Cypher

* Artwork
* Theme text
* VP Portrait
* Email ID

## Additional Pages

• Cypher/Quotes
 **Lore Wiki Article**

— Official description

**Cypher** is an Agent in *VALORANT* and one of the first Sentinels available to play since the Closed Beta.

## Profile

### Biography

*VALORANT* Lore Wiki: **Cypher**

* Biography
* Timeline of events

Amir El Amari (Arabic: أمير العماري; meaning "prince of the moon") hails from Rabat, Morocco. Growing up and living there in poverty at times, his city's resources were depleted due to the activities of Kingdom Corporation in the area, with El Amari harboring a negative view towards them as a result. An information broker who is constantly gathering intel, El Amari mostly keeps the results of his work and his secrets close to his chest - especially those about himself. Going to great lengths to ensure no one can gather secrets on the man who knows all the secrets, El Amari has set up multiple safehouses in order to stay hidden as well as never going anywhere without wearing his black face-concealing mask. Even once recruited by the secretive VALORANT Protocol as its fifth agent, "Cypher", El Amari still keeps his face and identity hidden from his fellow agents. For now, nothing is worth the risk of removing his mask - not even for those closest to him.

#### AMIR EL AMARI: Early Life

* El Amari knew someone called Nora.
* El Amari has set up safehouses in Rabat, Tangier, and Marrakesh.

#### CYPHER: VALORANT agent

* Recruited as its fifth agent.
* Cypher enters into a transaction with Omen wherein he is tasked to find information regarding "hard to find answers".
	+ He is successful in keeping his end of the deal and awaits payment from Omen before he reveals what he discovered.

#### The Omega Project

* Cypher is assigned as a member of the Everett-Linde data recovery mission.
	+ He attempts to recover data from the ruined facility's Alpha-Omega teleporters.
* Cypher is involved in Chamber's recruitment into VALORANT.
	+ Cypher gives a background check on Chamber to Brimstone.
	+ Though Chamber's history was as he claimed, Cypher shows concern over how spotless Chamber's reputation appeared to be, suspecting the Frenchman of hiding something.
* Cypher is present during the Max Bot training exercise at VALORANT HQ.
	+ Cypher remains outside the training area to play chess by himself.
* Cypher is involved in removing surveillance shots of the Venice incident off the internet when they began to appear on conspiracy sites.

#### The Blackmailer

* Cypher is involved in tracking down the blackmailer.
	+ Despite Cypher's experience and knowledge in such areas, messages sent by the blackmailer are untraceable even to him, leaving Cypher impressed at their skill.
	+ Cypher is eventually able to narrow their search down to Türkiye.
	+ Discussing what to do once they apprehended the blackmailer, Cypher understood execution was ideally to be avoided but he did not know what the alternatives could be.
* Cypher is assigned as a member of the Istanbul strike team.
	+ Cypher's role was to handle surveillance of the city, though he also fights in combat for the team's final move to apprehend their target.
	+ He tracks the target to a warehouse and keeps tabs on local authorities to ensure their presence is not detected.
* Cypher is involved with the interrogation of the blackmailer.
	+ Cypher is reported to be joining Brimstone in multiple meetings with the blackmailer that are being kept need-to-know.
	+ In one of his interrogations, Cypher looks to understand how she was able to obtain so much information about himself and his fellow agents.
		- When he moves on to the topic of her missing person, Cypher assures her that the VALORANT Protocol has nothing to do with it. When questioned on who would be responsible if not them, he reveals the existence of other worlds to her.
* Cypher completes audio analysis of the interrogations and supports the blackmailer's recruitment into VALORANT.

#### Continuing the Omega Project

* Cypher implores Brimstone to restock their supply of coffee pods as they had run out and the other agents were resorting to drinking Cypher's "expensive" tea instead.

