VALORANT’s agent, Skye, is officially playable with a new patch (1.11) that Riot released today, and this swiss army knife of a character will leave a lot for players to figure out in the coming weeks.
If you’re concerned about seeing her in competitive games, don’t fret. She’ll be released in competitive and esports events in a couple of weeks on Nov. 9, leaving plenty of time for gamers to test her out.
As an Australian protector of wildlife, Skye is able to use trinket abilities that resemble animals in battle to give her team numerous tactical advantages.
Along with a teammate healing ability, Skye can hit enemies with ranged flashes, as well as concussive blasts, and her ultimate ability is a set of enemy seeking drones that nearsight opponents.
There’s still a lot to be learned about Skye, with her just being released today, but a basic understanding of how her abilities work will go a long way in understanding how to play her as efficiently as possible.
Basic abilities
Skye has two basic abilities that each cost 200 credits.
The first is a healing trinket called Regrowth. By holding down the fire button with the trinket equipped, Skye will heal all allies in her line of sight.
While she can’t heal herself, she can heal allies with this ability. The ability isn’t a one-time use either. It has a preset healing pool that gets depleted as you use it.
Her second basic ability, “Trailblazer” is the only damage ability in Skye’s kit. Equipping and firing the Trailblazer will summon a Tasmanian tiger that you can control and use to run at an enemy, while Skye stays safe around a corner.
Firing the tiger trinket will make the tiger leap forward, exploding with a concussive effect that damages opponents.
This ability isn’t fool proof, though. While controlling the tiger can help you scout out enemies, the tiger can also be destroyed by enemies who shoot it. Additionally, the trailblazer can only be controlled for five seconds.
If used tactfully, the tiger trinket can serve as a combination of an information gathering ability as well as a way to initiate with an enemy.
Signature: Guiding Light
Skye’s signature ability comes at half the credit cost of her basic ones. Guiding Light costs 100 credits and when equipped gives the agent a hawk trinket.
Once fired, the hawk is released by Skye, and holding down fire sends the hawk toward whatever target you have in your crosshair. Re-using the trinket makes the hawk turn into a flash bomb that also gives insight on any opponent within range of it.
Just like the Trailblazer, Guiding Light provides a combination of intel and utility. But just like Trailblazer, you’ll have to be quick with the ability. The hawk only lasts for four seconds.
As is the case with Skye’s other abilities, you’ll need to be cautious about usage. Enemies can shoot your little birdy out of the sky. If you’re careless, you could lose a lot of value by telegraphing the ability and getting it taken out by the other team.
Ultimate: Seekers
Just like most of her abilities, Skye’s ultimate combines knowledge with utility. Once she fires her seeker trinket, three “seeker” drones spawn and begin flying toward the three closest players from the enemy team.
Unlike her other abilities, though, you don’t get to control the seeker’s. Instead, you can just follow them with your teammates to find exactly where your opponents are hiding.
Along with giving massive amounts of intel, the ability nearsights the enemy if it gets to them without being shot out of the air. Yes, enemies can shoot the drones out of the air to prevent themselves from getting blurry vision.
Overall, Skye’s kit provides a multitude of ways to impact a game. Just like a swiss army knife that you’d want to take with you out into the wildness, the varying types of utility Skye’s kit provides could very well make her necessary for just about any team.
Though other characters might have abilities that pack more punch with their abilities, Skye has a set of abilities that make her the perfect agent for supporting teammates and setting up big plays.
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