Fade is VALORANT’s newest agent – How does she fit the meta?

The long wait is now over. After weeks of leaks, rumors, posts, and exclusive cinematics, VALORANT’s new agent has been officially introduced.

Fade will be the 20th agent of the game. She will undoubtedly affect the meta with her abilities and explosive toolkit. Let’s take a deep look at the new face of the scene.

Valorant’s Fade Abilities & How they Feel

We got to see a short preview of Fade in the latest official trailer. Overall, she looks like an improved version of Sova able to both reveal enemies and make holding down a site extremely painful. Her kit seems to utilize well on both defense and attack, and she can fill both an entry and a hard defender role.

Her kit is explained below:

• Prowler will send the Prowler out, causing it to travel in a straight line. The Prowler will lock onto any enemies or trails in their frontal vision cone and chase them, nearsighting them if it reaches them. HOLD the FIRE button to steer the Prowler in the direction of your crosshair.
• Haunt throws the orb which will plummet to the ground after a set amount of time. Upon hitting the ground, the orb will turn into a nightmarish entity that will reveal the location of enemies caught in its line of sight. Enemies can destroy this entity. RE-USE the ability to drop the projectile early in-flight.
• Seize is a throwable orb which will plummet to the ground after a set amount of time. Upon hitting the ground, the ink will explode and create a zone in which enemies who are caught in it cannot escape the zone by normal means. RE-USE the ability to drop the projectile early in-flight.
• Nightfall(Ultimate) sends out a wave of nightmare energy that can traverse through walls. The energy creates a trail to the opponent as well as deafens and decays them.

Fade might take Sova’s throne

Fade will be the fifth Initiator in the game, and with her powerful kit, she will most likely be involved in Masters level team strategies. For the first time, an agent can take over the throne of Sova, who has managed to stay in the meta since the game’s release. Especially after the Sova nerfs that will deploy with the new patch, Fade may not have a hard time finding a place for herself.

The abilities of our new agent offer many different features. While she can gather information about the opposing team with her Haunt ability, she uses the Seize skill to imprison them in a certain area, inflict damage and debuff. On the other hand, Prowler is an excellent tool for pre-securing areas you fear to enter. Additionally, this ability can lock onto Haunt’s footprints and locate opponents.

According to first impressions, it will be quite difficult to play against Fade. A decent game knowledge is required to play our new agent, who can quickly punish wrongdoing. All of her abilities can be destroyed by the opponent, meaning using the abilities randomly is of no use to you nor your teammates.

VALORANT’s new agent will be active on April 27, with the start of Episode 4 Act 3. Like other agents, Fade will take some time to be used in ranked matches.