Riot introduces new VALORANT agent recruitment methods to replace contracts

VALORANT is taking away some of the manual steps needed to unlock new agents via a new progression system that will feature “agent recruitment events” launching with the start of Episode Seven later this month.

Up until now, players have been able to unlock new or old agents by activating their agent contracts and earning enough XP to progress those contracts to at least level five. Alternatively, players also had the option of just buying out the levels of those contracts with VALORANT points or acquiring access to all agents by connecting an Xbox account with an active Game Pass subscription.

But all that changes in Episode Seven with agent recruitment events. When a new agent is released, the agent recruitment event will automatically activate for all players. This free event pass will activate the day the agent is released and players will unlock the new agent after reaching a certain amount of XP (the Riot video shows 200,000 XP, but this could just be a placeholder or an example for the video).

Like in the past, though, there are other methods of unlocking new agents. Players can still purchase access to the new agent outright for 1,000 VALORANT points, and active Game Pass users are still granted immediate access to all new agents.

In addition to this, players who don’t want to spend money but didn’t unlock the agent during the recruitment event can go back and spend Kingdom Credits, a new currency to be introduced in Episode Seven, to unlock new agents. For older agents that players still don’t have unlocked, they can also go back and unlock those agents with either Kingdom Credits or VP.

Related: New VALORANT progression system coming in Episode 7 will finally let players access old battle passes

Agent contracts will remain in the game so players can unlock the different agent items.

While a release date for the next agent—a “lethal” sentinel that “will stop you dead in your tracks and pull you in for a closer look”—hasn’t been officially announced yet, a launch alongside Episode Seven now makes a lot more sense given that Riot is introducing the new agent recruitment event with the new episode. Episode Seven is expected to go live around June 27.