It’s been some time since Riot released the new agent, Killjoy, to Valorant. but it is now time to take a look at her and how she will impact Valorant going forward. Hailing from Germany, Killjoy brings her inventions to the battlefield to throw a wrench in the plans of the enemy team. The high tech wiz kid, wrapped in a neon yellow bomber jacket makes for a fun addition to Valorant’s list of agents.

The biggest strength to her kit, the deployable turret with an almost instant place and build time, may not necessarily have the highest damage output but the distraction it can cause allows for that quick peak on anyone caught in its sights. One note on this however is that the turret will only target enemies within a 180-degree radius, allowing for players to eliminate the turret from behind. The alarm bot may not have the best value but being placed in as a forewarning for anyone entering an area allows for Killjoy players to be a bit more defensive and give her teammates that much-needed scouting. The swarm grenades are quite a nice ability to clear out areas that enemies might be holding as well as can be a nice deterrent to either planting or defusing spikes thanks to a relatively wide radius that it has from where the grenade lands. Her ultimate, a wide cone that detains any agent caught in it not allowing the agent to do anything is quite potent. However, the fifteen-second warning it gives enemies means it becomes incredibly difficult to get maximum value out of it. If one does place it at the right time, it has great potential to allow and deny entry into a site as both the attackers and defenders.

Released into the game as a sentinel Killjoy now joins the elite squad alongside Sage and Cypher in that same role. Considering the strength of these two agents, it would be quite difficult for Killjoy to match up to them. For her role Killjoy does what is necessary. Having the ability like Sage and Cypher to hold down sites pretty much solo while being able to cover flanks on attack makes her a strong pick in that regard. Sage and Cypher still feel a bit stronger than Killjoy but she is at least a viable pick.

Where Killjoy seems to lack is on the entry into sites on the attacking side. With her turret and alarm bot being at their strongest when having the time to set them up in the correct locations, finding those locations makes it a lot harder to do when on the offensive. The swarm grenades and turret can be a nice way to force enemies out of certain locations but other than that it seems pretty weak. Once you get onto site however then she can shine being able to up her abilities in the perfect locations. Her best entry onto site will definitely be her ultimate which can easily force players off of their positions allowing her team to get the plant down.

Ultimately, it seems that Killjoy does have a place as quite a strong pick in compositions going forward. However, it does seem that picking Sage and Cypher are a lot stronger than her especially on the attacking side with both Sage and Cypher enabling entry onto site a lot better than Killjoy does. Both also have a much better chance of holding down a site solo with them having better slow abilities with Sage’s wall being the ultimate slow. The scouting that Cypher can provide also way outvalues any scouting that Killjoy can do mainly due to his camera and tripwires. That being said go forth agents, experiment with the new agent, and find her biggest strengths!