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Riot Games has issued the latest Valorant State of the Agents bulletin, and apart from some interesting takeaways about Agent meta and the success of Deadlock there’s a cool tease for its next release. The publisher has now officially confirmed that Valorant’s next Agent is a duelist. Further, the new Agent is set to launch before the year’s end.
So far, there’s precious little detail to go on except for a brief teaser image and some clues as to what sort of Agent they might be.
Valorant’s Next Agent is a Duelist With Unique Abilities
The above image is the only solid visual clues we have about this latest Agent might be, and where they come from. By the looks of the food, which is being eaten with chopsticks, it appears the Agent is of East Asian origin. Is this a Chinese Agent coming to Valorant’s roster? It seems very likely given the game recently launched in the region.
While it seems that the person eating the food is Deadlock, there does seem to be another person sitting at a table in the background being served. Could this be our next duelist? It rather looks as though they are hooded or wearing a robe. Perhaps this is a ninja of some sort?
New Valorant Agent Duelist Release Date & Abilities
Of course, Riot Games isn’t giving much away in terms of this new Agent’s abilities. All we know is the information provided in the State of Agents release. Here’s what it said:
“Now to the end of the year, and one last Agent to go. It’s been almost two years since our last Duelist, Neon, joined the roster and many of you ego-fraggers have been asking for a new one. At its core Valorant is a team-based Tac Shooter where gunplay shines. For some of you that means asipring to plow through enemies like Jinggg, and putting ours in clicking those orbs with aim trainers for that clean 5K.
This next Agent is for you. We’ve also got a twist you never thought would make it into Valorant… well… Some of you mayyyy have been dreaming in the right direction.”
Riot Games
Well, well! What does all that mean? Well, first things first we can be sure that the new Valorant Agent is releasing before the end of 2023. Since the third and final Act of Episode 7 is coming very soon, this very likely means the launch of Episode 8 will coincide with the launch of this new duelist. Of course, we’re just speculating.
As for the abilities. The clue is in Riot’s tease that this new Agent will have some ability that players never suspected would make it into Valorant. What could that mean? It’s hard to say, but perhaps this Agent will have some sort of melee or stealth capability? That would lean into the ninja/assassin theme that we’re speculating on here.
We’ll just have to wait and see. For now, check out our recent review of Valorant’s latest map, Sunset, which was the last major addition to the game and has since joined the competitive map rotation.