Reyna the vampiric empress who creates life by consuming the essence of others. She is the first Valorant agent to be released officially after the initial 10 agents. Efficient in advancing through enemy lines, Reyna is definitely an agent for players who like to get into fights and wreak havoc on the battlefield. In this Reyna guide, we will learn how to use Reyna’s kit to be an efficient member of the team. Practice how to learn this duelist by knowing these tips and tricks that’ll ensure your success in any map.
Reyna: The Vampire Empress
Born in the heart of Mexico, Reyna is often considered the Vampire Empress due to her ability to drain the life out of enemies. However, she wasn’t always like this. Bits and pieces from the other agent’s voice lines have referred to Reyna as “Sabine“, who was once a giver of life using her abilities. Nobody knows what happened to her, but something happened to her (presumably involving Omen) that changed her outlook on her powers and has made her into a narcissistic anti-hero.
As a duelist, Reyna was created to be a duelist who is superior on combat situations one-on-one. This feels inaccurate as Reyna’s kit relies mostly on being able to get rid of other enemies first to gain buffs and heals. She’s really hard to kill and going in one-by-one to get rid of her can prove to be a mistake you’ll learn the hard way. She likes to flirt with her power and the power of others in order to find a way to boost that of her own.
Reyna’s General Playstyle
Reyna is a hardcore entry fragger, which means that she excels in going in first and taking control of an area. Most of her abilities rely on the fact that she collects soul orbs by killing enemy agents to activate them. This means that this agent will try to play aggressively all throughout the game and is not for players who like to play conservatively and wait for the right moment. In this Reyna guide, you’ll learn that the right moment is every moment.
Reyna Guide: Skills and Rotations
Reyna’s agent design is quite unique since she’s reliant on getting kills to fully activate most of her abilities. In this Reyna guide, we will be relying mostly on her capability to collect soul orbs as the primary resource needed for her abilities. Like most agents, you’ll need to use her abilities during certain situations, followed by plays that are sure to win you the round. Here are the different abilities that Reyna has on her kit.
C: Leer
Active: Reyna throws out an Ethereal Eye to a short distance, limiting the vision of enemies who are looking at its direction. Enemies afflicted by shortsightedness can only see enemies in a very short distance around them, and their hearing is also dampened drastically.
The eye can be shot down and remains within vision even when shortsighted. Enemies who look away from the eye have their vision restored.
Leer is your primary ability when going in for an entry frag. Unlike most vision impairment abilities, this ability only affects enemy agents so your teammates are safe to follow you. To make full use of this ability, charge right into the fray once you drop your Ethereal Eye so that the enemy is either forced to shoot down the eye while you are guaranteed safe entry, or they will hide for its effect which will give you time to reposition yourself. Remember that the eye needs to be in the line of sight of the enemy to work.
Q: Devour
Active: Reyna links herself with a Soul Orb, consuming it rapidly and restoring her health and giving her a bonus shield if she doesn’t already have one. Breaking the link by going in-between walls will stop the consumption of the soul orb.
Innate: While Empress is in effect, Reyna automatically activates this ability without consuming a charge. Also, the consumption rate is increased.
*Note: Devour shares charges with Dismiss, using either ability will reduce the total amount of charges this ability has. Unlike other agents’ abilities, both abilities automatically refresh one charge at the start of every round.
**Note: Enemies that Reyna kills spawn Soul Orbs, which can be used for her abilities. Enemies that are taken down by allies do not spawn Soul Orbs even if Reyna contributes damage to them.
Devour is Reyna’s primary sustain ability, giving her life after every fight. This is excellent when you’re playing a Lurker role who is trying to assassinate enemies one by one so that you will be able to refresh your health after every skirmish. Remember not to break the link of your Devour by hiding behind walls or boxes after consuming it. Also, there is a half-second animation delay when you activate this ability so be careful when using it while enemies are around.
E: Dismiss
Active: Reyna instantly consumes a Soul Orb, making herself intangible for 2 seconds then gaining a movement speed bonus for the first second of the skill’s duration. While intangible, Reyna can’t fire her weapons but can change the weapon she is holding.
Innate: While Empress is in effect, using Dismiss will also turn Reyna invisible to enemies. After Reyna exiting the state, Reyna will release an ominous laugh that can be heard by all agents within the area. During her ultimate, this ability will not consume charges.
Dismiss is an excellent skill to reposition yourself during fights. This is a skill you’ll need to learn how to use when fighting against one or more enemies. A perfectly timed Dismiss will give you a positional advantage over your enemies. For 0.5 seconds after exiting Dismiss, your character can’t do any actions but will be vulnerable by again. Make sure to find a perfect place to hide your body as this is happening so that you don’t get caught out.
