Hey everyone! Today, I’m going to discuss Valkyrie, the new Apex Legends hero added in season 9.
She is a recon legend with an interesting kit and a tactical ability. Since I’m a Predator Top 500 rank Apex player working as an Apex Booster here at Immortal Boost, I need to know how to play every legend so that if clients ask me to play a specific one, I should be ready.
Valkyrie is an incredibly fun mobile and tactical Legend lording over the skies in Apex Legends. Valkyrie is a recon legend with the most robust movement in the game and an offensive cue to top it off. Valkyrie has the most impactful Ultimate in the game. Regardless of the map or situation, Valkyrie brings insane utility and flexibility to any situation.
Valkyrie Overview
First, let’s briefly overview Valkyrie’s kit and why she stands out from all the other Legends in the game. She’s a recon character allowing her to survey beacons and the ability to spot enemies from afar while dropping. She will ping these enemies if they are within her line of sight and a couple of hundred meters.
Her primary passive ability VTOL Jet is the core of Valkyrie’s gameplay. Double jumping will activate her Jets using fuel, allowing her to take to the skies. This movement ability is unlike anything Apex Legends has ever seen before, making her gameplay unique. She also has her own unique HUD which activates when she’s skydiving either while dropping at the start of the match from a balloon, her ultimate or any of the map features that allow her to do so.
VTOL Jets (passive Ability)
Let’s start with one of the more notable items, the VTOL jets. This is a jet pack that she can use to maneuver herself around in a very natural and free-flowing way that does open up a lot of options for creative playmaking. It’s pretty basic in theory that the longer you hold the jets down the more fuel you are going to use. Rapidly tapping the jets on and off will also consume more fuel but with the benefit of increased maneuverability.
A thing that the majority of the players will want to change is the setting of the jetpack control on the gameplay tab. Most will feel that changing this from toggle to hold is the way to go. Having this hold feels much more natural for most players and will let you just release your jump key to start falling back to the ground.
Tips for Valkyrie’s Passive Ability
- The VTOL jets are going to be the life force of Valkyrie and you will want to do your best to at minimum, save a little bit of fuel to get that quick boost out of trouble or to get to high ground. When discussing taking high ground, a great tactic to keep yourself mobile is to climb at the end of your usage of the jetpack. Since you are unable to use any weapons, grenades, healing items, or other equipment while you are flying and briefly.
- Climbing right at the end of using your jets bypasses a little bit of that hand animation and it will keep you more concealed from getting beamed by your enemies. Another big thing to avoid as Valkyrie is to simply just not fly high. Flying further and further off the ground can have its advantages like getting more intel but unless you are near cover then don’t do this as you are completely opening yourself up to get shot and beamed enemies.
- Right after you finish the use of the jets then Valkyrie kind of floats a little and this movement is revealing. One scenario, where this floating effect does come in handy is when you are falling from a height. Falling from a height gives most Legends fatigued when they do hit the ground. This is a brief movement where your character hits that ground and is unable to move because they did fall from height.
- Something Valkyrie can do to avoid this is just to tap her boosters right before she hits the ground. This will stop her from getting that brief moment of stun effect and will let her continue much faster. As I mentioned earlier rapidly tapping the booster does use a ton of fuel and you do need to be aware of how much you are using and how fast it is going down.
- It takes a few seconds before the fuel starts recharging so if you are immediately tapping the jets then your fuel will not ever recharge. When you are in a tough situation pretty much every player including controller warriors will be able to more or less tap strafe with Valkyrie’s jetpack to get her out of the tough situations or just break the enemy’s ankles and fights.
- Rapidly tapping the jets in and around the building is a great way to evade fire and get safety to pop those heels or better yet make a creative play. If you do get hit by some sort of stun ability or some effect such as Arc Star then you can tap factories just to eliminate that stunning effect and get you moving a little bit faster.
- Valkyrie’s tool in the fight is quick taps of the jetpack to drop from height. You have to get some shots on enemies and then do a quick boost back up to the roof of that building or any other high area that the enemies can’t easily get to. You can also do the reverse where you might be fighting on high ground. You can bait someone to jump to the low ground and then just fly back up to the high ground.
- The next one is the big one as I see way too many newer or less experienced players falling into and this is using her jetpack when you don’t need to or when you are approaching a fight. The element of surprise is a big thing in Apex, if you Jet pack anywhere within about 70 to 100 meters of a team then they are going to hear your approach.
- Sometimes climbing is the best thing you can do to avoid detection. Don’t give yourself away, and your squad because you are too lazy to climb an object. As you can see lots of ways to use Valkyrie’s passive jetpack and if this isn’t enough, she still has two other parts of passive ability.
