Riot released the full version of Valorant today, June 2nd. Many gamers already had their hands on the beta, which gained notoriety for how Riot selected participants. The only way to get into the beta was to link your twitch and riot accounts together, then watch certain streams that would randomly drop keys to viewers. Doing so made the beta feel exclusive, and it appears helped make it a bigger success. Using the data collected from the Beta, Riot created updates for the full launch. The Valorant launch updates include new content as well as tweaking old aspects to make the game more balanced.
New Content
The beta only had three maps, which left players feeling deja vu. This patch adds a brand new map to the game called Ascent. It features a large open middle area for players to fight for control of, which stands out compared to the original three maps that featured, mostly small corridors.
A new character, Reyna, was added in the update as well. Reyna is all about getting kills. When she eliminates opposing players, she gains soul orbs, which she can use to heal herself or make herself invulnerable for a few seconds. Fortunately, she can’t shoot while using her invulnerable ability; otherwise, no one else would stand a chance. She also has a flashing ability similar to Phoenix.
New Valorant Agent: Reyna
Last but not least, Riot added a new game mode to Valorant. It’s called Spike Rush. While normal games can last anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, they designed Spike Rush to be over in as little as 8. Some notable differences are: Every player on offense has a spike; every player will get the same randomized weapon each round, and it’s a best of seven series. It seems like the perfect way to warm up before going into regular matches.
Other Content Updates
The patch notes revealed the following information regarding updates to agents.
SAGE
- Healing Orb cooldown increased 35 >>> 45 seconds
- Barrier Orb segment health reduced 1000 >>> 800
- Barrier Orb duration reduced 40 >>> 30 seconds
- Friendly Barrier Orb walls now show on the minimap
RAZE
- Blast Pack maximum damage radius reduced 2 >>> 1 meter
JETT
- Cloud Burst smoke duration increased 4 >>> 7 seconds
- Tailwind automatically breaks Cypher’s Tripwires after being briefly revealed
PHOENIX
- Blaze duration increased 6 >>> 8 seconds
- Blaze damage: 15 every 0.25s >>> 1 every 0.033 seconds
- Blaze healing: 3 every 0.25s >>> 1 every 0.16 second
- Hot Hands healing: 3 every 0.25s >>> 1 every 0.08s.
- Curveball max flash duration increased 0.8 >>> 1.1 second
- Run it Back automatically reloads all weapons on respawn
OMEN
- Paranoia is now equipped instead of quick cast, and hit detection improved, especially at close range
- Dark Cover, Omen now enters a “phaser” world where he can see through walls to place his smokes and pressing RELOAD toggles between phased and normal targeting.
- Dark Cover controls have been updated where Omen can now increase smoke distance with PRIMARY FIRE, decrease it with SECONDARY FIRE, and throw smoke with the ABILITY KEY.
- Shrouded Step, Omen can now see his teleport location on the map and receives an in-world indicator of where he’s targeting when his vision of the point is obstructed.
- From the Shadow, Omen can now cancel his teleport while in Shade form by pressing the ABILITY KEY again—Omen still loses all of his ult points if he cancels.
If you want to play a fun, competitive game similar to Overwatch, you should try it out. Valorant is available for free on PC only.
