Waylay is the 28th Agent to join the VALORANT Protocol. Blasting from Thailand, she transforms into light shards to surprise her enemy before disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Thailand's prismatic radiant Waylay transforms into light itself as she darts across the battlefield, striking down her targets through shards of light before flitting back to safety, all in the blink of an eye.
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Lore[]
Waylay, a radiant with an affinity to light, uses her radiant powers to outpace her competition, whether by speeding past them herself or slowing them down. She joins the VALORANT Protocol as the 28th agent of the team. She was recruited to the Protocol with a recommendation from Tejo.
Past[]
Like most members of the protocol, Waylay’s past is shrouded in mystery. From certain hints in her voice lines and some inferences that can be made from her player card, Waylay likely had a criminal past.
Introduction[]
Waylay had her first encounter with the Protocol in the DAWN BREAKS trailer. Tejo calls her in for support during one of the Protocol’s missions in her home country of Thailand. When called in, she zipped through the city to rendezvous with them.
In the distance, we see Brimstone’s Orbital Strike fire into a facility. Their strike team was pinned down after facing large amounts of resistance from an unknown enemy, believed to be from the organisation that Tejo has alluded to in the past. When she arrives, Waylay immediately gets to work, subduing and defeating two of the aggressors before falling back to regroup with the rest of the strike team. With their newfound ally by their side, the strike team launches a counterattack and turns the tables on their enemy, though they end up nearly destroying the facility they were fighting in in the process.
As the strike team pulls back and prepares to extract, Waylay has a brief moment to catch up with Tejo, saying he hasn’t changed. Before anyone can ask her questions, the VLT/R lands nearby, and Waylay says they have more work to do before dashing away again.
Joining the Protocol[]
After the events in Thailand, Waylay is officially brought into the Protocol. She also takes a keen interest in the well-being and training of some of the younger individuals of the team who also may not have had specialized tactical training. This includes Phoenix, as she explicitly calls out his mental and emotional state in one of her emails to Brimstone[1] and is heard training him during one of her voicemails[1]. During that voicemail, she also refers to another agent who is training with them, though Waylay does not identify them.
Alongside this, Waylay also seems to be tracking the interdimensional incursions and the activities they conduct. She notes that despite the multiple attempts that the Protocol has foiled, including the one in Thailand, the incursions are continuing and are now targeting Kingdom facilities and stealing radianite fuel. Waylay then proceeds to let Brimstone know that she can set up a team to conduct some digging if required[1].
Personality[]
In Tejo’s own words, the Protocol was in dire need of an agent with a very specific personality- as he put it, someone who can keep the younger ones in line, talk shit with them and talk business with the others. And Waylay delivers on that personality. As mentioned before, Waylay takes a keen interest in uplifting the other younger and less battle-experienced members of the Protocol, such as Phoenix and Jett, as well as keeping some of the other hot-headed and trigger-happy individuals in line, like Breach.
She seems to be a natural-born leader, willing to take charge on the battlefield and in pushing the people around her to be better. Likewise, she also tries to look out for the effects of the less noticeable aspects of their line of work, constantly uplifting her teammates.
Appearance[]
Waylay’s defining feature is the tattoos along her arm, which pulse similar to Gekko’s whenever either of them uses their powers. In Gekko’s case, it’s whenever he communicates with his buddies, while in Waylay’s case, it’s whenever she activates her light powers. Her outfit is reminiscent of athleisure wear. Her hair ends are dyed white, and she wears a blue tear-shaped necklace.
She wears a sleeveless jacket with a high collar over a short-sleeved t-shirt. The jacket has slots through which a strap for her fanny pack on her back goes through, one by her chest and the other by her torso, with the fanny pack itself behind her and over the jacket. She wears baggy cargo pants and standard running shoes. The cargo pants seem to have two utility pouches by her hips. Her clothes are coloured black, yellow and dark blue.[2]
Abilities[]
Waylay’s abilities are all about speed, either making herself quicker or slowing her enemies down.
Her trademark ability for this is her Light Speed ability, which allows her to launch herself up and past her opponents, catching them off guard from an unexpected angle. In the event this puts her in an uncomfortable position, her Refract ability lets her fall back to a safer position to try things a bit differently.
While the above two are about being fast, when it comes to slowing down, her first option is her Saturate, where she will throw a bolt of energy at her enemy, hindering their movements and preventing both their retreat and their retaliation. If she is about to be swarmed, she can launch Convergent Paths at her opponents, which will slow them down while simultaneously speeding herself up.
Relationships[]
According to their interactions, Waylay and Tejo have known each other for a long time, and Tejo has mentored Waylay in some capacity in the past. They maintain a friendly relationship, and Tejo was actually the one who asked her to help out the team in Bangkok, thus being introduced to the VALORANT Protocol and likely facilitating her recruitment.
Cards[]
The VALORANT Waylay card is a generic portrait of Waylay.
The Dawnstrike Card displays Waylay jumping out of high-rise building through a window using her Lightspeed ability. Interstingly, the building has the Bulwark Armory's logo on it, suggesting some form of connection between the two entities.
The Prismatic Pathways card acts as the first teaser for Waylay, revealing her signature ability Refract, in which Waylay transforms into a mote of pure light to escape from dangerous situations.
Voicelines[]
Find all of Waylay's voicelines here, archived by Kingdom Archives.
Notes[]
- Waylay's email referencing Phoenix's mental and emotional state is from patch 10.05.
- Waylay's voicemail referencing the incursions is from patch 10.05.
- Waylay's email referencing Phoenix's training is from patch 10.06.
- In one of her interactions with Breach, Waylay muses about the kind of jobs they could have pulled off together, possibly hinting at her own criminal past:
- Breach, shame we never got to work together before all this, heh? The jobs we could have done.