Apex Legends Valkyrie Guide - Lore, Abilities & Best Gun Loadouts

Valkyrie is a Recon Legend that has a pretty decent balance between offense utility and intel. She’s also the daughter of Viper from Titanfall, bringing both franchises closer once more!

She can blast her enemies and slow them down with her tactical Missile Swarm, which is best used when she is floating in the air with her VTOL Jets, and her ultimate Skyward Dive, allowing her to become a portable Jump Tower pulling away her squad from danger by flying off to the sky.­

She also has a special vision when she is sky diving which shows where the location of every enemy is until she has lost line of sight.

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Valkyrie Lore

Valkyrie, Winged Avenger, Apex Legends

Gender: Female
Heirloom: N/A
Voice Actor: Erika Ishii (@erikaishii)

Bold, brash, fiery and fierce, Kairi Imahara isn’t above greasing palms and bending the law. When she was a child, she stole a Titan. It belonged to her dad: callsign Viper. She wanted to be just like him when she grew up. But the next day he left on a mission and never returned. In some ways, she still followed in his footsteps: it wasn’t a Titan, but her ship offered a decent living. Her personal life, however, was anything but. During the day, she smuggled precious cargo, and at night, went shot for shot with the outlaws and mercs in the bars. But even though she had her ladies, her liquor, and her love of the sky, she was still obsessed with finding the man who’d put her father in harm’s way: his commander, Kuben Blisk.

She tracked Blisk down, prepared to kill him. But he spoke of her father with respect — and challenged her to be better. She shot him anyway. But not to kill. Knowing she could get to him was enough. Well, that, and the Apex Games card she took from Blisk’s grasp.

Using the intact flight core from Viper’s Northstar, she built a sleek new jetpack that honored her father’s memory. And that was when Kairi could finally soar on her own… and in a version of her dad’s Titan, a modified Northstar with an enhanced VTOL and flight core, that ended up being hers after all.

Valkyrie Abilities Guide

Tactical Ability – Missile Swarm

Missile Swarm		Tactical
	Cooldown	30 seconds
	Description	Fire a swarm of mini-rockets that damage and disorient the enemy.
Information
Launches 12 missiles in a 4×3 array, dealing damage and stunning enemies. If a Legend gets hit, the first missile deals 25 damage and every subsequent missile deals 3. Needs ample vertical clearance to use, meaning you can’t use it on interior spaces with low ceilings. Minimum target distance (same elevation) is 12 meters; Maximum target distance is 100 meters horizontally, regardless of elevation difference between target and Valkyrie. When within valid range, the crosshair aligns with the closest row’s middle rocket
Interaction
Can be used while VTOL Jets is active.
Advanced
Use while in VTOL Jets to get clear shots for maximum efficiency. When enemy is hiding behind a boulder, aim the reticle at zone between the closest base-edge and the top of the boulder; as the targeting columns extend away from the reticle, it will decrease the chance of missile overshooting your target The stun time is long enough to cancel VTOL Jets and prepare to shoot a target, which makes this a very effective tool for ambushes.

How to Use Missile Swarm

This tactical might have some similarities to Fuse’s but what makes them apart is the fact that Missile Swarm can not be used indoors, it has to be in an open wide space with a high enough ceiling, and even so it is best to use it in conjunction with VTOL Jets because it will give you more range and better accuracy.

What is interesting about this tactical is that you only need to hit your enemy once to activate the slow debuff, the rest of the hits will not slow them but will still damage them for way less than the initial strike.

If you decide to use Missile Swarm on foot make sure to have enough room, and one good way of using it is to fire at corners where enemies have taken cover.

Overall this tactical works best when you are using her VTOL Jets at the same time as it will provide more opportunities to fire at enemies and slow them down.

Known Bugs:

• The markers for where the missiles will impact are visible in the Firing Range even if she’s not in your realm.
• Using this ability to down an enemy from any distance, even an enemy right in front of you, can give you the Long Shot Badge.

