Valorant Iso Guide – Master Isolation Tactics

Iso is the 24th Agent to join the VALORANT Protocol. This character allows you to pretty much frag out on a Lobby. Going to be very reliant on your mechanical skill to pull it off but if you do have the mechanics to make this character work then you can have a large impact on the match. Neutralize as many enemies as possible using the agent’s unique abilities as Iso this will be your goal. He captured the hearts of many players who eagerly awaited his release to unlock the character and utilize his potential in the game, from the teaser phase.

We’ll discuss Valorant Iso abilities, tips & tricks to use these abilities, Iso playing on defending and attacking sides, and lastly how to counter Iso Valorant. If you want to master other agents then do check our Valorant deadlock agent guide, Valorant agent Gekko, harbor Valorant agent guide, neon Valorant map guide, Valorant agent fade guide, Reyna Valorant agent guide, astra Valorant agent guide, Yoru Valorant agent guide, Clove Valorant Agent Guide.

Iso’s Role

The playstyle you will master after developing Iso is a bit different than most Duelists. You can play him as a solo fragger and entry and entry kind but we see Valorant Iso shines often more when used as a supporting duelist and initiator hybrid. All of his utility is amazing at helping your team get into heavily guarded areas with ease.

Be it a retake, site hits, or a quick mid-push, Iso’s utility has got your back. For team play, His Undercut is the portion of his kit that has a high ceiling. To put pressure on enemies with Undercut, and to scale with Contingency, you should be performing an entry with double tap active.

Undercut (Q Ability)

Iso’s kit is jam-packed with abilities unique to him and duelist in general. Let’s talk about his undercut first. The undercut is an ability very similar to Omen’s paranoia. It needs to be equipped and thrown in the same fashion and it also goes through the walls. This ability will apply a debuff known as Fragile.

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To any opponent it touches, this makes targets take double damage. It’s a pretty large radius and will apply the debuff for a total of 4 seconds to any target including teammates, so make sure you are not hitting your allies when trying to take sight. The undercut travels at 22.5 meters a second which is very fast. It has a fairly quick equipment time of 8 seconds. So, this can be used in a pinch.

Not only does it equip fast but you can also get a slight buff to equip time after using it. so, you can pull your Vandal back out lightning-quick if needed. This ability has three primary uses. You can use it for your team, or yourself, and it is an outstanding piece of combination utility.

Tips for Iso’s Undercut

Iso Valorant is an initiator hybrid and let’s touch on that a little bit. Since your undercut can be used through walls, this can be very good to throw onto commonly played areas to help your team retake or hit sites. You will be throwing this ability while jet dashes in or when your team is ready to sprint onto the site.

Here’s a good example of how you can use it supportively on the Haven C Site. Using a well-placed undercut, Jett can deal double damage on the Site after she dashes in and this makes it exponentially easier for Jett to clear angles and get frags. This is a simple standard vulnerable and it’s similar to using it like an Omen paranoia in Ascent B Main to take that space except it can be a lot more deadly.

The utility applies double damage, this can be very useful when combined with a Recon bolt to deal double damage through walls. You will also be using this pretty often when fighting enemies. Well-placed undercuts combined with a quick swing can net you some pretty free kills.
Since you have fast equip time after using this ability then don’t be afraid to use it in a pinch when the entry team is entering your site. Tuck yourself behind a box, throw the ability out as soon as the enemy executes, and go for a quick swing on players walking out for an easy site hold.

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Use Undercut in Eco Rounds

Undercut is also extremely useful on eco rounds. You can prioritize two undercuts and a fast-fire rate weapon. Let’s take a classic for example. This weapon does 78 damage to the head. If you tag someone with an undercut then your classic is now doing a whopping 156 damage per shot. This is a one-shot headshot to a fully armored opponent with a free gun. This ability is insane on eco rounds and will win you a lot of rounds when used properly.

Combine Undercut with other agent ability

Let’s talk about how good the ability is when combined with a well-placed brimstone Ult or even a Sova Ult. Here’s an example of how this can be used to dominate and shut down a push. Valorant Iso hears a push A Main and comes to Sova who’s at the ready. Iso throws the undercut quickly and Sova follows it up with his Ultimate. Hunter’s fury will now deal damage and one-shot anyone that Iso’s hit with his undercut.
Undercut is an insane piece of utility and it’s slept on by too many players. Having a double damage applying projectile in your back pocket can help you easily win so many fights. When you have this ability then make sure that you are always looking for ways to assist your team or yourself in fights that are about to happen.

Double Tap (E Ability)

Moving on to Valorant Iso’s signature ability, the double tap. Almost everyone has seen this ability and people are quite conflicted about its usage when compared to Reyna’s dismiss. These two abilities might look the same on paper but in reality, they are the furthest thing from each other. Note that you can activate this ability at any time and it will not interrupt any other actions.

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You can use it while reloading or using other abilities, so it’s very simple to use. After activating the double tap, a focus timer starts. From there you will go into a flow state for 15 seconds. Upon killing a player, or getting an assist an orb will spawn for 2 seconds above the enemy’s head. Upon shooting an orb, you will get the double-tap shield. While the shield is activating, you have a 25% increase in reload speed.

