In Project: A, Cypher spearheaded the sentinel bracket with death-dealing traps and a camera that stayed active long after he died. The cap-wearing spy was nerfed back into Valorant’s core tactical cycle, but he’s no longer a viable pick on most maps. Riot Games is finally considering reviving Cypher and his toolkit, which is still full of potential.
In the Valorant developer hangout for the new act, character designer Alexander Mistakidis chatted about the state of existing agents, shining a light on Cypher’s weak kit and promising significant buffs.
“Something that players can look forward to is we are buffing Cypher. That will be coming soon,” he says. “We’ll probably put something more interesting.”
While joking about bald Cypher and his hat, the developer assured the buff would be more riveting than that. Still, Riot is tight-lipped about the exact nature of Cypher changes, but it won’t be so wrong to expect a rework. Cypher is easily the weakest agent besides his traps in the current game meta. The addition of Harbor puts Cypher’s tracing ultimate to shame. Despite belonging to the controller category of Valorant, the water-bender concusses and pins the precise location of enemies.
Apart from ultimate, Cypher’s milky cages are nothing to write home about either. It’s easy to run down the hollow smoke and enter the site, making them futile in high-ELO games. The slim AoE of the cage doesn’t help, either. So, besides his traps, Cypher is sulking in most areas. While ranked players still pick him on maps like Bind, the Morrocan Spy has gone extinct in pro games.
Cypher’s declining pick rate is hardly surprising when agents like Chamber and Killjoy share the same bracket. As a result, players are leaning more toward other characters who can pull off the same tasks as Cypher more efficiently. Dedicated Cypher mains still swear by his Tripwires that are unique and viable on large locations, and this is the same player base that has prompted the developer to refurbish his kit.
Before you hop into competitive, it’s worth having a basic understanding of Valorant rank order, distribution, and why Valorant rank placements are low sometimes. It’s not easy to earn that golden Radiant badge!