▶
EN
The topics
All the news →
EN Change language
Home › Agents › Duelists › Waylay
← Duelists
Duelists

Waylay

The duelist who takes space and comes back alive

“Go in. Take the position. Come back. In that order.”

Waylay, a Valorant agent
Waylay
Bio
Abilities
Videos
Gameplay
Focus
Biography

THE STORY OF WAYLAY

Waylay is a Radiant from Thailand, the twenty-eighth agent to join the VALORANT Protocol and the eighth duelist on the roster. Her power rests entirely on light, which she uses as much to move as to slow down anyone who gets in the way.

She joined the protocol through a personal connection: it was Tejo, whom she already knew, who came to get her at a critical moment for the organization. A recommendation that says a lot, coming from an agent as methodical as him.

Her character cuts against the usual duelist image. Waylay is rigorous, demanding and direct. She mentors the younger recruits and does not hesitate to correct a teammate on the spot, on the grounds that hearing something unpleasant in training beats losing someone on an operation. It is not gratuitous harshness, it is a method.

Agent file
Codename Waylay
Real name Undisclosed
Nationality Thai
Role Duelist
Affiliations VALORANT Protocol
Abilities

WAYLAY'S ABILITIES

C

Refract

Waylay places a light beacon on the ground and can return to it instantly as pure light, invulnerable for the whole trip.

Q

Saturate

Waylay instantly throws a mass of light that bursts on the ground and heavily hinders the movement and weapon handling of nearby players.

E

Lightspeed

Waylay charges a burst of speed to make one or two quick dashes forward, the first of which can lift her into the air.

X

Convergent Paths

Waylay projects an afterimage of herself emitting a beam of light, then gains a strong burst of speed while the beam widens and hinders other players.

Media

WAYLAY VIDEOS

Dawn Breaks, the Waylay agent trailer

Waylay gameplay reveal

Tips

HOW TO PLAY WAYLAY

01
Place your beacon before you go in, not when it goes wrong

Refract can only bring you back to a beacon you have already dropped. The player who waits until he is in trouble to use it finds out he never placed one. Get in the habit of putting it on your fallback position before every angle you take: that is what turns a risky entry into a profitable one.

02
Only your first dash can go up

This is the constraint to build into Lightspeed. If you want to reach high ground, it has to be the first step of your movement, not the second. Think about the order before you leave, because once the first dash is spent along the ground, height is out of reach.

03
Saturate slows the gun, not just the legs

The hinder also affects weapon handling, which makes it far more than a movement slow. Thrown onto a player holding a defensive position, it degrades his ability to shoot back at the exact moment you take the angle. It is an offensive ability, not just a control tool.

04
The ultimate goes off on a delay, that is your entry window

The beam comes from your afterimage and takes a moment to spread, during which you pick up speed. That delay is not a flaw, it is the moment you have to move up. Waylay is still a duelist: the ultimate exists so that you arrive on the site first, not so you watch your teammates go in.

Classification

THE VALORANT DUELISTS

ROLE: DUELIST

Masters of aggression and space creation. Eight agents built to go in first, break the enemy line and land the frag that swings the round.

Iso
Iso
Duelist · Chinese
Jett
Jett
Duelist · South Korean
Neon
Neon
Duelist · Filipino
Phoenix
Phoenix
Duelist · British
Raze
Raze
Duelist · Brazilian
Reyna
Reyna
Duelist · Mexican
Yoru
Yoru
Duelist · Japanese

EVERYTHING ABOUT WAYLAY IN VALORANT

Waylay is the twenty-eighth agent in Valorant and the first space-taking duelist added since the game launched, a subcategory that until then belonged only to Jett and Raze. She comes from Thailand and introduces an effect new to the game, hinder, which slows both the movement and the weapon handling of the enemies it hits. Her kit combines two successive dashes for crossing tight chokepoints and a beacon that lets her travel back while completely invulnerable. On paper, she offers the aggression of a classic duelist with an exit door the others do not have.

No, despite her apparent safety net. Refract does let you escape a bad situation while invulnerable, but only if you remembered to place the beacon before going in. Her two dashes, of which only the first can send her upward, also require planning your movement ahead of time. Several analyses consider her less forgiving than Jett on movement mistakes. To discover the duelist role, Phoenix and Raze remain clearly better suited.

It is an effect introduced to the game with this agent. Unlike a classic slow, which only affects movement speed, hinder also degrades the target's weapon handling. An enemy caught in it therefore moves more slowly and shoots back less effectively, which makes it an offensive tool and not only a control one. Waylay applies it with her cluster of light and with her ultimate.

The ability instantly drops a beacon on the ground. By reactivating it, Waylay returns to that spot as pure light, invulnerable to all damage and all abilities for the entire trip. A charge comes back every two kills. The condition to remember is that the beacon has to have been placed beforehand: it cannot be improvised once the duel has started, which makes dropping it a systematic reflex before every angle you take.

Waylay is a Thai Radiant whose powers rest on manipulating light. She joined the VALORANT Protocol at the request of Tejo, whom she knew before her recruitment and who came to get her at a difficult moment for the organization. Her writing highlights a demanding temperament and a mentoring role with the youngest agents, whom she readily corrects, on the view that a remark made early beats a failure in the field.