Hidden VALORANT Easter egg depicts true time-traveling friendship between 2 agents

Besides the exhilarating, fast-paced experience it is, VALORANT is also adored for its intriguing lore, giving each of its agents a distinct personality. But Riot Games isn’t just the plain-old narrating kind, as one Easter egg, encapsulating an emotional tale of friendship, hidden in the game’s largely ignored agent contracts would say.   

Apparently, KAY/O’s gun buddy, included in his agent contract, supports a trick that can switch its original style to something special. Uncovering this Easter egg isn’t much of a mechanical headache—you don’t have to hit the wall with your knife multiple times or anything of that sort. But there are a few requirements for the magic to happen.  

First, you’ll need to unlock KAY/O’s gun buddy (Tier Six) and his FIREarm Classic skin (Tier 10), both included in his VALORANT agent contract. This can be time-consuming—if you haven’t unlocked them already.

Once you have both, equip the gun buddy with the Classic skin. Note the gun buddy in its original state—it’s a hexagonal item featuring a small icon of KAY/O’s face. Now, all you have to do is hop into a match to uncover the Easter egg.

But wait, there’s a catch. For 21 out of 22 VALORANT agents, including KAY/O himself, his gun buddy on his FIREarm Classic will stay the same. But if you choose to play Brimstone, the gun buddy opens up like a flap, and the design embedded in it changes to a couple of downward arrows.

This Easter egg is probably a depiction of KAY/O’s close connection with Brimstone, and although the exact meaning of downward arrows isn’t known yet, the buddy opening up is almost like a locket necklace with flaps hiding a portrait, usually of a person you love or care deeply for.

For those unaware, in an alternate timeline, KAY/O and Brimstone were involved in a devastating war pitting humans against Radiants. In fact, KAY/O was created to nullify Radiants and played a huge role in defeating them, including Reyna, who is thought to have been the leader of the Radiants gone rogue.

KAY/O managed to end the war, with humanity winning over Radiants, but it had caused mass destruction by then. Some lore elements from the Human-Radiant war even hint at Brimstone’s death and the immense pain it caused KAY/O. 

You may have also noticed that in Fade’s launch trailer, KAY/O’s biggest fear was shown to be losing Brimstone—all over again.

Unable to deal with what the war brought to the world and with a motive to prevent the misunderstanding between the Human and Radiant races that led to the war, KAY/O traveled back in time using a specially-built teleporter linked to Breeze, a VALORANT map, and was later recruited as an agent of Protocol.

If you’re a KAY/O main intrigued by his close friendship with Brimstone, you should definitely recreate the VALORANT Easter egg—even better if you’re a Brimstone main.