Valorant: How to play Cypher

If you like laying down traps, gathering information and locking down bomb sites, then Cypher’s the agent for you. As he’s got so many tools to play with, they can be quite overwhelming and even a little distracting to start with. After a bit of practice, and some knowledge of trap placements, though, you’ll be a nightmare for the opposing team to deal with.

Below we’ve put together a breakdown of Cypher’s abilities and dropped some tips in to help you get more out of them.

How to play Cypher

Trapwire [C] (200 Credits)

Places a tripwire which’ll hamstring and reveal enemies that wander through them. If the enemy doesn’t destroy the tripwire, after a few seconds they’ll be dazed for a short period of time.

The tripwire can only be placed on suitable surfaces and it’s colour will change from red to blue if you’re good to pop it somewhere. It’ll remain invisible only until an enemy comes very close to it, at which point it’ll reveal itself. Enemies must shoot it to destroy it.

If you’re not happy with a tripwire’s placement, you can recall it, so long as you’ve got line of sight. Just note that it’ll take a second or two, so make sure you’re totally safe before doing so.

We’ve found placing tripwires around bombsite chokepoints to be an easy, useful way to get acquainted with how they work. We’d recommend placing them around waist height, so the enemy can’t hop over them or duck under them. Even if they destroy it, you’ll still hear the gunshots which will provide valuable info for you and your team.

Once you’ve got to grips with how they can be positioned, try experiment with their placements a little. Pop them in unexpected spots!

Also, we’ve found success in being reactionary with our tripwires. For example, if enemies have been taking control of mid round after round, why not begin placing some tripwires to stall them and make life more difficult for them? Keep the opponent guessing and you’ll reap the rewards.

Cyber Cage [Q] (100 Credits)

Cypher places an invisible disc on the ground which can be triggered by looking in its direction anywhere on the map. When triggered, it’ll create a large cage which’ll block vision, slow enemies who walk through it, and make their footsteps more audible than usual.

You can pair this with your tripwires for a brutal wombo combo. It’s also a great way to block vision like a regular smoke grenade, when you’re entering a site, or need to defend a site for instance.

Spycam [E] (Recall to recast)

Throw an invisible spy cam that’ll stick to a surface it lands on. When activated it’ll be visible to enemies and they can destroy it with a bullet or two.

Press [E] again and you’ll see through the camera’s eyes, but your character will remain static on the map until you swap back again.

If you left click while in camera mode, you’ll send out a dart which’ll reveal enemies hit.

This ability is great for leaving on a bombsite while you scout elsewhere, or even to check a hallway really quickly before your team makes a push. Try and stick your camera in a spot which is awkward to find and provides you with strong vision of the area you’re scouting. This way the enemy won’t find it, you’ll gain info, and even if they do find it, they’ll be forced to turn away from an angle they’d rather hold.

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Neural Theft [X] (7 Orbs)

Cypher chucks his hat onto an enemy’s corpse and after a short delay it’ll reveal every enemy’s location for all allies to see. It’s all about timing with this ability, and we’d recommend saving it for a time when you really need to turn things around or dig the knife even in even further.