Climbing in Valorant can be an absolute struggle when you constantly have terrible teammates, and you just can’t carry enough to win games. That’s why we’re going to go over the best five solo carry agents as of Patch 8.06, so that you know which ones have a really high solo carry impact. You can put those terrible teammates in the backpack and climb anyway.
Unveiling Ray: A Top-Tier Solo Carry in Competitive Play
Now, the first character that we do have to talk about is Ray, and I pretty much have to get her out of the way because she will continue to be one of the best pound-for-pound characters to carry in ranked period. Not only is she incredibly powerful in the pro meta play, she is also just a crazy strong solo carry agent, and I’m going to break it down to three main reasons why.
Unique Approach to the Meta
The first reason is specifically because Ray attacks the meta in a very unique way, being able to destroy pieces of utility like Cypher trips. This is super important if you’re trying to enter on the site.
Outplay Potential
The second reason is that she gives you outplay potential because of your mobility. You can set up situations where you dip in and out of cover very quickly, where you navigate through the map in a way that other characters just can’t, and you set yourself up in an advantaged gunfight where enemies are just not ready for you, or you catch them with pulling out their utility because you mis-time them because of that mobility.
Combination of Intrinsic Value
For the third reason, this character provides a good combination of Intrinsic value or value that you’re getting automatically by playing the character. Chip damage, being able to fulfill your role in a composition by entering on the site, and you also have the solo carry individualistic outplay value that you can get if your team is not utilizing your Intrinsic value like the teamwork, the coordination.
So whether you need to pop off and dominate in a game, racking up a crazy amount of kills to win that game, or whether you can play a more fundamental role filler in the team composition, Ray allows you to play both sides of the field in a way that few other characters can. You can basically rise to whatever your team needs or whatever you need to do in order to still win that game, and it’s great to play a character that can do that. Now, we have guides over many of the characters on this list and guides over aim warm-ups, training, and more.
Meta Shift and Aggressive Play
You see, one thing that we’ve been seeing as a change in the meta is Omen getting more aggressive. They use their utility to set up their team, but then they go on more lurks, they become more aggressive, they find ways to make plays, and this has been true in ranked as well for a very long time. But Clove does this even better in the right hands.
Clove’s Unique Abilities
Because Clove can die and still do their fundamental job, they can play more aggressive than another controller could because their death doesn’t matter nearly as much. This means that you can be more aggressive with your challenges, more aggressive with your lurks, and ultimately, this means that you are less punished for dying and being aggressive as this character, which is a really big deal if you’re trying to rack up a high number of kills.
Solo Carry and Team Value Combination
Clove can be a character that top frags while fulfilling the controller role on their team. I talk a lot about the Intrinsic value and the solo carry value as a combination because that’s the thing that you need if you want to win every single game in Valorant. You need characters that can play a fundamental need of your team when the team is working well, everyone’s playing their mains, or you need a character that can top frag when no one’s doing anything and you almost need to brute force that win through.
This is something that I kind of criticize some characters for, like Reyna as a hypothetical character that is really good on one side of the field where she’s really good at popping off and you know, constantly winning those Engagements and just racking up crazy high kills, but as far as a fundamental strategy, Reyna lacks compared to a lot of other characters because she doesn’t have a kit that is built for team play as much. But characters like Clove and Ray get to do both.
Effective Team Play and Solo Impact
Because they have a kit that works for team play but also enables them to be proactive, get high numbers of kills, and find advantageous fights, Clove is looking better and better the more that they’re seen in play. It is definitely a character that I would highly recommend grinding now, getting incredibly good at, so that you can start to dominate in your games before too long. The next character that we definitely have to talk about is Skye.
Underrated Power of Skye
I think that a lot of people have been sleeping on Skye, mainly because she has gotten nerf after nerf, but she’s still one of the most powerful initiators in the entire game. I think that more people need to start playing this character again. Skye is just really solid all around, doesn’t have any particular weaknesses, and is good at both assisting the team and finding ways to clutch yourself.
Utility and Adaptability
Skye’s abilities include being able to gather great information, having an ultimate that is good in both joint rushes or when you’re in a really low resource 1v1 or 1v2 situation, and then having a flash that is really good at not only gathering that info but being able to set up your teams for plays as well. I think all around, Skye just has such a flexible kit where she’s good on basically every single map if you master her.
Skye in Ranked Play
I think just about any composition can work with Skye, and she is even stronger in ranked play where the small differences between initiators don’t matter nearly as much as in pro play. So, if you were going to one-trick an initiator, I think Skye is actually one of the best ones to do so.
She’s incredibly powerful, really rewards you for starting to learn how and when your flashes give you certain amounts of information, how to use your flashes to gather information through certain lineups, and just overall playing with your team in a way that is assisting when you need to, or trying to make plays when your team isn’t around. Skye is just a crazy powerful agent right now and definitely one that I think way too many people are sleeping on, even though she’s just so damn impactful. The next solo carry agent that we definitely have to talk about is Cypher. Cypher has been dominating the meta for quite some time and he continues to do so.
Unique Flexibility of Cypher
In a way that other Sentinels just don’t have, Cypher offers an immense amount of flexibility. For one, he completely locks down sites and it makes it so that opponents have to be really disciplined to push through. They either have to cover for each other and break the trips, or they have to use utility. Whatever the case may be in ranked, that’s going to happen even less so than in any other type of gameplay. So, you’re going to be able to get a lot of free value and free kills just by having a really good setup.
Cypher’s Lurking Abilities
In addition to that, Cypher is an incredible lurker, really good at retaking space by using a combination of cage and your trips. It’s really hard for enemies to wrap. You can gather information with your cam, and Cypher is also just really good at completely shutting off rotation.
Strategic Dominance
So when you have a sentinel that is extremely good at shutting down a site and getting value if people go to that site but then also good at lurking, gathering information, cutting off rotations, or even making flank plays, you just have a character that can be very difficult to play against. It can mess up good players; there will be a game where you play against a player or with a player, and that player pops off, but all of a sudden they’re against your Cypher.
Impact of Cypher on the Game
You completely cut off their ability to make plays or just play the way that they want to, and you’re carrying by shutting down these players. Cypher can do that better than just about anyone else. So I really do think that Cypher is worth a lot of the time and effort it takes to learn him. It’s also a character that, as the map rotation happens, he’s only going to get better because there are a lot of maps that he’s really good in that are not currently in the map pool. So definitely start grinding him now, be really good with him while he’s still really good in the meta because he’s only going to get better as time goes on. The last but certainly not least character that we do have to talk about is…
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