Passive Ability – VTOL Jets

VTOL Jets		Passive
	Cooldown	N/A
	Description	Press the jump key while in the air to engage jetpack. You can switch between hold and toggle mode in the options menu.
Information
While in the air, press Jump again to engage VTOL Jets. Using the Jets consumes fuel. The Fuel gauge is on the right side of the screen. Activating the VTOL Jets will consume about 12.5% of your total fuel Maximum duration is 7 seconds. Fuel will begin to refill 8 seconds after the last Jets’ usage. Fully refueling from empty takes 10 seconds. (1 second will refill 10% of total fuel) While using the Jets, Valkyrie cannot use any weapons except for her  Missile Swarm. Once the Jets are released, there is a 1-second delay (a hand animation will be played) before she can use her weapons. Normal flight direction is upwards in the direction Valkyrie is facing. Hold ADS to conduct level flight Jet-Fighter HUD – Activates while skydiving or using her ultimate, Skyward Dive (in both launch and skydive). Marks any enemies within 250 meters with a direct and uninterrupted line of sight to Valkyrie. The champion will be marked with “CH” Enemy cannot detect your scan, unlike Bloodhound and Crypto. Squadmates attached to Valkyrie also benefit from these target callouts.
Interaction
After using Octane’s Launch Launch Pad, VTOL Jets are unavailable until the double jump is used. Mirage’s decoys aren’t marked during the skydive by the Jet-fighter HUD.
Advanced
In the gameplay settings, there is an option to switch the control scheme between holding the jump button and pressing it once to toggle. Use whichever you feel most comfortable with. Due to VTOL jets, advanced bunny hop and wall jumping is more difficult, require more precise timing Treat the VTOL Jets as a double jump – short burst to get you to the roof of short buildings. When activating the VTOL Jets, it consumes about 12.5% of your total fuel, which only allows you to do 8 bursts maximum with a full gauge; be careful when turning them on and off in the air. However, bursting the VTOL Jets gives you a burst of speed and provides a slight dodge, at the cost of fuel. You can activate VTOL Jets right before landing to eliminate fall stun Due to the wide scanning range of Jet-Fighter HUD, purposely conducting skydives through the use of ultimate, jump tower, geyser, and even trident reject can help provide good intel of enemy location in a large area. However, do note that while your scan is not revealed to unsuspecting enemies, alerted players will notice your dive trail.

Recon		Passive
	Cooldown	N/A
	Description	Scan a survey beacon to reveal the Ring’s next location.
Information
Allows you to access the 12 survey beacons available on the map in any given match to determine the circle location after the currently marked circle. The interaction with the survey beacon takes 7 seconds, during which you are vulnerable.
Advanced
A survey beacon can be used again when the next round starts.

How to use VTOL Jets

A really useful passive for movement and repositioning VTOL Jets allow Valkyrie to hover around and reach small distances, there’s a fuel gauge so beware not to deplete it entirely.

You can not use weapons while using the Jetpacks, you can only use her Missile Swarm.

If you hold the tactical button without firing, the fuel consumption is much slower but your movement will be as well.

One of the things you can do with the Jets is that you can activate and deactivate them while sprinting and then repeating this process, every time you activate the Jets you get a small speed boost, it can also help you do some quick strafes.

Like with Crypto’s drone you can change your flight mode to Direct or Level. Direct is probably the most used but Level gives you a better strafe control so test them out and see what works best for yourself.

One thing to note about Valkyrie is that her VTOL Jets are activated with the jump button this means that the Wall Jump Tricks might be a little harder to pull off. There are two ways of activating the Jets, Toggle and Hold but what most people suggest is keeping it on Hold. The timing of Wall Jump has to be perfect so there’s going to be some practice needed, the good thing is that you can transition directly to her Jetpacks after Wall Jumping.

If you activate the Jets a few moments before you hit the ground you will cancel the mini stun that occurs when falling from heights and if you manage to find the sweet spot you will be able to pull out your gun and be ready to fight.

VTOL Jets are great for repositioning or finding cover fast, do not use them to fly away from enemies or change covers that have a big distance between them, another thing to note is that it’s not that useful in open flat areas because anything that’s in the air in places like that is going to get shot down, so plan accordingly and practice movement with the Jets as much as you can in the firing range.

Known Bugs:

• Jet-Fighter HUD are occasionally deactivated for teammates if either Valkyrie split off from the group during the jump, or if teammates split off from the Valkyrie jumpmaster.
• Changing legends while in the Firing Range as soon as the VTOL Jets are deactivated or fuel runs out reduces gravity.
  • Change back to Valkyrie will revert this bug.

