One of the more complex Controller agents is Viper. Her playstyle and abilities are a bit hard to learn, but this guide will hopefully help you understand Viper more.
Viper is a Controller agent whose abilities are best suited to lock down whole sites. She makes it harder for the enemies to effectively hold angles and retake sites, especially once the spike's been planted. But some players have a hard time understanding Viper's abilities and strategies, mostly from lower ranks like Bronze. So that's why here we'll take a look at how to play Viper in Valorant!
Viper Abilities Explained
To understand Viper, you'll first need to know about her 2 passive abilities: Toxin and Fuel. The Toxin ability makes the enemies' maximum health go down rather fast if they cross some of Viper's abilities. The Fuel ability is how most of Viper's kit functions, instead of having charges she has a Fuel bar that goes down as far as some of Viper's abilities are active.
Q Ability: Poison Cloud (Cost: 200 Credits)
The first Viper ability is Poison Cloud. Poison Cloud is a throwable ability that can be activated by pressing the ability button. Once activated, it creates a big circular smoke where if an enemy crosses it, he gets the Toxin debuff which decays their health down to a maximum of 50 health. Though if the enemies leave the ability's range, they'll get their health back up shortly.
Poison Cloud requires Fuel to be active, meaning if the fuel bar below goes down to 0, the ability will deactivate. The ability can be activated from anywhere on the map, and you can also pick it up from the ground if you wish to throw it elsewhere.
C Ability: Snake Bite (Cost: 200 Credits, Charges: 2)
The second Viper ability is Snake Bite. Snake Bite is a throwable ability that creates an area of green toxic poison on the ground. Enemies that enter Snake Bite's area will be greatly damaged and won't uncover that health like with the Toxin debuff. The ability also infects the enemies with the Vulnerable debuff that makes them take double damage from any source, be it weapons or abilities.
Viper moli can be shot straight up while running and it will land on the edge of the circle on the mini map when you run. can be used for peeks like this. (Diamond) from VALORANT
This ability lasts 5,5 seconds on the ground. Snake Bite is best used in line-ups, but some players just don't have that time to learn them. So above is a video for a universal Viper lineup that can help you tremendously.
E Ability: Toxic Screen (Signature Ability)
The third Viper signature ability is Toxic Screen. Toxic Screen is a sort of throwable ability that creates a wall of gas and toxins. The enemies won't be able to see through Toxic Screen, but they can pass it. Though if they pass it, they'll be hit with the Toxin debuff that instantly lowers their health down to a maximum of 50 health. They'll get their health back after some time though.
Toxic Screen also works on Fuel, which means it'll deactivate itself once that bar below hits 0. If you have Toxic Screen and Toxic Cloud active at the same time, the fuel will go down 50% faster. This ability can also go through small walls, though it's recommended you aim a bit higher in certain scenarios. An interesting tip & trick about Viper's wall is that you can see where exactly it will hit before you shoot it on the map.
Ultimate Ability: Viper's Pit (7 Ult Points)
The last Viper ability is her ultimate Viper's Pit. Upon activation, Viper's pit creates a massive smoke-like area. The vision inside this area is a bit messy for everyone, although Viper can see enemies a bit glowed up and clearer in her ultimate.
Enemies that enter Viper's Pit will be hit with the Toxin debuff too hard, and they'll drop HP gradually. They can regain their health after some time if they exit the area. If Viper is out of her ultimate's area, a timer will start and if it hits 0, Viper's ultimate will drop and cease to exist. Though she can easily reset the timer by entering the ability's area again.
How to Attack with Viper?
Viper's strategy for attacking is divided into 2 parts: helping the teammates to control and take site, and post-plant spike protection. And to get it out of the way: you'll have to learn some Viper lineups and setups, then practice them. Now to achieve the first part of the strategy, you'll strafe to hit your abilities to cut down the enemies' vision on the site. Place your Viper wall to cut down the whole site in half, then throw your smoke where you'd expect the enemies may come out.
Once you take control of the site with your perfect aim and the spike's been planted, the second part of Viper's strategy begins. If you have the smoke, you can throw it on the spike but this is more centered for beginner players. Then move somewhere far away and perform the post-plant Snake Bite lineups you learned. You can also use the line-up strategy from the video above, though it requires a bit more practice.
How to Defend with Viper?
Viper can defend a whole site on her own. When you defend with Viper, your goal is to place your wall and smoke on openings from where the enemies can enter. If the enemies try to enter through your abilities, their health will get cut down by a lot which will make it easier for you to kill them with your Vandal.
You can also throw your Snake Bite ability on these openings too, which makes it even harder for the enemies to enter the site. Viper's ultimate ability is best used when you've secured the spike. If you killed the enemy with your Phantom that has the spike, use your ultimate there and protect it. If the spike's been already planted, try to secure some room to the site and use your ultimate near it for an easier defuse.
The Best Maps for Viper
Some Valorant maps work better for some agents than others. Viper's no exception where on some maps her abilities can utterly dominate the enemies. So here are the best maps you should target to play Viper on:
Icebox
Icebox is a map that has tons of angles from where the enemies can peak and kill you. So what better agent can be played on Icebox than one with abilities that cut sites in half? That's why Viper is really good on Icebox. Some setups completely disable the enemies' vision, and a bit of counter strafing will get you tons of kills!
All Controller agents in general are good on Icebox. But Viper is just a different breed, especially with her Toxic Screen.
Bind
So many line-ups, so many setups for Viper to use, that's what Bind's all about. Viper's excellent on Bind because some ability setups can cover half the map. And the Snake Bite lineups are so good you can use them from the other side of the map with the best Valorant settings.
What's important on Bind that works well with Viper is that each site has 2 openings. Meaning your Toxic Screen and Toxic Cloud will be just enough to lock down a whole site perfectly.
Breeze
Breeze in general is a really wide and long map. Some players may find it easy to kill enemies from far away with the Operator, but for some, it's too hard. So Viper can use her abilities to her advantage and cut down that range by half. And there are good Viper Breeze Snake Bite lineups too.
The hard part about Viper on Breeze is that it requires a bit more cooperation with your teammates. Yeah, you can take the site by yourself, but it'll be much harder to do so than with the teammates' help.
So this concludes the Viper guide. You may want to do your math on setups and lineups before you start playing now. But if you hit a clip or two with sick kills, then you should visit our TikTok and Instagram and share your Viper top frags!