With the release of Episode 4: Act 2 in Valorant comes the long-awaited rework of the Japanese radiant Yoru. Previously, Yoru was one of the least picked agents in the entire game as his abilities rarely worked and he was picked more as a novelty. Now, Yoru’s kit ramps his abilities up to 11 and allows him to get into your enemies heads and keep them on their feet more than ever before.
Being a dualist, Yoru needed a big buff to his kit to compete with the likes of Jett, Reyna, and Raze. While those agents might be a little more straightforward to play, Yoru can now keep up and even make some interesting plays that no other agent in Valorant can make. Whether you want to quickly get behind enemies or suddenly pop up right in front of them, Yoru’s refreshed kit can help get it done.
Below, you will find a brief description of each of his abilities and how to use them to help you win a round on both attack and defense. It can be easy to just dump as much utility as possible while playing Yoru, so make sure that you are paying attention to the map and enemies around you before using your kit.
Here are all of Yoru’s abilities:
C – Fakeout
Equip an echo that transforms into a mirror image of Yoru when activated and fire to instantly activate the mirror image and send it forward. Use alt fire to place an inactive echo and hover over it to transform an inactive echo into a mirror image and send it forward. Mirror images explode in a blinding flash when destroyed by enemies.
This ability is quite versatile on Yoru because it is equally effective and entering a site as it is defending one. Want to quickly make a move into site? Throw down your fakeout and react quickly if an enemy shoots it. Think that the enemy team is about to come to the site you’re defending? Throw your fakeout to make them second guess your positioning. As a risky play, you can also pretend to be your fakeout echo if the enemy team hasn’t been shooting your fakeout, allowing you to make some flashy plays.
E – Gatecrash
Equipa rift tether and fire to send the tether forward. Alt fire to place a stationary tether. Repress E to activate to teleport to the tether’s location or hover over your tether and trigger a fake teleport.
Yoru’s gatecrash ability is basically just a massively improved version of his old teleport. Instead of being on a short-timer for your teleport, Yoru players can now decide to fake a teleport and further mess with the enemy’s heads. You also get two gatecrashes, allowing you to teleport practically anywhere and run circles around your enemies.
Q – Blindside
Equip to rip an unstable dimensional fragment from reality and fire to throw the fragment, activating a flash that winds up once it collides with a hard surface in the world. Yoru’s flashbang-like ability remains largely untouched, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t effective. The ability remains to be one of the best flashbangs in the game as your enemies cannot hear you throw it, just where the ability hits. Use this to force enemies to turn around and leave an angle.
Ultimate – Dimensional Drift
Equips a mask that can see between dimensions. Fire to drift into Yoru’s dimension, making the player unable to be affected or seen by enemies during the ultimate’s duration. While in this ultimate, you can use all of your other abilities to make the other team panic about your whereabouts. That being said, enemies can hear you running in your ultimate, so be aware of where you might unveil as there could be an enemy waiting for you. A common but effective strategy is to catch an enemy alone in your ultimate, flash them using your blindside, and quickly come out of the ultimate and secure the kill before they even know what hit them.
