Kay/o was recently announced as VALORANT’s 16th Agent. Though we have some time before the Agent hits live servers, here’s how Kay/o is meant to be played.
Episode Three will introduce VALORANT’s fourth initiator into the Agent lineup. Kay/o stands to shake up the meta with his incredibly useful, yet simultaneously basic kit. On the surface, the Agent appears best suited for leading the charge into sites and retakes. With his abilities only recently revealed and not yet playable on live servers, there is still a lot left to learn about this Agent. Still, we can theorize how and where Kay/o will be the most useful.
Kay/o’s full kit
As previously stated, Kay/o’s kit does not have any particularly unique features. Lined up flashes and mollies, Kay/o’s standard abilities not only make him relatively accessible, but also give him a high skill ceiling. Kay/o’s ability to disable enemy utility was certainly his most anticipated ability. Fully recognized in ZERO/POINT, Kay/o can fire a blade that sticks onto any surface, suppressing anyone caught in it’s radius.
FLASH/DRIVE is a standard flash grenade, blinding anyone in sight for one second. This ability has a ‘cook’ feature which shortens the fuse and slightly increases the blink effect from 1 to 1.6 seconds. FRAG/MENT is an explosive grenade with several ‘waves’ of damage.
Kay/o’s ultimate, NULL/CMD, is what makes him a true threat and earns him the title of initiator. The ultimate’s combat stim gives Kay/o the ability to suppress nearby enemies. This ability also gives your team an essentially ‘free’ life. When killed while your ultimate is active, Kay/o enters a ‘destabilized state’ where he can be revived.
Your role as Kay/o
Kay/o is similar to characters such as Brimstone or Phoenix, in the sense that he theoretically excels in leading off fights. The combination of a flash and suppression ability makes Kay/o the perfect entry-fragger. Target selection will be the most difficult part of playing this Agent. Playing with info gathering Agents to find, isolate, and suppress the correct targets will be integral to find winning fights.
Your ultimate gives an obvious room for error and your teammates the ability to trade. After a completed take on attacker side, a quick revive will get you back in the fight before your opponents can try for a retake. The only limitation with your ultimate however is the timer your revive is put on, as if the window of opportunity is missed, you unfortunately remain dead.
Where will Kay/o be played?
The good thing about Kay/o is that his kit allows him to be played almost everywhere. Kay/o has very few inherent drawbacks, however does require supplementary utility to unlock his full potential. Kay/o has no smokes in his kit and very little utility meant for the sole purpose of information gathering. This makes him best suited for maps such as Breeze, Bind, Split, where these Agents are prevalent.
As previously stated, Kay/o can be generally applied to most maps. Similar to Astra, Kay/o’s clear upside and general accessibility certainly gives him an innate presence on most maps. As long as you are leading the charge into points for either an attacker side take or retake, you’ll be playing Kay/o to his fullest potential.
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