Here’s how you maximize Viper’s utility in your ultimate, according to VALORANT coach

Viper’s ultimate is one of the most valuable ones in all of VALORANT. Viper’s Pit blankets the surrounding area in a poisonous cloud that obscures vision and reduces the maximum health of enemy agents down to just one point of health.

But as powerful as the ultimate is, it’s shocking to see how often it’s misused, either via misplacement or poor usage of Viper’s other utility. In a recent coaching video posted by Radiant-ranked VALORANT coach Jollztv, he explains a basic method of maximizing Viper’s other utility while Viper’s Pit is ultimate.

Jollztv says that the biggest mistake that Viper players make is firing Snakebite too early after deploying their ultimate. He feels they’re better off saving because of how overpowered they are within a Viper’s Pit. Because the ultimate takes enemies inside down to one point of health due to decay, Snakebite turns from a nuisance into “lava” that no one can touch.

Without decay fully affecting enemy players, they can still push through a deployed Snakebit without dying, which can leave you as a Viper player super vulnerable if you’re caught with your gun down deploying your ultimate. On top of dying, you’ll also have spent your ultimate and gotten precisely zero value out of it.

In post-plant scenarios, Jollztv even suggests and shows off the practice of dropping a Snakebite on the spike plant as the Viper ultimate drops. As the Viper player in this scenario, you would have maximum visibility for holding off a defuse, and the enemy player is likely going to be heavily decayed and won’t be able to even start a defuse until Snakebite or their decay effect fades.

Overall, the biggest takeaway here from coach Jollztv is to save your Snakebite charges for later in the round after deploying Viper’s Pit, effectively making your post-plants unbeatable.