News / January 29, 2022

VALORANT: Killjoy Hidden Nanoswarm Post-plant Setups on Ascent

Killjoy’s Nanoswarm Ability is a powerful molly-type ability that can be manually activated from almost anywhere on the map. The manual activation gives Killjoy plenty of post-plant options that she can use to secure the bomb plant safely from a distance.

One cool trick to Killjoy’s Nanoswarm is its ability to tuck itself into small cracks between boxes and walls. Placing the Nanoswarm Grenades between small cracks makes it virtually invisible and indestructible to the enemy team.

Let’s take a look at some post-plant hidden Nanoswarm setups for Ascent!

Ascending Ascent

Ascent is a beautiful map set in San Marco, Venice, Italy. The map even features landmarks from some iconic sites found in Italy, such as St. Mark’s Campanile and St. Mark’s Basilica.

Ascent is the first-ever map made for VALORANT. Although it was the first map ever to be made, Ascent would, later on, end up as the fourth map to ever be released in-game. The dev team took their sweet time with Ascent, polishing and revising a ton of in-map elements before its official release.

Ascent has a standard two bombsite layout that many Tactical First-person Shooting game enthusiasts have already seen before. The most interesting characteristics about Ascent are the mechanical doors (one for each bombsite) that cut down entryways into the bomb sites.

A quick look at the loading screen for Ascent will have players wondering about the reasons why the whole map is, quite literally, in the air.

According to VALORANT lore, Ascent’s location is a victim of a deliberate Spike Bombing set up by mirror Agents from an alternate Earth, which resulted in the whole city being brought up into the air.

German Efficiency Child Prodigy: Killjoy

Killjoy belongs to the Sentinel class of Agents. As such, her abilities allow her to lock down bombsites completely on her own. Allies can rely on the German Prodigy to stall or even stop an enemy team’s push on her own to buy her teammates enough time to rotate over to her bombsite.

Killjoy uses her superior knowledge and skill to employ robots and gadgets to fight on her behalf. Her skill set consists of nanobots, an alarm bot, and a sentry bot she can set up to give her the best chance at holding down a bombsite. Her ultimate ability allows her to cover a large enough area to cover entire bombsites, giving Killjoy the ability to detain anyone caught in her ultimate.

In the VALORANT lore, Killjoy is known to have a father-daughter relationship with Brimstone. While neither character is related, Brimstone still sees fit to act as a guide to Killjoy.

Killjoy is in-charge of almost all of the non-Sentinel VALORANT Agents’ tech. She oversees repairs and tech innovation for every Agent. Taking some of the Agents’ voice lines into context, Killjoy seems to be a natural-born tactician, using data she gathers from engagements as inspiration for her next inventions and strategies.

Killjoy Nanoswarm

Killjoy’s Nanoswarm is a molly-type ability that deals quick damage over time to a large radius. Killjoy’s Nanoswarm ability can be equipped at the beginning of each round for just 200 credits each and a maximum of two charges.

What sets Killjoy’s molly ability apart from other molly-type abilities like Phoenix’s Hot Hands, Viper’s Snake Bite, and KAY/O’s FRAG/MENT is Killjoy’s ability to place the grenades before the start of the round and activate them at any time within the same round. After placing the Nanoswarm Grenades, they will become completely invisible until enemy players stand next to them.

Among the other molly-type abilities present in VALORANT, Killjoy’s Nanoswarm Grenade is the only molly ability in VALORANT that does not activate upon landing. However, a slight caveat is that KJ’s Nanoswarm Grenades shells can be destroyed when damaged by gunfire or damaging abilities. Killjoy’s Nanoswarm Grenades also emit a subtle buzzing noise when enemy players stand close enough to the Nanoswarm Grenades.

Ascent B-site Post-plant – B-Default Plant Hidden Nanoswarm

B-site’s default plant spot is a small area around the stacked Radianite boxes on-site. This spot is the most preferred plant area for most Attackers because of how close to the boxes it is.

The angle forces any diffuser to face the boxes, which then makes it difficult for the defuser to scan around for enemies.

There is a small space between the three Radianite boxes where Killjoy can place her stealthy Nanoswarm Grenades.

Tuck yourself into this small corner between the Radianite boxes:

2. It’s subtle, but look for this small round indentation on the left Radianite box:

3. Place your crosshair right in the middle of the round indentation:

4. Left-click-throw the Nanoswarm Grenade:

The Nanoswarm Grenade should settle in the middle of the Radianite boxes:

We can place both of our Nanoswarm charges on the same spot and activate them one after the other so we can secure the bomb plant much longer.

Ascent B-site Post-plant – Chiuso Post-plant Hidden Nanoswarm

Chiuso is a not-so-common plant spot in the lower tiers, which is honestly a shame since a Spike-plant in Chiuso can easily be wall banged from both the Switch and through the double Radianite boxes.

A couple of sneaky Nanoswarm Grenades can be tucked in nicely just behind the Chiuso signage, which will make the defuser’s life even more miserable.

Stand close to the wall towards the left-side of the Chiuso sign:

2. Aim along this thin line on the wooden board and a little to the right of this small dent:

3. Right-click-throw the Nanoswarm Grenade:

When done properly, the Nanoswarm Grenades should settle just behind the Chiuso sign:

Ascent B-site Post-plant – Wallbang Nanoswarm

B-site’s Wall Bang is another underrated Spike plant spot in Ascent B-site. Because the wall that surrounds Switch is thin, guns such as the Vandal, Phantom, and Odin can penetrate the wall slightly.

There is a small crack between the small box and the large box at Wall Bang that we can use to hide Killjoy’s Nanoswarm Grenades. We can use this to position our Nanoswarm Grenades for post-plant play.