Valorant

Starter
Guide
fpscoach

@learnvalorant April 2020

@learnvalorant learnvalorant.com
 Outline

1. WHAT IS VALORANT
2. KEY FEATURES
3. AGENT ROLES
4. AGENT OVERVIEW
5. MOUSE SENSITIVITY CONVERTER
6. BUY MENU (WEAPONS & ARMOR)
7. MAPS (BIND, HAVEN)
8. 15 THINGS TO KNOW

fpscoach

@learnvalorant April 2020

@learnvalorant learnvalorant.com
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 1

WHAT IS VALORANT?

5v5, competitive,
character-based,
tactical FPS game
Where skill meets
creativity...
"Valorant is a game of precise
skill, high stakes, lethal
gameplay, and clutch moments
that rewards creative gameplay
styles. In games of Valorant,
players lock in their agent for
the entire duration of the
match and then attempt to win
a round-based, attackers vs.
defenders, best-of-24-rounds
fight." - Riot Games

PHOENIX
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 2

SET ON A NEAR-FUTURE EARTH, IN VALORANT YOU

CHOOSE FROM A GLOBAL CAST OF AGENTS, ALL HAILING
FROM A REAL-WORLD LOCATION AND CULTURE. EACH
AGENT BRINGS A UNIQUE SET OF TACTICAL ABILITIES
THEY CAN USE TO GATHER INFORMATION, FORTIFY
LOCATIONS, SCOUT FOR ENEMY INTEL, BREACH
DEFENSIVE SITES, CONTROL TERRITORY, AND MORE.
ABILITIES CREATE UNIQUE TACTICAL OPPORTUNITIES
FOR YOU TO TAKE THE RIGHT SHOT.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 3

KEY FEATURES
Precise, lethal, high-fidelity gunplay - A player with
steady aim and a pistol will always beat an unsteady
sniper. In Valorant, fights can end in milliseconds, time-
to-kill is low (most headshots are instant kills, most rifles
kill in 3-4 bullets), and recoil is punishing. Every shot
counts.
A diverse arsenal of guns - All agents have access to all
guns, which can be purchased via a round-to-round
based economy. All guns have their own strategic
value and depth of mastery in both recoil control and
situational deployment.
Agents with unique abilities - Abilities are designed to
complement - not overpower - gunplay through tactical
information and strategic support. Each agent brings a
unique set of abilities that change how you approach a
situation.
Competitively tuned maps for thousands of hours of
play - Each map in Valorant is designed to support a wide
variety of strategies and team compositions, leading to
thousands of hours of play and mastery.
A world fighting for its existence, a Valorant squad to
defend it - In the world of Valorant, a diverse cast of
hypernatural, battle-ready agents from across the
world have come together to respond to a larger
existential threat, with catastrophic, world-altering
consequences on the line.

SOURCE: VALORANT FACTSHEET (RIOT GAMES)

VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 4

AGENT ROLES
Controller 
The Controllers excel in taking control and holding down areas of the
map with their vision blocking and zoning abilities. They excel on both
offense and defense while providing a ton of utility including smokes,
teleportation, poison walls and more. They are a versatile class
allowing players to quickly assert their presence in each round and
zone enemies off from areas of the map. If you prefer patient,
strategic, and tactical game-play, consider playing a Controller.

Duelist
The Duelists have the highest potential in making round changing
plays as their abilities provide advantages in 1-on-1 engagements. If
you're looking to play a straight 'carry' role, then a duelist is the way
to go. They are highly mobile, bring a ton of offensive utility, and kill
potential. If you have a dynamic and fast-paced gaming style and you
like to create your own opportunities, consider playing a Duelist.

Initiator
The Initiators are crucial for setting your team up for success by
initiating your offensive and counter-attack strategies. Their support
abilities set their teammates up to quickly take sites or retake
objectives on the map. Their abilities include flashing and dazing
opponents through walls, scouting for information with recon drones,
revealing hidden enemies with a recon arrow, and more. If you enjoy
calling the shots and setting up your team for success, consider
playing an Initiator.

