Utility that gives information

Many agents, especially initiators and sentinels, have abilities that gather information. They can be grouped like this:

• active recon: a drone or creature you control, an arrow or pulse that reveals who is in an area. They tell you who is in a specific place right now;
• passive recon: cameras, traps and sensors that stay on the map and trigger when someone passes. They tell you whether and when someone comes;
• information "by subtraction": even an ability that finds nobody tells you something: that area, at that moment, is empty.

Each kind has weaknesses: a drone can be destroyed, an arrow only reveals where it lands, a trap can be avoided if the enemy knows where it is.

Before using a recon ability, ask: what do I want to know? Some typical questions:

• is anyone in the corner by the site entrance?
• how many defenders are on this site?
• is the attack coming through main or through mid?
• is anyone waiting behind us?

If you do not know what question you are asking, it is probably not the time to use it. Recon thrown at random at the start of the round often finds little and leaves the team without that ability when it would really matter.

Recon is worth the most right before an action: before entering a site, before a peek, before deciding whether to rotate. At that moment the answer directly changes what you do.

That is why the initiator and the duelist need to coordinate: "drone A, if it's empty we go, if someone's there flash and go". Recon that finds an enemy with nobody following up is wasted information.

Every recon gives limited information. Reading it well means knowing what it does not say:

• an ability that reveals an area shows who is in that area, at that moment: someone just outside is not shown;
• a trap that does not trigger means nobody walked through there, not that nobody is nearby;
• a drone destroyed instantly means someone was ready to destroy it: that is information too;
• if your utility is carefully avoided, the enemy knows it is there and is waiting for it.

And like all information, it expires. What you saw 15 seconds ago has already changed.

If your team uses recon, so does the enemy. Knowing how to respond means giving away less information:

• destroy what can be destroyed (cameras, traps, drones) when you have time and are safe: every ability destroyed is one less pair of eyes for them;
• avoid areas you know are watched, or cross them when the ability is not active;
• use the fact that you were seen: if a drone finds you somewhere, move right away, because their team will now be looking there;
• fake it: sometimes letting their recon see you in one spot on purpose and then going elsewhere is a good fake.

Remember, though, that destroying an ability makes noise and reveals you were there. As always, every action both gives and takes information.

On defense, recon is mainly for seeing the attack coming without risking a player: a camera watching a main, a trap on a passage, a sensor that warns you. That way one defender can "keep an eye on" several areas.

Two tips:

• move your passive abilities around from time to time: if the attack knows where they are, they avoid or destroy them;
• call it the moment they trigger: "trap B main, one" is information worth a round.

The agent pages cover, for every initiator and sentinel, exactly what each ability tells you and when to use it.

One last thing: recon utility is not yours, it is the team's. Before using it, ask your teammates what they want to know, and afterwards share what you saw. An initiator who droned in silence has wasted half its value.