Best agents for playing solo queue ranked in VALORANT

VALORANT may not have cases you can open like in Counter-Strike, but you can still gamble by hoping into competitive solo queue. Sometimes you’ll find welcoming, communicative teammates, but other times you’ll be met with people you wouldn’t spit on if they were dehydrated.

Queueing up for ranked with a team of five, four, or even three will have drastic implications on your gameplay and ultimately give you an advantage. If you prefer being a lone wolf and playing solo, you’ll have to grit your teeth and bear through it. Fortunately, it’s entirely possible to climb the ladder by yourself.

We’ve ranked the top solo agents in VALORANT from best to worst, specifically on how viable they would be in solo queue.

VALORANT solo queue agent tier list

What agents are the best for playing solo queue competitive in VALORANT?

You’ll notice we’ve prioritized the sentinel agents at the very top of the list, with only Deadlock not making the highest tier because of the weaknesses in her ability kit. Overall we feel sentinels are easiest to play in solo queue because they are least reliant on your other teammates.

Duelists are the second best choice for players playing solo queue since most if not all of them have abilities that let them set themselves up to make plays. Initiators and controllers are overall harder to play in solo queue, since many of them have kits that are meant to set up plays for your teammates, which means getting stuck with less-than-ideal random players has a larger negative effect if you’re an initiator or controller.

Reyna

Reyna is a one-woman army. She’s a high-risk, high-reward agent, but she’s perfect in solo queue. Her ability kit is designed with the selfish player in mind, with tremendous sustainability potential via Devour and Dismiss, and an ultimate that’s primary focus is to feed her kills. Even with Leer not being as powerful as other flashes, a well-placed Leer can draw enemy crosshairs away from a chokepoint, allowing you to swing on the opposing player.

Killjoy

If you don’t have any friends playing VALORANT with you, let Killjoy’s bots be your friends during your next competitive game. Defense is so much harder in VALORANT if the team isn’t on the same page, but Killjoy can negate that difficulty with setups that can completely lock down (pun intended) a site.

Attack will be tougher, but if you can get on a site with all your utility still available, you’ll be able to put together a hard-to-break post-plant defense.

Raze

Raze’s individual playmaking potential is off the charts, but the value her ability kit provides in creating space and clearing out enemy hiding spots is even more important in solo queue. If your teammates aren’t as reliable, then her Boom Bot and Paintshell grenades are necessary for checking hiding spots while on attack.

Sage

Sage is one of the best all-around agents in VALORANT, and given how solid her abilities are at slowing down the enemy team, she’s much more reliable in solo queue. In solo queue, there’s a chance you’re stuck with poor communicators who don’t rotate in time, so using Slow Orb and her wall is crucial in not getting overwhelmed on the defense side.

Chamber

Chamber’s ability to produce a powerful weapon kit and get early frags is super valuable in solo queue. Even after his major nerfs, most maps still have several prolific spots where he can place his teleporter, allowing him to get a kill and escape freely. In solo queue you will need every advantage you can take, so an early kill most rounds will go a long way.