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Valorant, the upcoming competitive PvP shooter from Riot Games, will launch with a roster of around 10 characters or ‘Agents’. Of that number, five will be available to use right away, while the other half will need to be unlocked using either in-game or real-world currency.
Talking to IGN, Valorant executive producer Anna Donlon said: “Of the ten or so agents available at Valorant’s launch, five will be fully unlocked out of the gate. From there, players can unlock additional characters.”
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Unlocking characters is done through an “engagement-incentivized model”, which is also used to unlock tiers on Valorant’s battle pass. Riot describes this as so: “Players will have the option of earning in-game content through playing and engaging with the game, or they can choose to purchase desired content as a shortcut.”
That essentially translates to players being able to earn characters and battle pass tiers via extended play, or unlocking them using real money instead. At a basic level, that's the same as Apex Legends and many other games that feature both unlockable characters and battle passes.
In addition, Valorant’s battle pass features both free and “premium” tiers, with a promise that there will be no ability to pay for gameplay or power advantages.
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Of the agents coming at launch, eight have been revealed: Brimstone, Jett, Phoenix, Sage, Sova, Cypher, Viper, and Omen. Footage of these Agents is gradually rolling out, starting with this video of British Agent, Phoenix.
For more, check out our Valorant hands-on preview, where we said it's "best described as a combination of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and hero shooters like Apex Legends or Overwatch". The game releases this summer.
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