A few days ago, VALORANT’s newest Agent, Harbor, was finally released. Fans have long been speculating about the upcoming Controller Agent, and now, we finally got it. His agent trailer and accompanying gameplay reveal was some of the most spectacular work Riot has done in the last few months (and they’ve done a LOT).

The hype is cool and all, but how exactly will Harbor shake up the VALORANT meta? Let’s take a look at his kit, and discuss the potential implications of the Indian Controller on how certain maps are going to be played.

The first bit of information we knew about Harbor was that he was going to be a Controller Agent. Controllers in VALORANT are Agents designed to, well, control key areas of the map. All of the Controllers accomplish this by using some sort of smoke or wall that blocks the opponents’ vision. In addition, Controllers also have extra utility designed to help gain control of certain areas of the map.

Unlike most other Controllers, it seems like Harbor’s kit is designed to focus more on area denial. Let’s take a look at his Abilities to see what he excels at.

EQUIP a wall of water. FIRE to send the water forward along the ground. HOLD FIRE to guide the water in the direction of your crosshair, passing through the world, spawning a wall along the water’s path. ALT FIRE while bending to stop the water early. Players hit are slowed. 

Harbor’s rechargeable ability is a wall similar to another Controller in VALORANT, Viper. Like Viper, Harbor’s Wall can traverse through terrain. The quirk, though, is that Harbor can curve and twist his wall to his desires, much like Phoenix. That gives him more flexibility in setting up this wall.

Harbor’s wall lasts for 15 seconds, a fairly long time in a round of VALORANT. Unlike Viper, his walls cannot be turned on and off. However, the wall has a cooldown of 40 seconds that starts from the moment it goes up. That means that Harbor can get his wall off at least twice every round.

EQUIP a sphere of shielding water. FIRE to throw. ALT FIRE to underhand throw. Upon impacting the ground, spawn a water shield that blocks bullets.

Harbor’s Q ability is perhaps one of the most polarizing abilities in VALORANT, and one that will likely be tweaked almost immediately. It’s basically a smoke placed similarly like Viper’s Poison Orb (left-click for a regular throw, right-click to underhand). However, the smoke is unique in that it’s essentially a bulletproof dome for Harbor’s team.

While that sounds broken, there are two things that hold it back significantly. Firstly, the bullet shield has a set health amount. Once that shield is broken, bullets can pass through normally. Secondly, Harbor’s smoke does NOT block projectiles like Viper’s Snake Bite or Raze’s grenades. That means that it’s not necessarily an instant counter to post-plant lineups.

EQUIP a wave of water. FIRE to send the wave rolling forward and through walls. RE-USE to stop the wave. Players hit are slowed. 

Cascade is yet another area denial tool that Harbor can utilize to great effect. It’s basically a moving wall that will slow enemies AND block vision. Out of all of the abilities in Harbor’s toolkit, this is both the most unique and perhaps the most underwhelming part of his kit.

That doesn’t mean that it’s not useful, though. A creative Harbor player can use Cascade to give him off-angles that VALORANT veterans may not expect. This can also function as situational cover if a player is having trouble choking off a particular segment of the map.

EQUIP the full power of your Artifact. FIRE to summon a geyser pool on the ground. Enemy players in the area are targeted by successive geyser strikes. Players caught within a strike are concussed.

Harbor’s Ultimate Ability is going to be every site anchor’s worst nightmare for a LONG time. This ultimate is very similar to Breach’s Rolling Thunder, albeit with a little less potency. The ultimate marks players in its area and targets them with multiple geyser shots. A hit from these geyser shots will momentarily concuss opponents.

Paired with some willing Duelists and a competent Initiator, Harbor’s Ultimate can become deadly. However, like with most ults like this, it requires coordination with your teammates, something you may rarely see in your VALORANT ranked games.

Harbor is clearly meant to challenge Viper’s position on the meta, the same way Fade tried to come for Sova’s claim as the best Initiator. Certain VALORANT maps all but necessitated a Viper to be played optimally (looking at you, Breeze). Harbor is potentially a great substitute for her, as he can also cut off large chunks of the map with a single ability.

The big question, though is whether Harbor’s top-tier area denial makes up for his lack of other utility. Other Controllers in VALORANT are able to provide more than just smokes and/or walls. Viper has mollies that leave opponents vulnerable. Brimstone has the most damaging molly in the game. Omen has a near-sight and can teleport short and long distances. Astra has a ton of crowd control to stop a push.

Harbor… doesn’t have that. His biggest asset without his Ultimate is his ability to deny vision from his opponents. The bullet-blocking smoke is nice, but it’s only single-use and is rather niche, all things considered. His ultimate is great, but smart opponents will maneuver through the geysers to dodge the stun.

We’ll never know until we actually see him in-game, though. Harbor hits the live VALORANT servers on October 18.

Harbor’s ability descriptions taken from One Esports.