Abilities are tools that are available to be used by agents in addition to the weapons that they carry. Each ability in VALORANT is unique, though some share similarities. All agents have three types of abilities to give them more tactical opportunities and assist their gunplay; basic, signature, and ultimate.
Summary[]
Sage with Slow Orb equipped.
Fade suppressed by KAY/O's ZERO/point.
Many abilities have to be equipped to be used, causing the agent to go through an equip animation for a short amount of time before they can cast the ability, though some can be cast instantly. Abilities are only audible to enemies after they are cast; nearby enemies cannot hear when you are equipping abilities.
Players are prevented from using abilities if they are suppressed. Some abilities can affect both enemies and allies. Such abilities that damage allies deal 1/3 damage, while abilities that has debuff effects affect allies fully.
Ability usage differs per game mode.
- In most Plant/Defuse modes (Unrated, Competitive and Swiftplay), most abilities have a cost to obtain and use (through credits or ult points), though some are given for free.
- In Spike Rush and Replication, all basic and signature abilities are refreshed every round.
- In Team Deathmatch, all basic and signature abilities are set on a cooldown, while ultimate abilties use a percentage bar depending on kills and ultimate orbs.
- In Deathmatch, Escalation and Snowball Fight, individual agents' ability usage are disabled.
Several abilities cannot be cast during Buy Phase in Plant/Defuse modes as they do not achieve anything if they were to be cast at this time, however others can be as they specifically help agents to set up utility or positioning before the Round Phase begins. During Buy Phase, used abilities cannot be repurchased if the uses has reached the maximum allowed for the round and used abilities on cooldown will not begin till Round Phase starts. All abilities in Team Deathmatch cannot be cast in spawn.
The following abilities usable for Plant/Defuse modes during Buy Phase are:
- Astra's Astral Form
- All of Chamber's abilities
- Cypher's
Trapwire, Cyber Cage (placement only), and Spycam - Deadlock's Sonic Sensor (placement only)
- Jett's Updraft
- Killjoy's Nanoswarm (placement only), Alarmbot, and Turret
- Neon's High Gear (Energy and Slide charge not consumed)
- Omen's Shrouded Step
- Raze's Blast Pack
- Sage's Healing Orb
- Viper's Poison Cloud (placement only) and Toxic Screen (placement only)
- Vyse's Razorvine (placement only), Shear, Arc Rose (placement only)
- Yoru's Fakeout (stationary placement only) and Gatecrash (placement only)
Types[]
There are four types of abilities in VALORANT:
Passive[]
- Main article: Passive Effects
Agent passives are additional effects that some specific agents have. Whilst most of these interact with agents' standard abilities, these effects are often utilized by multiple of an agent's abilities instead of being a passive effect that is only part of an individual ability. Many passives do not require any active interaction from the player to be activated or applied, but there are some passive effects that do require the player to activate them with a specific hotkey.
Passives can be effects that are:
- Constantly available to be used without any cost:
- Activated or applied as an additional effect on top of the primary function of an action (abilities or kills):
- Fade's Terror Trail
- Gekko's Globules
- Phoenix's Heating Up
- Reyna's Soul Harvest
- Viper's Toxin
Basic[]
Basic abilities are abilities that most agents have to purchase using credits to be able to use. All agents have two basic abilities, with the exception of Reyna having only one and Astra having three basic abilities.
Signature[]
Signature abilities are abilities that agents are guaranteed to be able to use every round. All agents have one signature ability that will give them one free charge for them to use, with the exception of Reyna having two abilities, albeit having shared charges between them.
Some agents may be able to increase the amount of charges they have of their signature ability by buying more with credits, but any regenerated charges from cooldowns will not be kept for the next round and they will restart with their one free charge. Charges that do not get used and did not get regenerated will be carried over to the next round, however a new charge will not be added. Signature abilities that don't offer the option to buy more charges have other ways to allow the player to use that ability more than once in a round (except for 
Deadlock's 
Barrier Mesh), such as cooldowns or enemy kill targets.
Ultimate[]
Ultimate abilities are the strongest in the game. To use an ultimate, players must acquire ultimate points. These are earned by killing enemies, dying, capturing ultimate orbs, and completing a spike plant or defuse.
