Riot's new game Valorant didn't waste any time. As soon as the game was open for beta testing, it took the gaming community by storm. More and more gamers are switching from CS:GO to Valorant every day. More gamers mean more confused players and more unanswered questions. That’s why we decided it is time to clarify everything related to this game. Stay tuned to this article and find out answers to all most frequently asked Valorant questions.
What is Valorant?
The first Valorant question you may ask is, of course, What is Valorant?
Valorant is a first-person shooter game developed by Riot Games. It is actually a tactical team-based competitive FPS with its own in-game economy very similar to CS:GO. The game is pretty much CS:GO on steroids.
Unlike CS:GO, Valorant has an assortment of different Agents and each one of them comes with its own set of abilities. Although many people believe this game has the potential to replace CS:GO, it is not completely true. The game is a little bit cartooney, it has different classes and abilities which makes it more different than similar to CS:GO.
Where to buy Valorant?
Valorant is developed by Riot Games. This company is known for its culture to produce free-to-play titles with in-game microtransactions. Therefore, Valorant will probably be free-to-play and you won’t have to purchase it. All it takes is to open a free account on Riot Games and download the game.
Where to download Valorant?
Despite being one of the best game developers in the industry, Riot Games still does not have a universal launcher for all its games. In other words, if you want to play Valorant, you will have to download the Valorant client and download the game via the client. Just head over to Valorant’s official website and download the game client directly. The game is not bigger than 5GB to download and it will take around 8GB of your space once installed.
Can I play Valorant on Mac or Linux?
Yes and No. For the time being, Valorant isn’t compatible with Mac operating system. Luckily, every newer Mac device supports Windows 10. All you have to do is to install Windows as a secondary system and you will be able to play Valorant without any problems.
As for the Linux devices, you will have to enable snaps first. Snaps are applications packed to run on all popular Linux distributions. Check out snapcraft tutorials to install Valorant on Linux.
How to unlock more agents?
You just need to select the Agent you want to unlock and activate his Agent contract. Once activated, each game will bring you XP points which will level up his contract. Once the contract gets to level 5, the Agent will become available.
There is one other way to unlock Agents and it is kind of a pay-to-win option. Although there is not a single pay-to-win esports competitive game, there is something quite similar to it in Valorant. In the majority of the games, money can only buy you skins which will bring visual effect and won’t improve your gameplay. However, in Valorant, you can buy VP (Valorant Points) which can be used to unlock new Agents. This option won’t improve your gameplay but it can help you activate more Agents at a faster pace.
How many agents are there in total?
At the moment, there are 10 available agents in Valorant but it will be 11 at game release. One additional agent will be added to the game as soon as it is released to the public. Rest assured that 11 Agents isn’t the final cut. As the game evolves, we are pretty sure there will be more Agents to come.
Check out our Top 10 Worst to Best Valorant Agent rankings:
How many maps are there?
At the moment, there are only 3 maps: Haven, Split and Bind. One additional map Ascent will be added to the game on the launch.
Hot to add a friend in Valorant?
If you played any game provided by Riot Game’s before, you will already have your full list of friends under the other games tab. However, if you want to directly add a friend to Valorant, the easiest way to it is via the Riot ID. Just head over to your friend's list and press the plus sign. The new window will pop-up requesting you to enter Riot ID and tagline. Once entered, just press send and your friend should receive the request immediately.
How to report a cheater in Valorant?
Although Vanguard anti-cheat system protects you from cheaters, there are always some of them smart enough who manage to find a way around it. If someone looks suspicious, just open the console by pressing ESC and you will see the report button.
Besides cheating, you can also report players for verbal abuse, negative attitude, being AFK, assisting enemy team, hate speech, and offensive naming. If you weren’t 100% sure that someone is cheating but you still want to report him after the match, you can do so by going into your career tab and finding that match. After that, all you have to do is select the player and the reason why you want to report him.
How to vote-kick someone in Valorant match?
Another unanswered Valorant question we saw in many forums is how to kick someone. Unfortunately, you can't kick players just yet. The game is still pretty much new and that option isn’t available yet. If someone is toxic and trolling, all you can do is report him. We hope Riot will add a vote-kick system in the near future as the game desperately needs it.
How to show FPS & Ping in Valorant?
Both options are available in the stats tab. Simply go to Settings -> Video -> Stats and a new tab will pop-up. Turn on your Client FPS by switching from Hide to Text Only, Graph Only, or Show Both.
If you enable Text Only option, your FPS will pop-up in the upper left corner and will only show FPS in a numbered format. The second option is Graph, it will display FPS on the right side of your screen with a graph attached to it.
The same goes for Ping: navigate to that same menu and find the Network Round Trip Time option. Set it to Text only and you will be able to see your ping right next to the FPS.
What is Spike?
Spike is actually a term for an exploding device the whole game revolves around. Just like in CS:GO where you have to either plant or defuse the C4, in Valorant, you will have to plant or defuse the spike. The only difference between spike and C4 is in defusal time. It takes 4 seconds to plant it in both games but 8 seconds to defuse in Valorant while the full defuse in CS:GO is 10 seconds.
However, the defusal time in CS:GO can be reduced by buying a defuse kit, while Valorant does not have that option (yet). On the other side, Valorant allows you to defuse the Spike only partially. You can defuse 50% of the Spike, cancel the defusal and resume at 50% afterwards. The Spike will explode after 45 seconds which is 5 seconds longer than C4 in CS:GO.
Are there any Valorant esports events?
At the moment, there are no official events as the game is still in beta phase. Riot Games do not plan to organize and run Valorant esports events at the moment. Yet, some tournaments such as the official release launch tournament with USD 200,000 prize pool is already lined up.
This is it for our short FAQ session about Valorant. If you want a more detailed look including agent tips, map guides and the latest news check out our dedicated Valorant section on EarlyGame.
