“Yoru is an Infiltrating Duelist, using an array of tools to re-position himself, or create fakeouts. Yoru players will be lurking around the map, causing chaos, and getting frags”. As part of Riot’s plans for their 5v5 tactical shooter Valorant, they’re said to release 6 new agents every year. Coming up as part of Episode 2 Act 1 is Yoru.

Yoru’s tools are designed to “aggressively infiltrate” the enemy team’s back lines by displacing himself. He is also designed to create “deadly pincers with your teammates or use his deception to gain positional advantages against enemies”.

Episode 2 Act 1, is scheduled to run from January 12 to March 1st, 2021. The new Battlepass will cost 1,000 VP and include 12 gun skins (plus 3 sets of Variants for one of the skin lines), 1 melee skin, gun buddies, cards, spray and titles. For now, you can check out Yoru’s full kit so you know what to expect from the tricky new Agent.

 

Yoru Backstory

“Japanese native “Yoru” is able to create gaps in reality itself so that he can sneak into enemy territory unnoticed. Strength and stealth allow him to take enemies by surprise – they will not even have time to understand where death came from.”

Many players are also speculating that Yoru might be a time traveller who’s related to the samurai on Icebox which was discovered soon after the map’s release. According to the speculations, Yoru time travelled from the past to Icebox, which is located in Bennett Island, Russia to retrieve the samurai armour. This speculation can be supported by an in-game newspaper that reports the presence of time-travellers in the Valorant universe.

 

Yoru’s Abilities And How To Use Them

C — FAKEOUT (100 credits, 2 charges)

Equip an echo that simulates footsteps in a selected location and at all times. Fire to activate and send the echo forward, Alt-Fire to place an echo in place. Similar to Cypher’s Cybertrap or Killjoy’s Nanoswarm you can activate it when you want to.

Don’t worry though your teammates will hear a different sound, to the opponents who will hear a running enemy agent. Fakeout is perfect for fake site rushes and during post-plat situations. You can use Fakeout to trick enemy agents into thinking someone is pushing from the site or convince the enemy team that someone has gone behind their lines.

You can also use Fakeout to trigger enemy agent abilities, like Cypher’s Trapwires and Cyber Cages, or Killjoy’s Turret and Alarmbot. This ability can likewise waste the enemy Raze’s Boom Bot.

 

Q — BLINDSIDE (200 credits, 2 charges)

Equip to rip an unstable dimensional fragment from reality. Fire to throw the fragment, activating a flash that winds up once it collides with a hard surface in the world.

It’s basically the same flash as Phoenix, Breach and Skye. But the main difference in Yoru’s flash has to bounce off of some kind of surface once to be able to explode. Use Blindside to pop flash and appear as you would Phoenix’s Curveball or Reyna’s Leer.

 

E — GATECRASH (One free cast, resets after 2 kills) 

Gatecrash is Yoru’s innate ability and might be one of the game’s best tools for outplaying opponents because of its manoeuvrability as a teleport. Equip to harness a rift tether, then Fire to send the tether out moving forward. Alt-Fire to place a tether in place, Activate to teleport to the tether’s location.

Use the portal to either set it as a point to to come back to or send it as a location for you to go. Use this to hit it and quit it or to get yourself sneakily around the map. The ability lasts about 20 seconds, but can be shot by enemies. The Gatecrash orb itself will cause an audio cue for nearby enemy agents.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Gatecrash orb cannot be cast vertically. The orb moves forward horizontally, and will only move vertically if the pathing itself is laid out vertically as well. However, it will fall off high ground ledges as it continues its trajectory.

 

X — DIMENSIONAL DRIFT (7 orb points)

Equip a mask that can see between dimensions and move invisibly from and invulnerable to everyone else. Fire to drift into Yoru’s dimension, unable to be affected or seen by enemies from the outside. The ultimate’s main goal is to get Yoru behind enemy lines or where the opponents will least expect him.

The ultimate runs for about 10 seconds and can be cancelled before the set duration. Players will need to keep in mind that, while in the Dimensional Drift, their vision will be slightly impaired, similar to Skye’s Trailblazer ability. In contrast to Reyna’s Ultimate, you don’t need anything but Ult points to activate this ability.

The best way to outplay opponents using Yoru is to pair his Dimensional Drift ultimate with the Gatecrash teleport. Players can use Yoru’s ultimate to gain information on the enemy team. And then exit the Drift at a safe location. This will force the enemy team to coordinate and watch their flanks while keeping an eye out for Yoru’s teammates.

 

Who Should Play Yoru?

Yoru is probably going to be more of a lurking and back-stabbing duelist than a leading-the-charge type of agent. His ability set simply works better for joker plays and round-winning scenes rather than for consistently getting entry frags.

He also is highly skill-dependent and will not be easy to play in the beginning. You need a solid feeling for timing with his invisibility and teleport to really benefit from him and his other abilities are very useful but still situational and hard to master.

High-skilled opponents will quickly get how the agent works and therefore will carefully lookout for the very unique sounds Yoru’s abilities make. It surely is going to need some getting used to but I think Yoru fits right into the meta of Valorant with his skillset and is neither overpowered nor useless in the long run. And working out long-term is what Riot is aiming for in every one of their agents.