effective in medium to longer reanges, their time to kill is really not suited for cqc combat: aiming for the head will, in some cases, compensate for this downside

Does Kira actually have a place in the competitive scene? I guess this is a question very few can answer. Between Skyhammer's airstrike and Arty's salvos, it's hard to find a reason why Kira should be considered different. She might not be the best choice in most situations but i can assure you she is really, really fun to play and at the end of the day, that's all that matters

See you in the battlefield!