Once a player has earned enough points, they can use them up to cast their ultimate. Upon doing so, all players will hear a global voice line alerting them to that specific agent using their ultimate. Gekko is the only agent with three additional voice lines due to his ability to recast his ultimate in the same round.
| Agent | Ability | Cost (points) |
Functions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Astra
|
 Cosmic Divide
|
7 | Wall |
 Breach
|
 Rolling Thunder
|
9 | Concuss Displacement |
 Brimstone
|
 Orbital Strike
|
8 | Deterrent |
 Chamber
|
 Tour De Force
|
8 | Slow Weapon Equip |
 Clove
|
 Not Dead Yet
|
8 | Intangibility Revive |
 Cypher
|
 Neural Theft
|
7 | Intel |
| Deadlock
|
 Annihilation
|
7 | Detain Displacement |
 Fade
|
 Nightfall
|
8 | Cripple Intel |
 Gekko
|
 Thrash
|
8 | Controlled Deployable Detain |
 Harbor
|
 Reckoning
|
7 | Concuss Intel |
 Iso
|
 Kill Contract
|
7 | Banish Limiter |
 Jett
|
 Blade Storm
|
8 | Weapon Equip |
 KAY/O
|
 NULL/cmd
|
8 | Empowerment Limiter Revive |
 Killjoy
|
 Lockdown
|
9 | Detain |
 Neon
|
 Overdrive
|
7 | Weapon Equip |
 Omen
|
 From the Shadows
|
7 | Teleport |
 Phoenix
|
 Run it Back
|
6 | Revive |
 Raze
|
 Showstopper
|
8 | Weapon Equip |
 Reyna
|
 Empress
|
6 | Empowerment |
 Sage
|
 Resurrection
|
7 | Revive |
 Skye
|
 Seekers
|
8 | Autonomous Deployable Nearsight Slow |
 Sova
|
 Hunter's Fury
|
8 | Weapon Equip |
 Viper
|
 Viper's Pit
|
9 | Cripple Vision Blocker |
 Vyse
|
 Steel Garden
|
8 | Limiter |
 Yoru
|
 Dimensional Drift
|
7 | Intangibility |
| Agent | As an ally |
As an enemy | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astra
|
"World divided!" | "You are divided!" | ||
| Breach
|
"Let's go!" | "Off your feet!" | ||
| Brimstone
|
"Open up the sky!" | "Prepare for hellfire!" | ||
| Chamber
|
"They are so dead!" | "You want to play? Let's play." | ||
| Clove
|
"Back like I never left!" | "You had your fun, my turn!" | ||
| Cypher
|
"Where is everyone hiding?" | "I know exactly where you are!" | ||
| Deadlock
|
"Pull them to their grave!" | "My territory, my rules!" | ||
| Fade
|
"Nightmare, take them!" | "Face your fear!" | ||
| Gekko
|
Initial cast: | |||
| "It's all you, lil' homie!" | "Oye! Monster on the loose!" | |||
| Recast: | ||||
| "Thrash is going again!" | "Thrash isn't done with you!" | |||
| "We're going again!" | "She's still gunning for ya!" | |||
| "She's going again!" | "You want more? Here's more!" | |||
| Harbor
|
"Let's turn the tide!" | "I suggest you move!" | ||
| Iso
|
"No distractions!" | "It's you and me!" | ||
| Jett
|
"Watch this!" | "Get out of my way!" | ||
| KAY/O
|
"No one walks away!" | "You... are... powerless!" | ||
| Killjoy
|
"Initiated!" | "You should run." | ||
| Neon
|
"Here we go!" | "Hoy! I'm pissed!" | ||
| Omen
|
"Watch them run." | "Scatter!" | ||
| Phoenix
|
"Come on, let's go!" | "Joke's over, you're dead!" | ||
| Raze
|
"Here comes the party!" | "Fire in the hole!" | ||
| Reyna
|
"They will cower!" | "The hunt begins!" | ||
| Sage
|
"Your duty is not over!" | "You will not kill my allies!" | ||
| Skye
|
"Seek them out!" | "I've got your trail." | ||
| Sova
|
"I, am the hunter!" | "Nowhere to run!" | ||
| Viper
|
"Don't get in my way!" | "Welcome to my world!" | ||
| Vyse
|
"Bring me the arsenal!" | "Adapt or die!" | ||
| Yoru
|
"I'll handle this!" | "Who's next?" | ||
Functions[]
"Functions" are organized by the VALORANT Wiki and its editors as a way to classify and group abilities with similar functions. It is not an official VALORANT classification. These functions only identify the core, shared use of abilities within a group and may not take any additional effects into account.
