In VALORANT, Omen is a Controller best known for his knack for out-playing opponents using his smokes, blinds, and his teleporting abilities. As a Controller, Omen is naturally equipped with a blueish-purple cloud of smoke that he can use to block off enemy vision within certain areas of the map, stall enemy pushes, or cunningly lurk behind enemy lines to secure easy kills for his team.
Agents with any type of smoke ability are some of the most valuable Agents in VALORANT. Smokers like Omen are capable of blocking off crucial entry points toward any site. This helps your team reposition accordingly and take advantage of the angles that enemies would otherwise be holding, which is key to successfully attacking or defending any site.
Omen’s Dark Cover
Omen’s Dark Cover costs 100 credits. He passively receives one for free during the start of each round. This makes Dark Cover a very cheap but powerful tool that Omen can use right from round one, and every round after that. The free charge also replenishes every 40 seconds.
Since each match in VALORANT is timed for one minute and forty seconds, Omen can theoretically place two more Dark Covers after he exhausts the first two at the start of the round. This gives Omen even more options for retakes and site takes as the game timer runs down.
Although Dark Cover is very good at covering and blocking enemy sightlines, it is actually hollow inside. Players need to be careful since enemies can lurk inside of these smokes and catch you by surprise.
Dark Cover can be placed at almost any location inside the map using either the Etheral View or the Normal View. Ethereal View is arguably the better choice when placing these smokes, as the Ethereal View gives Omen players an x-ray view of the surrounding buildings. Under Ethereal View, players can use Dark Cover with pinpoint accuracy and help players find the ideal “clipping spots” to land these smokes. This will serve a vital role in setting up Omen’s one-way smokes.
What Are One-way Smokes?
One way’s are smokes that are placed in such a way that only one person can see the other behind the smoke. This makes it a very valuable type of smoke that can net your team very easy kills while staying relatively safe since the opponents cannot see you behind the smoke but you can see them.
The way this works is with the Angle Advantage element that is present in VALORANT and just about any other tactical shooter. Basically, the closer the opponent is to the wall or any type of cover, the easier it is for another person situated somewhere farther away from that angle to see you. You can’t see them, but they can see you. This is a high-value tactic that many pro players use.
Get Sneaky Peeky With The Phantom
Since we are going to be taking advantage of the element of surprise with these smokes, it is very important to keep a low profile when trying to peek angles using Omen’s one-way smokes.
To do this, you will need a weapon that won’t alert the enemies of your exact location. The best weapon for the job is the Phantom.
The Phantom is an automatic rifle in VALORANT. It has three 30-bullet magazines for a total of 120 rounds. The gun sports some of the fastest firing rates in VALORANT as well as having no bullet tracers when firing. The gun costs 2900 credits.
No bullet tracers when firing means that you can take full advantage of the cover that one-way smokes provide. you can basically spam rounds and peek through the smoke safely. This will definitely help Omen players net easy kills and run back to safety while the enemies wonder what just hit them.
How to Do Omen One-way Smokes in Icebox (Defending)
We will show you a couple of the most useful one-way smokes in Icebox that you can use when playing as Omen on the defender side. These smokes are relatively easy to do, but some admittedly require some practice to get consistent at.
Nevertheless, these one-way smokes not only give you the unfair advantage of seeing the Attackers before they can see you, but they also provide a reasonable amount of coverage that you and your teammates can hide behind safely in case of fast/aggressive enemy pushes. Let’s begin!
1. Omen One-way Smoke in Icebox B Green
B-site ‘Green‘ is one of only two reliable entry points to get into B-site. (The other entry point being B Orange.) This means that B Green is a very crucial space to defend when playing B-site. This works to Omen players’ advantage, as B Green is visibly very narrow, and is almost a chokepoint before Attackers can enter B-site.
Adding a touch of one-way smoke will only add insult to injury to the Attackers, and that works in our favor.
There are two important smokes in B Green that you need to learn. This first one-way smoke will get you an easy kill when the enemies are not aware of the one-way smoke. This works best in low-elo (Iron-Silver) where most players are not aware of these mechanics. Still, it is possible to surprise even seasoned veterans with these one-way smokes when they are paying less attention to the game.
Here is the first smoke
- Look for this box in B-site:
2. Stand on top of this box and look for this doorway within the Ethereal View of Dark Cover. Press “E” to activate Dark Cover. Press the “R” key to switch views.
3. Click the left or right mouse buttons to adjust the distance of Dark Cover.
4. This is where you are going to have to find a fine line. A tip to find it faster is to align the green arrow so that it sits on top of the blue sphere indicator. Like this:
5. Press “E” to deploy Dark Cover
When done correctly, the smoke should look like this:
This is the Attackers’ POV:
As you can see, the enemies barely have vision over anything beyond the doorway, but you, on the other hand, can see their legs. This is enough information for Defenders to start shooting through the smoke and hopefully get a cheeky kill. Remember to use the Phantom only so you can mask the location where your shots are coming from.
