While the keys to mastering VALORANT as a whole come in the practice of learning and perfecting your fundamental mechanics, your secondary attributes as a player are just as important to your growth as a player. Perfecting the use of your abilities, as well as your general knowledge of the character roster, are going to be major factors in the long run of your VALORANT career. Of course, Duelists, Initiators, and other flashy subclasses are going to be more appealing to the naked eye, but Sentinels are perhaps the single-most dominant group of agents in the game, with all three of the characters on that part of the roster holding the potential to swing a game drastically. Sage, Killjoy, and Cypher can hold a massive amount of sway over the game on a round-to-round basis, so much so that some teams will sometimes elect to take two sentinels along with them into a game in order to establish as much control over the landscape as possible.

In this guide, we’ll go over everything it takes to mastering the various Sentinels that VALORANT has to offer. Between the intricacies of the three characters and the general tips and tricks to playing a control-focused subclass, we’ll be sure to touch on all of the aspects that go into the game’s Sentinels.

A General Approach to Playing Sentinel

While playing Sentinels in VALORANT, you’re going to want to focus less on initiating and pushing, and more on laying back and gathering intel while supporting your team through reconnaissance and support-centered abilities. Characters like Sage and Killjoy in particular should always make it a top priority to stay alive as long as possible, helping your team through zone control and sustenance throughout the course of any given round.

When it comes to playing sentinels, you should always have the mindset of dying last and keeping your team alive as long as possible. The longer you’re on the map, the more time you’ll have to gather information on the enemies’ location and punish them for being out of position. Sentinels excel at complaining information throughout the course of a game. If your strong suit is playing slow and lying in wait - especially on defense - you’ll feel right at home while playing Sentinels, allowing your teammates to make the intense pushes and engagements.

Revitalizing Your Allies with Sage

Perhaps the most prominent of the three Sentinels you’ll find in VALORANT, Sage is most definitely known as the traditional support character on the entire roster. With a healing ability, two control-establishing moves, and a round-altering resurrection, you’ll find a Sage on both teams of your ranked games almost every single time you queue up.

When playing her, you’ll want to hang back and keep your team topped off at every possible turn. If you’re consistently dying first in every push or defense situation, you’re doing something wrong. At the top of each round, you should be holding the back-lines of a push or keeping your distance on the back-end of a site while you allow your teammates to engage the front-lines of a gunfight. Once you’re able to secure a victory in a gunfight by providing backup fire, you should be focusing on healing your allies and getting ready for the next rotation.

As Sage, keeping your distance is everything. Your abilities have incredible range so there’s no need to be up close and personal with your enemies - or your allies for that matter. If you’re able to dictate the way your targets approach you, then you’ll have no problem picking them off whenever they’re caught out of position. The more calculated you are on the back line, the more success you’ll have overall, and the longer you’ll be alive to keep your teammate’s heads above water.

Establishing Vision with Cypher

As the master of traps, cameras, and vision control, Cypher has the potential to control every corner of the map throughout the course of a round. With a combination of Trapwires and Cyber Cages, he can lock down multiple points of entry onto a site, while still having a direct view of enemy players through his Spycam.

A great Cypher player is defined by their ability to utilize his kit to the fullest potential during every round - especially on defense. Keepin mind that while you’re playing Cypher, you’re going to be most useful during the half in which your team is playing defense. It’s going to be much easier to get your setups in order and all of your traps in place when you have the freedom to roam around a given site and establish control of it before the round even begins.

Once the enemy team begins to push, though, all bets are off. If the opposing team is spotted out by a Cypher camera while pushing, you have the opportunity to force your opponents to rethink their strategy and possibly rotate. When you limit their options, you give your teammates a much clearer view of what might happen in the coming seconds. Having that extra safety blanket made up of recon abilities before the enemies even push onto that site is definitely an advantage that you’re going to want to utilize at any given turn.

On offense, however, Cypher is a much different character. Notably, he’s a lot weaker than he is on defense, as his abilities are effectively axed by the circumstance of the game. However, if you’re able to keep a little bit of patience for the deeper part of the offensive rounds, Cypher becomes a solid defender after the spike is planted. Once the timer towards detonation begins, you can stifle the enemy team’s rotation onto the site you’re now defending with that same combination of traps, wires, and even your camera if you have enough time and angles to play with.

Locking Down the Map with Killjoy

With a strong emphasis on area control, Killjoy is one of the most unique characters in all of VALORANT. She definitely stands out from her Sentinel counterparts as her playstyle is unlike anything else in the game. When you’re controlling Killjoy, you’re playing in a world of your own. Focusing on stifling your opponents’ pushes and locking down areas of the map with downright oppressive gadgets are going to be some of your main goals throughout the course of a game.

On defense, Killjoy shines as she’s able to set up enough traps and gadgets to hold down a site completely on her own. Between her turret, Alarmbot, and swarm grenades, Killjoy can have multiple entry points covered and controlled with different parts of her kit. Both Alarmbot and turret will detect enemies when they come into view, alerting Killjoy and her team to an incoming push.

On offense, similarly to Cypher, Killjoy definitely struggles with the inability to completely lockdown a site with setup opportunities, but still, you should be able to have enough room to cover your team’s flank at the very least. Setting up traps and turrets in conjunction to places where you think the enemy team will rotate after you plant is an important part of what makes Killjoy players effective on offense.

Some Extra Sentinel Tips and Tricks

Don’t be afraid to deal damage when rounds get into the nitty-gritty moments. Just because you’re meant to be a back-line player as a Sentinel doesn’t mean that you should be subjected to doing nothing while your teammates mop up kills and try to establish themselves in firefights. In fact, hanging back and focusing only on the support aspect of the Sentinel subclass is the worst thing you can do during a game. The key to mastering Sentinel lies solely in your ability to strike a perfect balance between using your character’s kits for recon and intel, while still having on-point fundamentals like aim and movement down to a science.

All three of VALORANT’s Sentinels are extremely unique and play differently when lined up with each other. Although they all focus on the ideals of map control and intelligence gathering, you’re going to want to play Sage differently than Cypher, and Cypher differently than Killjoy. While the basic streamlined fundamentals for the class will all be the same - relatively speaking - there’s going to be nuances that are either kit-specific or entirely situational that will dictate the way each of these three agents are played. It’s recommended to get some practice games in on all three of them in order to cross-develop your skill set and overall ability.