Understanding the characters in Valorant is important, their abilities are much more varied than other class-based shooters like Overwatch. Many of the abilities for the Valorant characters can be bought however, each character also has an ultimate ability which can take a long time to recharge between uses.
Characters have:
- One Ultimate Ability – This requires multiple charges to use. Charges are earned from kills and completing objectives which means it can take multiple rounds to recharge.
- One Signature Ability – Automatically usable each round. How often and how many times depends on the character
- Two abilities that can be purchased – Can be bought from the store at the start of each round.
Phoenix
He is designed to be aggressive so that Phoenix is able to rush into combat quickly while reducing the risk of being killed. Phoenix is able to use his fire abilities to push enemies back and to also stop them in their tracks so he can eliminate them.
- Ultimate: Run it Back – Pings the current location and starts a timer, when the time runs out (or you die) you will respawn at that marked location with full health
- Signature: Hot Hands – This throws a fireball to cover a small area in flames when it hits the ground. The flames will damage the enemies but will heal Phoenix
- Blaze: It summons a wall of fire that blocks the vision and damages anyone who tries to pass through it. This can also be curved when casting.
- Curveball: Unlike normal flashbang grenades, this one curves around corners!
Jett
Built for flanking, Jett is able to take down enemies quickly through ambushes and pure speed.
- Ultimate: Blade Storm – Gives you several throwing knives that deal moderate damage and instant kills on headshots. Getting kills will give you more knives to throw. You have the opportunity to throw them one at a time or all remaining knives at once.
- Signature: Tailwind – Let’s you dash a short distance in whatever direction you’re currently facing
- Cloudburst: This throws a smoke grenade
- Updraft: After a moment, this launches you upwards into the air
Viper
As far as toxic AOE goes, Viper is the token one for Valorant. While her abilities are powerful, they also require a resource called Fuel in order to work.
- Ultimate: Viper’s Pit – This creates a larger poison cloud that blankets an area which reduces vision and maximum health of all players inside it
- Signature: Toxic Screen – This ability creates a line of gas emitters that when activated, create a wall of toxic gas. This causes fuel to use and can be reused as long as you have more Fuel.
- Snakbite: This lets you fire a poison grenade that shatters when hitting the floor to leave a toxic chemical zone on the floor. This slows and damages enemies that try to move through it.
- Poison Cloud: Throws a gas bomb to create a cloud of poison at the cost of fuel which can be re-used at the cost of fuel and also redeployed if picked up.
Sova
The resident ‘scout’ character, Sova has abilities that take more of a ‘supportive role’. He’s focused on tracking enemy movements to feed constant information to his team.
- Ultimate: Hunter’s Fury – This fires up to three energy blasts that pierce walls and travel the full length of the map. Any enemy that’s hit will take near-fatal damage and will also be revealed on the team.
- Signature: Recon Bolt – Fires a special arrow that uses sonar waves to reveal nearby enemies for as long as that arrow stays in place. It can be destroyed, however.
- Shock Bolt: It fires a special bolt that releases static energy which hurts the target it hits.
- Owl Drone: Sends off a flying drone that Sova can pilot to scout the map and reveal enemy locations by ‘tagging’ them.
Cypher
As the acting spy, Cypher uses traps to reveal enemy movements and also to kill them.
- Ultimate: Neural Theft – Once an enemy has died, Cypher can hack their brain to reveal the location of all their allies
- Signature: Spycam – Cypher is able to place a remote camera that can be manually operated to also fire tracking darts at enemies
- Trapwire: This places a tripwire between two walls which reveals and restrains enemies who cross over it for a short time. Cypher is able to retrieve and reuse this.
- Cyber Cage: It places a special trap down that slows enemy who passes through it once the trap is activated. Cypher is also able to detonate the traps either one at a time or all together.
Brimstone
Wielding orbital weapons to reduce vision, damage, and kill enemies makes Brimstone able to be a powerful support.
- Ultimate: Orbital Strike – Call up an orbital strike to repeatedly strike an area for several seconds
- Signature: Sky Smoke – Using the map, start multiple smokescreens in different areas
- Incendiary: This throws an incendiary grenade to coat an area in flames
- Stim Beacon: Calls down a beacon to give any player nearby a boost to their fire speed in a certain area
Sage
As the resident medic style character, Sage is able to revive downed allies and also impair enemy movements.
- Ultimate: Ressurection – After a short delay, this lets Sage revive an ally to full health
- Signature: Healing Orb – This allows Sage to heal an ally over several seconds
- Slow Orb: Sage is able to throw an orb to create a slow zone that slows anyone who passes through it and prevents them from jumping while also making a sound that they move within it.
- Barrier Orb: A thrown orb that forms into a large wall that cannot be passed through
Omen
Armed with mind-altering powers, Omen is able to teleport and play mind games with his enemies.
- Ultimate: From The Shadows – Omen is able to teleport to anywhere on the map after a few seconds to complete. The enemy can see your “shade” at the destination and are able to cancel the teleport by killing it. After completing the jump, Omen is invincible for a short time.
- Signature: Dark Cover – This throws an orb that explodes into a sphere of darkness once it hits the target surface. The darkness creates a long-lasting vision blocking zone.
- Shadow Walk: After a brief delay, Omen is able to teleport a short distance.
- Paranoia: Omen is able to launch a shadow clone in a straight line that gives those it touches blindness.
Breach
As far as disorientation specialists go, Breach has abilities that are able to ignore some of the constraints that usually block of other characters. His abilities can go through walls which is perfect for sneak attacks.
- Ultimate: Rolling Thunder – This sends a seismic charge forwards to daze, damage, and knock enemies upwards. It can go through walls and moves in a straight line.
- Signature: Fault Line – Breach can create a quake that runs in a straight line in front of him to disorientate the aim of enemies. This can also go through walls.
- Aftershock: It fires an explosive charge that can go through walls to damage any enemies standing near it
- Flashpoint: This is like a flash bang but this ability is fired into a wall to flash the enemies on the other side
Raze
The demolitionist of the crew, Raze carries deadly grenades for initiating fights and for dealing some good AOE at any point in the fight.
- Ultimate: Showstopper – This equips Raze with a rocket launcher that fires a rocket to deal with massive area damage when it contacts with anything.
- Signature: Paint Shells – Allows Raze to throw a cluster grenade which deals damage and also creates sub-grenades with smaller explosions to deal damage to anyone in their range.
- Blast Pack: Instantly throws a grenade to stick to a surface for detonation. Can be re-used and is also able to move anything it hits along with dealing damage to them.
- Boom Bot: This deploys a bot that travels in a straight line on the ground but is able to bounce off walls. Boom Bot is able to lock onto any enemy in its line of sight and chase them, it will explode on them to deal heavy damage.
Have you had a chance to play Valorant and try out all these characters yet? Riot Games has already confirmed that more characters will be coming in the future. If you don’t have a Valorant account yet then you can get one on Eldorado GG!
