Keen to get to know the Valorant characters better? With so many agents to choose from, knowing which agent to select and how to best utilise their skills in-game can be challenging. Riot continues to add new agents with every other Valorant act, too, tempting players to mix things up, but thoroughly understanding the mechanics behind purchasing and equipping the right set of abilities is essential if you want to the upper hand in Riot’s multiplayer game.
Selecting the most suitable combination of abilities can be tricky with such an expansive pool of Valorant agents, each with a unique set of skills. Fret not, though, as we dive deep into each agent – including Gekko, the latest addition – and their abilities to give you the knowledge you need to dominate your opponents. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or just starting out, this guide to all current Valorant characters should help you get started in one of the best PC games of 2023.
All Valorant characters
The current roster of Valorant agents and their abilities:
Gekko (Initiator)
Dizzy (E) – Send Dizzy, one of Gekko’s ‘buddies’ soaring forward through the air. Dizzy charges then unleashes plasma blasts at enemies in line of sight, and enemies are blinded upon a successful hit.
Wingman (Q) – Wingman seeks out enemies and unleashes a concussive blast toward the first enemy he sees. Target a Spike site or planted Spike to have Wingman defuse or plant the Spike with alt fire. To plant, Gekko must have the Spike in his inventory. Once it has used its power, Wingman returns to a dormant globule, which must be picked up to use it again after a cooldown.
Mosh Pit (C) – Throw Mosh like a grenade. Upon landing, Mosh duplicates across a large area and each one then explodes after a short time.
Thrash (X) – Link to Thrash’s mind telepathically, and steer her through enemy territory, where you can activate her power to lunge forward and explode, detaining any enemies in a small radius.
Harbor (Controller)
High Tide (E) – Equip a wall of water, which can then be fired along the ground. Guide the water in the direction of your crosshair, passing through the world, spawning a protective wall along the water’s path. Players hit by the wall are slowed.
Cove (Q) – Throw a sphere of shielding water. Upon impacting the ground, the sphere becomes a destructible shield of water that blocks bullets.
Cascade (C) – Send a wave of water rolling forward and through walls, which slows players when they are hit.
Reckoning (X) – Equip the full power of your Artifact, and summon a geyser pool on the ground, which targets enemy players in the area with successive geyser strikes. Players caught within a strike are concussed.
Fade (Initiator)
Haunt (E) – Throw an orb that plummets to the ground after a little, where it turns into a nightmarish entity that can reveal player locations.
Seize (Q) – This orb hits the ground with an explosion of nightmare ink that traps enemies for a time.
Prowler (C) – Fire sends the Prowler out in a straight line, where it will chase enemies it spots and nearsights them if it reaches them. Holding the fire button steers the Prowler towards your crosshair.
Nightfall (X) – The power of Fear. Send out a wave of nightmare energy, which even goes through walls. The energy reveals opponents as well as deafening and decaying them.
Neon (Duelist)
High Gear (E) – Gives Neon an instant speed boost. When charged, you can also pull off an electric slide move that resets every two kills.
Fast Lane (C) – Fire two walls of energy either side of you that extend until they reach the limit or hit a hard surface. These walls block vision and will damage any enemy that passes through them.
Relay Bolt (Q) – Throws an energy bolt that will bounce a single time. Once it’s hit two hard surfaces the ground beneath both points will be electrified and cause concussion.
Overdrive (X) – Unleashes Neon’s full power for a speed boost, but the power can be channelled instead into a deadly lightning attack. Every kill you get with this resets the duration timer.
Chamber (Sentinel)
Rendezvous (E) – Place two teleport anchors. While in range and on the ground near one anchor you can activate it to immediately teleport to the other anchor.
Trademark (C) – Places a trap that fires a slow-down field at a visible enemy after a short timer.
Headhunter (Q) – Equips a heavy pistol. Aim down sights using the alt-fire key.
Tour de Force (X) – Equips a powerful sniper rifle that will one-hit kill with a direct hit. Enemies killed by this gun will create a slow-down field around their corpse.