#### First ventures into Omega

* Cypher investigates evidence which suggested that Omega VALORANT has obtained a new type of power source.
* Cypher informs Brimstone what he has been able to learn so far about ATLAS.
	+ Cypher finds out that ATLAS has dealings with Omega Kingdom, but surprisingly has no official connection with Omega VALORANT. Cypher ultimately presumes that any deal made between ATLAS and Omega VALORANT is "a whisper."
* Cypher is involved in VALORANT's dealing with REALM, as well as the Protocol's mission to locate and eventually recruit Varun Batra.
	+ He discovers that REALM exists only on Alpha Earth and that no similar organization is present on Omega. He has revealed this information at least to Yoru.
	+ In his efforts to track down Varun Batra, Cypher hacked into REALM's database and retrieved several significant pieces of information, including an audio recording of a conversation between two REALM operatives who were in the middle of a capture operation, and an image of one of REALM's scrapes with Batra.

#### Journey into the City of Flowers

* Following Batra's (now Harbor) successful recruitment into VALORANT, Cypher retrieved an audio recording of a conversation between Harbor and Astra when the two visited a VALORANT HQ research wing.
	+ The conversation reveals more details about Harbor's artifact, its connection with an unknown entity known as the "Guardians," and information regarding a lost "Flower City" which is revealed by Harbor to be destroyed on Alpha Earth, with Astra pointing out that the said location may still be intact on Omega.
* Cypher is known to have direct access to communication logs of VALORANT agents assigned to venture into Omega Earth and locate its City of Flowers.
* Cypher contacts Brimstone over concerns about Fade's health and that she appears to be always troubled. He asks Brimstone if there is anything the Protocol can do to help her.

#### Project Landfall

* Following Gekko's actions in stealing four creatures from a K-SEC facility, Cypher covers up the incident. He confirms the lack of incriminating surveillance videos, and also coded a worm to hunt online footage.
* Cypher contacts Brimstone to request for more servers to increase the capacity of their surveillance library and pleads with the Protocol leader not to force him to purge any of the archives to make space instead.
* Cypher obtains intel on the members of a Project Landfall team heading to a facility in Norway for a cargo pickup.
* Cypher works alongside Jett undercover operating a surveillance truck outside a Kingdom facility in Los Angeles that covers as a food truck serving Kingdom employees.
	+ He receives Kingdom data from Deadlock that allows him to access the facility's video surveillance systems.

#### Scions of Hourglass

* Cypher is asked by Omen to keep him updated on the investigation into the disappearance of Landfall's leadership after the Protocol has discovered a symbol related to the case that Omen has recognized.
	+ He later discovers the source of the symbol to be from a hitman, who Cypher establishes contact with.
	+ He also finds a recording showing the hitman's skills, which he shares with the other agents, as well as some information relating to Omen. Cypher later meets with Omen to inform him about what he's found.
	+ After the hitman is eventually recruited by the Protocol, Cypher continues to watch him closely.
* Cypher talks to Brimstone about the next card game event at VALORANT, some new additions to the usual group, and Omen's interest in observing the game.
* Cypher continues to question Iso about his former employer.
* Cypher observes Iso's complete defection from the Scions of Hourglass when he informs Omen about their assassination order on him.
* Cypher is assigned as a member of the Jakarta strike team.
	+ He and Iso first travel to Casablanca and take down a Scions of Hourglass cell there to obtain intel on the location of Iso's former boss, which they learn is at an SoH skyscraper base in Jakarta.
	+ In Jakarta, he is tasked with a supportive role while Omen enters the base alone, providing intel to him from a terminal.

### Personality

— Cypher (Match Start)

Cypher is constantly gathering secrets, information, and intel, to the point of managing to retrieve the passwords of everyone in the VALORANT Protocol. His continued passion to gather whatever information he can find is not always shared by his teammates, as Jett found out the hard way during an undercover mission in Los Angeles. He keeps most of this information to himself, making sure that no one ever discovers them and only revealing anything he knows for a price. In contrast of how he knows a lot about his allies, they do not know much about him, and he prefers to keep it that way.

