VALORANT celebrated their first birthday very recently. I think the original release date was actually June 2, 2020, and it's been a banger of a year since then. And they ain't slowing down. Check out what VALORANT players have in store for them on June 22nd, 2021!
YR1 EVENT PASS
It's a free Event Pass to celebrate VALORANT’s 1st birthday! The pass has these items:
- Year One Gun Buddy
- Year One Card
- EP 3 // Reflection Card
- YR1 and Year One Titles
- 20 Radianite Points
"We were inspired by how much players love some of the exclusive Closed Beta content, like the Beta Watch Card and the V1.0 Title. We thought it would be fun to feature Jett doing something low-key, so we designed the Year One Card as if Jett were baking a cake in her kitchen and also made one of the slices of cake into a gun buddy! The third Episode card featuring KAY/O and several other Agents is available in this pass, so you can complete your set. If you’re wondering why we added Radianite Points, it’s because the final free tier in the Episode 3 Act 1 Battlepass is the Jigsaw Ghost. Each Variant for the Jigsaw Ghost has a different Agent, and we wanted players to be able to choose their favorite between Yoru, Skye, Astra, and Killjoy."
- Preeti Khanolkar, Senior Producer
EPISODE 3, ACT 1 BATTLE PASS
The battle pass becomes available June 22, 2021 and the pass expires August 24, 2021. You can cop yours for 1,000 VP. You get weapon skins, gun buddies, cards, sprays, and titles. Here's some of the more notable items in the pass:
Free
- Jigsaw Ghost
- Greatly Increased? Spray
- Greatly Decreased? Spray
- The Key to Ancient Mysteries Buddy
- Snowbirds Card
Premium
- K/TAC Vandal
- K/TAC Melee
- Jigsaw Bulldog
- Monarch Bucky
- Force Card
- Save Card
- Clutch or Kick Spray
- Salmon Nigiri Buddy
And you may want to squad up with your friends from 6/22/2021 to 7/6/2021 because you get XP bonuses.
- Party of 1: 0% Bonus XP
- Party of 2: 8% Bonus XP
- Party of 3: 12% Bonus XP
- Party of 4: 16% Bonus XP
- Party of 5: 20% Bonus XP
A full squad nets you a 20% bonus - that's pretty significant.
When the dev team was asked what inspired them and what ideas they wanted to convey in this battle pass, this is what they had to say:
Players have been asking for more lore-based content and since it’s been a year since the release of the Kingdom gun skins, we decided to create the K/TAC skins. We actually made the very first concepts for these skins years ago when we thought they might be the base weapons. That changed, of course, but we loved that old design so we used it as inspiration for K/TAC. For Jigsaw, we really love the key art for all of the agents and wanted to use that in some way. One of our concept artists did a sketch of a puzzle-themed gun and we loved it. Since this battlepass was timed with the one-year anniversary of VALORANT, we decided to do variants using the key art for the Agents that have been released since the game launched: Killjoy, Skye, Yoru, and Astra (sorry, KAY/O). It felt like a cool way to reflect on those Agents!
- Sean Marino, Art Lead
Give Back Bundle
Players voted for their favorite skins to be included in this special charity-themed bundle: the Reaver Vandal, Ion Operator, VALORANT GO! Vol. 1 Spectre, and the Reaver Sheriff. The bundle also includes an exclusive Give Back Bundle gun buddy, card, and spray!
The weapons are:
- Reaver Sheriff
- VALORANT GO! Vol. 1 Spectre
- Reaver Vandal
- Ion Operator
The bundle comes with:
- Reaver Sheriff
- VALORANT GO! Vol. 1 Spectre
- Reaver Vandal
- Ion Operator
- Give Back Gun Buddy
- Give Back Card
- Give Back Spray
If you want this exclusive bundle, it will set you back 6,382 VP. Get it starting 6/22/2021!
When asked what their goals were when designing the Give Back Bundle, this is what they had to say:
"We’ve heard from a lot of players that they’d really love if they could donate to charity by purchasing skins. We liked that idea a lot and wanted players to participate as part of our One Year launch anniversary by donating to the Riot Impact Fund. So, we thought the best way to do that was having players vote on which skins they’d want to include in the Give Back Bundle!"
- Preeti Khanolkar, Senior Producer
KAY/O
Here's one of the most exciting things from this new Episode - the new agency, KAY/O!
KAY/O is a machine of war built for a single purpose: neutralizing radiants. His power to suppress enemy abilities cripples his opponents' capacity to fight back, securing him and his allies the ultimate edge.
Check out his abilities:
(E) ZERO/point
Official Tool Tip
EQUIP a suppression blade. FIRE to throw. The blade sticks to the first surface it hits, winds up, and suppresses anyone in the radius of the explosion.
(Q) FLASH/drive
Official Tool Tip
EQUIP a flash grenade. FIRE to throw. The flash grenade explodes after a short fuse, blinding anyone in line of sight.
Notable Mechanics
Right Clicking the flashbang, throws a charged flash, causing it to only have to cook for 1 second, as opposed to left-click throwing a flash that cooks in 1.6 seconds.
(C) FRAG/ment
Official Tool Tip
EQUIP an explosive fragment. FIRE to throw. The fragment sticks to the floor and explodes multiple times, dealing near lethal damage at the center with each explosion.
(X) NULL/cmd
Official Tool Tip
INSTANTLY overload with polarized radianite energy that empowers KAY/O and causes large energy pulses to emit from his location. Enemies hit with these pulses are suppressed for a short duration.
Notable Mechanics
While Overloaded, KAY/O gains Combat Stim
If KAY/O is killed while overloaded, he is downed and enters a destabilized state, allowing allies to stabilize his core and revive him.