KAY/O (Initiator)
Zero/Point (E) – Equips a throwable knife that will stick to the first surface it hits and explode after a short timer. Anyone within the blast radius will be suppressed.
Frag/Ment (C) – Equips a throwable grenade that will stick to the floor, unleashing multiple explosions. Damage dealt depends on proximity to the ventre, where the damage dealt is near-lethal.
Flash/Drive (Q) – Equips a throwable flash grenade. Anyone caught in the blast radius is blinded.
Null/CMD (X) – Buffs Kayo with increased rate of fire and reload speed, and this ability also emits a pulse that will suppress any enemies within the area of effect.
Astra (Controller)
Nebula (E) – Uses stars placed in Astral Form (X). Can trigger stars to become a nebula, which acts like a smoke screen.
Gravity Well (C) – Uses stars placed in Astral Form (X). Can trigger stars to form gravity wells which sucks all players towards the centre and then explodes. Anyone caught in the blast radius is made vulnerable.
Nova Pulse (Q) – Uses stars placed in Astral Form (X). Can trigger stars to unleash a concussive explosion after a short timer.
Astral Form / Cosmic Divide (X) – Activate to enter a ghost-like state where you have a birds-eye view of the battlefield map. This is where you place stars to fuel your other abilities. Stars can instead be dissipated to be placed again later – when you do this, a temporary Nebula effect is triggered.
When Cosmic Divide is fully charged, you can use it to place a wall of infinite length across the map along any axis you choose. This wall will block bullets and dampen noise.
Yoru (Duelist)
Gatecrash (E) – Equip and fire a rift tether that will move in a straight line, diverting only when it encounters an obstacle like a wall. You can anchor a tether in place with the alt-fire button, and then activate to instantly teleport to that tether’s location.
Fakeout (C) – You can place up to two echoes that will mimic the sound of footsteps. You can also make them move about a bit similar to Gatecrash’s rift tether.
Blindside (Q) – Take a fragment of reality and throw it. When it hits a hard surface it will bounce but also charge up a flash which will detonate not long after. Combos well with Gatecrash.
Dimensional Drift (X) – Equip a mask that can see between dimensions and also lets you enter a personal dimension where you can’t be touched, but also can’t affect the world around you until you remerge. Basically like invisibility.
Skye (Initiator)
Guiding Light (E) – You equip a hawk trinket and fire it out, keeping the trigger held down to guide it to where your crosshair is sitting. Can be triggered again to cause the hawk to explode in a blinding flash.
Regrowth (C) – You equip a healing trinket to heal any allies in range and line-of-sight. Skye cannot heal herself, but you can keep using this ability until the ability pool is depleted. Note that the pool depletes at the same rate regardless of how many allies you’re healing.
Trailblazer (Q) – Use a trinket to summon a Tasmanian Tiger which you take direct control of. Pressing the ‘fire’ button will cause it to leap forward and explode in a concussive blast that will damage directly hit enemies.
Seekers (X) – Fire out three seekers, which will track down the three nearest enemies. If one manages to reach its target, it will give them the ‘nearsighted’ debuff.
Raze (Duelist)
Paint Shells (E) – Cluster grenade that deals initial impact damage, followed by damage from the clusters.
Boom Bot (C) – Set down an explosive robot that goes in a straight line, bouncing off walls until it detects an enemy in front of it. It will then home in and detonate on them unless shot.
Blast Pack (Q) – Like a C4 satchel. Throw it down and either detonate it when you want or let the timer run down. Deals AoE damage and displaces agents.
Showstopper (X) – Pull out a rocket launcher and fire it down a lane. The explosion deals huge damage to anyone in its radius. We’ve seen aces with a single shot from this.
Jett (Duelist)
Tailwind (E) – Dash a short distance.
Cloudburst (C) – Throw a cloud of fog that obscures vision on impact.
Updraft (Q) – Launch upwards after a brief delay.
