If you’re jumping into Valorant for the first time and are overwhelmed by the number of Agents you can choose from, you’re not alone.
Whether you’re used to games like Valorant, or you’re new to the tactical hero shooter genre, certain characters are best to avoid when starting out. Likewise, some Agents are perfect for beginners to learn and master.
We’ll help outline the best Agents for beginners so you can hop into your first few games of Valorant without being overburdened by their unique abilities, and you can still be a great team player.
Best Valorant Agents for beginner players
There are four different roles Valorant that all have their own parts to play on a team. When looking at the best beginner Duelists, Controllers, Sentinels, and Initiators, there are clear options that are best suited for new players.
Best beginner Duelist
The best beginner Duelist for players is Phoenix. Not only is he unlocked immediately, but his kit has a balanced range of abilities that can both keep you alive and help you rack up kills for your team.
Phoenix has one of the easiest flashes to use in the game, and beginners shouldn’t worry about having to aim it properly. Just make sure to use Curveball around a corner, and you’ll flash anyone who sees it.
Blaze is another useful ability that can block off enemy eyesight and stop them from walking through it, or else they’ll get damaged.
The great thing about Phoenix for new players is being able to heal himself. He can use Hot Hands to damage enemies, or he can stand in it to heal himself.
Run it Back is also a great Ultimate, as it allows you to practice pushing onto enemies without having to worry about dying, as you can make a clone to enter a site instead of risking your own life.
Other good beginner Duelists
- Raze: Boom Bot is great for spotting nearby enemies, requires no skills to aim, and has Paint Shells, your typical grenade which are also easy to throw.
- Neon: High Gear grants you the ability to run fast to get to and from sites with ease, and Overdrive is a powerful Ultimate that allows you to claim easy kills for your team.
- Reyna: Her only job is to get kills. Placing Leer is incredibly simple to blind enemies even through walls, Devour grants you better survivability with self-healing, and Dismiss gets you out of tight situations swiftly.
Best beginner Controller
Brimstone is by far one of the easiest Agents to learn as a beginner, but he’s also incredibly helpful to the team. His job is to smoke off sites to stop enemies from entering or to help the team get onto a site.
Stim Beacon is a basic buff ability that you simply place on the ground to grant anyone who runs over it a speed boost. Incendiary is another helpful part of Brim’s kit which gives you a grenade to launch at an enemy, igniting the ground to deal damage.
Brimstone’s core ability is Sky Smoke, which grants the player a maximum of three smokes to use. The map interface given to the player makes it easy to know where you’re placing these smokes.
In a similar vein, his Ultimate Orbital Strike allows you to place a huge laser strike in a specific area, and you also get a legible map to place it down without much fuss.
This deals a wild amount of damage, making Brimstone both easy to learn and a helpful teammate as a Controller who can also help get kills.
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Other good beginner Controllers
- Clove: Clove has high pick-rates for a reason. They’re great for players who need survivability with Pick-me-up, which can overheal, and Not Dead Yet, which can revive them. Ruse is also incredible for smokes, as it can regenerate during a match and can be placed even after death.
- Viper: Snake Bite is your typical damaging throwable, and Viper gets both Poison Cloud and Toxic Screen to control the smokes on site. They also don’t disappear, instead, you control when they pop up and for how long.
- Harbor: He has some of the simplest abilities to use. Cascade and Wave Wall both block enemy vision and will slow them, while Cove creates an easy smoke bubble that also has a shield to block bullets around it.
Best beginner Sentinel
Sage is the perfect Sentinel to start with as a beginner Valorant player for various reasons. She’s the best healer in the game, and she has simple abilities that can help stop the enemy team from entering sites.
Healing Orb grants either you or other players health, and it will regenerate during a match. There’s also Barrier Orb, which is an easy-to-place wall that is useful for blocking off entrances or helping you get onto the site without the enemy being able to see you.
You can get a maximum of two Slow Orbs, which make the ground slow to walk on. It also makes noises when someone is walking on it, so you can tell where enemies are. They’re also super easy to launch, as you throw them in an arch nearby or far away.
Resurrection is the only ability that can resurrect another player, which makes Sage a great team player who is also easy to use, as you simply walk over to a dead player and use this Ultimate on their body.
Other good beginner Sentinels
- Killjoy: She has easy-to-place toys, like Alarmbot which alerts you when an enemy is nearby, or Turret which is an automated shooter that damages enemies and alerts you of their presence.
- Deadlock: Sonic Sensor is an alert item that you simply place down and leave to make it concuss enemies. Barrier Mesh is another great tool that requires no skill to use, just put it down and it creates a barrier.
- Vyse: She’s one of the best new Agents in the meta. Arc Rose is one of the easiest flashes to use, just place it on a wall and trigger it whenever you want. You also have Shear, which you place and wait for the enemy to automatically trigger it.
Best beginner Initiator
KAY/O is the overall best Initiator for beginners to try out. His job is to help the team enter sites, and he can also debuff the enemy team. Not only that, but once he falls, he doesn’t die, but collapses, and can be revived.
FLASH/drive is your typical flash grenade which you toss into the air to blind your enemies. You can throw it either overhand or underhand for two unique ways to launch it.
ZERO/point is his knife which is incredibly easy to launch, as it can fly far and prevent enemies in a wide radius from using their abilities.
FRAG/ment serves as an easy-to-toss grenade that detonates a few times after it lands. Three of KAY/O’s abilities are used just by throwing an item, so you just have to learn how to toss these items properly.
Finally, NULL/cmd is triggered with a press of a button, and it stops enemies in a large radius from using their abilities for a long period. This makes it one of the easiest Ultimates to use and one of the most useful Ultimates for debuffing the enemy team.
Other good beginner Initiators
- Skye: She’s an incredible healer, and while it may take some time to learn how to steer her flash, she’s easy to pick up. Skye also allows you to hang back and help your team without worrying too much about entering the site yourself, especially with Trailblazer acting as a guide dog.
- Gekko: Nearly all of his abilities can be picked up after being used, and the only thing you have to learn is how to use Wingman. This ability is versatile too, as it can flash enemies or plant the spike on site without putting you in danger.
- Fade: Fade has an easy-to-steer Prowler that can attack and blind enemies, and it’s even easier to use after an enemy has been detected with Haunt, which just requires you to throw down an orb.
Now that you know about the best beginner Agents to choose from, you can hop into Valorant to play with other people without worrying about being a bad team player. Once you’re comfortable enough, you can also get into Valorant Ranked.