Sentinel
The Sentinels excel in supporting teammates with their blend of
unique abilities. Although lacking in offensive capabilities, the
Sentinel class provides a depth of utility and support on both offense
and defense. Their abilities include heals, traps, slows, protective
walls, hidden cameras and more. If you're a support-minded player
looking to work together with the team, consider playing a Sentinel.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 5

Brimstone
Controller
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 6

AGENTS

Name: Brimstone
Role: Controller

Brimstone's orbital arsenal ensures his squad always has

the advantage. His ability to deliver utility precisely and
safely make him the unmatched boots-on-the-ground
commander.

⦁ INCENDIARY - Launch an incendiary grenade that

deploys a damaging field of fire.

⦁ STIM BEACON - Target a nearby location to call in a

Stim Beacon, giving all players near it Rapidfire.

⦁ SKY SMOKE - Use your map to call in orbital

deployment smokescreens that obscure vision. Click to
set the locations, and confirm to launch.

⦁ ORBITAL STRIKE - Use your map to target a location,

launching a devastating orbital strike that pulses for high
damage over several seconds.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 7

Viper
Controller
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 8

AGENTS

Name: Viper
Role: Controller

Viper deploys an array of poisonous chemical devices to

control the battlefield and cripple the enemy's vision. If
the toxins don't kill her prey, her mind games surely will.

⦁ SNAKEBITE - Fires a projectile that explodes into a pool

of damaging acid.

⦁ POISON CLOUD - Throws a gas emitter that you can

reactivate to create a poisonous smoke cloud at the cost
of fuel. The emitter can be picked up and thrown again
after a short cooldown.

⦁ TOXIC SCREEN - Deploys a long line of gas emitters

that you can reactivate to create a tall wall of toxic gas at
the cost of fuel.

⦁ VIPER’S PIT - Emits a massive toxic cloud in a large area

that lasts as long as Viper stays inside the cloud. Enemies
inside the cloud are highlighted to Viper.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 9

Omen
Controller
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 10

AGENTS

Name: Omen
Role: Controller

Omen hunts in the shadows. He renders enemies blind,

teleports across the field, then lets paranoia take hold as
foes scramble to uncover where it might strike next.

⦁ PARANOIA - Sends out an Ethereal shadow in a straight

line, Nearsighting anyone it touches.

⦁ SHADOW WALK - After a delay, dematerialize and

teleport a short distance.

⦁ DARK COVER - Casts out a stealthed ethereal orb that

bursts into an obscuring sphere of shadow at its final
location. Can be charged to increase distance.

⦁ FROM THE SHADOWS - Select anywhere on the map to

teleport and reform. When arriving, appear as a Shade,
that will go back to your original location if killed. Once
the teleport is complete, become Incorporeal for a short
time.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 11

Jett
Duelist
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 12

AGENTS

Name: Jett
Role: Duelist

Jett's agile and evasive fighting style lets her take risks
no one else can. She runs circles around every skirmish,
cutting enemies up before they even know what hit them.

⦁ CLOUDBURST - Throws out a cloud of fog that obscures

vision on impact. Hold down the ability button to bend
the cloud's in-flight trajectory.

⦁ UPDRAFT - After a brief wind up, propel yourself

upwards.

⦁ TAILWIND - Immediately dashes a short distance in the

direction you're moving.

⦁ BLADE STORM - Arm yourself with several deadly

throwing knives that deal moderate damage and kill on
headshots. Scoring a kill restores all daggers. Left click
throws a single dagger. Right click throws all remaining
daggers in a short-ranged burst.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 13

Raze
Duelist
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 14

AGENTS

Name: Raze
Role: Duelist

Razor's lethal kit of explosives provides her an incredible

damage output potential. With grenades, a rocket
launcher, and an exploding robot on wheels, she’s an
explosive expert with tools that excel in sieging on
offense and controlling space on defense.

⦁ Boom Bot - Deploy a bot, causing it to travel in a

straight line on the ground, bouncing off walls. The Boom
Bot will lock on to any enemies in it frontal cone and
chase them, exploding for heavy damage if it reaches
them.

⦁ Blast Pack - Instantly throws a Blast Pack that will stick

to surfaces. Re-use the ability after deployment to
detonate, damaging and moving anything hit.

