Valorant Act 3 brings a new battle pass, map, and skins next week

YouTube YouTube
Watch On

Valorant Act 3 will arrive next week with a new map, a new series of skins, and a new battle pass with a fresh lineup of unlockables on separate free and premium reward tracks. Later in the month, a new character named Skye, a healer with some magical animal friends, will also join the fight.

Skye is basically an Australian forest guardian who travels with a very small, magical petting zoo. She can deploy and control a Tasmanian tiger that, when triggered, will explode in a concussive blast that damages enemies who are directly hit by it. She also has a guidable hawk that can flash and blind enemies, and will play a hit confirmation if any were within range and line of sight when it went off. Skye's "Regrowth" ability enables her to use a trinket to heal all allies within range and line of sight—although she cannot heal herself—and her ultimate ability enables her to send out three Seekers that will track down the three closest enemies and "nearsight" them, obscuring their vision.

Skye is set to arrive in Valorant on October 27. Before that, though, the new battle pass, featuring a new lineup of unlockable cosmetics including gun skins, "gun buddy" charms, sprays, Radianite points, and more, will roll out on October 13. The premium battle pass will cost 1,000 Valorant points—$10—and features, among other things, the Ruin, Jade, and Surge skin lines, No Operator and Pick my Strat sprays, and Scuttle Trash and Discotech gun buddies. 

You can get a look at some of what's coming in the gallery below:

The new map, called Icebox, features ziplines and two bomb sites, and is "designed to emphasize skirmishes, sharp aim and adaptive play,” said level design lead Salvatore "Volcano" Garozzo. 

"The gameplay premise of Icebox is that each of the sites are intended to be complex combat spaces that feature plenty of cover and verticality," he said. "There’s also a zipline on the map that amplifies the feeling of action and verticality."

YouTube YouTube
Watch On

Icebox is also coming on October 13, as is a new series of skins: The Singularity line will feature skins for Sheriff, Spectre, Phantom, Ares, and melee weapons, and will be available for purchase individually or in a bundle with a player card and a gun buddy for 8,700 Valorant points, which will set you back $75. Phew.

More details on Valorant Act 3 are up at playvalorant.com

TOPICS
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

Latest in FPS
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Ogryn
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide adds a psychic horde murderzone mode and makes Ogryns even smashier
Starfield's companion robot giving a thumbs-up
Former Bethesda dev who quit Starfield to go solo says it's 'much less stressful as an indie' without daily meetings or 'office politics': it's 'very refreshing to just care about the game'
A crew of prospectors in Wildgate, featuring a robot, a rabbit man, and a small aquatic creature in a combination mech/aquarium.
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime's new company is putting Sea of Thieves-style shenanigans in space with a new crew-based shooter
Team Fortress Spy being shocked
An FPS studio pulled its game from Steam after it got caught linking to malware disguised as a demo, but the dev insists it was actually the victim of a labyrinthine conspiracy
Neighbors Suburban Warfare screenshot a child aims a slingshot at a man from across a cul-de-sac.
A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children
Fragpunk
Somebody finally figured out casual Counter-Strike
Latest in News
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'