Picking your preferred VALORANT agents selection can be an intimidating process, with several pros and cons related to each agent in the form of the kit they offer. That selection becomes even more important as you play the competitive modes in VALORANT. Your team’s composition could impact how well-equipped you are to handle different situations on various maps in the pool.

Though simply copying the preferred agent of your favorite pro player may seem to be an easy solution, you could be selecting an agent that has a bigger role in the meta at the higher level play. In this guide, we have provided you with a list of the five agents that can help you as a newcomer or someone just stuck in the depths of lower ELO ranks.

Killjoy

We start off the list with Killjoy, an agent who is not only one of the most versatile picks on virtually every map, but also sits at the #2 ranking for overall agent win rates. Let’s take a look at the key aspects of Killjoy that have helped so many players secure the win with their teams.

Defensive Capabilities

If you are a player who prefers a more laid-back or defensive playstyle, Killjoy is an excellent choice. Given that her abilities are primarily focused on defense and disruption, she is one of the best options for anchoring sites. Her Lockdown ultimate is also extremely powerful, as it temporarily denies enemies from a large radius around the ability’s placement. This provides your teammates with a window to push out and secure space and preferable angles.

Killjoy players can also utilize her turret, Alarmbot, and Nanoswarms as an early warning system or simply as a maze of traps that the opponents are forced to navigate or eliminate. This makes Killjoy a perfect option for players looking to tactically hold down important sections of the map and play anchor positions.

Low Skill Floor

Considering how straightforward Killjoy is to grasp and how creatively you can utilize her kit, you can see how she’s a great agent to set out to master. After you have picked up the basics, you can quickly incorporate your creativity into your setups and experiment with what works and, perhaps more importantly, what doesn’t. As you learn how to counter the enemy team and adapt to changes round to round, you can outplay your opponents, even on those occasional bad aim days.

Versatility

While Killjoy is primarily a defensively focused agent, she still has a lot of potential moves for attacking. Players can use Killjoy’s abilities to create distractions, flush opponents out of hiding spots or angles, or lockdown an entire site with her ultimate. The enemy team may choose to flee the site, regroup and prepare for a retake, providing your team with the red carpet to enter and plant the spike.

Team Support

Killjoy’s abilities provide the overall team with great utility, as the Turret and Alarmbot can be set up in locations to provide the team with information coverage while the players focus their attention in other directions. Players who can report this information put their team at an advantage as teammates can begin rotating or flanking to respond to the information gathered with a Turret shot or the Alarmbot being triggered. Teams can also build entire rounds around Killjoy’s Lockdown, providing them with serious potential to steal that round right as long as the Killjoy uses it appropriately.

Brimstone

Second on our list is Brimstone, who is not only the face and the commander of the VALORANT protocol, but is currently leading the win rate leaderboard in ranked. Brimstone boasts a relatively simple kit that is easy to grasp, but devastatingly powerful in more experienced hands.

Easy to Learn

Right out of the gate, you’re going to find Brimstone’s abilities to be straightforward and easy to learn. You simply press E to bring up his “iPad” which provides you with a bird’s eye view to place your smokes wherever you choose. His Q is a fairly basic molly, and his ultimate is a large laser that strikes down from the sky to deal damage to your intended target. Lastly, his C ability places a small pad that you can run over to gain both movement and firing speed. All in all, it is a pretty basic, but clearly useful kit once you have learned what you are doing.

Strong Utility

Arguably the reason behind Brimstone’s chart topping win rate at the time of writing this, the utility provided by Brimstone is some of the strongest in all of VALORANT. His Orbital Strike can dish out massive amounts of damage to his enemies within a designated area, stall out spike defuses and even counter a number of Agent’s ultimates, such as Killjoy, Phoenix, Sage and Gekko.

Incendiary Grenade is a great option to delay spike defuses post plant, deny space or simply clear out enemy position and send your opponent’s scrambling. His Stim Beacon gives his team a major advantage in engagements, allowing them to hit sites faster and harder. Lastly his smokes are the longest lasting option in the game. While his kit is easy to learn, you just cannot deny how powerful it is.

Team-oriented

Looking at Brimstone in terms of team composition, his abilities are clearly designed to be team-oriented, with good smokes that provide cover for the entire squad, as well as a Stim Beacon that buffs each teammate who can make use of it. Once you have clutched a round using his molly to deny a spike defusal, the smiles on your teammate’s faces alone will secure his place in your team’s composition.

Sova

The next agent on the list is Sova, the first and only initiator that you get unlocked as you fire up VALORANT for the first time. As you learn more about Sova, you’ll see that his inclusion in that starting lineup is for good reason.

Recon and Information Gathering

Sova’s kit is largely built around gathering information and recon, making him a valuable asset in a team’s composition. Information is critically important, as it provides you with an advantage as you work to clear angles and make macro-decisions in your movements and rotations.

