Valorant agent guide – Tips to take control with Brimstone

Brimstone is filed under Controller in Valorant’s list of roles, and his job is to shape the battlefield to suit his team’s plans. And that is a perfect description of the old war dog’s playstyle. You dictate where your team moves and what your enemy sees. In the right hands, he’s an incredibly dominant character. This Valorant agent guide will go through all of Brimstone’s abilities and give you some tips to help you lead your team to victory.

Take charge – Sky Smoke

Sky Smoke is Brimstone’s Signature ability, but you only get one free charge per round. He can have up to three charges. Sky Smoke is one of the best abilities in Valorant for blocking vision because each one lasts for 14 seconds. And you can cast up to three of them at one time with pinpoint accuracy. This ability is what makes Brimstone so good at dictating movement around the map.

My first tip for using Sky Smoke is to make sure you get into position quickly before the round starts. The tactical map you use to drop the smokes has limited range and you want to have the positions marked on the map before the round starts.

You can use Sky Smoke to minimize the angles enemies will be able to shoot you from. That way when you or an ally peeks, you know exactly which angle to be checking.

On attack, the location you choose to drop your Sky Smokes can give your enemy information about where you want to move. With that in mind, you can start playing mind games using your Sky Smokes to misdirect your enemies.

I drop Sky Smoke to make the enemy think we’re pushing B, but my whole team is rushing A.

If you’re sitting back in a bombsite, cast your Sky Smoke with its edge in your line of sight. If an enemy decides to try and push through the smoke, you’ll be able to see them emerging and have an opportunity to fire the first shot.

Sky Smokes are good to help you move where you want, but they are also excellent for covering your back. When pushing a bomb site, you can drop a cloud of smoke in a choke point behind you to slow enemies rotating and shooting you in the back.

Drop some creativity – More Sky Smoke

Sky Smoke is excellent for blocking approach corridors and stalling enemies. You can block multiple paths at once. However, a nice stalling trick you can do is to cast one smoke in a corridor, and just before it expires, cast another. Each Sky Smoke lasts 14 seconds. So, you can stall your enemies for about 40 seconds. That’s almost half the round. If they decide to take a risk and push through, you’ll have a big advantage.

On defense, you can use your three Sky Smokes to create a corridor that will hide you from enemies. You can then walk silently down it and catch your opponent off-guard. This is a nice way to drastically change your tactics and surprise the enemy with aggressive positioning. This is a risky play, but I’ve used it successfully numerous times, so I thought it would be worth putting in this Valorant Brimstone guide. At the very least, this trick will draw a lot of the enemy utility.

Fire in the hole – Incendiary

Incendiary can be used to block corridors, but also to clear hiding spots around corners. It deals enough damage to kill an enemy with full health and heavy armor. So, if you land it on their hiding spot, they can’t just wait it out. Take advantage of its bounces to clear spots without putting yourself in the firing line.

Incendiary lasts 8.3 seconds. So, you can shoot it onto a planted Spike to prevent your opponent from defusing it for a limited amount of time.

Pick up the pace – Stim Beacon

Stim Beacon is probably Brimstone’s weakest ability. However, it can give you a slight edge which can win you a duel. A good tip for this ability is to keep the Stim Beacon and its radius out of sight of enemies. If they see it go down, they’ll know you are about to push.

With the previous Brimstone tip in mind, you can try to use Stim Beacon to fool the enemy and hide your true intentions. You could do this by going alone to a bombsite, dropping a Stim Beacon, and firing a few shots. The enemy may be fooled into thinking multiple agents are with you. Or, if there are two approaches to a bombsite, you could block one with your Sky Smoke and drop a Stim Beacon at the other. The enemy will think your team is coming around the angle where the Stim Beacon is. But then the rest of your team can push through your smoke.

Don’t place your Stim Beacon like this — enemies can see it.

When using Stim Beacon, be mindful of the fact that enemies can benefit from it, too. When you place it, make sure it doesn’t poke around a corner or through a wall where an enemy can touch it.

Stim Beacon increases your rate of fire, so your spray will get inaccurate faster. When using Stim Beacon, it’s better to fire shorter bursts.

Death from above – Orbital Strike (Ultimate)

Brimstone’s Orbital Strike is one of the most lethal Ultimate abilities in the game. No Valorant Brimstone guide would be complete without killing the agent defusing the Spike tip. When you hear an enemy begin to defuse the Spike, immediately cast your Orbital Strike with the Spike in the center. Unless they’re very quick, they’ll take massive — possibly lethal — damage. While they’re fleeing your Ultimate, your allies can also capitalize and peek.

You can also use your Ultimate on the Spike to ensure the enemy team doesn’t have enough time to defuse it. Once your team has the spike down, you all need to play very passively and stall for time. As Brimstone, you need to stay alive until the Spike has around 12 seconds left before it explodes – it takes 45 seconds in total. Listen to the pace of the Spike beeping. If it’s beeping four times per second then there are less than 10 seconds remaining and you’re good to go.

You can keep track of the time however you like, but once the Spike hits the 12 seconds remaining mark, use Orbital Strike on it. The enemy will die if they try to stay inside it to defuse. And once it’s done, they won’t have enough time left to prevent you from winning the round.

I hope some of the tips in this Valorant Brimstone guide will help you improve with the old veteran and take control of the battlefield. If you’d like some tips and tricks to help you with other Valorant agents or on various aspects of Riot Games’ tactical hero shooter, we’ve got plenty of guides on our Valorant guides and features hub.