What Is the Zoo Strat in Valorant?

Valorant was released in 2020 and since then, Riot Games has introduced many new maps and agents to keep the game engaging and entertaining for players. With an influx of different elements to the game, players are presented with more opportunities to come up with different strategies (strats) and methods to win rounds and matches in Valorant. Gekko was the latest to join the ever-expanding roster of agents. With his addition, Paper Rex in-game leader (IGL) Benedict "Benkai" Tan said the team can finally pull off its “zoo strat.” This brought up the question of what the zoo strat is in Valorant.

Here’s everything you need to know about it.

Paper Rex Benkai Discusses the Zoo Strat

As we know, the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2023: Pacific League is all set to begin on 25th March. The league had an exciting pre-split, kick-off event on 22nd March called Face Off where different players answered questions from the media. Benkai answered one such question about the addition of Gekko to Valorant. He talked about the zoo strat that Paper Rex has been practicing,

Benkai said, “So with the addition of Gekko we can finally run our zoo strat. Our zoo agent comp[osition] which is basically Gekko, Skye, Sova, Fade, and Killjoy. So it’s a bunch of little minions running around. So that’s why we call it the zoo strat. We’ve been trying that in practice and it’s been going pretty well.”

So the zoo strat comprises agents with little creatures in their ability kit, as explained by Benkai. The agents Benkai mentioned all have unique abilities. They are as follows:

Gekko: Gekko’s entire kit uses his pets. Gekko is an Initiator who can summon various pets with their own unique abilities. Depending on which skill he uses, players can stun, blind, reveal and disable enemies. 

Sova: Sova’s scout ability is his Owl Drone. He can control the movement of the drone and mark enemies by shooting a dart that reveals their position for a brief time.

Killjoy: The Alarmbot is Killjoy’s Q ability in Valorant and the bot has very cute interactions. When you deploy the bot, it shows adorable puppy-like characteristics and its design also has two ear-like elements. When enemies get closer, the bot gets triggered, runs toward them, and makes them vulnerable

Skye: Skye’s ability kit is also centered around her ‘beasts.’ Her Q is a Tasmanian tiger and her E ability is a hawk that can be used to blind players. 

As far as Fade is concerned, even though she does not have any real animal-based abilities in her kit, she does use nightmarish entities and prowlers to scout out enemies. 

While Benkai could very well be joking about pulling off the zoo strat, playing such a comp could be risky. Without smokes and fraggers, it might be difficult to win and players should try this at their own risk.