When starting out in Valorant, you may think there are so many agents and that it is hard to pick which one you will unlock first, or which one will serve you best in your games. This article will help you pick the next agent to unlock, based on your style of play, difficulty to use, and the current best agents in the game.
New Agents
Every few months or acts, a new agent is released who changes up the game, with many people locking them in for the first few weeks just to try them out, as people may not know how to counter them, and many new tactics will be coming out that allow you to outmaneuver your opponents. If a new agent has recently come out, such as Tejo recently did in January, you should consider picking them as it will even out the playing field because just as you have only recently joined, the agent also only recently came out, ensuring not many people have had time to master it. New agents also usually come with new features such as Tejo’s drone that is able to suppress abilities and is able to be controlled, or Iso’s shield that allows him to take a hit from any weapon with no damage resulting from it. But if you would rather pick an agent who is known to be good and doesn’t have a potential nerf incoming as new agents usually do, then read on.
Best Duelist for a Beginner
If you like to push site and be part of the action, the duelist that is recommended is Yoru. This agent allows you to easily traverse the map with his teleportation, while having means to keep enemy blinded. An easy combo being to send a teleport, blind the enemy and appear behind them, leaving them blind and easy to kill. He can also send out a clone which, in beginner lobbies, will almost always be shot which then causes the person who shot it to get blinded and be easy to kill.
The exact abilities featured with this Agent are:
- Gatecrash: This ability allows you to place a teleportation rift that you can either send forward or keep in one place, that lets you teleport to it when you use the ability again.
- Blindside: This ability throws a blinding orb that can bounce off walls, then explodes 0.6 seconds after being thrown, blinding anyone looking at it for 1.75 seconds, and anyone not looking at it for 1 second.
- Fakeout: This ability can send out a clone, which when shot, blinds the shooter for 3 seconds. The clone also mimics the gun you are holding when you are using the ability, and looks exactly like a player, however walks only in a straight line. It can also be placed somewhere and activated later from a distance, causing the enemy to think you are somewhere else.
This agent is easy to use, but can be further mastered through the timing with which you use your blinds, and placement of teleport rifts and clones, as the enemy can see the rifts when you send it, and can also be fake activated to make them think you teleported.
Best Initiator for a Beginner
If you want to find and flush out the enemy, the best initiator for you to pick is KAYO, as this agent is able to easily find the enemy with an recon tool than affects a large area and can go through walls meaning you just have to throw it near where you think the enemy is and you will be able to suppress their abilities. This is also backed up with an effective flash grenade and a fragmenting grenade/orb.
The abilities this agent has are:
- Suppression Blade: This can be thrown long distances and creates a large field where if one of the enemies were in the field they are unable to use abilities for 10 seconds and it says what enemy was affected.
- Flash Grenade: A small grenade that can be thrown with 2 different options, long range for a longer blind time (2.25s), or a quick short throw where it explodes faster but blinds for less time (1.25s).
- Explosive Fragment: This ability lets you throw an orb that creates a small area that damages anyone in it, doing much more damage if the player is in the center of the area, and it ticks 4 times.
This agent requires strategic placement of the orb to flush enemies out, and of the flash grenade to ensure you do not blind your team, however the suppression blade is easy to use and makes it much easier to enter site, while also giving you a general idea of where the enemy is.
What Next?
It is recommended to first unlock an initiator or duelist as controllers require some experience as otherwise you may hinder your team instead of helping, and most sentinels require some initial skill to be worth it. Once you have played a lot with one of these two agents you can then start looking into using sentinels, then controllers, although you could happily stay as an initiator or duelist as these are useful for controlling space and entering sites, giving your team more opportunity to plant or defuse spike, and can be much more fast-paced or fun to play than sentinels or controllers.