While Cypher has a history of being a killer, he has shown to have warmer ties with some of the agents in the Protocol, to the point of referring to them by nicknames; for example, he refers to Killjoy as 'little engineer', Phoenix as 'little star', and Jett as 'wind assassin', among others. A calculated person who enjoys a game of chess, Cypher is known to be rather observant towards others, as seen when he noted that sacrifice plays for victory's sake was not Phoenix's usual engagement style.

He is also known to be rather cheeky, and tends to take parts or tools from his fellow agents whenever he needs them, often informing them later on that he has done so rather than asking them if he can use them beforehand.

### Appearance

Cypher's overall appearance resembles a typical depiction of a detective or gumshoe. His main piece of apparel is a large, white coat that extends from his shins up to his neck. This overcoat is where he keeps his utility stored. He wears dull grey pants, which are paired with black shoes. Gold, brown, and blue colors accentuate his predominantly black and white color scheme. Notably, not a single inch of Cypher's skin is directly visible. Aside from his coat and pants, Cypher wears a pair of blue gloves that have a bright glow at the center of the palm, which serves as a magnet and allows for Cypher to recall any of his utilities back to his hand at will. Undoubtedly, the most defining part of his wardrobe is his characteristic mask with hexagonal eye holes that hold a bright blue glow. This mask is high tech and is confirmed to be "vision-specific."

Cypher wears a hat with an antenna attached to it. This device is what's used to locate and transmit the locations of enemies when Neural Theft is used as it floats over the body at Cypher's command.

## Abilities

### Basic

C – Trapwire

EQUIP a trapwire. FIRE to place a destructible and covert tripwire at the targeted location, creating a line that spans between the placed location and the wall opposite. Enemy players who cross a tripwire will be Tethered, Revealed, and Concussed after a short period if they do not destroy the device in time. This ability can be picked up to be REDEPLOYED.

**Uses:** 2
**Cost:** 200
**Windup:**  1.5 s once tethered
**Health:**  20 HP
**Damage:**  5 (if windup completes)
**Debuff:**  2 s Slow (on detection), 1.5 s Tether (or until destroyed), 3 s Concuss (if windup completes)

Q – Cyber Cage

INSTANTLY toss the cyber cage in front of Cypher. ACTIVATE to create a zone that blocks vision and plays an audio cue when enemies pass through it.

**Uses:** 2
**Cost:** 100
**Duration:**  7.25 s

### Signature

E – Spycam

EQUIP a spycam. FIRE to place the spycam at the targeted location. RE-USE this ability to take control of the camera's view. While in control of the camera, FIRE to shoot a marking dart. This dart will Reveal the location of any player struck by the dart. This ability can be picked up to be REDEPLOYED.

**Uses:** 1
**Cost:**Free
**Cooldown:**  Spycam: 15 s (Recalled)/45 s (Destroyed), Dart: 6 s
**Health:**  1 HP
**Debuff:**  Still-image Reveal every 2 s until dart removed

### Ultimate

X – Neural Theft

INSTANTLY use on a targeted dead enemy to download information on their team. After a brief delay, the location of all living enemy players will be Revealed twice.

**Cost:**♦♦♦♦♦♦ 6 points
**Windup:**  2 s (1st reveal), 4 s (2nd reveal)
**Debuff:**  Still-image Reveal

## Agent Cosmetics

The following are cosmetics related to Cypher from Agent Gear and from other sources (e.g. Battle Pass).

### Gear

*More information: Gear*

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

## Update History

**v7.12**
* Spycam
	+ Fixed an issue causing kills with  Trapwire to not be awarded while using Spycam

**v7.09**

* Trapwire
	+ Decreased the time until the trap concusses a captured enemy 3 >>> 1.5 seconds.
	+ After concussing an enemy or an enemy in the trap was killed, the Trapwire no longer destroys itself but instead re-arms after 0.5 seconds, allowing it to ensnare another enemy.
	+ Duration of tag slow when hit by the trap increased 0.75 >>> 2 seconds.

**v7.07**

* Spycam
	+ Fixed an issue where you could remain blinded if spectating a flash through Cypher’s Spycam as the round ended.

