10 tips for playing Cypher on attack in VALORANT

Cypher mains look closely—here are a few tips that could boost your performance in VALORANT, pushing you more than a couple of ranks higher.

Our cage-wielding agent has been the joke of the VALORANT world on multiple occasions, but if you’re willing to put the work in, you’ll see some results with Cypher.

How do I play Cypher on attack in VALORANT?

Here are 10 tips that you can use in your Cypher gameplay on the attacking side:

Don’t throw your utility immediately

Holding onto your utility is essential in a lot of situations. Using your tripwires immediately might give you an insight into when an opponent pushes early, however, once that wire’s crossed, you’ve already used an important item with tons of time left on the clock.

By using it later in the round, once you’ve got the site, an opportunity presents itself to cross off some choke points for the next 45 seconds of the game. Holding onto your tripwire can be your saving grace. Think before you place it.

Don’t lurk for too long

Lurking as Cypher is incredibly useful. Your duelists and initiators will open up zones for your teammates to access, leaving you checking flanking areas or another possible site attack. If you’re sitting back for too long, you’ll likely miss out on an opportunity to trade kills. 

The last thing you want is to be flamed by your teammates for being M.I.A while they all died pushing onto the site. 

Learn one-ways 

While you’re attacking, you’ll push with your team onto the site. By learning these one-way cages, you’ve got something to use in a post-plant situation.

Say you’ve planted the bomb at C on Haven, by learning the one-way cages you can do at C-long, you’ve got an area where you can keep on lock as the timer ticks down. This will help you secure that post plant with ease.

Lurk sporadically

By changing up your playstyle, you’ve already made it incredibly annoying for an opponent to predict what’s happening next. Lurking is best done every so often.

You’ll become a predictable target if you’re constantly waiting or pushing on your own. The opponents will wait for you, and they will kill you. Doing it every 2-3 rounds is enough to not create too much of a pattern.

Using your camera to your advantage 

Your camera is incredibly useful in terms of watching flanks, and even watching the site you’re holding. But on the attack, you can absolutely use it in a variety of ways. 

As you’re pushing with the rest of your team, placing your camera somewhere high on-site can help clear that pesky enemy sitting on site. Or if you’re wanting to hold the flank, use it to watch behind. They’re simple tips, but they’ve worked since he was created. 

Learn pesky spots for your after-plant on-site. It’ll make your life a lot easier when you can spot an enemy tapping the bomb to make you look.

Flank sparingly

Flanking might net you some of the best clutches and clips of all time, but the vast majority of the time, you’ve let your teammates run onto the site without helping in the slightest. 

If you’re lucky, your best buds have killed everyone on site and are defending the bomb valiantly. If not, you’ve let them run in and have done nothing to help.

Place your tripwires at the correct height

Please don’t place them at foot level, unless you know for sure your enemies won’t notice it. It’s incredibly easy to jump over and will make your utility pointless. This also goes for placing it too high.  Position your tripwires so they will hit someone’s head as they try to crouch underneath.

A counter to this is to intentionally do this and wait for enemies flanking to catch them as they jump over the tripwire. Random plays like that will catch your opponent off guard.

If you want to experiment with your tripwires, use them on angles. Sometimes they create a line that’s hard to see, detecting people when they thought they were safe.

Place your tripwires away from objects you can stand on

While this and the prior tip can also be used on defense, if you’ve planted your tripwire between an area that can easily be jumped over via a box or ledge, you’ve wasted your utility.

Using your cages in different ways

By using your cage to block knowledge, you can deny important information to the opposing team. Placing it on an angle that allows you to progress closer to the bombsite will force the opposition to move, giving you more map control.

This goes for your tripwires too. By using them for map control, you at least have a more solid idea of how many players are coming from any direction.

Communicate with your teammates

Cypher has a lot of information-acquiring utility. His camera doesn’t need to shoot to be able to share where a player is. When your tripwire is destroyed, tell your teammates. When there’s someone in your cage, let your allies know.