VALORANT’s executive producer Anna Donlon confirmed via a Dev Diaries post today that a new agent will be added to the game for the start of Episode Four, Act Three.
Donlon relayed that the VALORANT dev team at Riot Games will be “strengthening the foundation” of the game during Act Two, which will begin following the conclusion of Act One on Feb. 28. During Episode Four’s second act, there will be no new agent or map, with the team primarily focusing on improving the game’s overall health via updates to agent balance, maps, player behavior tools, and the ranked experience.
Given the typical act length of two months, players should expect this new agent around the beginning of May. There’s been no public information made available yet regarding the abilities or role of this new agent, who would be the 19th added to the game and the ninth since its beta.
The new agent has the best odds to be a controller. This is because there are only four current controllers, two of them (Brimstone and Omen) are hardly used at the highest competitive level and the other roles have had new agents added since the last new controller (Astra) was introduced. By the time Episode Four, Act Three comes around, it will have been over a year since Astra was added via Patch 2.04.
The most recent agents to be added have yet to become competitive difference-makers at the pro level. Chamber is getting some use, hovering within the 10 to 20-percent pick rate for EMEA VCT qualifier events, according to THESPIKE.GG. Neon has yet to make her debut but has been made available for qualifiers in North America, Japan, and Korea.