While each ability in VALORANT is unique, some share similar functions. These allow them to be sorted into the following classes and sub-classes:
- Barrier: Barriers prevents agents from being able to move through them.
- Blind: Blinds are used to limit an agent's vision.
- Flash: Flashes completely remove all vision.
- Nearsight: Nearsights afflict enemies with a short, maximum vision radius as well as deafening them.
- Cripple: Cripples apply temporary debuffs to an agent's health, bringing them closer to death or increasing incoming damage taken by them.
- Crowd Control: Crowd Control tools affect an enemy's capability to move on the map.
- Banish: Banish abilities remove the affected agents from the map.
- Concuss: Concuss abilities reduce movement speed and fire rate, decrease bullet accuracy, prevent use of scopes or ADS, and affect a player's vision.
- Detain: Detains severely reduce movement speed, massively decreases jump height and force the enemy to unequip all their weapons and abilities.
- Displacement: Displacements physically move enemies out of position by force and against their will.
- Slow: Slows reduce an enemy's movement speed.
- Tether: Tethers prevent an enemy from moving beyond a specific location.
- Decoy: Decoys are used to distract an enemy and draw their attention away from where the real threat is.
- Deterrent: Deterrents are used to flush enemies out of certain positions by threatening to kill them if they attempt to stay in that location.
- Molotov: Molotovs deal damage over time in a small area-of-effect on the ground of the location they detonate in.
- Empowerment: These increase an agent's power by buffing them in some way.
- Weapon Equip: Grants the agent a new weapon for them to use.
- Intel: Intel tools give information on the whereabouts of enemies.
- Autonomous deployable: Autonomous deployables operate on their own without any further input from the player.
- Controlled deployable: Controlled deployables must be controlled by the player to operate.
- Limiter: Limiters apply debuffs that disable specific parts of an agent's loadout.
- Jam: Jam abilities disable primary weapons.
- Suppress: Suppress abilities disable abilities.
- Mobility: Mobility tools abilities give agents a way to traverse the map beyond just running and walking.
- Dash: Dashes allow the user to move in a certain direction at greatly increased speed.
- Intangibility: These allow the user to be immune to damage. They can also grant invisibility in some circumstances, hiding them from enemy sight.
- Teleport: Teleports allow the user to blink to a location without having to walk or run between their start and end position.
- Resource Bar: Abilities that use resource bars require enough of their resource to be available in order to be cast.
- Setup: These abilities provide setup that the agent will use for casting some of their other abilities.
- Sustain: Sustain tools allow agents to withstand and counteract damage being dealt to them while remaining active on the battlefield.
- Heal: Heals restore health to the target.
- Invulnerability: These make the affected agent immune to all sources of damage.
- Revive: Revives allow an agent to continue fighting even after taking lethal damage.
- Vision Blocker: Vision blockers block line of sight, allowing allies to carry out actions behind or inside the blocking object without giving visual info to the enemy.
- Smoke: Smokes are spherical vision blockers.
- Wall: Walls are linear/rectangular vision blockers.
Some abilities may be completely unique and therefore do not fit into any of these functions. Such abilities are classed as Niche, however all abilities in the game currently fit under at least one of the above classes instead.
Lore[]
The abilities used by agents in-game also make appearances within the lore of VALORANT. However, whilst gameplay must take balancing into account, the lore is not tied down by these restrictions and so more "realistic" depictions (in the context of the VALORANT universe) can be shown within the lore, meaning there can be some differences between how abilities operate in-game and in-universe. Gameplay does not have to be accurate to how abilities would realistically work within the lore, and lore does not have to be accurate to how abilities are required to work in-game.
