What to Expect in Valorant’s Episode 9 Act 2
Valorant has officially launched its new Act for Episode 9. The Act comes with a new battle pass, premium bundles, map changes, and a new agent entering the protocol.
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New Agent: Vyse
Vyse has entered the Valorant Protocol, and she’ll be a new Sentinel Class agent whose abilities focus on liquid metal. She’s the 25th playable agent, but lore-wise, she’s actually the 26th due to Agent 8 still being a mystery in Valorant’s story. Here are Vyse’s abilities and how they work.
Arc Rose (E)
Arc Rose is Vyse’s Signature Ability. It allows her to place a metal rose on any surface, such as walls and floors, and, once triggered, blinds all enemies in proximity. Players have two roses total that can be picked up and redeployed.
Shear (Q)
Shear is Vyse’s Basic Ability, allowing her to place a wall trap. When the enemy triggers the tripwire for this trap, an indestructible wall bursts from the ground for a brief time, trapping them and leaving them isolated from their team.
Razorvine (C)
Razorvine is also one of Vyse’s Basic Abilities. This ability allows her to put traps on the ground, that once activated, will have metal thorns that burst forth and cover the area. Any player walking in the trap’s radius will take damage.
Steel Garden (X)
Steel Garden is Vyse’s Ultimate ability. Any enemy player within radius will have their Primary gun jammed by this ability, leaving them with only their secondary and melee weapons to use.
Map Updates
With every start of a new Act, the game will reset every player’s rank and tweak the Map Pool Rotation for Competitive mode. Valorant has a total of 11 maps to play on for the new Act. Here’s the list of all playable competitive maps for Act 2:
- Abyss
- Ascent
- Bind
- Haven
- Icebox
- Lotus
- Sunset
Fans of Split will be happy to hear that it’s back on the map rotation for Unrated and Swift Play. For players who want to play on other maps not mentioned in the Competitive Map Pool, all 11 maps are accessible in a Custom Game.
New Battle Pass and New Bundle
A new act means new battle passes. You’ll need to pay 1,000 Valorant Points to unlock the premium battle pass, which includes rewards such as gun skins, buddies, player cards, and sprays. Here’s a list of notable skins to look forward to in the battle pass.
Overlay Collection
- Dagger Melee
- Phantom
- Outlaw
- Stinger
- Sheriff
Frequency Collection
- Operator
- Bulldog
- Bucky
- Ghost
Yoonseul Collection
- Guardian
- Ares
- Spectre
- Classic
Valorant also released a new Premium Skin Collection dubbed Nocturnum to start the new Act with a bang. This collection will be part of the exclusive tier and will feature a grim, dark aesthetic similar to those of Primordium and Prelude to Chaos. Here are the weapons included in the collection.
Noctornum Collection
- Noctornum Scythe
- Noctornum Phantom
- Noctornum Bulldog
- Noctornum Marshal
- Nocturnum Classic
The collection will have 4 levels to upgrade and will come with 3 other variants coming in Black, Blue, and Yellow. One unique aspect of the collection is its melee, the Nocturnum Scythe. In its default mode or Level 1, the melee will appear as a dagger, but once upgraded to Level 2, you’ll unlock its transformation feature, where it can turn into a scythe. It’ll also be the first melee in Valorant with a transformation feature.
With the start of Episode 9, Act 2, expect a boom in numbers, with competitive and casual players alike flocking to the game. You can expect more content for the game as the Act goes on.