Blade Storm (X) – Throw deadly throwing knives that deal damage and kill on headshots. A kill restores daggers, left click throws a single dagger and right click throws all remaining daggers.
Omen (Controller)
Dark Cover (E) – Cast an orb that bursts into a sphere of shadow obscuring the final location. Can be charged to increase distance.
Shrouded Step (C) – After a delay, teleport a short distance.
Paranoia (Q) – Cast a shadow in a straight line that blinds anyone it touches.
From the Shadows (X) – Select anywhere on the map to teleport and reform, will initially appear as a shadow, which can be killed by enemies and cancel the teleport. If teleport is successful, you become invisible for a short time.
Breach (Initiator)
Fault Line (E) – Equip a seismic blast, hold fire to increase the distance, and release to set off a quake that dazes all players caught in it.
Aftershock (C) – Equip a Fusion Charge and fire it to send a slow-firing burst through a wall, which deals high damage to anyone it connects with. More handy for clearing corners than actually getting frags.
Flashpoint (Q) – Equip a blinding charge that can be set on a wall. It fires a fast burst that blinds anyone on the other side.
Rolling Thunder (X) – Equip a seismic charge, fire to send a quake through all terrain in the ult’s cone of effect. This dazes and knocks anyone caught in its blast into the air. It also deals some damage.
Killjoy (Sentinel)
Alarmbot (E) – Deploy a bot that hunts down enemies in range and explodes, applying vulnerable. Can be recalled once deployed.
Turret (C) – Fire deploys a turret that fires at enemies in a 180 degree cone. Can be recalled once deployed.
Nanoswarm (Q) – Throw a grenade that lands and goes covert, activating the grenade deploys a swarm of damaging nanobots.
Lockdown (X) – Fire to deploy the device, after a long windup, the device detains all enemies caught in the radius, and can be destroyed by enemies.
Reyna (Duelist)
Dismiss (E) – Consumes a nearby soul orb, becoming intangible for a short duration. If your ultimate is active, also become invisible.
Leer (C) – Throw an eye through surfaces. The eye will blind all enemies who look at – only affects distant vision, so use to take on AWPers.
Devour (Q) – Enemies killed by Reyna leave behind Soul Orbs that last 3 seconds. Consume a nearby soul orb, rapidly healing for a short duration. Health gained through this skill exceeding 100 will decay over time. If your ultimate is active, this skill will automatically cast and not consume the orb.
Empress (X) – Enter a frenzy, increasing firing speed, equip, and reload speed dramatically. Scoring a kill renews the duration.
Cypher (Sentinel)
Spycam (E) – Place a remote camera, once placed reactive to view the video feed. Left click while the camera is activated to fire a tracking dart.
Trapwire (C) – Place a tripwire between two walls, triggered enemies are restrained and revealed for a short time. If the trap hasn’t been destroyed, it activates to daze the trapped victim.
Cyber Cage (Q) – Place a remote activation trap, reactive to create a cage that slows enemies who pass through it. Traps can be detonated.
Neural Theft (X) – Once an enemy is killed, information can be extracted of the locations of their living allies.
Viper (Controller)
Toxic Screen (E) – Deploy a line of gas that can be reactivated to create a wall of toxic gas which costs fuel.
Snakebite (C) – Fire a projectile that explodes into a pool of acid that does damage.
Poison Cloud (Q) – Throw a cloud of gas that can be reactivated to create a smoke cloud which costs fuel. This can be redeployed after a cooldown.
Viper’s Pit (X) – A toxic cloud covers a large radius and highlights enemies to Viper, the duration of the cloud extends if Viper remains in the cloud.
Sova (Initiator)
Recon Bolt (E) – Fire a bolt that deploys a sonar emitter and tags nearby enemies, revealing them.
Owl Drone (C) – Deploy and control a drone that reveals enemies around the map. Once active you can fire a tracking dart that reveals one enemy’s location until they remove it.
Shock Bolt (Q) – Fire and explosive bolt that damages enemies on impact. Use it to clear out boxes and corners.
