VALORANT Act 3 Releases with Skye, ICEBOX, and Singularity Bundle
Starting October 13, VALORANT heads into Act III with an all-new artic map in Icebox, a battlepass, a gun bundle, and an Australian agent in Skye.
What’s New in VALORANT Act III
All the Act III releases and why you’re getting a new map early.
Bird’s eye view of Icebox. (Source: Riot Games)
You’re right, the VALORANT map rotation could use a refresh. That’s why Act III opens cold, with a new map set in the arctic wilderness: Icebox.
Your next battleground is a secret Kingdom excavation site overtaken by the arctic. The two plant sites protected by snow and metal require some horizontal finesse. Take advantage of the ziplines and they’ll never see you coming.
- TWO bombsites
- Bombsites are combat arenas
- Long sight lines
- Zipline allows for quick horizontal traversal
Icebox. (Source: Riot Games)
An abandoned Kingdom research facility in the arctic wilderness is the next location to flex your aim and abilities. Pierce the dense snow cover as an Attacker to plant the Spike. And, outplay as Defender using ziplines to reach new and dangerous heights.
The two objective sites on Icebox favor frequent skirmishes, sharp aim, and adaptive play. Icebox releases on October 13 for unrated and on October 27 for competitive play.
Moving Icebox up from Episode 2 does come with a trade-off: we’ll be delaying the release of our newest Agent for two weeks (one patch cycle) after the start of Act III. Simply put, our last few patches haven’t been the most stable, and we know more of you want Icebox. Delaying the release of a new Agent allows us to better handle any issues that might emerge when launching alongside Patch 1.10.
Not gonna lie, the Act III patch is a bit scary considering the high amount of content coming and potential instability. We want to be faster when it comes to resolving any issues or exploits. This delay gives our team some breathing room to make sure current Agents play nice with the new map (invisible Spy Cams, invincibility, teleporting in the wrong neighborhood, etc.) before introducing another variable.
Adjusted Act III Roadmap
We’re still closing Episode 1 with a banger of a finish. On top of our newest map, you’ll unlock 50-tiers of fresh Battlepass goods to personalize your play, have another go at your Rank with refined Competitive matchmaking, and try the latest Agent just one patch later.
Competitive Refresh (Oct. 13)
These Act III Competitive changes hope to make your Rank climb tighter as we work on the long term health of organized team play:
- Upgrade that Act Rank Badge with the next Competitive Act
- Rank queue lowered from 6 tiers to 3 tiers, for tighter matchmaking
- Select your preferred server and improve your ping
- Immortal+ rank outcomes are decided 100% by wins and losses
Ranked Changes
- Players can now select their preferred server(s), increasing the chance they’ll play on a server they want.
- Rank disparity for parties capped at 3 tiers (from 6). This is also applied to our Matchmaker.
- Immortal+ ranked changes will only be impacted by winning and losing and the decisiveness of the game outcome (how many rounds won or lost by) and not factor individual performance into the calculation. We’ll be testing this shift in Act III for future implementation in all ranks.
- Players will receive their Act Rank Badge for Act II and work on their badge for Act III. The center of their Act Rank Badge is their ninth best win, but players will also be able to see their highest rank achieved at the top of the badge. The badge displays
only for Competitive games and is displayed on the player card in: Competitive lobbies, map load, in-game combat report, and End-of-Game: MVP. This is a new system we are trying out, so we look forward to hearing your feedback.
Watch our latest Dev Diary for more detail and a peek into Joe Ziegler’s living room.
Act III Battlepass (Oct. 13)
The Battlepass returns with improvements for Act III—revamped weekly mission progress for faster unlocks and additional Epilogue tiers.
Collect heads, rake in the XP, then snap on Act III exclusives like the “Chilly McFreeze” Gun Buddy to match your arctic battles, the “Radianite Hazard” Player Card, and the Viper Spray that reminds you to wash your hands.
Purchase the Act III Premium Battlepass to unlock more tiers of VALORANT items like the Ruin Vandal, “Disco Ball” Gun Buddy, and the Surge Bucky (with variants!).
Learn more about VALORANT’s Battlepass system here.
Singularity Phantom in action. (Source: Riot Games)
Weapon Skin: Singularity (Oct. 13)
Singularity exists in a far future, vast in its journey from the beyond. Powerful, abstract, and mysterious. None know where it came from or how it came to be.
Harness its unstable force on the Phantom, Sheriff, Spectre, Ares, and Melee when you buy the Singularity bundle.
Gun Buddy: Welcome, Middle East and North Africa
More (low ping) challengers to the Radiant throne have arrived from the Middle East and North Africa.
Log in during October 28 to earn the Dallah Gun Buddy and celebrate their homecoming.
Orthographic Concept of Skye. (Source: Riot Games)
NEW AGENT: SKYE (Oct. 27)
This Agent protects and preserves many things—just not the life of her enemies.
Skye guides the fight and takes action against her foes using Earth’s natural resources. The Australian activist and her band of beasts can amplify the health and strength of her team while tracking down all opposition.
Hailing from Australia, Skye and her band of beasts trail-blaze the way through hostile territory. With her creations hampering the enemy, and her power to heal others, the team is strongest and safest by Skye’s side.
Abilities:
- Trailblazer: EQUIP a Tasmanian tiger trinket. FIRE to send out and take control of the predator. While in control, FIRE to leap forward, exploding in a concussive blast and damaging directly hit enemies.
- Guiding Light: EQUIP a hawk trinket. FIRE to send it forward. HOLD FIRE to guide the hawk in the direction of your crosshair. RE-USE while the hawk is in flight to transform it into a flash that plays a hit confirm if an enemy was within range and in line of sight.
- Regrowth: EQUIP a healing trinket. HOLD FIRE to channel, healing allies in range and line of sight. Can be reused until her healing pool is depleted. Skye cannot heal herself.
- (Ultimate Ability) Seekers: EQUIP a Seeker trinket. FIRE to send out three Seekers to track down the three closest enemies. If a Seeker reaches its target, it nearsights them
This article is an official press release from Riot Games.
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