- For one, she is a recon Legend which means that you can use those beacons around the map to see the next ring. Valkyrie also has pretty unique ability to scan or tag enemies when flying in and when deploying with either her ultimate or a balloon. These enemies are scanned based on line of sight.
- Players and buildings will not be targeted and additionally, enemies are also scanned on the map. This is a great way to make sure that are not landing on an enemy team on accident and to better identify third parties. A little trick you may be unaware of is that the champion and kill leaders are also tagged both with the CH and the KL, so be on the lookout for these markers.
Missile Swarm (Tactical Ability)
The missile swarm is her tactical ability and this is a pretty strong ability just for a tactical. This sends out a cluster of 12 missiles that deal 25 damage to each enemy on the initial hit as an additional three or so damage per each additional rocket that does connect to enemies. This generally is going to do anywhere from 25 to 40 or so damage and on top of that it also stuns enemies much like an Arc Star.
It has a quick 35-second cooldown and it can be fired up to 100 or so meters away depending on your elevation with your enemies. This is an ability that should be used more times than not as it’s great to farm some damage and keep applying pressure.
Tips for Valkyrie’s Tactical
- The missiles are pretty frustrating to deal with and the amount of evo shields you can farm up is pretty underrated so don’t underestimate the power of this ability. There are a lot of different neat tricks for this but starting with something that you are going to want to avoid more than not do not fly straight up into the air just to shoot the rockets at enemies.
- This barely adds any distance to the rockets and the only thing it’s going to do is to waste your fuel usage and make yourself much easier to attack. There can be moments where this is useful to do but in general, just don’t do it.
- Another massive mistake is a poor use of the rockets and mostly this comes down to accidentally stunning yourself. When using the Valkyrie’s tactical, it takes a minute for the rockets to go out, so if you do move behind an object while they are firing then you going to hit yourself. Take care when using the missiles if you are near an object or if you are near a building.
- If you are behind the low objects something like a box or something easily climbable then you can activate the rockets to send them to the other side without taking damage. Looking straight at the object and hitting the tactical doesn’t work as you will still hurt yourself.
- However, if you look down and then use the rockets then this sends them up a little bit higher and you will get them over most objects that are relatively lower around your head height. It’s a great little tactic if you are in a 1v1 or 1v2 or any close-range fight with enemies if they are on the other side of the object.
- While the outdoors is where the rockets shine, the rockets can work indoors depending on the height of the building. However, if you need to use it in a pinch then crouching while indoors to send the rocket out is a viable strategy depending on the location of the building is a little bit shorter.
- Forcing movement is key with the tactical as no one wants to take damage from the missiles even if it isn’t the most effective like an Arc Star. Even if you can pop the tactical enemies behind a rock more times than not they are going to run out which will give you a free opportunity, every 30 or so seconds to get some shots on enemies that might be camping it up or if you are in a standoff during an endgame.
- A massive combo and trick is to pair this up with Arc Stair. Valkyrie can’t do this alone but if you toss an arc down and missiles at the same time then there are moments where you can get both to connect and do massive damage. An even better way is to coordinate with your squad as you can use the missiles while they throw the grenade making it something very difficult for a lot of enemies to avoid.
- The missiles can also be used to break doors on buildings. Aiming slightly in front of the building or door will be best but if you can connect rockets then it will break the door and allow you to fire on enemies without you needing to go up to that door break it down or use a grenade.
- If you do hold your rockets and you decide that you don’t want to use them then you can just pop your jetpack to stop the use of the rockets. Another very situational thing that is worth having in your arsenal is the reverse missile launch.
- If you are getting chased by enemies and then you can look down to the ground hold your tactical and then jump while releasing the missiles. This will send out the missiles backwards and it could slow down a chasing enemy. It’s not always going to be useful but it’s something that can be done and I would recommend practicing this in the firing range.
Skyward Dive (Ultimate Ability)
If you are looking to dive right into the battle then there is no better ultimate in all of the Apex than the Skyward dive. This ultimate ability allows Valkyrie and your squad to rapidly redeploy from any outdoor location with the appropriate vertical clearance to anywhere around her.
Valkyrie’s Ultimate has a Super friendly three-minute recast timer and more times than not. This is going to allow you to get multiple jumps in a game. The great thing with Valkyrie’s ultimate is that it will work simultaneously with her passive so you can find out who is around as you are landing back on the ground.
