The tactical shooter Valorant is going into the next round with Act 2. Riot has already released the patch notes for the new update in advance. Included are a new agent, new skins, and another nerf for Raze.
This is the new update: Act 2 comes two months after the release of Valorant and brings numerous innovations. In summary, these are:
- the new agent Killjoy
- a nerf for the agent Raze
- the new “Deathmatch” mode
- changes to the ranked system
- a new battle pass and new skins
- numerous improvements to the UI and bug fixes
With the changes, you have new content to explore, including a new mode where you can try out the skins or Killjoy. Those who enjoy battling in the rankings will finally get more clarity, after there were significant issues with the ranked system until recently.
When is the update coming? The update is supposed to come today, on the night of August 4 to August 5, as stated in a tweet from Riot .
New agent Killjoy & changes to Raze
Who is the new agent? Killjoy is an engineer from Germany and primarily plays with gadgets available to her as abilities. She can:
- deploy turrets that guard an area
- position alarmbots that attack and weaken nearby enemies
- unleash a nanoswarm that deals damage to enemies
- trap and disarm opponents with her ultimate
Some players and fans of the game found Killjoy’s abilities to be too strong beforehand, which has led to some criticism. Riot has already commented on this, stating that skills are not as important as players seem to think.
What is changing with Raze? The agent Raze is receiving another nerf. She was considered an absolute noob killer at the release of Valorant . Her abilities deal so much damage that opponents often feel powerless when they simply die.
She has already received a nerf before, but after that, she still seemed “too OP”. Two of her skills will now be adjusted:
- Blast Pack now requires more time to equip and has reduced graphical effects
- Explosive Pack deals less damage to players (now 50, previously 75) and consistently 600 to objects
Since her last nerf Raze is at least the weakest agent in ranked. It will be interesting to see the impact of these new adjustments.
New mode, skins, battle pass & ranked
What new skins are available? Along with Act 2, a new battle pass is entering Valorant, allowing you to unlock a plethora of new cosmetics. Riot has already introduced some of the rewards in a short clip on Twitter:
The pass is free but has a premium path that you can unlock for 1000 VP (about €10). If the effort to unlock is in line with the first battle pass, you will need about 100 hours to acquire all cosmetics.
This is the new mode: Deathmatch is a new game mode for solo players in a “free-for-all” format. You compete without abilities and without objectives against nine other players to play purely for kills.
The objective is 30 kills – or the most kills within 6 minutes. Additionally, you have unlimited money and can simply buy or switch to any weapon in the game.
Since there are no skills, it all comes down to your gameplay skills and how good your aim is. So it’s worth training and improving your aim ability beforehand. A drone, which reveals your position every 5 seconds, prevents you from camping.
Deathmatch is still in beta, beginning on August 5.
How is ranked changing?: Along with the new content, there is a major change in the ranking system. Now you can show off how good you are to your friends.
There are new ranks and badges for ranked in Valorant. Here you collect wins that you can showcase on your profiles and display a collection of your highest wins at the end of the act.
Since the wins in the highest ranks are always displayed, this is intended to encourage you to play more actively and to demonstrate the best possible performance. We have detailed the new ranked system in our article for you.
More new skins and changes
In addition to the new content, there are some bug fixes and general improvements. For example, you will receive an email when players you report have been punished. You can find the complete patch notes in German on the official Riot page.
One of the changes concerns the visibility of cheats and mods. Riot wants to make it more obvious when a player activates cheats and wants the whole chat to be informed when something like this occurs. Apparently, this is a reaction to some trolls causing players to leave matches by sending them fake messages.