Tips For Iso’s Double Tap

The shield’s primary function is to give a slight edge over an enemy player in the form of taking an extra tick of damage. The double tap shield also cannot be broken by fall damage and it will completely negate fall damage for Iso Valorant. This ability also requires you to have a decent level of aiming proficiency as you will be quickly adjusting to the orb since it only lasts for 2 seconds.

Note that your Valorant Iso Shield has a larger hitbox than yourself, so they can shoot the shield if they see it before you. This ability should not be used to get you out of jail-free card. The ability is meant to give you a major advantage in your next gunfight. That extra bullet could save you from a potential operator shot or even a Raze Ultimate.

Ise Valorant can use his utility to help his team get on the sight. Iso can proceed to pop his double tap and fight on site with his team getting easier shields than if he was the first duelist in.
If you are entering on the site then chances are you will get traded out even before getting a chance to shoot the orb that spawns in flow state. It’s also important to note that you should prioritize your life over getting your double tap shield that means if there is an enemy on your screen and an orb on the screen then don’t greed for shooting the orbs. There is no point in losing your life trying to get a shield that absorbs one tick of damage.

Valorant Iso does not equal Jett or reyna. You can’t play Iso like Jett and Reyna by swinging everything you desire as you lack the escapability you get with a Jett dash or Reyna dismiss. But Iso’s unique kit he’s going to have a unique playstyle in turn that allows him to be a powerhouse second man on injuries.

Contingency

Contingency is a completely invincible shield. Upon casting this ability, it takes half a second to fully form. Once it’s full size, it lasts for four and a half seconds absorbing all damage coming its way and also blocking vision. You also get a slightly equipped time after casting this ability as well and it has two primary uses to protect yourself and your team defensively and using it to push aggressively and tank damage.

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Defending strategy

We’ll talk about defensively protecting your team. Let’s take for example A site of Ascent. The spike is tacking rapidly and the enemy team is doubled up on A main your team has already gotten the spike to half if you have your contingency, you then throw your contingency towards enemy players in Main.

They are powerless to stop your Sova from sticking the rest of the spike. The Contingency takes 4.5 seconds and the spike takes 3.5 seconds to half. In perfect situations, the enemy team cannot prevent you from at least having the spike.

A better example would be C Site Haven. It’s almost impossible for them to do anything about this aside from pushing through the wall giving you the advantage.

Offensive strategy

The contingency also performs well when used offensively. You are generally going to want to use this when entering the site. This will help your team get onto the site more effectively in many scenarios.

For example, if your Killjoy is using lockdown in B Main, once the lockdown is about to be completed then your team floods on the site. Only to get shut down by a Sova with a recon Dart spamming Odin from spawn. Simply throwing your contingency is the perfect counter to this type of play from the enemy team. It’ll also leave the enemy team scratching their head as to how they were not able to spam you out.

The contingency is an essential piece of utility to block line of sight and damage from commonly played and spammed angles. Just make sure that you are not throwing it at your teammates while they are about to take a fight. This can cause the shield to pass in front of them at a very bad time.

Kill Contract (X Ability)

Lastly, we’ve got the kill contract. There’s a lot of discussion about this ability and the community seems split about how good it is and it is a lot better than players give credit for. Upon equipping this ability, you were able to send it out and pull an enemy onto your little special mini-game.
Ultimate Orbs: 7

This will also suppress enemies meaning a Jett with knives will lose her knives upon entering your domain. Take note that if you have a double tap shield active while entering your ultimate then you will still have it giving you a massive advantage in this fight. Upon entering the kill contract 1v1, you will automatically enter the flow state. If you win 1v1 then be sure to shoot the orb at the end.

Immediately upon entering, you’re going to notice one thing you spawn with two barriers, and the enemy spawns with one barrier. This means that you can very effectively guess and pre-aim where the opponent will be. The enemy has a 50% chance of guessing which barrier you will be behind once they drop.

This statistically gives you a pretty big advantage over your opponent, making it a harder 1v1 for them as they are going to have to guess. Whereas you have a pretty good idea of where to pre-aim. There are a lot of mind games you can do with the sound as well. Like, faking footsteps behind one barrier and then walking to the other or just crouching to throw off their crosshair placement.

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Tips for Iso’s Ultimate Ability

The community seems pretty split. It’s supposedly his ultimate but if you are forced to 1v1 of the ultimate then you don’t need to win the 1v1 to be effective. The reason is, that the enemy gets placed right back into their previous position when losing, So, if you are in a 2v1 situation and your teammates are there, they can easily trade you out if you lose with no threat at all.

For the entirety of the time, you are dueling the enemy and that’s one less player that your team has to worry about. If you are attacking a site that’s being held by two players and one of them is Cypher who has a teammate in heaven. Not only does it make it a 4v1 for your team but it also suppresses the Cypher. This means the entire time you are 1v1 the Cypher, your team can walk out without having to worry about any pesky tripwires.