⦁ Paint Shells - Fires a cluster grenade, which does

damage and creates sub-munitions, each doing damage
to anyone in their range.

⦁ Showstopper - Fires a rocket that does massive area

damage on contact with anything.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 15

Phoenix
Duelist
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 16

AGENTS

Name: Phoenix
Role: Duelist

Phoenix's star power shines through in his fighting style,

igniting the battlefield with flash and flare. Whether he's
got backup or not, he's rushing in to fight on his own
terms.

⦁ HOT HANDS - Throws a fireball that explodes after a

delay or upon impact with the ground. The fire zone
damages enemies, and heals you.

⦁ BLAZE - Casts out a flame wall that blocks vision and

damages anyone passing through it. You can bend the
wall when casting by turning while holding left click.

⦁ CURVEBALL - Casts a curving flare that bursts into

brilliant light after a brief delay, temporarily blinding all
looking at it. Left click curves it left, right click curves it
right.

⦁ RUN IT BACK - Marks your current location. If you die

during this ability's duration, or when this ability's
duration expires, you'll be reborn at the marked location
with full health.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 17

Breach
Initiator
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 18

AGENTS

Name: Breach
Role: Initiator

Breach uses the map to his advantage by utilizing

explosive abilities to gain control of the map and
defending key areas from the enemy.

⦁ AFTERSHOCK - Fires a fusion charge to set a slow-

acting burst through the wall. The burst does heavy
damage to anyone caught in its area.

⦁ FLASHPOINT- Fires a blinding charge that sets off a

fast-acting burst through the wall. The charge detonates
to blind all players looking at it.

⦁ FAULT LINE - Fires a seismic blast that sets off a quake,

dazing all players in its zone.

⦁ ROLLING THUNDER - Fires a cascading quake through

all terrain in a large cone. The quake dazes and knocks
up anyone caught in it.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 19

Sova
Initiator
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 20

AGENTS

Name: Sova
Role: Initiator

Sova tracks, finds, and eliminates enemies with ruthless

efficiency and precision. His custom bow and incredible
scouting abilities ensure that even if you run, you cannot
hide.

⦁ SHOCK BOLT - Fires an explosive bolt that emits a

damaging pulse of static energy upon impact.

⦁ OWL DRONE - Deploys a pilotable drone that can fire a

dart that will Reveal enemies who are hit.

⦁ RECON BOLT - Fires a bolt that deploys a sonar emitter.

The sonar pings tag nearby enemies, causing them to be
revealed. Can be destroyed.

⦁ HUNTER'S FURY - Fires up to three deadly energy

blasts that spear across the entire map. Each hit enemy
takes heavy damage and is marked.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 21

Sage
Sentinel
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 22

AGENTS

Name: Sage
Role: Sentinel

Sage creates safety for herself and her team wherever

she goes. Able to revive fallen friends and stave off
forceful assaults, she provides a calm center to a hellish
battlefield.

⦁ SLOW ORB - Casts out a radianite orb that breaks into a

slowing field upon impact with the ground. All caught in
the field are slowed, grounded, and make noise when
moving.

⦁ BARRIER ORB - Conjures a large, solid wall. Right-click

to rotate the wall before casting.

⦁ HEALING ORB - Heals an ally or yourself to full health

over a few seconds.

⦁ RESURRECTION - Targets a friendly corpse. After a

short delay, revive them with full health.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 23

Cypher
Sentinel
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 24

AGENTS

Name: Cypher
Role: Sentinel

Cypher is a one-man surveillance network who keeps

tabs on the enemy's every move. No secret is safe. No
maneuver goes unseen. Cypher is always watching.

⦁ TRAPWIRE - Places a stealthed tripwire between two

walls. Triggering enemies are restrained and revealed for
a short time. If the trap is not destroyed, it activates to
daze the trapped victim. Can be picked up.

⦁ CYBER CAGE - Tosses out a remote activation trap.

Reactivate to create a cage that slows enemies who pass
through it. Look at a trap and press USE to detonate it, or
hold ACTIVATE to detonate all.

⦁ SPYCAM - Places a remote camera. After placing,

reactivate to view the video feed. Left click while in
camera to fire a tracking dart. Recharges when picked up
or killed.

