Astra, along with VALORANT Episode 2, Act 2, is now live in NA

Finally, VALORANT’s Episode Two, Act II is live in North America, and with it comes the newest agent, Astra.

Astra is a controller who can create smokes with her “stars,” which she places from a top-down view in her Astral Form. She can also create a small gravity well, pulling enemy players into a central area, and a small concussion. Her ultimate is a massive wall that players can’t see or shoot through but can walk and throw abilities through.

The new episode will also bring a new battle pass to VALORANT featuring the Prism III skin line. Players will be able to buy the pass for 1,000 VP. It’ll come with the “Polyfrog” Marshal at the beginning and finish off with a Prism III ax melee weapon.

There will also be changes to the Escalation game mode. Players were having significant issues with teleport camping on Bind, so in Escalation only, the teleporter doors have been permanently opened.

In the Rated game mode, sweeping changes are coming. You’ll now only have to play one match to get your rank and ranks won’t be displayed before or after the game. There also won’t be a soft rank rollback at the start of the episode. You’ll essentially begin where you were at the end of the last episode. More Tactical VO lines have been added to ease communication, too.

The episode will also launch with “Prime 2.0,” a skin bundle based off the wildly popular Prime weapon skin line. This one will feature a Prime Phantom, Odin, Frenzy, Bucky, and VALORANT‘s first Karambit-style melee weapon.

The new episode is now live for North America.

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