Let’s take another situation that’s generally unwinnable and will dissect it. If You are on a Breeze versus a Viper in the 1v1 who is playing lineups and you have a general idea that Viper is in the commonly played lineup spot then instead of playing the tap game with Viper you need to do is to pull her into the playing field.

You essentially stop the Viper from playing lineups and if you win the 1v1 then you win the round. In this instance, you are ripping the advantage away from Viper and making it yours.
He can also stop post-plant with a kill contract. If the enemy is running low on time and you need to stop the plant then just use your ultimate and pull them away from the site, doing this will make you the winner of the round.

If you have no escape route then his ultimate can save you. You can also pull off the raze out of the site if she is rocketing straight into your bomb site. So, the kill contract has so much application. Kill contract isn’t just about winning the duel, you need to be creative.

Synergy of Utility

Let’s talk about the synergy of his utility to give you more direction before hopping into this wild character. Let’s take a look at the combination of utilities that you should be using the most. With the undercut and contingency combo, this dynamic duo can effectively do one thing. Isolate an angle for your team and place double damage effects on other angles.

By throwing your wall, you block off sight for the enemies that might be looking to swing from the bottom plant or default. By throwing your undercut, double damage can be dealt to anyone playing close or locks and this is a major disadvantage for the enemy team. From this point, you can activate your double-tap and enter onto site with your team. You can trade your teammates and get a shield almost for free.

It’s now a 3v3 situation, when the enemy team goes to retake then you can throw another undercut and take fights with your team or you can wait for him to be on the spike and pull them into your ultimate. Even if you lose then your team should be able to trade you if they ended up pulling the diffusing player and with a little bit of practice you can easily replicate sight takes in your games.

Tips for Defense

⦁ Use Contingency to Protect yourself from enemies.
⦁ Use the e Undercut (Q) debuff to Disrupt enemy plans.
⦁ Move to the combat arena using Contract to Prevent the enemy from planting the Spike.
⦁ Use Double tap and try to play in pairs and make sure to neutralize as many enemies as possible.

Tips for Attack

⦁ If you are looking to encounter another opponent then activate Double Tap (E) for extra protection before moving to a position.
⦁ To avoid enemies and their bullets, hide behind Contingency.
⦁ To prevent the enemy from defusing the Spike you need to apply Undercut.
⦁ To facilitate the task of reaching one of the Spike planting points, you are going to charge Kill Contract as quickly as possible.

Best Agent Combos with Iso

You can pair Raze with Iso. Due to the Iso’s lack of dive utility the movement of Raze will be very useful. To deal double damage with the grenade Raze’s paint Shells are also great to pair with Iso’s Undercut.

To pair up well with Iso’s undercut, Sova also has a damaging utility that can be utilized effectively. If they hit with Iso’s Undercut, Shock Darts, and Hunter’s Fury can one-shot enemies. To hit with Undercut or Kill Contract, Sova is also able to get information for Iso on enemy locations for him.

How to Counter Iso Valorant

There are three ways to encounter the Iso Valorant. First, if your teammate Cypher uses his Ultimate then you can see the Valorant Iso behind the walls and in this way, it will be easy for you to win a fight with Iso Valorant.

You should know that Iso can pick up the Yoru Clone but did not know that the animation of Iso Valorant Ultimate is longer than you placing down your clone. So, when you see that the enemy Iso has his ultimate ready then hold down your clone and wait till the enemy uses his ultimate, and then you place it down. The last tip to counter Iso Valorant is to be better and aim at the head.

Iso’s Best Maps

The maps that work well in double-duelist compositions are best for Iso Valorant. In any meta composition, Valorant Iso contains a unique kit and isn’t a direct replacement for another agent. With Iso’s kit, some maps have geometry and layouts that work well with her.

Bind is a kind of map where Iso Valorant can fit in as the meta comps have an open flex spot. You can use Undercut to cover most of B Site and all of Hookah. To push up B Long which is commonly held by an Op and A Short which is revealed to many angles then Contingency ability is a great tool to use.

Haven is a big map in Valorant that Can fit Valorant Iso’s kit as it has geometry. to take A Lobby control by sending it down A Long and block operators C Long, you can use Contingency. To scale into a garage, it can be proved as a good tool. Hit enemies with Undercut as the site of Haven is also very small which makes it easy to hit

Iso shows good potential in the Split. With Raze and Jett, this is a very common double duelist map. To hit enemies and set up teammates with Undercut, the small areas and overlapping walls make it easy. when attacking, Contingency is strong on both sites.
To get access to ropes, it can be used on A to move up the ramp or through A Heaven. To avoid being swung from default, on the B site it can be sent straight forward. To block the sightline from B Heaven and Hell, the best use of Contingency on B site is to throw it to the right to block.

Conclusion

Valorant Iso is an amazing duelist. He just doesn’t compare to Jett and Reyna as he has a very different playstyle from most duelists. To properly judge his effectiveness, players need to realize that first and foremost don’t treat Iso like a run-it-down king. When played properly, he can shine in aspects that are additional duelist wouldn’t. Don’t hesitate to apply every tip and trick during the match that we discussed earlier as it will surely let you dominate the map.

FAQs

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