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Heroes / Vyper / How to play
Field manual · Sep 29 patch

How to play VyperHow to play

46.7% win rate · #32 of 44 · Gunner · Slippery · Rat-a-Tat

Updated 2026-10-30 01:19 UTC · n = 3,827,247 matches

How to play Vyper

Lethal Venom1Lethal VenomPetrifying Bola2Petrifying Bola

Your combo: Poison them with Lethal Venom, petrify them for 2.2s with Petrifying Bola (the venom ignores the petrify’s damage block), then burst them when it ends.

Don’t waste: Petrifying Bola is on a 115s cooldown. Once it’s used, enemies commit.

Edge: Lethal Venom hits hardest below 30% health, and Slither tier 3 gives you a 180 barrier on slides.

From community hero guides, Oct 2026 patches, checked against deadlock.wiki. The same combo from the other side is on how to counter Vyper.

Your kit

Screwjab Dagger
Screwjab Dagger
Ability 1 · 10s cooldown · slow

Throw a dagger, dealing spirit damage and applying slow. Every subsequent dagger against the same target stacks in spirit damage and slow.

Lethal Venom
Lethal Venom
Ability 2 · 28s cooldown

Inject a target with lethal venom. After a delay the venom triggers, dealing Spirit Damage. The damage is increased by the target's missing health.Lethal Venom will ignore Petrify's damage block.

Slither
Slither
Ability 3

You have increased Slide Distance, can Slide up hills, and can turn faster while Sliding.

Petrifying Bola
Petrifying Bola
Ultimate · 115s cooldown · petrify 2.2s · ultimate

Throw an explosive bola. On exploding, the bola Slows and Damages all enemies in the area. Direct hits deal Additional Damage and Petrify instead. Petrified units block all damage, but cannot take actions.

Skill order

Max first:SlitherSlither›Lethal VenomLethal Venom›Petrifying BolaPetrifying Bola›Screwjab DaggerScrewjab Dagger

From the most common upgrade order (27k matches): the order abilities reach their last tier.

10m21m32m43m54m65m76m811m912m1016m1117m1219m1326m1427m1531m
Screwjab DaggerScrewjab DaggerAbility 1III
Lethal VenomLethal VenomAbility 2IIIIII
SlitherSlitherAbility 3IIIIII
Petrifying BolaPetrifying BolaUltimateIIIIII

unlock I II III upgrade tiers · column labels are the average minute of each step

Build path with timings

Early
Mid
Late

Items that win most on Vyper

Lanes you win

Lanes to play safe

When they counter you

−8.1 ppGraves

Buy against Graves:

−6.4 ppRat King

Buy against Rat King:

−6.1 ppPaige

Buy against Paige:

Best teammates

Notes from the best builds

Vyper stats and buildsHow to counter Vyper