How to Play Brimstone in Valorant: Abilities, Tips and Tricks, & More

Brimstone is arguably one of the most reliable and easy agents to play in Valorant. With the ability to stall enemies during an attack, cutting off vision, and of course, being ever-so-reliable in the post-plant situation, Brimstone ticks all the boxes. Being on the initial roster of agents when the game launched, Brimstone had a hard time finding his place in Valorant agent compositions. But that changed after he got a huge buff. So, let us discuss Valorant’s most successful controller Brimstone, and his abilities, tips, and tricks to be a perfect Brimstone main.

Brimstone in Valorant: Abilities Explained

Incendiary (Q)

• Charge – 1
• Credit cost – 250
• Duration – 7 seconds
• Damage – 60 per second

Brimstone takes out the Incendiary launcher and throws a grenade, which detonates after a short delay into a pile of fire. Often referred to as the molly, it burns anyone standing in it and deals heavy damage over time. An incendiary grenade is a utility that lets you control a location or clear a corner but its main usage comes when it is in a post-plant situation.

With heavy damage and long duration, this ability can delay spike defuse immensely. This makes Brimstone one of the most reliable post-plant agents in Valorant. You just need to learn some cheeky lineups.

Stim Beacon (C)

• Charge – 1
• Credit cost – 200
• Duration – 12 seconds
• Boost – Speed boost 15%, Fire rate 15%, Reload speed 10%, Recovery speed 10%, Equip speed 10%

Brimstone brings a lot of supportive skills with his arsenal of abilities in Valorant. One of the most useful team fight abilities is stim beacon. Instantly throw a Combat Stim Beacon. Upon immediate activation, it affects any teammate in its AOE (area of effect) to become faster in movement along with gaining reload speed and fire rate boost. The movement speed and fire rate accuracy can be helpful in rushing any site.

Sky Smoke (E)

• Charge – 3
• Credit cost – 100
• Duration – 19.25 seconds

Brimstone’s signature ability is the Sky smoke in Valroant. It is the longest-duration smoke in the entire game. Open the tactical map and mark down areas. After marking down areas, Brimstone launches smoke bombs that cover a large area for a long time. The smoke takes away vision from those in or outside the smoke. Thanks to three smoke charges, Brimstone can be the easiest controller (with smokes) in Valorant. The smoke deployment is also simple and fast for players to understand.

Orbital Strike (X)

• Ult point – 7
• Damage – 20 per instance, 6.67 per Instance/per second
• Duration – 3 seconds

Again, open the tactical map and mark a location. Brimstone then launches an Orbital strike at that marked location. This ultimate ability inflicts damage on anyone in the area (even teammates) and destroys any utility or object. Furthermore, the strike also blocks vision for anyone outside or inside the strike. Orbital strikes can be useful in multiple situations, be it post-plant to delay the defuse or early on to stop a rush attempt from the enemies.

How to Play Brimstone in Valorant: Tips & Tricks

Brimstone Gameplay Role and Style

The primary role of Brimstone is that of a controller in the game. A controller’s priority is to control the pace of the game by cutting off enemy vision or pushing them out of position. Unlike other controllers, Brimstone cannot cast his abilities globally. So the offense is the best position to play Brimstone, so you can stay with your teammates.

On the defensive side, you can always select a spot in the middle of the map. The main reason behind it is Brimstone’s smoke casting range, which is pretty small, and you might get off guard while placing a smoke. So positioning yourself in the right cover and in the reach of both sides is important.

Valorant Maps & Agents to Pair with Brimstone

Before picking up Brimstone, make sure your teammates have a good amount of entry fraggers. Brimstone can help duelists with a massive site control advantage early on. So the primary agents that you should always pick with Brimstone are Reyna and Jett. These characters can provide you with early kills while Brimstone controls the chokepoints.

