Fade is frighteningly powerful.
The long wait is over – Fade is finally here. With the brief time we’ve had to play Fade in-game, she seems to be a competitive Initiator with a well-rounded kit for recon duty, site entry, and defense.
Most of the leaked information about Agent 20’s abilities was quite accurate. However, there are a few key differences, or rather, nuances to how some of her abilities work, which we will discuss in this article.
Let’s take a deep dive into Fade’s shiny new abilities. Let’s go!
Fade Abilities
Fade is an Initiator Agent with a good mix of recon, debuff, and binding abilities. If we were to describe what Fade brings to the VALORANT roster, that would be Synergy.
You’ll understand what that means for you in-game as we go through each ability below.
Prowler [C]
Although the eerie-looking creature that Fade’s Prowlers are, underneath their dark and mysterious skin is *drum roll* a recon ability born from combining Skye’s Ultimate and Guiding Light.
Prowler pretty much behaves like a Skye Ultimate. Pressing the default button for Prowler [C] will EQUIP the ability. Clicking the FIRE button after equipping Prowler will send the creature towards the direction of the player’s crosshair until it finds a target in its line of sight or expires. When Prowler hits a target, the target will become NEARSIGHTED (much like Skye’s Ultimate once again).
Perhaps the best thing about Prowler is that it synergizes perfectly with Fade’s Haunt and Nightfall abilities. Enemies affected by these abilities will leave a TRAIL, and using Prowler while enemies are in a TRAIL state will force Prowler to lock onto and follow the closest TRAIL that it finds with increased movement speed.
On the other hand, Prowler is similar to Skye’s Guiding Light ability because players can also control the dark creatures by CLICKING AND HOLDING FIRE and by MOVING THE MOUSE towards the direction they want the Prowler to go.
A few more important things to note about Prowler is that players can destroy the Prowler projectile by firing at it with weapons or damaging it with other Agent Abilities such as Brimstone’s Ultimate and Raze’s Paint Shells.
Seize [Q]
Seize is a combination of multiple abilities that already exist in VALORANT. Seize shares binding characteristics similar to Cypher’s Trap Wire, Decay properties like Viper’s Poison Cloud, and Deafen effects like Neon’s Relay Bolt in one package.
What makes Seize frighteningly powerful is that MASSIVE 75 Decay damage on impact. Enemies will be bound and weakened while they are within the Seize area of effect.
Seize works like any projectile ability in VALORANT – pressing the default button for Seize [Q] will EQUIP the ability. Clicking FIRE throws the Dark Orb towards the direction of your crosshair. Players can either let the projectile traverse and land towards its final destination or cut its flight mid-air by pressing [Q].
Once the Seize projectile lands, the Dark Orb explodes; Binding, Decaying, and Deafening anyone caught within the area for 5-seconds. Seize cannot be shot down or destroyed.
The binding effect can synergize well with other Agent abilities such as Killjoy’s Nanoswarm, KAY/O’s FRAG/MENT, and perhaps even more frightening, Brimstone’s Orbital Strike. The Agent synergy possibilities are mind-boggling.
One last thing to note about Seize is that the Orb itself can bounce off of walls once before it lands at its final destination, and seizes pretty much behaves similarly to Phoenix’s Hot Hands trajectory-wise.
Haunt [E]
Haunt is Fade’s Signature Ability. Pressing the default button for Haunt [E] will EQUIP the ability. Clicking FIRE will throw the Dark Orb towards the direction of the player’s crosshair.
Upon landing, the Dark Orb will turn into an evil-looking creature that will REVEAL and TRAIL all enemies within its line of sight. Haunt’s projectile behavior is the same as Seize and, by extension, similar to Phoenix’s Hot Hands. Like Seize, players can cut the Dark Orb’s flight mid-air by quickly pressing the [E] button.
Think of this ability as a combination of Sova’s Recon Dart and Reyna’s Leer. As long as enemies are within Haunt’s line of sight, they will be REVEALED on the Fade player’s screen.
It is important to note that Haunt will continuously track and REVEAL all enemies caught within its line of sight until it is either destroyed or expires.
Overall, Haunt seems like a very powerful site-entry and recon tool that can be used to force enemies out of position. Fade players can also take advantage of the information that Haunt gathers to send out Prowler or Seize towards a target location.
Nightfall [X]
Fade’s Ultimate Ability, Nightfall, is a pretty straightforward ability that’s a Breach ult with different ability effects.
The animation, trajectory, and range of Nightfall are similar to Breach’s Rolling Thunder, so Breach mains should be pretty familiar with this ability.
The main difference lies in the debuffs that Nightfall applies to all affected enemies. Enemies caught within Nightfall’s area of effect will be TRAILED, DEAFENED, and DECAYED for 12-seconds.
While the TRAIL and DEAFEN effects are great, the 12-second DECAY is broken. Sure, enemies will recover from the 75 DECAY damage after a few seconds, but 12-seconds is a lot of time in a fast-paced game like VALORANT. Enemies will be at a significant disadvantage going into firefights due to the reduced HP.
The ability itself does not inflict any ‘real’ damage on enemies and is only really a mass status debuff ability and an excellent setup for Fade’s Prowler ability as well.
The Girl of Your Nightmares
Fade is the stuff of nightmares, at least for VALORANT players. Her abilities are amazingly coherent, not just with one another but with other Agents’ abilities. We’re confident her kit will allow her to play site-entry and site defense with little to no problems.
We’re excited to explore the possibilities to be had with Fade, and we’re sure you are too. So, what are you waiting for? Fire up VALORANT and unlock Fade now. You won’t regret it.