For example, in the case of in-universe depictions not needing to accurately reflect gameplay functionality, Killjoy's Turret must remain in one place when it is deployed in-game with just basic 'detect and engage' programming. Away from the restrictions of gameplay balancing in the lore however, the turret can be seen running alongside Killjoy and understanding and reacting to directive hand gestures. Not being restricted to the exact functionality of abilities in-game allows the lore to show these depictions that make much more sense from a narrative perspective.
For the reverse case of gameplay not needing to adhere to how abilities would realistically work within the lore meanwhile, Brimstone's Sky Smokes and Orbital Strike are deployed from an orbital satellite, so from a narrative perspective targeting areas inside buildings would only cause his utility to be blocked by the roofs of these buildings instead (temporarily however in assumedly most cases for Orbital Strike until the laser cuts through, or if the roof material is weak enough for a Sky Smoke to break through on impact). In-game however, it is necessary for these abilities to immediately affect these target areas without any disruption by any terrain above, even if from a narrative perspective this would either be unrealistic or completely impossible. The needs of gameplay balancing will always come first over lore accuracy when designing in-game abilities, even if within the lore such functionality or decision making would make no sense at all.
Agents also aren't restricted to just having the abilities that they have in-game within the lore, such as with Neon who has been seen to also have the ability to release a large electrical pulse from her body when in Overdrive.
Appearances in lore[]
| Agent | Ability | Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Astra
|
Astral Form |  |
| Breach
|
 Aftershock
|
|
| Rolling Thunder
|
  Seismic charge | |
| Brimstone
|
 Incendiary
|
  Launcher |
| Chamber
|
 Rendezvous
|
  Anchor + Arrival |
| Tour De Force
|
 | |
| Clove
|
 Meddle
|
 |
 Ruse
|
 | |
| Not Dead Yet
|
 | |
| Cypher
|
 Trapwire
|
 |
 Spycam
|
 | |
| Neural Theft
|
  Reveal | |
| Deadlock
|
 GravNet
|
  Grenade |
 Sonic Sensor
|
 | |
| Annihilation
|
 Pulse  Cocoon  Nanowire accelerator | |
| Fade
|
 Prowler
|
 |
 Seize
|
  Tethers  Tethers overwhelming a victim | |
| Other |  Fade's Nightmare tendrils, summoned from her own hands, overwhelming a victim
| |
| Gekko
|
Globules |   Thrash as a Globule enters Gekko's carrier |
 Mosh Pit
|
 | |
 Wingman
|
 | |
 Dizzy
|
  Blinding plasma blasts | |
| Thrash
|
  Explosion  A victim detained by Thrash | |
| Harbor
|
 Cascade
|
 |
 Cove
|
 | |
 High Tide
|
  Setting up wall | |
| Reckoning
|
 | |
| Other |  Water walls being also able to block gunfire | |
| Jett
|
 Drift
|
 |
 Cloudburst
|
 | |
 Updraft
|
 | |
 Tailwind
|
 | |
| Blade Storm
|
 | |
| KAY/O
|
 FRAG/ment
|
 |
 ZERO/point
|
 | |
| NULL/cmd
|
  Used by Max Bot | |
| Killjoy
|
 Turret
|
 |
| Lockdown
|
 | |
| Other |  A bot created by Killjoy, used to access computer systems through keyboard inputs hands-free  A bot created by Killjoy, used to cut through surfaces  Bots created by Killjoy, the one on the right being used to download information from terminals | |
| Neon
|
 High Gear
|
 |
| Overdrive
|
 | |
| Other |  Neon's body releasing a large electricity pulse | |
| Omen
|
 Shrouded Step
|
