Riot’s upcoming shooter Valorant was confirmed for this summer and the closed beta is starting today. Anyone who has an activated account will be able to finally try out the game.
More news about Valorant came in the last few days than in the last months. Thanks to both gameplay footage from streamers and an interview with Valorant executive producer Ana Donlon and Valorant game director Joe Ziegler.
Answers to a lot of questions
The duo answered a lot of questions and we’ll cover the most important ones if not all along with everything else we’ve stumbled upon in the last few days.
The closed beta starts today, April 7, and in case you don’t already have a “key”, Riot will be releasing more of those. The number of keys will be higher today than on April 3, when the game released footage from the Twitch Rivals event. Furthermore, additional keys will be released in the upcoming days as Riot want to add as many people as possible without breaking the servers.
Sadly, not all Riot accounts will have access to Valorant before the game’s release. On the plus side, anyone who participated in the beta will get some rewards for helping the developers and the community.
Valorant will be free to play and free from loot boxes. The game’s monetization system will focus on earning through visuals, much like League of Legends.
Ranked won’t be available on day one of the closed beta but will come a couple of weeks in. The number of maps on release is still unclear but there’ll be more than two of them and less than twenty.
Agents were once again confirmed as a total of 10 on release. So far, we’ve seen only 9, so the 10th is still a mystery. Riot mentioned that they also have some more agents almost ready, so this number could easily change for the better.
The shooter will implement hardware bans, so despite being a free to play title, Valorant likely won’t have a problem with cheaters. Games will also prematurely end when a cheater is detected, which basically means that ranks won’t change for anyone. A replay system should be available on release and it’ll be only be improved further post-launch.
Game mechanics
Custom maps are currently not in the game’s future which is puts the game a few steps back behind some of its competitors like CS:GO.
The Valorant team mentioned that updates will come at different points but just frequent enough to keep things fresh.
Valorant is going to be an esports title. Proof of that is all the measures Riot have taken to limit cheaters and provide 128 tick servers with low latency. Many esports players have already ditched their old games in favor of Valorant. Community tournament guidelines will come soon as Riot get to know what the players really expect from a future esports scene.
If a player gets disconnected from a match, they’ll still be able to reconnect and continue playing.
Valorant games will be decided by a maximum of 25 rounds, meaning that whichever team gets to 13 first, wins. Players will switch side from Defender to Attacker and vice versa once 12 rounds are played. Each round of Valorant consists of three phases – preparation, action and 6 seconds to pick up weapons after the action.
The spike (bomb) defusal is split into two bars. Completing one of them will allow you to return and finish the defusal with the second one.
Once you select an agent you can’t change your choice for the rest of the match. Only one of each agent can be played on every team.
Agent ultimate abilities progress is visible to everyone on the scoreboard, so enemies can often anticipate your most powerful skill.
If a teammate wants you to drop them a weapon they can simply request it by right-clicking the desired weapon in the buy menu. After that, you simply purchase the weapon for them and they get it.
Agents have access to four unique abilities. The signature one is always available at the start of the round, but the rest are not. Ultimates get charged by either getting kills, defusing a spike or collecting ultimate orbs. Orbs are found around the map and there’s only two of them every round. The other two abilities serve as utility and can be bought in the weapons menu. If you’re used to buying grenades, flashbangs and molotovs, the first two skills of each agent will very much fulfill that role as most of them obstruct vision and/or movement.
The different tiers of in-game progress you can achieve by playing are as follows – Mercenary, Soldier, Veteran, Hero, Legend, Mythic, Immortal.
- READ MORE: All we know about Valorant so far
That’s pretty much all we’ve got for now, but the closed beta is just officially starting. If you’ve got a key then feel free to join in today and get your impressions from Valorant firsthand. Stay tuned for more Valorant updates.
