VALORANT’s new Valentine’s bundle just reminds us how alone we really are

It’s no secret VALORANT has somehow become a hot spot for e-daters to meet online, and Riot Games has leaned into this with a new Valentine’s Day bundle that actually calls out who’s single and who’s taken with a unique and adorable Gun Buddy.

From Feb. 13 to 28, the Duo’s Day bundle will be available in the VALORANT shop in honor of Valentine’s Day. As you might expect, this bundle gives you matching Sprays and Player Cards for you and your duo, as well as a cute Player Card featuring Raze and Killjoy, but the most exciting part is the red panda Gun Buddy.

Revealed by Preeti Khanolkar, the Lead Producer for VALORANT cosmetic content, the Duo’s Day Buddy changes forms depending on whether or not someone has the same Gun Buddy equipped on your team. If you’re the only one with the buddy, the red panda will look angry when your weapon is fired. If a teammate also has it, it will have heart eyes with more hearts popping up. Thankfully, it’s super cute either way.

On top of how adorable it is, this Gun Buddy can be used as a way to show whether someone is solo queued (and possibly single) or coupled up with their duo. With how common e-dating is in the VALORANT community, I can easily see people using this Gun Buddy as a universal symbol to say they’re single and searching for their forever duo. They might even drop a gun with this buddy to someone in hopes of getting their attention; that could be a loophole to activating the heart-eyed form without a teammate needing to have bought the bundle.

On the flip side, the Gun Buddy could just be another not-so-subtle way of telling the VALORANT world you’re already taken. If teammates see you and your duo are rocking the same heart-eyed Gun Buddy, maybe the rest of the team will take a hint, if the matching duo names and Player Cards weren’t obvious enough.

Whether you’re flaunting your coupled-up status or you want to make it known you’re single and looking for a duo, this Gun Buddy fully embraces the e-dating culture blossoming on VALORANT servers. And, cringe or not, you have to admit the red panda is pretty cute—and it’s the most unique Gun Buddy that’s been released in some time too.