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Riot has finally revealed its first major non-League of Legends game: Valorant. The company’s new game is a major departure from its MOBA past, and doesn’t even draw on similar strategy games like Legends of Runeterra or Teamfight Tactics. To help give you a better idea of what Riot’s new game is all about, we’re going to answer every question you might have about Valorant.
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WASN’T THIS GAME CALLED PROJECT A?
Yes, it was. Riot announced Valorant as Project A during its League of Legends 10-year anniversary stream in October. All we knew about the game then was that it was a “character-based tactical shooter.” Now we know a whole lot more, including the fact that its real name is Valorant.
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WHAT KIND OF GAME IS VALORANT?
Valorant is a free-to-play team-based tactical shooter with a five-on-five setup. Each match has 25 total rounds; the first team to win 13 rounds wins the match. At the start of each match, players pick characters called Agents. Agents have special abilities like dashing quickly, creating pools of smoke, building walls, or even calling down airstrikes.
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WHAT IS THE MAIN GAME MODE IN VALORANT?
The main mode is just like Counter-Strike’s Defuse game mode. There are two teams, one attacking and one defending. The attacking team has a bomb (called the Spike) that they need to plant on one of several different sites. If the attacking team plants the Spike and protects it until it explodes, they win. The defending team has to stop them by waiting out the clock each round. Each player has one life per round, so if one team’s members are all eliminated, that counts as a win for their opponents.
WHAT IS VALORANT’S SETTING?
Valorant takes place in our world, albeit a near-future version of it. A cataclysmic event occurs sometime in our future, reshaping the world and its governments. Alongside its geopolitical effects, the event also gives certain hypernatural powers to special individuals. This is how Agents first got their abilities, and how the in-game organization Valorant came to be.
WILL THERE BE A STORY?
Valorant will have story elements, and they’ll be told within and outside the game through media like animated shorts. The events of these shorts will also be reflected in-game via dialogue, changes in the Agents’ look, or environmental elements.
IS VALORANT FREE?
Yes, Valorant will be free-to-play.
WHEN CAN I PLAY VALORANT?
Riot is planning on hosting a closed beta, but there’s no word on when that will be. The good news is that the game is scheduled to launch in summer 2020, so even if you don’t get into the beta, it won’t be long until you can jump in.
IS VALORANT A COMPETITIVE GAME?
Everything about Valorant is designed with competition in mind. In the version we saw, there was a Casual mode and a Ranked mode, but either way, the game is all about competition.
