Valorant Agents ranked: the easiest and hardest characters to play (2024)

Riot Games’ Valorant is no ordinary First Person Shooter. Aiming to combine the best elements from already-popular games such as Counter-Strike and Overwatch, there’s something in the game for everyone.

But with 10 Agents to choose from and each equipped with different abilities, it can get overwhelming when you're trying to find your footing. If you’re a total beginner or just looking for some information on which agent you should try first, then this is the tier list for you.

Unlocked Agents

Valorant’s closed beta allows players to choose from five already-unlocked agents, while five more can be accessed through levelling-up or a contract system. Therefore, we have split our ranked list into two parts, just in case you don’t have access to all 10 agents yet. These are the agents you can play right from the outset, ranked from easiest to hardest.

Right off the bat, you should definitely test the waters with Brimstone especially if you’re unfamiliar with the game. Brimstone doesn’t just have a straight forward and easy to pick up kit, he's also a good asset to have on your team.

His signature ability, Sky Smoke, is arguably one of the best smokes in the game. It allows players to drop three smoke grenades across the map without putting yourself in any danger. His ultimate, Orbital Strike, can also be executed from distance and causes an insane amount of damage. In fact, you don't have to be mechanically gifted to pull off any of his abilities, which makes him the easiest agent to pick up straight away.

If you're someone who prefers to play a little bit safer, then Sova is your man. However, unlike Brimstone, Sova is definitely less useful. Sova is equipped with an Owl Drone and a Recon Bolt, both of which have the ability to reveal an enemy’s location without you having to peek.

His ultimate is easy to execute, too. All you have to do is aim and click to fire up to three deadly energy blasts that spears across the entire map, even having the ability to travel through walls, so it gives you an extra layer of protection while you're attacking.

Sage is one of the strongest agents out of the entire lineup and is also relatively straight forward to pick up. Her Healing Orb can be used on her allies and herself, which can often be the difference between winning and losing. Not to mention, her ultimate literally allows her to revive her team-mates.

However, the tricky bit comes with her Barrier Orb. She can conjure up a large, solid wall, which blocks off her enemies and has the ability to boost her and her team-mate up to a higher vantage point. But it takes a bit of getting used to when it comes to rotating and placing the wall – make sure you remember to use your right click to find your desired positions. While her ultimate is one of the strongest in the game, you have to be smart when it comes to deciding who to resurrect and when to do it. There’s no point trying to bring someone back to life if it means you have to run across the map and expose yourself to do so.

Now, while the first three Agents are relatively easy to play, this is where things get a little more complicated. Phoenix's kit is incredibly powerful if you want to solo carry, but it can also be difficult to get right. His Curveball, which acts like a flashbang, can be curved around corners and corridors, but it's not the smoothest ability to pull off and definitely takes time to get used to.

His ultimate, Run it Back, allows him to be reborn if he is killed during his ability’s duration. However, when you're in a clutch situation the enemy can predict where you’ll be resurrecting, camp that spot and kill you right away, so timing is absolutely crucial. His ultimate also has a long casting animation, which means you can actually be caught out while using this ability, so make sure you're in a safe spot before you do so.

We're really taking it up an notch when it comes to Jett, who's one of the most difficult agents to get right in the game. While Jett's strong and has a lot of potential for montage plays, she is also incredibly unforgiving if you make a mistake.

While her Updraft and signature ability Tailwind can both be used as a defensive or escape tool, when used aggressively, you can leave yourself exposed with very little to fall back on. Her Cloudburst acts as a smoke, but it isn't as strong as some of the other agents’ smoke abilities. Fortunately her ultimate, Blade Storm, is much more straight forward to use. As long as you have a good aim and don't put yourself in a bad position, you should be able to rack up some kills with her daggers.

Good Jett players are a pain to play against, but it isn't easy to master her, especially if you're not an aggressive player.

Locked Agents

Alongside the five agents you can pick up right away, there are also five you can unlock as the game progresses. Just like the previous five, we've sorted these in the order of easiest to hardest to play.

If you've played all five of the available agents, then it's pretty likely you'll find her easy to pick up. She shares a lot of similarities with other characters in the game, with her Toxic Screen and Snake Bites both almost identical to Phoenix's abilities.

Her ultimate, Viper's Pit, is easy to execute, giving her the ability to take control and block of sites, as well as safely plant the spike. However, be aware that she needs to use fuel to reactivate some of her abilities, meaning you have to be flexible and try your best to complement the rest of your team when playing her.

If you have an aggressive playstyle and find Jett's mobility too difficult to grasp, then Raze is perfect for you. All of her abilities are pretty straight forward and it's easy to take out enemies if you're not the most gifted shooter. Her Paint Shells acts as cluster grenades that deal an absurd amount of damage and her ultimate, Showstopper, is basically a giant rocket launcher. Both of these abilities have really high kill potential, which means you can still apply pressure and be a useful team-mate even if you’re a complete beginner to FPS games.

However, you can’t just rely on Raze's damage dealing abilities. Her Blast Pack is extremely useful, but it can be really difficult to get used to the timing and distance your character gets blasted from the explosion. Don’t use them unless you have a decent back-up plan to get yourself out of sticky situations.

It’s not exactly difficult to execute Breach's abilities, but it is hard to solo carry on him and becomes almost impossible if you don't have good communication with your team-mates. He definitely packs a punch when it comes to his signature ability, Fault Lines, and ultimate, Rolling Thunder, both of which can be used to quickly pick off enemies in a confined area or at a bombsite.

But it’s not easy to clear objectives if you’re not in a pre-made team or aren’t too confident with his kit, making him one of the more difficult agents to play within the game.

On the flip side, if you don’t like Jett or Raze and prefer a more defensive style, then you should try out Cypher. However, his lack of advantage on attacking side is precisely the reason that makes him so difficult to master.

His entire kit is designed to make him unstoppable when it comes to defending – and these aren’t difficult to learn either. He has a Trapwire, which you can just place between two walls, a Spycam that remotely lets you fire a tracking dart on enemies and a Cyber Cage, which can once again be used as a trap.

However, when you're on the attacking side these all largely become useless, meaning you have to get really creative if you want to have any sort of impact. It’s not too difficult to play Cypher, but it’s incredibly difficult to master him on both sides if you want to be useful throughout the entire match.

With the exception of his smoke ability, Omen is arguably one of the most unique agents in the game. He has not one, but two, teleporting abilities that allows him to either teleport a short distance or across the entire map to flank his enemies.

You need a fair amount of game knowledge to recognise when it’s a good time to use your teleport, but not only that, your enemies actually get notified through game sounds when you do teleport. This means any semi-decent player will be able to counter Omen's ultimate and even pull off some good counter-plays to render him useless. Like Breach, Omen doesn't have massive solo-carry potential and you do need to have a good team around you in order to utilise him properly.