⦁ NEURAL THEFT - Extracts information from the corpse

of an enemy, revealing the location of their living allies.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 25

SENSITIVITY CONVERTER

Find your Valorant sensitivity by using the sensitivity

converter below.
.
CSGO or Apex Legends Sensitivity / 3.18181818
(CSGO/Apex sensitivity DIVIDED by 3.18181818)

OW Sensitivity / 10.6
(OW sensitivity DIVIDED by 10.6)

RainbowSix Siege Sensitivity * 1.2

(Rainbowsix Siege sensitivity MULTIPLIED by 1.2)

Keep in mind that because Valorant and other games

don't have the same FOV (field of view), these
sensitivities will feel slightly different.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 26

BUY MENU (WEAPONS, ARMOR, AND ABILITIES)

Weapons:

Pistols: SMG:
Classic (Base Pistol) Stinger (Vector)
Shorty (Slim) Spectre (MP5)
Frenzy (Auto Pistol)
Ghost (Luger) Assault Rifles:
Sheriff (Revolver) Bulldog (Burst)
Guardian (DMR)
Shotguns: Phantom (Carbine)
Bucky (Pump Shotgun) Vandal (AK-47)
Judge (Auto Shotgun)
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 27

Weapons (Continued)

Snipers:
Marshal (Lever Sniper)
Operator (Op) (Bolt Sniper)

Machine Guns:
Ares (LMG)
Odin (HMG)

Armor:
Light Shields
Heavy Shields
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 28

Map: BIND
Each site has two attacker approaches, with no middle zone of the map.
Agents can throw abilities through the 1-way teleporters.
Agents can run through teleporters to flank quickly.
Teleporters make a loud sound when an agent goes through.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 29

Map: HAVEN
This map has 3 objective sites for attackers to plant the SP-1K3.
There's more sites to defend, but defenders can also push aggressively.
The offense will benefit from map control, while defenders need
proper rotations and timely gathering of information.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 30

Map: Split
This map has 2 objective sites for attackers to plant the SP-1K3.
Split is a wider map, with the bomb sites split far apart from each other.
Controlling mid on Split is crucial either on defense or offense. For the defense,
controlling mid provides them faster defensive rotations while the offense can
split on either site more effectively.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 31

15 Things You Should Know About Valorant

1. All weapons, armor, and abilities require credits to

purchase. Credits are earned from eliminations,
planting/defusing the spike, and after each round.

2. First team to win 13 rounds wins the map. Teams switch

sides (offense/defense) after 12 rounds.

3. The spike takes 7 total seconds to defuse. It can be

defused in two (3.5 second) halves. There are no defuse
kit items in Valorant.

4. There are no switching of agents after the map has

started. You must play your selected agent on both the
offensive and defensive side.

5. Every agents' ultimate requires earning 6 charges in

order to use. A charge is earned for every elimination,
plant spike and defuse, and from an ultimate orb on the
map.

6. There are 2 ultimate orbs that can be collected on

every map. Each orb can be collected once per round and
then respawns the next round.

7. During the buy phase, you can not hear any noises
made by the enemy nor can you see them.
VALORANT STARTER GUIDE 32

15 Things You Should Know About Valorant

8. Agents' abilities that deals damage in an area effect

ALSO damages teammates (at a reduced rate).

9. You can use the "ping" tool in the game to ping the
map whether you're dead or alive.

10. Using ADS (scope on the weapon) and/or crouching

while firing reduces recoil and bullet spread.

11. When an agent uses their ultimate, there will be either

a global audio or visual cue to everyone in the game.

12. When hovering over a weapon in the buy menu, you

can see each weapons' statistics such as: firing rate,

damage numbers, magazine capacity, wall penetration

capability, and more.

13. Bullets can penetrate and damage enemies in

Valorant. Higher powered weapons pierce walls and
objects dealing more damage than weaker weapons.

14. All sounds in Valorant are precisely accurate. A

quality set of headphones is highly recommended.

15. Shooting while moving causes inaccuracy. Learning to

counter-strafe will be critical for your success.
 We hope you found
this helpful!

For more content on Valorant

please follow us on YouTube and
Instagram!

fpscoach
youtube.com/ronrambokim

@learnvalorant