Here's how to pilot this poisonous assassin.
Viper is an agent who controls the battlefield with poisonous chemical devices which require a special resource called Fuel to use. In this guide we’ll give you a rundown of her abilities and provide some tips on how to use them effectively.
Viper is Valorant’s resident poisonous assassin who relies on a secondary resource called Fuel to use her abilities. She’s all about obscuring the enemy’s view with poison smoke, or zoning them with acid bombs.
Below we’ve put together a quick overview of Viper’s abilities and dropped some tips in to help you get the most out of them.
How to play Viper
Fuel (Passive)
To use Viper’s [Q] and [E] you’ll consume a resource called Fuel. You’ll start off with 100% Fuel, but as you activate these abilities this’ll gradually tick down. It recharges slowly once you’ve turned these abilities off, though.
Decay Damage
Damage dealt by toxic gas won’t harm you, but it’ll hurt enemies and allies – but it’s a different sort of damage.
It’s entitled “Decay” damage as it’ll wear down your health and armour over time. However, if you stay in the gas (as someone who isn’t Viper), you won’t die, but stay on 1HP, instead.
Finally, if you step out of the gas, you won’t regenerate any armour lost, but you’ll slowly recover your health.
Snakebite [C] (100 Credits, Uses Fuel)
Activate this ability and it’ll fire a projectile that creates a pool of acid. Think of this one as a zoning tool which can block off choke points and force enemies into repositioning to a spot that’s perfectly in sync with your crosshair.
Much like Sova’s scouting arrows and the sheer variety of angles they can hit, this ability has the same multitude of options. We’d recommend turning to YouTube to learn some Snakebite angles for various maps, so you can fire this ability off from all of the place with pinpoint precision.
More essential Valorant guides:
- 1. Ranked Mode – Valorant: Competitive ranks explained
- 2. Best Agents – Valorant: Best Agents
- 3. Best Guns – Valorant: Best Guns
- 4. Best mouse settings – Best mouse DPI and sensitivity settings
- 5. Improve your aim – Valorant: How to improve your aim
- 6. Tips and Tricks – Valorant: Tips and Tricks
Toxic Screen [E] (Uses Fuel)
Use this ability and you’ll fire a long line of toxic gas emitters. Turn it on and they’ll create a green, poisonous wall which obscures vision and damages both enemies and allies who step through it.
This wall can be fired far across the map, but be wary of it clipping onto structures, boxes and the like.
It’s a difficult ability to use well, but the most effective scenarios we’ve encountered have involved pushing bomb sites. It’s great when a Viper throws this up to block enemy vision so we’re all able to push into a site without having to peek a tonne of angles. This enables everyone to get established on site, so when the wall goes down, the enemy won’t know where everyone is, and this can make a huge difference.
Poison Cloud [Q] (200 Credits)
Purchase this ability and it’ll let you throw a gas bomb that emits a cloud of poisonous smoke at the cost of fuel. You can also retrieve the gas bomb and throw it again after a short cooldown.
Again, this one’s a perfect zoning tool and the fact it has multiple charges makes it a fantastic, economic choice. We’d recommend using this to block choke points, and to flush enemies out of hiding spots.
Just be careful you’re not using this too liberally when you’ve got teammates nearby as they can be hurt by its toxicity. Make sure you’re communicating with your squad if you’re grouped together.
Viper’s Pit [X]
Viper’s Pit creates a poison cloud which blankets a large area. As you’ve likely seen in the gameplay preview above, it’s effectively a smoke grenade which doesn’t obscure Viper’s vision. This’ll make it great for laying on a planted bomb and forcing your enemies into a trap, and we can see it working particularly well when placed in a hotly contested, narrow choke point.
