Traps, Orbital Strike, and Teleportation – Character Abilities in Valorant

Riot Games has promised that at the time of release, at least eight different characters will be available in Valorant. When the studio lifted the embargo on publishing materials about the shooter, PCGamer reporters reviewed these characters and their abilities.

Types of character abilities:

• Base ability automatically available to the player in each round. How many times and how often it can be used depends on the character.
• Purchasing abilities – Each character can buy two additional abilities in the store before the start of the round. The developers recommend that they be perceived as grenades in CS: GO or other similar items that help the player in battle.
• Ultimate Ability (ult) – the most powerful ability of the character. To use it, you need a certain number of charges that you can earn for killing enemies or completing tasks (for example, defusing a bomb). To accumulate charges and get the ultimate ability, a player may need three or more rounds.

Phoenix

Owns a powerful arsenal of attacking abilities that are effective in an open battle with the enemy.

Abilities:

• Hot hands – Throws a ball of fire that sets fire to a small area when dropped to the ground. Deals damage to enemies, but heals your hero.
• Blaze – Creates a wall of fire that blocks the view and causes damage to anyone who passes through it.
• Curveball – blinding grenade.
• Run it back (ult) – Marks your current location and starts the timer. When the countdown has come to an end, you will be reborn in the marked place with full health. The ability acts in the same way if you are killed during the countdown timer.

Jett

A fast and agile character who specializes in roundabout maneuvers and point attacks from the back.

Abilities:

• Cloudburst – Throws a smoke grenade, which limits visibility in a small area.
• Updraft – after a little preparation, the hero makes a high jump.
• Tailwind – quickly overcomes a small distance in the direction of travel.
• Blade Storm (ult) – uses several throwing knives, which cause moderate damage and can kill the enemy when hit in the head. Each kill increases the number of daggers. They can be thrown one at a time or all at once.

Viper

A character who uses toxins and toxic gas in battle. Some Viper abilities consume a secondary resource called fuel.

Abilities:

• Snakebite – releases a projectile that creates an acid puddle on the surface.
• Poison cloud – throws a gas bomb that emits a cloud of toxic smoke. It consumes fuel.
• Toxic screen – creates several gas emitters that can be manually activated to create a wall of toxic gas. It consumes fuel.
• Viper’s Pit (ult) – creates a poisonous cloud and covers them with a large area. Enemies trapped in this trap will be easy prey for Viper.

Sova

A well-aimed archer, whose abilities help to track the movement of enemies.

Abilities:

• Shock bolt – launches a projectile that emits destructive pulses of static energy upon impact.
• Owl drone – uses an unmanned aerial vehicle for reconnaissance maps. Can mark enemies with darts.
• Recon bolt – fires an arrow with a sonar that detects and marks nearby enemies while they remain motionless.
• Hunter’s Fury (ult) – releases up to three energy charges that can move along the entire length of the card, breaking through the walls. Affected players take “almost fatal damage” and their location is revealed to the Sova team.

Cypher

A spy soldier who specializes in detecting the enemy and traps.

Abilities:

• Trapwire – establishes a “stretch” between the walls, which detects and immobilizes opponents for a short time. It can be reused after operation.
• Cyber ​​cage – sets a trap that, when activated, slows down enemies passing through it. Installed traps can be exploded one at a time or all at once.
• Spycam – Places a portable camera that can be controlled remotely to shoot darts at enemies.
• Neural Theft (ult) – steals information from a killed enemy, revealing the location of its allies.

Brimstone

Character controlling various types of orbital weapons. It can bombard a map, create smoke screens or damage enemies.

Abilities:

• Incendiary – Throws an incendiary grenade, which covers a large area with fire.
• Stim beacon – calls on the map a special lighthouse, which increases the rate of fire to any nearby ally.
• Sky smoke – causes several smoke screens on the map, which block the view of rivals.
• Orbital Strike (ult) – causes an orbital strike on a small area that deals deadly damage in a few seconds.

Sage

Helper is a medic character who can revive allies and slow down enemies.

Abilities:

• Slow orb – Creates a zone that slows down anyone who passes through it, and also does not allow heroes to jump.
• Barrier orb – creates a large impassable wall.
• Healing orb – Heals Sage or her ally within seconds.
• Resurrection (ult) – The ability allows you to revive an ally and fully restore his health.

Omen

An adroit saboteur character who can teleport on the map, destroy or blind enemies.

Abilities:

• Paranoia – launches a shadow clone, which for some time blinds all enemies that touch it.
• Shadow walk – Teleports Omen a short distance.
• Dark cover – throws a ball that explodes when it hits the ground and releases a spherical shadow blocking the view of the opponents.
• From the shadows (ult) – allows you to teleport to any place on the map after a delay of several seconds. Enemies can see the “shadow” of the character at the destination and cancel the teleport, killing her. After teleporting, Omen becomes invulnerable for a short time.

Valorant is a tactical shooter from Riot Games, which will be released in the summer of 2023. More details about the project can be found in our material.