His Recon Bolt and Owl Drone can also be used to scout out areas on the map revealing enemy positions, while his shock bolt can be used to flush enemies out of advantageous cover and angles. His ultimate is even capable of gathering information, as you can use it to clear out hiding spots and angles, though you will more than likely be using it to secure some frags.

Ease of Learning

This area of Sova may be lacking as it will take new players some time to get a handle on Sova and his kit. While his abilities are immensely powerful and provide a lot of utility for your team, it can take a while to really learn where and how best to use them.

Reyna

Reyna is hands down, the most played agent in VALORANT bar none. In the right hands she can be extremely powerful, but if you’re having an off-game, she can fall flat on her face. She is really in that all-or-nothing tier, either being accused of being an ‘ez carry’ or earning accusations that lead to in-game reports being submitted. If you’re picking Reyna and underperforming, you can just about guarantee you will get flamed, so approach with caution.

Easiest Agent in the Game

Warnings aside, Reyna is actually quite simple to play as in regard to her kit. You have one ability to worry about, which is a fairly basic flash, and she only gains additional options once you have already earned a kill. While some may argue that her lack of abilities to rely on will make life difficult for players, it can also keep things simple enough for you to focus on your fundamentals.

Playing Reyna forces you to learn the basic mechanics of VALORANT, since you are not having to juggle deploying a drone or placing a trap, you instead lean on your angles and map knowledge. While the Raze on your team is busy learning every nade and roomba lineup, you’re just hype focusing on the big picture gameplay concepts.

Self-sustainability

One of Reyna’s most distinguishing qualities is her capacity to be self-supporting. Reyna has an edge in combat thanks to her Leer and Devour skills, which enable her to heal herself and dismiss herself away from enemies. She also has the ability to fight a number of enemies simultaneously while maintaining herself without the help of her teammates. This capacity for self-sustainment makes her quite useful in low ELO games, as team cooperation can fall by the wayside at times.

Aggressive Playstyle

If you are a more aggressive player that prefers to get up close and personal, Reyna’s Leer and Devour abilities will be extremely beneficial, as you will be formidable in close-range engagements. Finally, her Empress ultimate will provide her with a significant boost in both speed and firepower, providing her with the ability to take down multiple opponents in rapid succession.

Solo-carry Potential

If you are the type of player who is looking to solo-carry games, Reyna will be the way to go. You’ll have a heal, and an ultimate that has a high potential to snowball, making her one of the easiest Agents to rack up multi-frags with.

Coincidentally, lower ELO games tend to require a player to put up these kind of numbers, as even if you help your solo-queue teammates enter a site smoothly, they may still go on to make some boneheaded moves, leaving you in a clutch situation.

Phoenix

Last on the list, but certainly not least, is Phoenix, a duelist Agent who has been designed to engage using his abilities. Phoenix takes fights on flashed opponents and potentially try it all over again with his Run it Back ultimate.

Self-sustainability & Versatility

With a kit offering a lot of versatility, Phoenix is an asset in various situations. His Blaze ability can be utilized to create walls of fire that block enemy sight lines while also allowing him to heal himself. His Curveball can be used to flash enemies around corners, clearing angles on his own and providing him with a tactical advantage in engagements.

Phoenix’s signature E ability serves as both a healing pit, as well as damaging his opponents, giving him the opportunity to top off his health as he flushes out corners and burning his enemies to a crisp. Run it Back, Phoenix’s ultimate ability, allows him to return to his previous location after being eliminated in the round, giving him a second chance at an engagement.

All of these abilities represent Phoenix’s immense potential for self sufficiency, with an ability to snowball similar to Reyna, only with more playmaking ability. The one downside to Phoenix is that, much like other jack of all trade Agents, he lacks a certain specialized focus with his abilities.

Aggressive Playstyle

If Phoenix’s kit is designed for something specific, it is built to cater to an aggressive playstyle, which makes him a great option for players who are looking to take fights and create space for their team. His abilities can provide him with an advantage in engagements and his frugal ultimate ability, coming in at just 6 ultimate points, provides players with the opportunity to farm orbs, kills and even deaths with this playstyle.

Team-oriented

Though Phoenix’s abilities tend to have a focus on combat engagement, they can also be used toward the benefit of the team. Denying the opponent’s sight lines with Blaze, or curving flashes into a site to open the door for your team’s entry make him an asset to his team. Just be sure to communicate and coordinate with your team, or you may find that his utility is working just as well against your teammates.

Final Thoughts

Now, you have a bit to think about as you head off into the ranked queue to begin your climb out of the ELO pits. Consider your strengths, your weaknesses and most importantly, your personal motivations.

Are you a player who wants to lean more on utility that benefits your team, or would you prefer to sling your team over your back and carry them with a scoreboard topping performance? Figure that out and you will be able to apply that motivation towards the Agents we have listed above.