Ultimate Ability – Skyward Dive

Skyward Dive		Ultimate
	Charge Time	180 seconds
	Description	Press once to prepare for launch. Teammates can interact with Valkyrie to join the launch. Press again to launch into the air and skydive.
Information
Upon usage, Valkyrie enters a setup animation that charges up over 2 seconds, after which she can press Fire to launch ~180m into the air and enter a skydive, similar to using a Jump Tower. Squadmates can press Interact near Valkyrie to launch with her. Skyward Dive can be canceled during setup either by taking damage or manually by pressing the Ultimate button again. 75% of its charge is refunded when canceled. While in pre-launch, using ping will mark Valkyrie for her squad and display a “Let’s fly!” notification in the kill feed. Vertical clearance is required for flight.
Arenas
Arenas: The maximum height she will launch into the air is only ~50m.
Advanced
Skyward Dive could be used as an excellent recon ability, as her passive to scan for enemies works both during launch and skydiving. It is very beneficial to use this if the Ring is right behind you, and you’re a long way away from the next Ring.

How to Use Skyward Dive

When using this ultimate make sure you are in a safe position with an open sky, at the first press Valkyrie will enter the preparation phase which lasts two seconds and after that, her team can grab on and fly away.

When Valkyrie jumps from the Dropship, the Jump Towers, or uses her Skyward Dive, a passive activates that allows her to see the position of all the enemies that are on your screen and in line of sight, if they go into cover or leave your screen Valkyrie will stop tracking them. Her team can also see the trackers.

This is a very simple ultimate that does not require much practice to master, but the most important things you need to do is to be in a safe position to launch, and know where you have to go.

This ultimate benefits the most with Gibraltar since he can throw his Dome of Protecion on the ground, and allow Valkyrie to use Skyward Dive inside of it without taking any damage.

Known Bugs:

• If Death Protection wears off while using this ability, it will not launch you in the air and instead will keep the players in the launching animation permanently. While in this position, players can also freely pass through geometry.
  • This also occurs if activated on a slope, except you’ll go straight under the map.
  • If you activate it while someone is below an object, the person will get launched under the map and will most likely die.

Best Weapon Loadouts for Valkyrie

Bocek Compound Bow, Apex Legends, Wiki Contributors: Specgineff

Wingman& R-99 SMGVolt SMG/ Prowler SMG

The Wingman is a very solid weapon for Valkyrie because she is a legend that doesn’t have to get close to her enemies to deal damage, she doesn’t have the best escaping abilities so the next complementing weapons she can hold are SMGs in this close range combat loadout.

You can initiate fights with the Wingman and try to place as many shots as you can on the enemy, after that you can either reload or push on with your team and switch to the SMG of your choice.

Try preserving your ammo after an enemy has been knocked down and proceed to fight the rest of the team.

Be always careful of the position of your enemies and never push quickly and by yourself, if you don’t know the position of the entire enemy squad it’s better to take it smooth and be patient.

It’s recommended to use the Wingman to eliminate knocked down enemies.

For the Wingman the best scopes are 1x HCOG and the 2x HCOG but the 1x HOLO and 1x-2x Variable Holo are good secondary choices, lastly it can also equip the 1x Digital Threat which highlights all enemies in red.

All of the optics above can be equipped on the SMGs as well.

NOTE: Since the Prowler SMG has gone into the Care Package rotation as of Season 7 but will return in Season 10, the R-99 is a very good alternative to use.

NOTE: After Season 7 a new hop up for the Wingman has been introduced, it is called “Quickdraw Holster” Hop Up which increases the speed of your ADS, Weapon Swap, and reduces Hip Fire spread.

NOTE: The “Skullpiercer” has been removed for Season 9.

NOTE: The “Quickdraw Holster” Hop Up has been vaulted for Season 10 and is replaced by the “Boosted Loader” Hop Up which can be equipped by Wingman and Hemlok, this new hop up features a reload function that adds more ammo in the weapon if the player chooses to reload it before near the end of the magazine but not at 0.

Peacekeeper/EVA-8 Auto& R-301 Carbine/VK-47 Flatline

This loadout leans towards the longer range but also has that close range viability with the Shotguns.

Using the Assault rifles is a good way to initiate combat and go close for the kill with the Shotguns, the most recommended one is the Peacekeeper as it has the Precision Choke built in, and can help Valkyrie shoot her enemies from longer distances than that of EVA-8 or the Mastiff.

