Agents and abilities

Place and manage agent positions and ability usage in your strategies

Icarus lets you position Valorant agents and their abilities on the map to visualize team compositions and ability setups.

Placing agents

1. Select an agent

   Choose from the full Valorant agent roster. Agents are displayed with their character portraits.

2. Click on the map

   Place the agent at the desired position. The agent icon appears at that location.

3. Adjust position

   Drag the agent to fine-tune placement. The position is tracked in normalized coordinates.

Agent states

Toggle between agent states:

• Alive - Default state, shows normal agent icon
• Dead - Marked with visual indicator (e.g., X or skull)

Agent state toggling is useful for planning retakes or post-death scenarios.

Placing abilities

Abilities can be placed to show skill usage:

1. Select an ability

   Choose from the agent’s ability set:

   • Basic ability (E)
   • Signature ability (C/Q)
   • Ultimate ability (X)
2. Place on map

   Click where the ability should be used or land.

3. Rotate if needed

   Some abilities support rotation (walls, smokes, etc.). Drag to adjust angle and length.

Ability types

Different abilities have different visual representations:

• Square abilities - Fixed-size abilities like Sage’s Healing Orb
• Rotatable abilities - Directional abilities like Viper’s Poison Cloud
• Line abilities - Walls and barriers like Phoenix’s Blaze

Rotation and length

For abilities that support it:

Rotating abilities

1. Select the ability

   Click on a placed ability to select it.

2. Drag to rotate

   Move your mouse to adjust the angle. The ability rotates around its anchor point.

3. Adjust length

   For line-based abilities, extend or shrink the visual representation.

Rotation is tracked in radians internally. The UI shows a visual preview while dragging.

Anchor points

Abilities have specific anchor points for rotation:

• Center anchored - Rotate around the center of the ability
• Edge anchored - Rotate from one end (walls, etc.)

The anchor point is calculated based on ability size and map scale.

Updating positions

Reposition agents and abilities by dragging:

1. Drag to move - Click and hold, then drag to a new position
2. Out of bounds deletion - If dragged outside the map, the element is removed
3. Undo support - Position changes are tracked in the action history

Dragging an agent or ability outside the map boundaries automatically deletes it. Use undo if this was accidental.

Removing agents and abilities

Manual removal

• Select the element and press Delete
• Right-click and choose “Remove”
• Drag it off the map

Undo/redo

All agent and ability actions support undo/redo:

• Addition - Undo removes the element, redo restores it
• Position changes - Undo/redo cycles through position history
• Rotation changes - Each rotation adjustment can be undone

Switching sides

When you switch between attack and defense, agents and abilities are automatically flipped:

1. Toggle side

   Click the “Switch Sides” button.

2. Automatic mirroring

   All agents and abilities are flipped:

   • X positions are mirrored horizontally
   • Y positions are mirrored vertically
   • Rotations are adjusted to maintain the same relative angles
3. History is preserved

   Position history for undo/redo is also flipped, so you can still undo changes after switching sides.

Size customization

Agent and ability sizes can be adjusted:

Agent size

Change how large agent icons appear on the map:

1. Open strategy settings
2. Adjust the “Agent Size” slider
3. All agents on the current page are resized

Ability size

Similarly, ability icons can be resized:

1. Adjust the “Ability Size” slider
2. All abilities update immediately

Size settings are saved per strategy. Different strategies can use different icon sizes.

Action tracking

Every agent and ability action is logged:

Action types

• Addition - Creating a new agent or ability
• Deletion - Removing an element
• Edit - Moving, rotating, or modifying an element

Action groups

Actions are organized by type:

• ActionGroup.agent - All agent-related actions
• ActionGroup.ability - All ability-related actions

This enables selective undo/redo by action type.

Data persistence

Agents and abilities are stored as JSON:

Agent data

{
  "type": "jett",
  "position": {"dx": 450.0, "dy": 320.0},
  "state": "alive",
  "id": "uuid-here"
}

Ability data

{
  "type": "jett",
  "abilityType": "smoke",
  "position": {"dx": 500.0, "dy": 400.0},
  "rotation": 1.57,
  "length": 50.0,
  "id": "uuid-here"
}

Best practices

Use different agent states to show sequencing:

1. Place all agents alive for the initial setup
2. Duplicate the page
3. Mark casualties and show the adjusted positions

Performance

• Limit the number of abilities on a single page for clarity
• Use rotation only when necessary (simpler abilities render faster)
• Remove unused agents and abilities before exporting

Visual clarity

• Don’t overlap agents and abilities unless showing stacking
• Use drawings to connect related elements (e.g., arrow from agent to ability target)
• Adjust icon sizes based on map complexity