Best VALORANT Agents for beginners and new players

VALORANT has now grown to have a huge roster of playable characters, or Agents, as the years have gone by. If you're looking to start the shooter, the choices may overwhelm you. Here's a short guide for the best VALORANT Agents for beginners.

For a fresh account, only five VALORANT Agents are available to play: Brimstone, Jett, Phoenix, Sage, and Sova. This is a good starting pool, as you get at least one Agent per role.

If you're completely new to first-person shooters, characters like Sage and Phoenix are self-sufficient and will mostly allow you to focus on getting used to the game.

If you have an understanding of FPS mechanics and systems, then consider picking up Brimstone and Sova. Brimstone can place precise smokes, meaning you won't need lineups for his smoke. His Stim Beacon gives you and your nearby teammates an edge in engagements, and his incendiary can deny or delay entries.

Meanwhile, Sova can provide information to the team, and you can get creative with his Shock Bolts.

Jett has the added layer of difficulty due to her mobility, causing her to have a higher skill floor. She has a higher reward system, though, and you can single-handedly carry some games on her. She also allows you to get used to the more mobile VALORANT Agents as a beginner, like Neon and the newly released Waylay.

It's highly recommended that you try each of them at least once to familiarize yourself with their kits and to find which role you feel most comfortable playing.

Players with Xbox Game Pass get access to the entire VALORANT roster. You can also unlock additional Agents by using Kingdom Credits or the Free Agent Tokens you can get from the Basic Training Event.

Before locking in your choice and using the currency to unlock an Agent, you should go to The Range first. Here, all Agents are unlocked, and you can give each a test drive.

Here are our recommendations on whom you should look at for each role.

Sentinel - Killjoy, Cypher

Killjoy's and Cypher's kits are incredibly easy to understand. For the first few games, you'll learn that some players know where the traps usually are. Eventually, you'll find spots in each map that are difficult to predict and may kickstart your climb to Radiant.

Duelist - Reyna, Iso

Duels, shootouts, and creating favorable situations for themselves — both Reyna and Iso excel at these. You can use Reyna's blind without fear of flashing your own teammates, while Iso's walls and debuffs on the enemy increase his chances of winning duels.

A big thing in playing duelists is confidence, while another is knowing that you are not the star of the game. Don't forget that you have a team that you can play off, but when it comes down to it, Reyna and Iso can hold their own.

Initiator - KAY/O, Tejo

KAY/O has a flash that functions similarly to CS2's flashes, and has a molly to match. If you're a new convert, you should give him a spin.

Tejo is the VALORANT roster's newest Agent, but he's also friendly to beginners. You'll have to try quite hard at making his kit useless, so you'll always have some utility as him.

Controller - Omen, Clove

Omen places smokes in a unique manner, but he has a nearsight and deafen that you can use for you and your team. His Shrouded Step is useful if you want to get on that off-angle and will teach you what enemies can and cannot see.

If you've already played Brimstone, Clove is similar, except the latter can place smokes even after their death. They're also an offensive Controller, meaning you'll have to seek out fights to make full use of your kit.