* Neural Theft
	+ Neural Theft now completes even if Cypher dies after casting.

**v7.05**

* Trapwire
	+ Fixed a bug where Cypher’s Trapwire would sometimes fail to activate when placed on stairs.

**v7.0**

* Cyber Cage
	+ Fixed issues where on some map geo Cypher could not pick up Cyber Cage.

**v6.02**

* Neural Theft
	+ Fixed bug where Neural Theft would only reveal one time if he had been killed or the round had changed during a previous cast
	+ Fixed a bug where Neural Theft reveals would be interrupted when he was killed after it had been deployed

**v6.0**

* Trapwire
	+ Can no longer be placed through Sage's  Barrier Orb

**v5.12**

* Trapwire
	+ Health increased 1 HP >>> 20 HP
	+ No longer prevented from being placed on the glass panels by the yellow crate on Icebox
	+ Can no longer be triggered by an enemy  Spycam or  Turret
* Spycam
	+ Now immune to all allied damage

**v5.10**

* Improvements made to the yellow silhouette used for reveals from  Spycam and  Neural Theft
	+ Now disappears if the revealed enemy becomes visible to you to help reduce confusion of seeing two representations of the enemy in different places
	+ Now starts dimmer and fades faster to make it more distinguishable from an actual enemy
* Trapwire and  Spycam are no longer destroyed by allies' AOE damage
* Trapwire
	+ Maximum length increased 10 m >>> 15 m
* Neural Theft
	+ Now reveals enemies two times
		- 4 s delay between reveals
	+ Time restriction to cast on enemy corpses removed
	+ Maximum cast distance increased 12 m >>> 18 m

**v5.0**

* Spycam
	+ Fixed a bug where equipping a weapon after exiting Spycam could play the wrong equip speed animation and visually misrepresent when you were able to fire

**v4.11**

* Cyber Cage
	+ Fixed a bug where Cyber Cage would sometimes disappear from the minimap

**v4.10**

* Progress/Charge bars moved to a consistent location and made a consistent size
* Voice lines relating to  Trapwire and  Spycam will now be heard globally by allies

**v4.04 Hotfix**

* Trapwire
	+ Fixed an exploit

**v4.04**

* Trapwire
	+ Fixed an issue where enemies wouldn't trigger trapwires in rare situations

**v3.09**

* Spycam
	+ Cypher can no longer place Spycam on the Breeze door in order to destroy or see through the door when it's lowered
		- Similarly, fixed random spots where Cypher could not place Spycam in the same area

**v3.04**

* Cyber Cage
	+ Other abilities can no longer be placed on the projectile while it’s in mid-air or deployed on the ground

**v3.0**

* Fixed a bug where picking up  Trapwires or  Cyber Cages during the Buy phase would prevent you from purchasing a second charge
* Neural Theft
	+ Ultimate points required decreased 7 >>> 6

**v2.07**

* Can no longer place  Spycam in  Cyber Cage projectiles

**v2.06**

* Spycam
	+ Fixed issue where Spycam broke Sage's  Barrier Orb when placed close to it

**v2.05**

* Spycam
	+ Fixed issue where Spycam's dart could sometimes hit players that were on the other side of a wall
	+ Fixed Spycam targeting going through Sage's  wall
	+ Fixed a rare bug that could leave players unable to move or process inputs until they died when entering or returning from Spycam
		- *"We previously addressed some causes of this bug last patch, this fix should address the remaining known causes"*

**v2.03**

* Spycam
	+ Fixed a couple input bugs around possessing and unpossessing Spycam in the same frame which lead to locking all inputs or locking view direction

**v1.11**

* Trapwire
	+ Disabled and revealed upon death
* Spycam
	+ Disabled and revealed upon death

**v1.04**

* Cyber Cage
	+ Can now be picked up during buy phase

**v1.03**

* Trapwire
	+ Fixed a bug where traps that were placed such that they were on the inside of a doorway, would not trigger when someone walked through them

**v1.02**

* Fixed an issue where players could place a  Cyber Cage on a  Trapwire
* Spycam
	+ Fixed an issue where Spycam blocked Spike defusal