X: Empress
Active: Reyna transforms into her berserk form, entering a state of frenzy which increases her firing rate, reload speed, and weapon equip speed by 20%.
Innate: Getting a kill will refresh this ability’s duration. While Empress is active, enemies become highlighted by a red coating in Reyna’s vision which signifies her bloodlust. Enemies who aren’t within her vision or are hiding in smoke fields are not highlighted by this ability.
Only activate Empress when you’re about to go in for a play. Most of the time, you reserve it when your team is at a disadvantage or you are sure of your opponents’ location to maximize its effects. The bonus passive abilities it gives to your Devour and Dismiss abilities can play a crucial part in turning the game around. Use this time to wreak havoc to the enemy team and start dropping them like flies once you get the combos running.
Reyna Guide: Team Roles
In this Reyna guide, we’ll be enumerating the various strategies and skill rotations that a Reyna player will need to follow when opting to play a certain role for the team. Each role plays a significant part for the success of the team and will change depending on your lineup, standing, and state of the game. Choosing your role will depend on your ability as a player and how much it is needed for the situation that you’re in.
Entry Fragger
Reyna’s primary role in the team is an entry fragger and should be taken by players who are extremely confident in their gunplay and have decent reflexes to react to the enemy’s play. Usually, an entry fragger will drop Leer first before going in for the kill almost instantly then using Dismiss to reposition yourself safely if there was more than 1 enemy in the area. Securing the area can be risky and failing means you die instantly for nothing.
You can also act as a secondary entry fragger, going in after your initial entry fragger and supporting them with your Leer ability to give them a bit of cover. When doing this, don’t stick too close to your initial entry fragger so that you don’t get in the way of his line of fire or escape route. Remember that Leer doesn’t affect your teammates so just fire it in a location that will affect the most enemy agents as possible.
Lurker
The Lurker is in charge of separating himself/herself with the team to look for an advantageous opening on the map. Players who are not confident with their gunplay or players who have dedicated entry fraggers may opt for this role. Reyna is excellent in small skirmishes because of her incredible sustain. Try to find picks on the sides of the map where you’re enemies won’t be holding and pick a fight whenever you can.
Reyna Guide: Phases
The Pistol Round
Reyna’s strength depends on her snowballing ahead of her enemies. In the pistol round, you’d best buy a Ghost or Sheriff immediately so that you can get the kills early on. This is an excellent gamble to take considering that the kills and round victory you’ll get will give you better guns over your opponents. Create a lead early into the rounds so that you can use the advantage and kill enemies much easier and be able to combo your skills.
Later Rounds
Once Reyna is fully equipped with the weapons she’ll be using the game, she can fully commit to going into skirmishes and securing objectives for her team. Remember that Reyna is excellent when it comes to using automatic weaponry especially while her ultimate is active. You don’t need to keep maximum distance as long as you have boxes or walls near you that you can retreat to by using your Dismiss ability after every kill.
Reyna Guide: Stages
Reyna’s playstyle doesn’t dramatically change whether she’s a defender or attacker in this Reyna guide. However, she does favor being the attacker more because of her kit that allows her to charge into the fray. When playing as Reyna, it’s important to note that she’ll be aggressive all throughout the match and will always try to secure kills by taking advantage of her abilities to keep her in battle longer.
As the Attackers
Reyna as the attacker is heavily focused on securing objectives and aggressively making plays as an entry fragger. Reyna shouldn’t be holding the spike as she’s tasked with keeping the perimeter clear from enemies and engaging in fights all the time. Guarding the spike involves you trying to aggressively push the enemies away from your position and secure as much time for the spike to detonate.
As the Defenders
Reyna doesn’t have any hardcore utilities that will help her defend a point. Instead, she can look for picks by flanking the enemies from behind and dictating the enemies pace through her disruptive abilities. Point defending can include throwing out your Ethereal Eyeballs to deter your opponents from entering but the enemy can easily just wait it out. The only great thing about Reyna as a defender is that she has incredible sustain and the ability to reposition herself during messy teamfights.
Reyna Overview
In this Reyna guide, we talked about how aggressive the agent can be all throughout the game. Aggressive agents are mostly played by players with a high skill ceiling since they’ll need to act quickly and be able to successfully eliminate threats in a short period of time. Mastering the agent can be very tricky especially if your gunplay isn’t exactly on point. Overall, the agent is a double-edged sword; once she starts losing, expect her to lose hard but when she starts winning, you can expect everything to get messy.