Using the Peacekeeper in close range combat will be a lot easier if you find a decent Shotgun Bolt (level 2 or 3) as it will increase the rate of fire, as for the Assault Rifles a good way to keep your distance but deal a lot of damage, is to use the Anvil Receiver Hop Up that increases the damage you fire in a single shot but sacrifices 2 bullets and rate of fire.

All shotguns can equip a 1x HCOG, 1x HOLO, 2x HCOG, 1x-2x Variable HOLO, and lastly the 1x Digital Threat.

Both Assault rifles can equip a 1x HCOG, 1x HOLO, 2x HCOG, 1x-2x Variable HOLO, 3x HCOG, and the 2x-4x Variable AOG.

The Peacekeeper is back on ground loot but you can switch it up with the Mastiff Shotgunif you like, it’s a fast semi-auto weapon that although it’s underpowered now it can still rival the Peacekeeper and has no leg damage reduction.

NOTE: The “Double Tap” Hop Up has been removed from the loot pool for Season 8.

NOTE: The “Anvil Receiver” Hop Up has returned to the loot pool for Season 8.

NOTE: The “Anvil Receiver” Hop Up has been vaulted for Season 10.

G7 Scout& Bocek Compound Bow/Sentinel

This is the long range loadout suggested mostly for combat from a distance since all of those three weapons don’t have a fast rate of fire, thus requiring patience and good aim to place the shots needed in order to knock your opponents down.

The G7-Scout and the Bocek are very good weapons for initiating, the G7 has a faster fire rate than the Bow, but the Bocek makes up for its damage output on full draw and can equip two Hop Ups, the “Shatter Caps” Hop Up making it work like a shotgun and “Deadeye’s Tempo” that allows it to increase the rate of fire with perfect timed shots, “Deadeye’s Tempo” can also be equipped by Sentinel.

On the other hand, the G7 Scout used to equip the “Double Tap” Hop Up which allowed it to fire two shots with one click but it has been removed from the loot pool for Season 8.

As for the Sentinel, it’s best suited to finish off enemies that are trying to escape since it’s very powerful and can be charged with 2Shield Cells dealing devastating damage to your enemies.

The Damage Increase is 77 -> 88.

Both the G7 Scout and the Bocek Bow can equip the following optics 1x HCOG, 1x HOLO, 2x HCOG, 1x-2x Variable HOLO, 3x HCOG, with the exception of the 2x-4x Variable AOG that can only be equipped on the G7 Scout.

The Sentinel can equip all of the above scopes as well as the sniper optics which are the 6x Sniper the 4x-8x Variable Sniper and the 4x-10x Digital Threat.

How to Play Valkyrie

Valkyrie, Birthright, Apex Legends

Valkyrie is a legend that is balanced all around giving players a lot of versatility making them decide how to play with her, but her skillset is certainly favoring her recon playstyle over the others.

Her tactical doesn’t perform quite well when she is on the ground and for that reason, her passive is needed which is her most useful and most used skill.

By pressing the jump button while in the air Valkyrie activates her Jets allowing her to float in the air making her tactical more useful and increase its range, but it doesn’t end there, while pressing and holding the tactical while in the air the fuel consumption of the Jets is lessened by a lot coming to almost a complete halt, so you can scout the area for much longer.

Long range weapons suit Valkyrie the best because of her skills since she doesn’t have any immediate escape tools and her VTOL Jets do not increase her speed that much, so if you are fighting from a distance that is more than 100 meters you can use them to go from cover to cover. If you find that enemies are directly below you but are too far down where the mini stun from the drop might affect you, you can enable the Jets for a split second and if you time it right you will be able to pull out your gun before you hit the ground without being affected by the high drop debuff.

If you are fighting in close range it’s best to try and increase the distance of your enemies and try to tap strafe with your Jets, what you should not do is press and hold to fly away in a straight line, this will make you a very easy target and since you can’t use weapons while flying besides her Missile Swarm you will be in a lot of trouble.

Lastly her ultimate is crucial for providing her team with either an escape route, reposition tactics, or getting inside the safe zone in case there’s no way to get to it especially when the ring is already closing in on you.

Skyward Dive benefits greatly from Gibraltar’s Dome of Protection because you can set it up anywhere without taking damage.

The downside this ultimate has is that if one of your teammates or even both don’t join you and they might get knocked down or eliminated, you will have a great disadvantage for the rest of the game.

And lastly always keep in mind to have no ceiling above your head when you are using her ultimate.