Abilities
Screwjab Dagger
Ability 1 · thrown projectile applying stacking damage and slow Throws a dagger for spirit damage and a movement slow. Hitting the same target again stacks the effect — each additional dagger adds both damage and more slow, up to a cap, and the stacks persist for several seconds.
What it is for: Her setup and chase tool. Vyper stacks daggers onto one target to strip their movement, then commits her gun and Lethal Venom into a target that can no longer walk away.
- Damage
- 50 base (about 0.8x spirit scaling) plus 25 per stack (about 0.4x scaling), up to 3 stacks base (T3 adds +2 max stacks)
- Crowd control
- -28% move slow on first hit, -12% more per stack, lasting 10s
- Defensive
- The slow is her only way to break a chase
How to play against it
- Break line of sight for 10s and every stack falls off, resetting her whole combo
- The dagger is a travelling projectile — strafing and using cover during her approach denies the stacks she needs
- Buy bullet resist deeper than she can shred (Metal Skin, Bullet Armor) so the T2 resist reduction does not open you up to The Rattler
- A Viscous Cube at T3 or a Debuff Remover strips the stacks outright, which is a full reset of her damage setup
Interactions
- 2 charges base (3 at T1) on a 4s charge delay, so she can land a full stack set quickly on a committed target
- T3 refunds 55% of the charge cooldown on hit, which makes daggers close to spammable against a target she is actually connecting with
- The bullet-resist shred at T2 means her daggers make her own gun hit meaningfully harder, not just slower targets
- Stacks decay after 10s, so a target who breaks line of sight for that long resets the whole setup
Upgrade tiers
- T1: +1 charge
- T2: on hit, -8% bullet resist and an additional -6% bullet resist per stack
- T3: +2 max stacks, -2s charge delay, and on hit refund 55% of the charge cooldown
Lethal Venom
Ability 2 · delayed single-target execute scaling with missing health Injects a target with venom that detonates after a short delay. The damage scales with how much health the target is missing, from a small amount at full health up to a very large amount once they are badly hurt.
What it is for: Her finisher. Vyper applies it once the target is around half health so the delay elapses exactly as they try to disengage, converting an escape attempt into a kill.
- Damage
- 20 minimum (about 0.65x spirit scaling) up to 140 maximum (about 2.79x spirit scaling), reaching maximum against targets at or below 30% health; T1 adds +31.5 max venom damage
How to play against it
- Break line of sight during the 3s delay and reposition so that when it detonates she cannot follow up with gun damage
- Heal BEFORE it resolves, not after — the damage keys off missing health at detonation, so topping up shrinks the hit; note this fails if she has T2's -40% anti-heal
- Do not rely on Petrify (yours or an ally Vyper's) to block it — Lethal Venom explicitly ignores Petrify's damage block
- A Viscous Cube's invulnerability does absorb the detonation, unlike Petrify
- It is a 10m cast range single-target ability; simply staying beyond 10m of her denies it entirely pre-T3
Interactions
- It ignores Petrify's damage block — meaning she can Petrifying Bola a target with Lethal Venom already ticking and the venom still resolves through the immunity. This is a key exception to remember when evaluating Petrify as a defensive tool
- The 3s venom buildup means damage resolves after a delay, so the 'safe' moment right after disengaging is exactly when it lands
- T2's -40% healing reduction plus the missing-health scaling means healing out of a Venom is unusually hard
- T3 lets her bullets also build up Lethal Venom, so sustained SMG fire alone applies it
Upgrade tiers
- T1: +31.5 maximum venom damage
- T2: -40% healing reduction and -12s cooldown (28s base)
- T3: bullets also build up Lethal Venom
Slither
Ability 3 · passive slide enhancement A permanent passive that lengthens her slides, lets her slide uphill instead of stalling, and lets her turn much more sharply while sliding.
What it is for: It is her movement identity. Combined with her gun not consuming ammo while sliding, Slither lets her circle a target at speed, never reload, and enter and exit fights from angles that other heroes cannot take.
- Mobility
- +15% slide distance base, +20% more at T1; uphill sliding and faster slide turning; T2 adds +2 stamina (she has 4 base stamina)
- Defensive
- T3 grants a 180 barrier for 4s on slide, with an 8s internal cooldown before it can reapply
How to play against it
- Fight her on flat or enclosed ground — Slither's uphill sliding and long slides are worth far less where there is no slope and no room to build speed
- Root and immobilise effects (Warden's Binding Word, Venator's Hex-Lined Snap Trap, Vindicta's Stake) stop a slide dead and remove both her mobility and her infinite-ammo state
- The T3 barrier is only 180 for 4s on an 8s internal cooldown; burst through it rather than chipping at it
- Displacement (Venator's Gutshot, Viscous's Puddle Punch knockup) cancels a slide and forces her to re-enter on foot
Interactions
- The interaction that matters: her weapon does not burn ammo during a slide, so a Vyper who chains slides has effectively unlimited sustained DPS
- Uphill sliding means terrain that stops other heroes' slides does not stop hers, which is why she is much stronger on sloped map geometry
- T3's 180 barrier on an 8s internal cooldown is her only defensive layer in the whole kit
- The T3 barrier duration was reduced from 5s to 4s in the 09-16-2026 patch
Upgrade tiers
- T1: +20% slide distance
- T2: +2 stamina
- T3: on slide, gain a 180 barrier for 4s (8s internal cooldown); duration cut from 5s to 4s in the 09-16-2026 patch
Petrifying Bola
Ultimate · thrown AoE with a direct-hit petrify Throws an explosive bola. On detonation it damages and slows everyone in a wide area, while anyone struck directly instead takes much larger damage and is petrified — completely unable to act, though also immune to damage while petrified.
What it is for: Her teamfight tool and her lockdown. A direct hit removes the enemy's key hero from the fight for over two seconds; the area version slows and softens a group for her team to converge on.
- Damage
- 50 area damage (about 0.74x spirit scaling); 180 on a direct petrify hit (about 2.05x spirit scaling), with T1 adding +49.5
- Crowd control
- 2.2s petrify on a direct hit (T3 adds +1s, up to 3.2s); -40% movement slow for 1.5s in the area
- Defensive
- Petrifying an incoming diver removes them from the fight for over two seconds
How to play against it
- It is a thrown projectile with visible travel — sidestep the direct hit and you take only 50 damage and a 1.5s slow instead of 180 and a 2.2-3.2s petrify
- Spread out so a direct hit can only land on one person; pre-T3 the area component is a slow, not a disable
- If you are petrified you take no damage, so the correct use is to treat it as a forced defensive window — have your team disengage or reposition during it rather than trying to fight
- Unstoppable windows (Warden's T3 Last Stand, Yamato's Shadow Transformation status immunity) go through the petrify
- 115s cooldown post-09-16-2026 is long; force the objective in that window
Interactions
- Petrified targets block ALL damage, which cuts both ways: it is a hard disable but it also makes the target temporarily immune to her own team's burst. Petrifying someone mid-focus wastes allied damage
- Her own Lethal Venom is the exception — it explicitly ignores Petrify's damage block, so a Venom applied before the Bola still resolves
- T3 turning the area effect into a mass petrify converts her ultimate from a single pick into a full teamfight disable, at the cost of blanket-blocking her team's damage on everyone hit
- Cooldown was increased from 105s to 115s in the 09-16-2026 patch
Upgrade tiers
- T1: +49.5 petrify damage
- T2: -20s cooldown (115s base after the 09-16-2026 nerf)
- T3: +1s petrify duration and petrifies all enemies in the area, not just direct hits