A new developer update from Valorant developers at Riot Games dove into some hot topics in the community, including the replay system, smurfing issues, ability overload, and even upgrading to Unreal Engine 5 throughout the next year of the game.
To start with, Executive Producer Andy Ho spoke about the worries that players have about abilities becoming overwhelming in combat. This happens when there are multiple characters throwing abilities out that have large and visually busy effects that can make things confusing.
Ho reassured players that the center of Valorant is and always will be gunplay, though weaving abilities with that is what makes the FPS stand out.
The team understands that this problem feels worse with every character release. For the next year, developers are paying attention to where they can update abilities to give more information with a quick look or sound.
They’ve already done this — Deadlock’s barrier now has a health bar, and Brimstone’s molly has a more noticeable audio cue.
Next up was a teaser for the new map, which will be revealed at Master’s Toronto next month. Players can check out the teaser below:
Additionally, Riot announced that the new map would be available in competitive on day one. Because it’s a new map, any RR losses will be reduced by 50%.
This naturally led to the discussion on smurfing. Multi-factor authentication is coming to Valorant, starting with suspicious accounts and then potentially making it a requirement for all competitive accounts. There will also be a new report category for rank/matchmaking abuse to stop players from using the cheating category, which is slowing down the process of catching actual cheaters.
Players are also getting an update when it comes to their behavior standing. This will show the behaviors they’ve been punished for, the length of any bans they have, and upcoming consequences for continuing different behaviors.
For Premier players, new team tags are coming in patch 11.0. These will give players a way to rep their teams if they’re participating in the weekly games.
Esports fans can look forward to Pick ‘Ems coming for every Masters and Champions event from now on. These include fun awards to win as players choose what they think the brackets will look like.
Valorant Esports is looking to create more openness, flexibility, and more key moments in regional Valorant ecosystems (the game, community fans, and culture).
One of the biggest changes coming to Valorant will be in patch 11.02 at the end of July, which is when Valorant will switch to Unreal Engine 5. This could affect things like ability lineups, though developers have worked hard trying to eliminate as much of this as possible.
Finally, replays are coming to PC Valorant in patch 11.06, which will launch in September. Console players will also get replays at some point in 2025. At first, this will only show competitive games, though players can use a free-roaming camera and look at the perspective of all players in the match.
Valorant is getting close to celebrating its fifth anniversary, and the developer update was a bit of a celebration for that. Players can watch the entire video below:
For more news on the Valorant 2025 season, check out the news revealed earlier this year.