743,577 people are playing Valorant at the moment I’m typing out this article. That’s 30,000 less than last year’s articles but this number was taken note of in the morning when everyone is usually offline and out at school or work. The day before this article was written there was a total of 4,790,480. A big portion of those players are new and you might be too. Episode 6 just started so keep on reading for some new and improved quick tips and tricks in Valorant.

What is Valorant ?

The idea of the game Valorant hasn’t changed at all since my previous article from 2021. Valorant is a tactical shooter, first to 13 round wins with an Attacking side and Defending side. On the attacking side your goal is to plant the spike which is basically a bomb and let it explode on site, On the defending side your goal is to stop the attackers from planting on site, if they do plant the new goal is to stop it from exploding, you do this by diffusing it. 1 life per round and a different set of agents playing on each team every game you play. 

How many maps are there?

Back in 2021 There were 6 playable maps. These maps were  Icebox, Breeze, Haven, Ascent, Bind, and Split. Since 2021 Riot has added 3 more maps, these maps are Fracture, Breeze, and Lotus, so there are now 9 maps in total. Every map has 2 sites where the spike is supposed to be planted by the attackers except for Haven, and Lotus which has 3. The attackers are supposed to attack said sites and defenders are supposed to defend said sites. 

How many characters are there? 

In comparison to last year’s article there are  2 more characters/agents. These 18 agents are split up between 4 different classes of agents. The 4 classes consist of Duelists, Initiators, Controllers, sentinels. All of these different agents have 4 different unique abilities but each agent in the same class has the same goal. Duelists entry frag and create space on the site for teammates to plant spike. Initiators challenge angles by setting up their team to enter contested ground and push defenders or attackers away. Controllers are the agents who control the visibility on the site. Sentinels are supposed to lock down site preventing any enemies from entering. 

What games are similar?

 Like last year Valorant seems to take a lot of inspiration from CS:GO and Overwatch, but for this year there are no new up and coming games that are similar to valorant. There are a list of things that are similar on Valorant that are featured on CS:GO and Overwatch, so if you’ve played CS:GO or Overwatch you’ll only need to adapt to the new playstyle as the general idea of the game is the same. For example, Valorant is a 5v5 game which is the same as CS:GO, Valorant has a credit system that is used to purchase guns every round which is the same as CS:GO, Valorant has unique abilities for every agent in the game which is similar to Overwatch.

What type of game modes are available on Valorant?

 Before there were 5 game modes but now in 2023 there are 8. These games are Unrated, Competitive, Deathmatch, Spike Rush, escalation, swift play, replication, and Customs. Unrated is the regular mode everyone plays when they start playing Valorant, Unrated is the standard first to 13 wins gamemode. Competitive runs the same as Unrated except that it is skill based matchmaking. Competitive is built by the ranking system, there are 8 ranks and the higher rank you are the higher the skill pool is when you queue in. Deathmatch is a free for all where 16 players duke it out to first to 40 eliminations. Spike rush is a shorter version of Unrated, there are only 8 rounds max but it is a first to 4 round wins. Spike rush has nice fun ability orbs that anyone can pick up for a competitive edge, but spike rush is usually played for fun. Similar to Spike rush, Swift Play is a mode that is targeted at those who think that spike rush is too short so this mode is first to five and it’s exactly like unrated, no extra powerups or anything. Replication is a mode where your team chooses which one of the 18 agents you all play as, and it is best of 9. Escalation is a TDM game mode in VALORANT where players cycle through different weapons and abilities. Customs, aka custom games, are games that are setup by the players themselves. In customs you can choose to play any gamemode that you want, even the unplayable ones.

Citations :

Games, R. (n.d.). Riot games’ Competitive 5V5 character-based tactical shooter. VALORANT. https://playvalorant.com/.