Hunter’s Fury (X) – Fire up to three energy blasts that spear across the entire map and each hit enemy takes damages and is marked.
Sage (Sentinel)
Healing Orb (E) – Heal an ally or yourself to full health over a few seconds.
Barrier Orb (C) – A wall that can be rotated.
Slow Orb (Q) – An orb that breaks into a slowing field on impact with the found, all caught in the field are slowed, grounded, and make a noise when moving.
Resurrection (X) – Target a friendly corpse, after a short delay revive them with full health.
Phoenix (Duelist)
Hot Hands (E) – Throw a fireball that explodes after a short delay on impact with the ground. The fire zone damages enemies but heals Phoenix.
Blaze (C) – Cast a flame wall that blocks enemy vision and damages anyone passing through it. The wall can be bent both horizontally and vertically so you can cover ramps, too.
Curveball (Q) – Cast a curved flare that bursts into a light after a short delay, temporarily blinding anyone and can be curved left and right.
Run it Back (X) – Marks your current location. If you die while this ability is active, or when it expires, you’ll respawn at the marked location with full health.
Brimstone (Controller)
Sky Smoke (E) – Use your map to call in smokescreens that obscure vision, click to set the locations, and confirm to launch.
Stim Beacon (C) – Target a nearby location to call in the beacon, giving all players near the beacon rapid-fire.
Incendiary (Q) – Launch a grenade that deploys a damaging field of fire
Orbital Strike (X) – Target a nearby location, launch a devastating orbital strike that damages enemies for several seconds.
What are the agent classes in Valorant?
Valorant’s 21 characters are each categorized into one of four distinct classes: Duelist, Controller, Sentinel, and Initiator. Here are all the categories and what they mean:
- Duelists: are the aggressive agents of the game, designed to engage in direct combat with the enemy team. They typically have abilities that allow them to deal heavy damage and gain control of the battlefield.
- Controllers: are agents who specialize in manipulating the enemy team’s movement and vision. Their abilities include smokes, walls, and other forms of crowd control that limit the enemy’s manoeuvrability.
- Sentinels: are defensive agents who excel at protecting their team and providing support. In addition, they can heal their teammates, revive fallen allies, and gather information on enemy movements.
- Initiators: are agents skilled at starting engagements and disrupting the enemy team’s positioning. Their abilities include flashbangs, stun grenades, and other disruptive elements that create chaos on the battlefield.
In addition to these categories, agents also have unique abilities that further distinguish them from one another. These abilities include smokes, incendiary grenades, recon tools, etc. Some agents may feel like they don’t fit into a single category, those agents are considered hybrid by the players. So-called “hybrid characters” include Harbor, Gekko, and Yoru.
How to unlock Valorant agents?
The shortest and most straightforward way to unlock Valorant agents efficiently is to activate the contract for your desired agent and earn XP by playing games and completing missions. By activating the contract, you’ll also receive agent-themed cosmetics, including an exclusive pistol at the final tier.
Accumulating enough XP will enable you to unlock your chosen agent from the Agent Contract section in the game’s main menu. Alternatively, you can purchase agents using “Valorant Points,” which can be acquired by spending real money in the in-game store. You’ll need 1,000 Valorant points (VP), which is roughly $10, to unlock a single agent. If you want to save time, then it’s worth investing in some VPs, but the option to earn them for free is there.
Here’s how to purchase an agent:
- Go to the agents menu and select the agent you’re looking to buy.
- Scroll to tier 5.
- Click on the purchase button to buy the agent.
- Repeat the process for each Valorant agent.
A nice little trick is to earn enough XP to complete 3 tiers for each agent, then just buy the remaining two tiers to save money.
New Valorant agents are coming, including a new sentinel and duelist in 2023. Until then, that’s all you need to know about every Valorant character. Make sure you check out our Valorant tier list to check who is dominating ranked play at the moment., and check out when the next Valorant Night Market is taking place, so you can match your cool Agent with equally cool weapon skins.
Additional contributions by Danielle Rose.