DuelistHailing from the U.K., Phoenix's star power shines through in his fighting style, igniting the battlefield with flash and flare. Whether he's got backup or not, he's rushing in to fight on his own terms.
CEQUIP a flame wall. FIRE to create a line of flame that moves forward, passing through the world and creating a wall of fire that blocks vision and damages players passing through it. The fire wall heals Phoenix instead of dealing damage. HOLD FIRE to bend the wall in the direction of your crosshair.
Bought with credits at the start of a round, and lost when you die.
QEQUIP a fireball. FIRE to throw a fireball that explodes after a set amount of time or upon hitting the ground, creating a lingering fire zone that damages enemies. The fire zone heals Phoenix instead of dealing damage. ALT FIRE to lob.
Bought with credits at the start of a round, and lost when you die.
EEQUIP a flare orb that takes a curving path and detonates shortly after throwing. FIRE to curve the flare orb to the left, detonating and Blinding any player who sees the orb. ALT FIRE to curve the flare orb to the right. Curveball resets a charge every two kills.
The signature ability — free every round, and on some agents it recharges through play rather than being bought.
XINSTANTLY place a marker at Phoenix's location. While this ability is active, dying or allowing the timer to expire will end this ability and bring Phoenix back to this location with full health and the amount of armor he had when the ability was cast.
Charged by ultimate orbs, kills, deaths and planting or defusing the spike.
PASSIVELY Heal Phoenix instead of taking damage after standing in Phoenix's own fire
Always active. It costs nothing and can't be bought, lost or charged.
Entry fraggers. Their kits are built to take space and win the opening duel, with self-sufficient tools to engage or escape.
Two of Phoenix's abilities are bought with credits each round and lost on death. Curveball is the signature ability, so it's free every round, and Run it Back is the ultimate — it can't be bought at all, it charges through play.
Phoenix also has a passive, Heating Up, which is always active and costs nothing.
Phoenix is a Duelist. Entry fraggers. Their kits are built to take space and win the opening duel, with self-sufficient tools to engage or escape.
Phoenix's ultimate is Run it Back, bound to X. INSTANTLY place a marker at Phoenix's location. While this ability is active, dying or allowing the timer to expire will end this ability and bring Phoenix back to this location with full health and the amount of armor he had when the ability was cast.
Curveball. EQUIP a flare orb that takes a curving path and detonates shortly after throwing. FIRE to curve the flare orb to the left, detonating and Blinding any player who sees the orb. ALT FIRE to curve the flare orb to the right. Curveball resets a charge every two kills.
Phoenix has 5 abilities in total: Blaze, Hot Hands, Curveball, Run it Back, Heating Up.
Yes. Phoenix is one of the 5 agents that shipped with the game, alongside the rest of the original roster.
Phoenix has to be unlocked, like every agent beyond the starting few. You do that with Kingdom Credits earned by playing, or with VALORANT Points if you would rather not wait. Unlocking is permanent and no agent is ever sold as a stronger option — the roster is balanced, not tiered by price.
There are 8 in the Duelist role: Phoenix, Raze, Iso, Neon, Yoru, Waylay, Reyna, Jett. Roles are the game's own grouping, not a community one, and they describe the job an agent does for the team rather than how strong they are.
How often professional teams actually pick Phoenix, measured across 1,820 tournament games played between 2026-05-22 and 2026-08-20. This is professional VALORANT, not ranked — the two behave differently, and a pick rate at this level says more about map strategy than about what wins games in a solo queue.
| Map | Pick rate | Win rate | Times picked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pearl | 13.5% | 49.7% | 191 |
| Haven | 13.4% | 51.4% | 420 |
| Ascent | 10.8% | 52.5% | 276 |
| Fracture | 7.8% | 57.1% | 77 |
| Sunset | 6.4% | 47.7% | 65 |
| Summit | 5.5% | 62.5% | 40 |
| Breeze | 5.3% | 54.2% | 131 |
| Split | 3.1% | 55.4% | 83 |
| Lotus | 1% | 42.4% | 33 |
Pick rate is the share of the ten player slots in a game that this agent filled. Win rate hovers near 50% for almost every agent because professional matches are between evenly matched teams — a figure far from 50% usually means a small sample rather than a strong agent. Maps with too few games to be meaningful are left out entirely rather than shown with a warning.
Two of every agent's abilities are bought with credits at the start of a round and lost when you die. The signature is free on a cooldown, and the ultimate cannot be bought at all — it charges from kills, deaths, spike plants and orbs.
Phoenix is one of the 5 agents that shipped with VALORANT at launch, which is why the kit is comparatively simple — the later additions are the ones with the more conditional abilities.
During development Phoenix went by the internal codename Phoenix, which is the name that still appears in the game files.
There are 29 playable agents in total, 8 of them in the Duelist role.
The other 7 agents who fill the Duelist role. If you like how Phoenix plays, these are the closest thing to a lateral move — same job on the team, different tools.
Interactions involving Phoenix, from either side — what their abilities do to other agents’ utility, and what other agents can do to theirs.
Phoenix Run It Back cannot affect Sage Resurrection
Phoenix's ultimate returns him to where it started rather than leaving a body, so there is nothing for Sage to revive. Using the ultimate removes the possibility of being resurrected.
