Viper seems like a bit of a sadist. Her attitude reminds me of Caustic from Apex Legends. If you can get good with her abilities, you can make the game very painful for your enemies. She excels on defense, but with a coordinated team, she can perform well on offense, too. In this Valorant Viper guide, I’ll give you tips for all her abilities and offer some suggestions on how to play her best.
My major gripe with Viper is that all her abilities are slow to use. Every single one requires you to equip it before you can cast it, making her bad in a pinch. As Viper, you need to be prepared; have a plan, set up, execute.
One thing you always need to keep in mind when playing Viper is that your abilities all affect your teammates as well as your enemies. Don’t poison your allies and decay their health. That’s Viper 101.
Raise a wall – Toxic Screen
The most important thing to remember when using Viper’s Toxic Screen in Valorant is not to cast it before the round begins. If you do, the barriers will block the ability and you won’t get its full effect.
The tip I gave you for Sova’s Recon Bolt also works for Viper’s Toxic Screen. Open your map and ping the location you want the wall of poison to end or cover. Then you can line the ability up and cast it the moment the round begins.
Once the round does begin, you can also use the minimap to see where your screen will reach. It goes through walls, so you need to be conscious of the areas beyond your immediate position. If you can, block multiple corridors.
When casting the ability, you should aim upwards to prevent it from glitching on random objects. I suspect this is a bug. But, for now, I highly recommend you do this. It’s incredibly frustrating when your Toxic Screen randomly stops before the corridor you wanted to block.
You can raise and lower your wall as many times as you like — cooldown and toxic gauge depending. So, when you place your screen, raise it as soon as you can. Then drop it again immediately and peek. Enemies will often be crossing the corridor, trying to pick up an orb, or creeping towards you. They will not expect your screen to come down so soon after it went up. And that gives you a chance to shoot some fish in a barrel. This is one of my favorite tricks in this Valorant Viper guide as it often catches enemies by surprise.
Surprise!
On attack, either use Toxic Screen to hide your team’s movement onto a bomb site or hold it for after you take the bomb site. Then you can use it to hinder the enemy team as they try to retake and defuse the Spike.
Toxic Screen shields my movement from the enemy as I quickly plant the Spike.
In your face – Poison Cloud
This might be the simplest tip in this Valorant Viper guide, but it’s the one that will save you the most Creds with the agent. Pick up your Poison Cloud emitter after the round. It will save you having to rebuy it.
For that matter, if you need to reposition, pick up the emitter. After a short cooldown, you’ll be able to place it again. It’s incredibly useful.
I like to drop Poison Cloud on the bomb and activate it when I hear and enemy defusing. It will decay the enemy agent and give you an easier shot at killing them – they won’t be able to see you and they’ll be losing health.
Viper’s Poison Cloud emits a sphere, which means you can place it on top of objects to create one-way smokes. If you can land it on top of a box stack or a wall that your opponent will need to pass, they will have to push through the cloud blindly, while you’ll be able to see their legs.
You will be able to see legs but shoot for the body and head. Leg shots do very little damage.
That’s gonna sting – Snake Bite
Viper received a few changes in the Valorant patch that added Competitive Matchmaking to the game. The most notable was to her Snake Bite ability, which now causes enemies to take double damage for a short period after it damages them. That makes it excellent at holding enemies at bay in corridors.
Snake Bite is excellent at blocking tight spaces.
If you’re using Toxic Screen or Poison Cloud to block a corridor, you can use Snake Bite to fill in the gap when you run out of toxin. It will buy you some time to let your toxin gauge refill and then you can raise the screen or cloud again. You can hold enemies at bay for almost the entire round using this trick.
Snake Bite is also excellent at clearing enemies out of hiding spots. You can treat it like a Molotov that bounces off walls or fire it around corners without exposing yourself to an enemy holding an angle. It won’t kill a full-health enemy, so remember that you need to still check the hiding spot. Ideally, do so while Snake Bite is still causing them to take double damage.
If you suspect an enemy is pushing through a smoke, yours or theirs, you can drop Snake Bit into it and unleash some short bullet sprays. If they’re in there, the double damage will ensure they don’t last long.
Welcome to my world – Viper’ Pit (Ultimate)
Viper’s Ultimate is very powerful. You can use it to take complete control of an area of the map, particularly a bomb site. Enemies pushing into Viper’s Pit are at a massive disadvantage and will likely rotate to the other site, which gives your team the upper hand.
The best time to use Viper’s Pit is once you have the bomb down. If you cover the area around the bomb with the Ultimate ability, enemies will be forced to push into the toxic cloud where you lie in wait.
You can also use Viper’s Ultimate on defense if you want to defend a bomb site by yourself. That will leave your four teammates defending the other site, a luxury you don’t often get on defense.
That’s everything you need to know to get going with the slightly sadistic agent. I hope this Valorant Viper guide taught you some new things and offered you some tips to improve your gameplay. If you need some tips on the other agents, you can check out the numerous guides on our Valorant guides and features hub.
Published: Jul 2, 2020 02:30 pm