Everyone gawks at the flashy duelist plays and is intrigued by intricate Sova lineups, but barely anyone talks about the sneaky plays that a Sentinel makes when creating opportunities for their team. Lurking is the art of pushing out somewhere adjacent or opposite to where your team is pushing to get info, create space, and snag the occasional pick. It is intricate to say the very least, and there are so many moving parts to what makes a good lurk. To help with this guide, we talked to one of our Valorant players, Melisa “Theia” Mundorff, about what it means to be a lurker, and how to lurk.

But I Want to Lurk as Jett!

No! Bad! Okay, to be fair, you can still lurk as Jett, and there are actually a lot of scenarios where it could be the absolute right choice, but if you want to lurk every single round, I highly suggest, for you and your team’s sake, to pick a Sentinel. "Why?", you ask. Well, the fact is that Sentinels really do not have a lot of utility to help push on-site with your team, excluding Sage and Killjoy when she has her ultimate, so you’d much rather have your Sentinel lurk than a Sova, for example, whose Recon Bolt and Owl Drone are crucial to an execute on sight.

Furthermore, as a Sentinel, you can help your team by putting down a tripwire, turret, or Alarm Bot to watch you and your team’s back, so you won’t really need to be with your team at all, most of the time. This is precisely the reason you see Sentinels being the ones to lurk 90% of the time.

Another reason is the fact that as Killjoy or Cypher, and soon-to-be Chamber, you can lurk up without being worried about people going for flanks behind you due to the fact that they have utility to catch people, like Cypher’s Tripwires or Killjoy’s Turret and Alarm Bot. Furthermore, Sentinels are pretty good at getting info too using those same abilities.

I definitely think Sentinels are the best agents for lurking, I mean Killjoy and Cypher have utility that can help them get info, like Killjoy’s turret can watch her back and can hold multiple angles at once and Cypher’s Camera is great at getting info. You can just cut off an entire area of the map and not have to worry about it while you work.
- Theia

There are some exceptions though. As we already stated, Sage is less viable to lurk with due to how good her wall and slow orbs are for halting retakes. But some non-Sentinels are great options to lurk. Viper comes to mind immediately due to the fact that once you put up your wall and throw your orb, you really can’t do much to help your team with a push, and for maps like Icebox where your Sentinel is more than likely a Sage, it might be a good idea to take the helm and start lurking for your team. In fact, I play VALORANT for my university, and on every map, I am the controller main, but for Icebox, I give up Viper and let my Sentinel player pick her up. Solely because Viper is much better suited as a lurker for that map, and that is what he’s best at.

I did say Duelists can lurk sometimes, so… when? Defaults on Attack are excellent times to Lurk out as a Jett as most of your teammates are going to be slowly lurking out, creating space as a team.

Here is a tier list to show how good an agent is at lurking that you can use! Please note, Chamber’s place is just speculation based on more limited information, but from what I’ve seen, he seems like a strong lurker.

When Do I Lurk and When Do I Push with the Team?

Great question! It heavily depends on the round and map. A rule of thumb though, if they are having trouble taking a site or holding a site long enough for you to get a flank, then I’d suggest you should just go with your team to help them.

So it completely depends on how the enemy team is playing, if your team needs help getting control of the site, you should go with them. If you’re just constantly losing battles just go with your team, it’s fine. I think it’s very situational, but most of the time you should be able to lurk.
- Theia

Another situation would be if you are Killjoy and have your Ultimate, it might be a good idea to use it to take control of a site instead of being somewhere else.

Okay, I Picked Cypher, What Now?

Great! You are now best equipped to be a lurker! Now, let’s give you a scenario and guide you on what to do. You are playing Attack on Haven and your team is going to push out A and you decide to lurk. You might be thinking of immediately pushing out in the middle to start lurking. A big part of being an impactful lurker is understanding timing. If you push out immediately, more than likely someone will be holding from B-site and kill you, or make your lurk not really a lurk. To get an effective lurk, wait until your team makes a lot of presence on A-Site, whether that’s outright pushing up, or using a lot of utility. If you want to help your team during this time just watch for flanks passively and set up your tripwires, or turret if you were Killjoy. A big part of lurking is trial and error, every team plays differently so therefore you are going to have to wait different times for each lurk.

Now once you feel like it has been enough time, begin to slowly walk out towards the middle, now what? Once you walk up the middle, do some more waiting. I know, I know, don’t worry, it gets good in a bit. While waiting, make sure to listen for every single piece of info you can get and communicate it to your team. Your primary job as a lurker is to get info. Keep listening for important sounds like Killjoy’s utility going out of range, and footsteps.

Here’s a graphic to help you remember.

Now, what if your team is on A-site and you start hearing people walk through B-site to get to A-site. You have two main ways to play this, peek him for a free kill then run back to A-Site to help your team or wait until they pass so you can push out for a flank and potentially get multiple kills. This honestly depends on the situation and how well your team is doing. If they are getting beat up pretty bad and struggling to hold the site, I’d get the frag. If they are holding the site down really well, I’d take my time and go for that flank. An important note: if you are going to go for a flank, only really go for it when your team already has the Spike down and the enemy team is going for a retake.

I’d say on a very professional level, a lot of Sentinels don’t start flanking until their (enemy) is actually pushing into the site to retake after your bomb is planted. It’s really situational, but I’d say push right before a retake.
- Theia

To understand when to go forward or stay back, it most of the time depends on sound, what you hear, what information your team is giving you. Like if your team is saying ‘there’s 3 there’ meaning there’s 1 or 2 on your side of the map, maybe it’s time to push up. If you hear someone running past you rotating, not giving a care, I’d start pushing forward. But if there are people around you, just wait until they are rotating.
- Theia

The scenario I gave you will most likely work for most maps and on most Sentinels/Viper, but also keep in mind that lurking requires a lot of secondary game knowledge and good intuition. Every round goes differently and as a lurker, you will find yourself in a variety of situations that I can’t predict for you.

Can I Lurk on Defense?

While lurking is mostly associated with attacking, lurking on defense is really important, especially if the enemy team is defaulting. When and how you should do it is heavily dependent on the team’s composition and playstyle.

Lurking on the defense is mainly just pushing out A-Main or B-Main once you know enemies aren’t there to let teammates holding the site with you rotate and help your team at the other side.

I don’t suggest lurking on defense if:

They often hold for flanks or have Cypher/Killjoy Utility holding you
If they default hard and don’t push until late into the round.

I do suggest lurking on defense if:

They play post-plant heavy with Viper or Sova, or other agents that can deny plant using lineups. By flanking, you can stop them from playing their lineups and that can be the deciding factor of a round.
They commit to sites really easily, and you don’t hear them on your side.

So I think it depends on the enemy team whether you should flank or not. If they have agents that are good for post-plant-like Sova or Viper and are always in the back, it is a good idea to flank so they can’t just play their mollies the whole round. Also, if the enemy team is heavy on the flank like with Cypher or Killjoy or always watching the flank, sometimes it’s just not worth it to go. Like you can just group up with your team.
- Theia

Final Thoughts

Lurking is a role that requires patience, game knowledge, and intuition. If you lurk well enough, your team will love you and the enemies will most likely say some not-so-nice things about you in all chat, but wear those insults as a badge of honor as it means you are doing your job right! To end this guide, Theia has one last piece of advice for all the aspiring lurkers out there.