On the defensive half, you can pick Valorant’s new agent Deadlock, and Breach or Sage. These agents go well with Brimstone in terms of chain kills or site lockdowns. First of all, Deadlock can use her Gravnet and Barrier to lock down enemies while Brimstone toasts them with Incendiary or Orbital Strike. Whereas, Sage and Breach can also use their slowing and stalling abilities to make it difficult for enemies to enter a site.

Brimstone is good at controlling a site, thanks to three charges of smoke. But every Valorant map is not ideal to play Brimstone. Brimstone has to be in a proper range to cast his skills. That is why when the plant sites are closer Brimstone is the best. The ideal maps for Brimstone are Split, Bind, Ascent, and Fracture. Split and Bind can be great for Brimstone because of how easy it is to smoke off both sites from little to zero movements. Ascent and Fracture, however, are solid maps for Brimstone because of the lineups and retake ability. Fracture is the most reliable map for Brimstone because of the sites being smaller and easier to smoke off.

Best Brimstone Ability Usage Tips & Tricks

Brimstone’s gameplay style can be simple and his abilities are easy to execute. His ability usage depends on how the teammates are going to execute a site and what is the approach. With that being said, let us check out some cool ability usage, tips and tricks you can implement in your next Brimstone game in Valorant:

• Early Positioning and Communication: When it comes to playing Brimstone, the primary thing you need to do is communicate. Brimstone even mentions “communication” in his voice lines. As a leader of the pack, Brimstone’s communication and positioning are key to the team’s victory. Always remember to position yourself in the right spot and stay in a cover to use the smokes.

• As you can see in the image above, the Ascent tree spot is ideal for a Brimstone because of the range of smoke on every site. Controlling the site entry early on can always give you an advantage. In the same manner, you can stand in split mid or fracture spawns for a better early smoke range.

• Always remember to talk to your teammates before smoking at any location on the map. Make a plan on how you want to execute a round and smoke accordingly. Although Brimstone gets three smokes, it doesn’t mean you should waste any. Also, remember to stay in a cover or in a position where your teammates can protect you while you open your tactical map.

• Stim Beacon Buff in Eco Rounds: The Stim Beacon is a broken ability, as per pro players. Well, the reason behind it is how it is beneficial for eco rounds, also known as pistol rounds. Now you might wonder why. The Stil beacon already was already good, giving your teammates a massive attack fire rate and reload speed boost. After the new updates, it also gives you a recovery boost, and most importantly, a movement speed bonus. If you use the beacon properly and rush any site, you can always catch opponents off guard for an easy pistol round or a thrifty win. On top of it, every pistol you use within the beacon range will fire faster than normal, which can give you a slightly better edge over using pistols in normal.

• Peek Advantage with Stim Beacon: Stim beacon can give you several advantages in a tactical game like Valorant. Usually, agents with boosted or amplified fire rate or movement speed are usually for themselves. But the beacon Brimstone throws on ground helps anyone in the team if they are in range. So if your team has a good early peeker like Jett or Reyna, use the Stim beacon to give them a fast peek advantage. Because of the movement speed boost the enemy will have a hard time getting a fightback opportunity.

• Smoke Placement: The smoke placement completely relies on your strategy for the round. Brimstone is the only agent in Valorant with such high-duration smokes. Remember to always use the smoke in the common areas when you attack for your teammates to enter the site. There are a lot of one-way smoke strategies that can be really helpful for a Brimstone main. But these smokes are very situational and you should only use them when you are sure of a certain angle that an enemy can peek from (see gif below). These one-way smokes give the enemy location before they can get your location.

• Stalling Enemies and Site Retake: Brimstone’s abilities are really helpful to stall enemies. He can delay enemy entry by just using his utilities. All the ability in his arsenal is practical for an ambush assault. Make sure to know your minimap and utilize all abilities in a round. Save your Incendiary for certain situations like a heavy push from multiple people or common plant areas. Remember if you can delay a plant your teammates can rotate and you can easily retake the site. Keep at least a smoke for the retake if you are playing on the opposite site. If you can cut off an angle early on with your smoke you can always go for a clutch or a retake.

