VALORANT Cypher Guide: Abilities, Gameplay, and More

Streamers and content creators have been showcasing their VALORANT footage all day today. We got an in-depth look at all of the Agents and their abilities. This guide will cover the Agent known as Cypher and take a look at his abilities, gameplay, and some strategies for using him effectively.

Cypher is the recon Agent in VALORANT, armed with surveillance skills to keep tabs on the enemies’ every move.

Each Agent in VALORANT has a country they represent, and Cypher hails from Morocco. Cypher is considered a high-tier Agent from all the footage we’ve reviewed. He is essential for flank counters and allowing your squad to tactically move throughout the maps.

Cypher’s Abilities

Spycam

Diving into Cypher’s abilities, his signature ability is Spycam. This equips a Spycam. Left-clicking places the spycam at a target location. Use the ability again to take control of the camera, and left-click to fire marking darts which will mark enemy locations or players stuck with the dart. This recharges when it’s picked up or killed.

This is a great utility skill for the team. The fact that you can pick up a dart and deploy it if you don’t like the location is a huge plus. You can effectively stay in a safe location and watch an angle without revealing yourself.

Trapwire

Cypher’s next ability is Trapwire. Use the ability to equip a Trapwire, and fire to place a destructible and covert tripwire at a target location. This creates a line that spans between the location and the opposite wall. Players who walk across it get tethered, revealed, and dazed for a short period if they do not destroy the device in time. It can also be picked up and redeployed at any time.

You also get alerted when the Trapwire is destroyed, which is not mentioned in the tooltip. Basically, you will always know if an enemy is at a location where you have the Trapwire. Not to mention, you can hold TWO of these things. Placing two of these at the right spots will prevent people from crouching under them and jumping over them, forcing the enemy to destroy them.

Place these Trapwires in flank locations and your team will always know when the enemy team is planning an ambush.

Cyber Cage

Cypher’s next ability is Cyber Cage, which is a remotely activated trap you can use to slow down enemies inside of it. Not only that, but it also blocks vision. You can think of them as smoke grenades with the added benefit of slowing people down.

Placing them in chokepoints and activating them as enemy teams push into the sites, you can completely stop a rush. The entire team will be slowed and not be able to see anything due to the Cyber Cage. On top of that, you will be notified as to where they are.

Neural Theft

Cypher’s ultimate is called Neural Theft. He can extract information from the corpse of an enemy to reveal information about their living allies. If you are able to pick off an enemy early on and get near his body, you can use this ability to reveal the ENTIRE team.

You can use this in clutch situations as well if you’re unsure of the remaining enemy player locations. Skilled players with this ability will likely be able to completely decimate a team by knowing where they’re at and anticipating their movements.

Many players that showcased their footage and gave their feedback on the game consider Cypher to be a top-tier Agent. You’ll likely see a Cypher in nearly every matchup due to his incredible utility skills. As of now, we’d consider this a mandatory Agent to run in competitive games.

Check out our VALORANT Agents guide to get a look at the nine different playable characters in the game.