VALORANT's new agent Chamber: A charming defense monster

It's been a while since Chamber was announced, but Riot Games has finally released the 18th agent in VALORANT.

Initial first impressions paints him as an extremely capable Sentinel that is heavily reliant on the player’s aim, while his skills are extremely useful in aggressively pushing and holding down areas of the map that are generally not very accessible to the other Sentinels.

However, while being extremely good at holding angles on defense, his utility and kit leave him a little less desirable as an attacker.

Here are his skills and a short breakdown for each of them.

Signature: Rendezvous

PLACE two teleport anchors. While on the ground and in range of an anchor, REACTIVATE to quickly teleport to the other anchor. Anchors can be picked up to be REDEPLOYED.

Chamber is able to put down two teleport points on the ground. The points/anchor have a range that Chamber needs to be in to activate his teleport. When in the range of the first teleport anchor, Chamber is able to activate the skill to instantly teleport to the second teleport anchor. He will appear exactly at the second anchor, so if you see this anchor on the ground as an enemy player, there is a high chance that Chamber might appear at this point.

The best perk about his teleport is that it is INSTANT. Just like Jett’s dash, he is able to activate it at any time to instantly head to his other teleport point if he wants to. This will then have a cooldown timer before he can teleport again. Chamber can also recall his teleport anchors from anywhere on the map to be placed in a different location. This teleport feels like Jett’s dash on steroids, and there were already problems with the way she could instantly dash away without any repercussions.

Perhaps the major downside of the teleport is that it has an extremely long recovery after Chamber uses it. During the recovery time, he is susceptible to attacks and will not be able to defend himself, so if anyone is camping for Chamber at the second anchor point, he's as good as dead.

The teleport anchors are also destructible, so you are able to shoot one to destroy it if you see it placed on the ground. From our testing, it looks like each anchor has 100 hp.

Whenever Chamber teleports, there is also a huge directional sound cue for the enemies akin to Yoru’s teleport. You should be able to tell where the Chamber has teleported to by listening closely.

Ability 1: Trademark

PLACE a trap that scans for enemies. When a visible enemy comes in range, the trap counts down and then destabilizes the terrain around them, creating a lingering field that slows players caught inside of it.

This trap is able to detect enemies that come too close to it. Around 2 seconds after detecting an enemy, the trap will shoot a beam at a foe to create a field that slows the area around them.

Once an enemy is detected by the trap, they only have two options to avoid getting tagged by the beam — they can either get out of the line of sight of the trap, or destroy it.

Yes, once it detects you, if you don’t break the line of sight with the trap, you are going to get shot by the slow beam. This will happen even if you attempt to get out of its initial detection range, so there’s no running away.

When the trap detects a foe, Chamber will receive a notification that an enemy is detected in the trap’s range. He will receive another notification if the trap is destroyed or if the trap has successfully fired off the slow beam.

However, unlike Killjoy’s and Cypher’s traps, Chamber’s traps do not go invisible when placed. That means you are able to shoot it from a mile away if you do spot one on the ground. To effectively use it, a Chamber player will need to sneak these traps in a very hidden and tight spot that is difficult to shoot at.

Ability 2: Headhunter

ACTIVATE to equip a heavy pistol. ALT FIRE with the pistol equipped to aim down sights.

Chamber will equip a pistol that is pretty powerful if used right. It deals 159 damage on a headshot, 55 damage on a body shot, and 46 damage on a leg shot. These damage numbers do not change no matter the range.

The equip time on the Headhunter pistol is also pretty quick, and I would say that it is about 0.25 seconds. The fastest equip time on a normal pistol is 0.75 seconds, so pulling out the Headhunter pistol is sometimes better in a firefight if your primary gun runs out of bullets.

The accuracy of the gun is also pretty good. The first three bullets of the gun (if you decide to spam shoot) are pretty accurate, so if you are not confident with your headshots, you can still take down someone pretty quickly with body shots.

You can also use aim-down-sights (ADS) on the Headhunter, making it quite on a par with a Guardian.

Perhaps the downside of the pistol is that it is not reloadable, and it only comes with 8 bullets. At the start of the round, you will need to purchase these bullets for 100 credits each.

Ultimate: Tour de Force

ACTIVATE to summon a powerful, custom sniper rifle that will kill an enemy with any direct hit. Killing an enemy creates a lingering field that slows players caught inside of it.

Chamber will pull out a sniper rifle that is very similar to the Operator. It will kill anyone as long as a bullet hits them directly (yes, even the legs). You can still shoot enemies through a wall with it, but it won’t be as effective.

If an enemy is killed with the sniper rifle, it will leave a slow field that is similar to Chamber’s traps at the enemy’s body. This is extremely good at stalling pushes if you manage to gun someone down at a choke point with the sniper rifle.

Perhaps what makes his ultimate so different from a normal Operator is its time to rechamber after every shot.

It is extremely fast to rechamber and you can continuously peek at the angle that you are covering much faster than you would with a standard Operator. Coupled with the fact that it leaves a lingering slow field, covering a choke point with his ultimate is extremely powerful if you hit your shots.

The downside of his ultimate is definitely the bullet count. You only have five bullets in the chamber (hurhur) when you activate it, so you do have to make your shots count.

Playstyle:

Chamber is a fantastic defender. He is able to hold an aggressive angle just like Jett because of his instant teleport.

Coupled with his ultimate, he is able to reposition pretty quickly to stop attackers rushing to a site. His repositioning capabilities on defense is perhaps the best among all the agents in game.

Unlike Yoru, he doesn’t need to worry about his teleport’s countdown timer while waiting for an enemy, and that itself is already extremely strong because he is able to reposition at any time.

His Headhunter pistol is also extremely strong on eco rounds. Gone are the days when you attempt to use a Sheriff, only to do a 145 damage headshot at long ranges, and get murdered anyway because your headshot didn’t do enough damage for a kill. A Chamber player will be able to pull out a Guardian-like pistol in these rounds to secure the kills no matter the distance.

On attack however, Chamber leaves much to be desired. If he is played in a conventional manner, he has absolutely no utility to help his team to get into site.

His ultimate creates a slow field, which means, if you manage to kill an enemy with it at a choke point, you are also risking slowing down your teammates because of the slow field it creates.

If your team manages to plant the spike, however, he can once again resort to the tactics that he uses on defense, being able to peek aggressively and reposition at will at any point in time to get the advantage.

He can also be played as a lurker on attack with his teleport and traps, but that also means that you'd better get the jump on the enemy and kill them to make it advantageous for your team, since you are not playing with them.

I would even dare say that he is able to hold onto a site by himself if he is pushed because of his skills.

His traps can tell him if enemies are pushing onto site, and his ultimate is able to slow down a push if he hits his shots.

But beware, just like Jett and Raze, if he gets hit with a suppressive wave by a KAY/O player, he will be unable to use his pistol and his sniper rifle, even if you’ve already activated it from the get go.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Dominic loves tech and games. When he is not busy being headshotted in VALORANT or watercooling anything he sees, he does some pro wrestling.

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