• Post-plant Situation: Post-plant situation is good for any agents with a lineup and Brimstone is no exception. However, it is highly recommended not to rely on lineups. A lineup has to be precise and while performing it you can be in a vulnerable situation. There can be multiple lineups on certain maps that are useful for Brimstone for post-plant situations. It is always recommended to adjust your play according to the situation and not make yourself a lineup-driven player. If you still wish to perform lineups, the best method is to perform the common ones and try to stay in the range of the spike to check if it landed. Remember the molly stays for 7 seconds so do not show your face during that period. It will intimidate your enemies and they will start panicking about the situation, delaying the defuse timer. Once you memorize a lineup it can be a really useful tool to delay a plant or even win rounds depending on the timer. Let us show you two examples of a good lineup and a situational lineup.

• This lineup on Ascent B Site is situational (see GIF below). As you can see below, you are performing it from outside B main, which means there is no way for you to run to the site and defend the spike you or your teammate planted if your Incendiary misses. So we categorize it under situational lineups.

• The lineup we mention now is a practical one and is called a good lineup (see GIF below). Performing a good lineup is always healthy in any given situation of the game. The only downside of a lineup performance is being vulnerable while doing it. And that’s why this lineup can be really helpful. Alongside it, after the lineup has landed you can swing and peek on the spike.

• Now apart from good and situational lineups, there is another useful trick for any Brimstone player if the defuser timer is ticking and you are the only one who survives. Now if you have your ultimate ready this trick can easily save you a round. First, you need to stand on the spike and look exactly 90 degrees above you and shoot the Incendiary. When it reaches the sky use your Orbital strike on yourself. Now you might think why did we suggest damaging yourself? Well, the Orbital strike stays for 3 seconds and prevents anyone from coming inside it. Now while the strikes will happen the Incendiary will come back to the ground and bounce one time and then cook enemies to shreds if they stand on it. Now this almost cuts off at least 10-12 seconds from the defuse timer. So, if you calculate properly and perform it at the right time you can save a round and clutch it by sacrificing yourself.

Valorant Brimstone: Weakness and Counters

• Brimstone can be useful in the game as a supportive Controller who can control the pace of a round. But every character has their own weakness, and Brimstone’s weakness starts with himself. Yes, whenever Brimstone uses his abilities, he is in a vulnerable situation. Be it opening the tactical map for smokes, the ultimate or even getting ready to throw the molly.

• Brimstone can be difficult to use on bigger maps like Heaven or Pearl. The reason can be the range of smoke and his utility is limited to a site. These maps contain multiple entries and corners that need to be cleared before executing a play, and Brimstone is not good with information, being a Controller.

• The agents that can easily counter Brimstone are Kay/o, Sova, and Yoru in Valorant. Kay/o can always shut down Brimstone with his suppression ability, making his utilities useless for a brief moment. This makes Brimstone useless in situations where he could stall an entry early on. Yoru can dodge and penetrate the enemy backline with gatecrash, regardless of how long Brimstone stalls the entry points. This makes Brimstone’s defense pretty weak.
• Another agent who can penetrate Brimstone’s defense is Sova. Now ideally some Brimstone camp inside a smoke with their shorty or judge and sending a Sova drone in that smoke can completely destroy the purpose. Moreover, Sova can also gather information about a site without even entering it, Making Brimstone’s vision cutting abilities somewhat weaker.

Valorant Brimstone Voice Actor, Story & Origin

Steve Bulm, who formerly did the voice for Wolverine in the X-men animation series and is very well known for his deep leadership-like voice also gave voice to the first Valorant agent Brimstone. Brimstone is originally from the city of Baltimore in the United States. He is the first agent in the Valorant protocol.

As a military veteran, several of Brimstone’s voice lines mention this as well. Before joining the Valorant protocol, Brimstone was a firefighter. Brimstone’s voice line always reflects the leadership energy and courage to fight. He is respected by most agents in Valorant protocol, except for Reyna, and that is clear in her voice interactions with Brimstone.