2. Omen One-way Smoke in Icebox B Green (Retake)
Bombsite retakes are sticky situations that require careful team coordination to successfully execute. To make things easier for your team here is an easy but quite powerful Dark Cover that can turn the tides in your favor.
- Look for this container van in B Green:
2. Press “E” to enable Dark Cover and position the green arrow right on this edge of this container van.
3. Place the smoke once you have positioned it neatly. It should look like this:
Here are the Attackers’ POV behind the smoke:
3. Omen One-way Smoke in Icebox B Orange
As mentioned before, one of only two direct entry points into the B-site is through Orange which is a much narrower entry point compared to Green. Here is a one-way smoke for B Orange:
- Press “E” to deploy Dark Cover.
2. Left-click or right-click to move the Dark Cover further or closer to you:
3. Position the blue center sphere on the top-left corner of Tube and place the green arrow above the letter “E”:
4. Deploy the Dark Cover:
If done properly, it should look like this:
Attackers’ POV from the other side of the smoke:
As you can see – they can’t. Attackers from Blue cannot see anything inside Orange at all while Defenders will clearly see the legs of the incoming Attackers. This can help you and your team eliminate potential threats from Blue-Orange before the enemies can even see you.
4. Omen One-way Smoke in Icebox A Pipes
This next one-way smoke blocks off multiple Attacker sightlines in A-site, including Headshot, Pipes, Top-Site, 410, and Gen if they are coming from A-Main. From Nest, Attackers will not be able to see 410, Top-Site, and Maze. From Belt, Attackers’ vision towards Maze is also blocked.
The one-way aspect of this smoke lies with the Defender playing Gen or the cubby in front of Gen. Here, the Defender holding Gen can see the Attackers’ legs while they are making their way towards the Orb. You can net your team easy early kills from this one-way smoke. It is also fairly easy to do. Here’s how you do it:
- Look for these rectangluar lights at Pipes:
2. Press “E” to enable Dark Cover. Switch to the alt view by pressing “R”.
3. Align the small green position indicator arrow towards the middle of the right-side light. Like this:
4. Deploy the Dark Cover:
If done correctly, it should look like this:
Enemy POV from Pipes:
As you can see, Attackers from this area are at a great disadvantage if they choose to continue to push this area. They will only be gunned down for easy kills by any Defender holding Gen. This is a very powerful one-way smoke that you can easily employ every round to lock down A-site.
5. Omen One-way Smoke in Icebox A Belt
This is by far the most broken one-way smoke I have ever discovered here in Icebox. This basically shuts down A Belt and deters any future attacks coming from this area. This angle is best held with an Operator so you can one-shot kill basically anyone who dares push this angle, although the Phantom can also do the job just as well. This is how you do it:
Note: This is by far the most complicated and trickiest smoke on this list. Practice will be mandatory to consistently place this smoke but the reward will be very sweet.
- Stand on this area in Top-Site:
2. Look for these markings on Top-Site. Place your crosshair at approximately the middle part of this yellow-triangular marking. Make sure to hug the back wall.
3. Press “E” to activate Dark Cover. Make sure it is in Ethereal View, press “R” in case it isn’t.
4. Use the left or right mouse buttons to adjust the distance of Dark Cover.
5. Take the upper right corner of this “E” indicator, and align it with this corner of Nest.
7. Now, here is the trickiest part: Once you have aligned the “E” indicator to the aforementioned corner on Nest, you now have to quickly tap “W” to inch forward little by little until the green arrow sits between the Distance Bar and the Blue Middle Sphere. Like this:
8. Press “E” to deploy Dark Cover:
It should leave a small enough gap so you can see the Attacker’s feet/legs:
Enemy POV:
Though it might seem very tricky and difficult to consistently land in an actual match, remember that you have a few seconds before each round starts. That should be enough time for you to get to this spot and line up this one-way smoke. This is a good one-way smoke to master since Attackers love to peek from this angle, and this is one of the most common places that Attackers peek from.
Leave Your Enemies in The Dark… Cover.
That is about it! These are some of the most valuable one-way smokes you can learn on Icebox. These smokes are not all of the one-way smokes that exist in Icebox for sure, but you shouldn’t really be throwing one-way smokes exclusively with Omen anyway. His standard full-coverage smoke is still one of the most useful smoke covers in the game. Plan and smoke accordingly.
It is also worth mentioning that some of these smokes are definitely a one-off. Enemies will most likely adapt and devise new ways to enter bomb-sites to avoid being hosed down by the Phantom through your one-way smoke of doom.
Still, these smokes are fun to execute and play around with. There’s just something confidence-inspiring with knowing that while they can’t see you, you can see them. Use these smokes along with Omen’s other highlight-reel capable abilities with your own combos, and you’ll be leaving your opponents running like they’ve seen a ghost. Oh, wait.
