Next major Valorant update will not feature a new character or map

Focused on balancing

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Riot Games has announced its plans for the next major update, or Act, ofValorant. Surprisingly, it will feature no new playable characters/Agents or maps.

Instead, the main focus will be on balancing the game, both in terms of characters and maps, improving the the ranking experience, and further promoting good behavior.

“Sometimes you need to just take a minute” explains executive producer Anna Donlon in the video below. “You need to take a look around and make sure things are the way they should be.”

Some changes are or have already been implemented. The character Yoru, for example, has been reworked and his abilities improved as detailed ina blog postfrom last month.

Far from a Disruption

Episode 4 Act 2 won’t be completely bereft of content, however. Donlon confirms that new skins will still be added to Valorant, alongside the first every community battle pass.

She adds that a new character will be included in Act 3, whenever that happens. Acts tend to last three to four months, so Act 1 is expected to end either March or April. This means Act 3 probably won’t begin until summertime.

Donlon also teases a new in-game, team-based tournament system, which is expected to arrive later in the year.

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Valorant is Riot Games' own take on the hero shooter genre and is currently free-to-play on PC, with plans torelease it on mobile phonesas well.

Episode 4 Act 1 only kicked off very recently, bringing with itNeon, a speedy Agent with electricity powers.

Michael is a freelance writer with bylines at the Metro, TechRaptor, and Game Rant. A Computer Games Design and Creative Writing graduate, he’s been passionate about video games since the Game Boy Color, particularly Nintendo games, with Xenoblade Chronicles being his favorite game ever. Despite everything, he’s still a Sonic the Hedgehog fan.

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