**v0.50**

* Trapwire
	+ Can no longer pick up the trap after an enemy has triggered it
* Cyber Cage
	+ No longer slows enemies that move through it
* Spycam
	+ Spycam cooldown when destroyed increased 30 >>> 45 seconds
	+ Cypher will no longer float in the air if the Sage  Barrier Orb wall he is standing on is destroyed while using the Spycam
	+ Exploit fixes

**v0.49**

* Cyber Cage
	+ Fixed a bug where Cyber Cage would be selected at a larger range than intended causing overlapping interaction issues

**v0.47+**

* Spycam
	+ Can no longer use weapons

## Trivia

* He is particularly fond of playing chess, as seen in the WARM UP cinematic.
* Cypher is the first agent to be featured in the game as a non-playable character (NPC). An animated model of his character was added in the Range beginning patch v5.07. Since then in subsequent updates, he has occasionally been removed and re-added.
	+ In each time Cypher is re-added, a new lore-relevant audio log is available in his office.

### Relations

* Omen has reached out to Cypher for help in his search for some "hard to find answers". Cypher has been able to gather some information regarding this, but he still requires Omen to pay him something in return before he hands the intel over.
* Cypher's secrecy conflict with Sova's values of honesty and transparency. While Sova has been vocal about his distrust for Cypher, it is currently unknown if the intel broker reciprocates the feeling.
	+ Cypher has referred to the hunter as his "measured friend."
	+ Cypher is aware that some details in Sova's background files is fabricated, such as the hunter's claims about how he lost his right eye.
		- "Sova, I accessed your background file, a good story! But that's not really how you lost your eye."
* In his email sent to Brimstone, Cypher is shown to be wary towards Chamber as he validated the French agent's work history.

## Gallery

Concept ArtConcept ArtConcept ArtWARM UPCypher outside his office in the Range. He is the first agent to be featured as an NPC in-game.Cypher standing up after the player approaches him.Pride 2023RECKONING teaserRECKONING teaserRECKONING
## References

1. ↑ VALORANT Reddit AMA - Cypher's identity.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 VALORANT Protocol#The Blackmailer's agent dossiers
3. ↑ Discord Dev Q&A: Cypher selling intel to Omen (Discord link)
4. ↑ 3.09 Viper Email
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 3.10 Cypher Email
6. ↑ WARM UP
7. ↑ 4.01 Breach Email
8. ↑ 4.03 Sova Email
9. ↑ 4.05 Cypher Email
10. ↑ Istanbul Strike Team
11. ↑ 4.07 Phoenix Voicemail
12. ↑ Cypher interrogation audio log
13. ↑ 4.08 Cypher Voicemail
14. ↑ 4.10 Cypher Voicemail
15. ↑ 5.01 Cypher Email
16. ↑ 5.03 Cypher Voicemail
17. ↑ Research Wing recording
18. ↑ 5.12 Audio Log
19. ↑ 6.01 Cypher Voicemail
20. ↑ 6.05 Reyna email
21. ↑ 6.11 Cypher Voicemail
22. ↑ UNMADE teasers
23. ↑ 7.02 Jett voicemail
24. ↑ No more hiding: VALORANT Story Trailer
25. ↑ 7.07 Omen email
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 7.08 messages
27. ↑ MYTHS Twitter Teasers
28. ↑ 7.09 Iso voicemail
29. ↑ 7.10 Iso voicemail
30. ↑ RECKONING Twitter Teaser
31. ↑ RECKONING
32. ↑ *VALORANT* Lore Discord Narrative AMA: Cypher's eyes
33. ↑ VALORANT Discord Dev Q&A - Cypher selling intel to Omen (Discord link)
34. ↑ VALORANT Reddit AMA - Rivalry between Cypher and Sova
35. ↑ Cypher to Sova - "Ah, Sova. My measured friend, that was amazing!"
36. ↑ Pride 2023
37. ↑ RECKONING teaser
38. ↑ RECKONING teaser