Overview
The most classic Sentinel in the game, Cypher is a pro at stopping enemy pushes and gathering information for your team. Regardless of whether the Cypher player is good or not, once he’s set up his abilities on a site, you can expect the opposing team to avoid him like the plague. He’s one of the premier defensive agents in the game and is a great pick for anyone who wants to sit back and let the enemies come into them.
Role: Sentinel
Sentinels are defensive anchors for your team.
On defense, they provide utility that can clog chokes and slow the enemy team’s approach if not deter them altogether.
On attack, they are typically responsible for watching flanks with their utility while lurking in a different direction from your team.
Tips and Tricks
Cypher’s Trapwire [C] has a lot of creative uses beyond just blocking off a choke point, though using one of the two allotted to you there is almost always a good idea. The second wire can be used deeper into the site as a secondary layer of defense or on a second angle enemies might approach a site from. You can even drop it on the other side of the map if you want to spread yourself out.
When combined with Cyber Cage [Q], Cypher can hide his wires and then blast enemies through the cage as they are revealed upon tripping the wires. This is especially effective when you place wires in unexpected spots.
Spycam [E] can also be comboed with Cyber Cage [Q] in that if you ping someone in the open, you can cage to block their vision and then spray them down through it.
On Offense, Trapwire [C] is great at holding flanks. Even having a Cypher on your team can deter enemy teams from pushing out, which will give you time to prepare your execution onto a site as you slowly take space on the map.
You can use Spycam [E] to aggressively clear tight angles. The sound will reveal your position but you can combine it with Cyber Cages [Q] to take more space than the enemy might expect. This is one reason Cypher excels as a lurker on offense.
And because you can use it on any body (and not just ones you've killed or damaged), Neural Theft [X] will instantly reveal enemies and allow you be quick and decisive on where you need to be. The best use of this is to immediately identify pockets you can sneak into.
You can find Cypher lineups here.