Sometimes just using Valkyrie’s ultimate is to look around to see who is nearby is a solid tactic to give yourself and your team a little bit more intel on how you might want to play out that match.
Tips for Valkyrie Ultimate
- There are great ways to use the Ultimate, but I want to start by stating that using her Ultimate is just not needed. If you know that you are not going to reveal yourself and the team or take unnecessary damage by Ulting, then don’t do it.
- When landing and coming out of her ultimate, you will not have your weapons drawn, which means that your landing location is crucial to your success. This is even more so during the end game when there are a lot of teams around, especially in ranked.
- A pretty viable strategy during the endgame is just to pop her ultimate and then float in the air as the enemy team floods out below you. It depends on your positioning in the match, but this is something to keep in mind as a viable strategy.
- The smaller the circle, the harder it is to rip that Valkyrie ultimate, so you have to be very aware of where you are activating the ultimate in relation to your enemies.
- If you get shot while preparing to launch, you will not be able to blast off. The ultimate will be canceled, and your timer will be reset back down by 25% to 75% of the charge. You can also manually cancel the ultimate, and your charge will still reset to 75. If you do change your mind, the ring damage will not cancel her ultimate usage.
- A ring is a solid tactic and you can drop a heat shield on an area of height and then use the ultimate as you will not take damage as you charge up and blast off. If you want to take this one step further then Gibraltar’s dome shield is an incredible tool to get Valkyrie’s ultimate off drop the dome and then get ready to launch. Still, there is a very huge mistake, I find players make and this is the dome and the Valkyrie ultimate combo.
- The problem is that using Gibraltar’s dome shield before to get the Valkyrie off is nice, and if you do need to, then you have to do it that way, but it’s better yet to save that dome shield for when you are landing. Right as the team lands from the skyward dive, dropping a shield instantly helps for a ton of survivability in hot areas, and it’s something that you want to think about before you do rip that Valkyrie ult.
- The real benefit of the ultimate kind of has two different ways of thinking depending on what mode you are playing. For ranked increasing survivability and better rotations are key but for pubs smashing flying from squad to squad and getting high kill games is really where it’s going to shine. Due to pubs dying so fast I highly recommend running with ultimate accelerants in your inventory so you can use this ultimate as much as possible.
How to Play as Valkyrie
Let’s put this together to understand how to play Valkyrie as effectively as possible. One of her biggest advantages is vertical mobility. So, making the most of this should always be on your mind. There are ways to escape and chase enemies that other legends can’t do, and those who can can only really do it once on a lengthy cooldown.
If you manage your resources carefully the floor above or below is always the option. When you need to create space then dropping a floor only to retake it once they drop is a great way to do this, allowing you the time to heal or isolate enemy players for a better chance of downing than one at a time.
How to Counter Valkyrie
Let’s discuss how to counter Valkyrie in Apex Legends. If Valkyrie starts using her ultimate near you this means, you and your team must focus on shooting Valkyrie going up. If your team manages to knock Valkyrie while she is going up, both she and all of her teammates will fall to the ground making them easier targets for your team to finish.
Since her ultimate always goes on the same height and straight in the air, it is easier to use a DMR weapon to knock her down.
Valkyrie Best Legend Pairing
Valkyrie is one of the best legends for Zone playstyle. Once paired with Legends complimenting her, you will be overpowered in winning your games with Zone Playstyle.
Here are the best legends to pair with Valkyrie.
- Crypto
- Wattson
- Caustic
Crypto
With Valkyrie’s job to help you with the ring, here’s when Crypto comes into play. He will help gather information using his drone and help you clear the area and spot enemies. Now you can use crypto’s EMP, and rush a squad or third party depending upon the scenario. The best part is you can be in cover and get all the information helping you hold the area.
Wattson
Now that you’re good with the ring and both area information, the next step is to hold your position. Wattson is one of the best defense legends in season 20 and the current meta. You can place her two generators to close down the area which helps in stopping enemies from pushing you. This will also save you from grenades. You can easily take on your fights this way and not worry about being a third party as Wattson will help defend the area.
Caustic
Caustic can also be used to defend your position. He’s also a good defense legend if you prefer it over Wattson. Caustic has been very overpowered in the last seasons. He can easily hold off enemies from pushing you by using his gas to slow them down and break their vision. Also, that helps him heal while in the gas, which is a plus point and works in your favor, and you can hold your ground easily.
Final Thoughts
Thank you for reading my guide. I hope you will dominate every game with Valkyrie! You can check out our badge boosting for Apex Legends, where we can unlock any badge for you with Valkyrie. As a professional Apex player,
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