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With the briefest of teasers at Summer season Sport Fest, Riot Video games revealed the brand new Valorant agent. I used to be lucky to get a hands-on preview with the robotic Radiant killer KAY/O and get in some gameplay earlier than he entered Valorant. Our new agent performs the position of initiator. And he does it so effectively. Together with his arsenal of skills, I believe the robotic might even fulfill the position of a duelist. Listed here are my ideas on KAY/O from my preview in Valorant.
The very first thing I observed about KAY/O is that his skills deploy very easily; it simply feels good and straightforward to make use of them. You gained’t have any downside rapidly pulling out any of the robotic’s utility to make on-the-fly performs.
My fast impression is that KAY/O isn’t fairly the persona of Pathfinder from Apex Legends or Claptrap from Borderlands. His voice traces are a bit of predictable. Nevertheless, I think he’ll come to life when interacting with the opposite brokers. One line I heard that I completely beloved was “Activating kill mode. That’s a joke. Kill mode is default.”
KAY/O – Valorant agent skills and gameplay overview
ZERO/level
Gameplay-wise, KAY/O’s Signature means is exclusive in Valorant. The dagger creates a spherical discipline that suppresses the talents of enemy brokers. I used to be testing the agent on my own, and I can affirm which you could’t suppress your self. I think you gained’t be capable to suppress allies, both.
The flexibility has a 40-second cooldown, which means you should use it a number of instances per spherical. And the world of impact of the dagger’s suppression is huge – quite a bit larger than I believed it could be. For example, you’ll be able to suppress virtually the complete B web site on Bind and Ascent. For those who have a look at the minimap, you’ll be able to see the precise space that suppression hits.
ZERO/level is an extremely highly effective instrument to make use of when pushing a bomb web site. It offers your crew a window to overwhelm the enemy. Plus, it goes by means of partitions. So, if you happen to can disguise the flight of the dagger from enemies, they’ll be hit with the suppression with none warning.
The flexibility ought to be extremely sturdy on protection, in addition to offense. If the enemy crew is speeding onto a bombsite you’re defending, hitting them with suppression will give them second ideas. That alone will trigger chaos amongst their ranks, inflicting some to retreat whereas others proceed pushing.
However much more importantly, it is going to forestall the enemy crew from utilizing their flashes and different entry skills. Once you see a flash from the enemy crew or they smoke off some angles, get able to whip that dagger into the onrushing horde.

You may see the dagger’s radius on the minimap.
The suppression dagger is a great tool for retaking websites too. Because you’re primarily attacking at that time, you should use it to create home windows the place your crew has the benefit of means utilization.
FLASH/drive
One of the best factor about KAY/O’s flash is that it may be thrown far on an extended fuse or dropped shut with a brief fuse time. The lengthy fuse time is 1.6 seconds, whereas the brief fuse is simply 1 second. The flash grenade doesn’t bounce very a lot, however due to the totally different throwing strategies, you don’t want it to.
There are a number of neat tips you’ll be able to make use of with FLASH/drive. You may throw an extended flash into the bottom close to you, inflicting any enemies trying your option to flip or disguise. Then instantly after you throw it, drop a brief fuse flash in the identical spot. You’ll usually catch enemies turning again to face you or re-peeking the angle because the second flash goes off.
One other trick that’s good to attempt with KAY/O’s flash is to drop the brief fuse round a nook after which instantly step out in entrance of it. You’ll get flashed very briefly, however enemies will both get the total impact or they’ll flip away. Both approach, you get some free photographs on gamers who can’t see you.
FLASH/drive is an excellent cowl to throw out ZERO/level. For those who toss a flash onto a web site or round a nook and instantly observe it up with a suppression dagger, enemies aren’t going to know what hit them.
By way of flexibility and ease of use, I believe this is likely one of the finest flashes in Valorant. However they don’t come low cost at 250 Credit a pop. That’s 50 greater than Phoenix’s Curveball, Reyna’s Leer, Breach’s Flashpoint, and Yoru’s Blindside.
FRAG/ment
FRAG/ment is KAY/O’s damage-dealing grenade. It bounces off partitions however sticks to the primary horizontal floor it touches. You may also right-click to lob FRAG/ment underhand. However I’m unsure that’s going to be notably helpful.
The grenade does 20 injury per pulse at its heart and round half that on the edge. FRAG/ment pulses 4 instances, so it’s not going to kill anybody. Nevertheless, it is going to take away an honest chunk of well being. It’ll be a great instrument to flush enemies from cowl.
It’ll even be good for post-plant lineups. However you’ll must coordinate with somebody or be shut sufficient to peek the spike as a result of, as talked about, an enemy at full well being gained’t must cease defusing to outlive the injury.
The grenades injury is spherical. So, you’ll be able to hit enemies (or allies) which might be standing above and beneath the purpose FRAG/ment hits. Nevertheless, in contrast to Killjoy’s grenades, the injury doesn’t undergo strong objects.
FRAG/ment might be KAY/O’s most uninteresting means. It’s a pleasant addition to the robotic’s equipment and it’s definitely helpful nevertheless it doesn’t provide a lot in the best way of inventive performs. Nevertheless, one attention-grabbing factor I observed about it’s that the pulses make lots of noise. You need to use these to masks your footsteps with out the necessity to stroll as you’re rotating or transferring onto a web site.
NULL/cmd
KAY/O’s Final means causes the robotic to pulse with suppressing power, shoot sooner, and go right into a downed mode as a substitute of dying when his well being reaches zero. Once more, this sounds quite a bit like a capability a duelist would love.
The downed mode means which you could be coming into a bomb web site on the frontline and buying and selling with enemies, however then you definitely get to return again to life in case your teammate can revive you.
The period of NULL/cmd is 12 seconds – loads of time to deal some injury. As for the suppressing pulses, they’re about the identical dimension because the footstep audio ring on the minimap. That’s bigger than all of the bomb websites. Principally, utilizing KAY/O’s Final to push a web site will forestall any enemies from utilizing their skills. That’s a large benefit, and it will likely be attention-grabbing to see if it suppresses allies too.
Brokers that pair effectively with KAY/O
I hoped ZERO/level would deliver an finish to the post-plant meta. However I think it’s going to be a devastating addition to the crew compositions that excel at planting the spike and utilizing skills to stop defusing.
As for particular person brokers that KAY/O will pair effectively with, I believe Sova is a superb one. He’s one other initiator, however, as I discussed, KAY/O may be performed extra like a duelist anyway. Sova companions effectively with KAY/O due to this Recon Bolt. You need to use it to seek out out precisely the place enemies are, then hit them with ZERO/level to stop means use.
Equally, Cypher’s Trapwire will let you know the place an enemy is, and you may assure the suppression dagger will hit. Spycam can be glorious for monitoring enemy motion. Cypher can let you know precisely the place to throw the dagger for optimum impact.
One other nice pairing with KAY/O is Yoru. He can use his Dimensional Drift to run throughout a complete web site invisibly and level out the place enemies are. KAY/O can use his complete equipment to hit strategic targets and permit your crew to take the positioning.
Together with his versatile equipment, highly effective final, and distinctive means suppressing abilities, I believe KAY/O will see lots of gameplay in Valorant.
Together with the brand new agent and my alternative to preview KAY/O and take a look at what he could possibly be like in gameplay, Riot Video games additionally lately launched all the brand new cosmetics coming within the Valorant Episode 3 Act I battle cross. You may verify them out right here.
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