  Channeling |
 Paranoia
|
  Victim being nearsighted | |
 Dark Cover
|
  Cast - in transit | |
| From the Shadows
|
  Shade Form | |
| Other |  An additional form of teleportation used by Omen | |
| Phoenix
|
Heating Up |  |
 Blaze
|
 | |
 Curveball
|
 | |
 Hot Hands
|
 | |
| Run it Back
|
  Disintegration on death  Revival | |
| Other |  Phoenix using his powers to super heat a Radi-Core | |
| Raze
|
 Boom Bot
|
|
 Blast Pack
|
 | |
 Paint Shells
|
  Grenade | |
| Showstopper
|
  Rocket | |
| Reyna
|
 Leer
|
 |
 Devour
|
 | |
 Dismiss
|
 | |
| Sage
|
 Barrier Orb
|
  Equip  Damaged wall |
 Slow Orb
|
  Equip | |
 Healing Orb
|
 | |
| Skye
|
 Regrowth
|
|
 Trailblazer
|
  Summon | |
 Guiding Light
|
  Trinket | |
| Seekers
|
| |
| Sova
|
 Owl Drone
|
 |
 Shock Bolt
|
 | |
 Recon Bolt
|
  Reveal | |
| Hunter's Fury
|
  Windup  Blast | |
| Viper
|
 Snake Bite
|
  Canister and launcher |
 Poison Cloud
|
 | |
 Toxic Screen
|
 | |
| Vyse
|
 Razorvine
|
  Nest |
 Shear
|
  Trap | |
 Arc Rose
|
| |
| Steel Garden
|
  Vines lying in place | |
| Yoru
|
 Gatecrash
|
  Tether |
| Dimensional Drift
|
  Yoru's footsteps still visible to others |
References[]
Abilities
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Types | Passive (list) • Basic • Signature • Ultimate | |||
| Functions | Barrier • Blind (Flash • Nearsight) • Cripple • Crowd Control (Banish • Concuss • Detain • Displacement • Slow • Tether) • Decoy • Deterrent (Molotov) • Empowerment (Weapon Equip) • Intel (Autonomous Deployable • Controlled Deployable) • Limiter • Mobility (Dash • Intangibility • Teleport) • Resource Bar • Setup • Sustain (Heal • Invulnerability • Revive) • Vision Blocker (Smoke • Wall) • Niche | |||
| Astra
|
Astral Form •  Gravity Well •  Nova Pulse •  Nebula/Dissipate •  Stars • Cosmic Divide
| |||
| Breach
|
Aftershock •  Flashpoint •  Fault Line • Rolling Thunder
| |||
| Brimstone
|
 Stim Beacon • Incendiary •  Sky Smoke• Orbital Strike
| |||
| Chamber
|
 Trademark •  Headhunter • Rendezvous • Tour De Force
| |||
| Clove
|
 Pick-me-up • Meddle • Ruse • Not Dead Yet
| |||
| Cypher
|
Trapwire •  Cyber Cage • Spycam • Neural Theft
| |||
| Deadlock
|
GravNet • Sonic Sensor • Barrier Mesh • Annihilation
| |||
| Fade
|
Terror Trail • Prowler • Seize •  Haunt • Nightfall
| |||
| Gekko
|
Globules • Mosh Pit • Wingman • Dizzy • Thrash
| |||
| Harbor
|
Cascade • Cove • High Tide • Reckoning
| |||
| Iso
|
 Contingency •  Undercut •  Double Tap • Kill Contract
| |||
| Jett
|
Drift • Cloudburst • Updraft • Tailwind • Blade Storm
| |||
| KAY/O
|
FRAG/ment •  FLASH/drive • ZERO/point • NULL/cmd
| |||
| Killjoy
|
 Nanoswarm •  Alarmbot • Turret • Lockdown
| |||
| Neon
|
Energy •  Fast Lane •  Relay Bolt • High Gear • Overdrive
| |||
| Omen
|
Shrouded Step • Paranoia • Dark Cover • From the Shadows
| |||
| Phoenix
|
Heating Up • Blaze • Hot Hands • Curveball • Run it Back
| |||
| Raze
|
Boom Bot • Blast Pack • Paint Shells • Showstopper
| |||
| Reyna
|
Soul Harvest • Leer • Devour • Dismiss • Empress
| |||
| Sage
|
Barrier Orb • Slow Orb • Healing Orb • Resurrection
| |||
| Skye
|
Regrowth • Trailblazer • Guiding Light • Seekers
| |||
| Sova
|
Owl Drone • Shock Bolt • Recon Bolt • Hunter's Fury
| |||
| Viper
|
Fuel • Toxin • Snake Bite • Poison Cloud • Toxic Screen • Viper's Pit
| |||
| Vyse
|
Razorvine • Shear • Arc Rose • Steel Garden
| |||
| Yoru
|
 Fakeout •  Blindside • Gatecrash • Dimensional Drift
| |||