Much to the glee of many fans, Riot Games has officially launched Valorant Act 3 with patch 1.10, which not only includes new features but a couple of quality-of-life improvements as well.
You most likely know by now that Act 3 brings with it a brand-new map called Icebox as well as introduces the thirteenth Agent, Skye. Although fans should definitely keep in mind that the new map is still considered to be in a beta state as it was released ahead of time. In other words, players won’t be able to use the map for competitive matches until October 27.
For now, fans can still explore and test out the new map in Unrated, Spike Rush, and Deathmatch modes. As a matter of fact, those who queue for Unrated matches will get the Icebox map more often than not.
On the other hand, those who like playing in Valorant’s competitive ranked matches will still get something out of this update. For one thing, the Act Rank badges you were able to earn from Act 2 will be given out.
For those who weren’t able to earn a badge, their progress from Act 2 will roll over into Act 3, which means that they will still be put back into placement matches.
In addition to that, the way matchmaking works in Valorant has been tightened in order to reduce skill disparity. Now, the rank variance for parties has been capped at three tiers instead of six.
Also, Immortal+ ranked matches will no longer consider players’ individual performances like before. The only thing these matches will consider now is whether your team won or lost and if so, by how many rounds.
Moving on, Valorant’s Act 3 Battlepass, which is a feature that rewards players with all kinds of unique items so that they can personalize their game, has undergone a couple of improvements as well.
For instance, the progress in weekly missions has been reworked, allowing players to unlock content faster as well as gain access to additional Epilogue tiers. Those who buy Act 3’s Battlepass will be able to unlock extra items such as the Ruin Vandal, Disco Ball Gun Buddy, and the Surge Bucky.
There are also other exclusives being added, one example being a Radianite Hazard Player Card.
As mentioned, patch 1.10 also contains a bunch of quality-of-life improvements, such as tweaks and changes made to Valorant’s mini-map performance. With this new update, fans are now able to choose their own Variant instead of being forced to level them in a specific sequence.
Valorant players from the Middle East and North Africa can now enjoy the game with low pings as well, as new servers for those regions have officially been launched.
For those who are merely observing a match, there will now be team colors for the in-world pings. Not only that, but there is a newly-added crosshair setting that allows players to lock its color to their team’s color.
Last but not least, a couple of bug fixes is included in this update as well, which is always a good thing. For example, the Shooting Range has undergone some UI adjustments, and there is finally a fix for the bug that didn’t allow players to buy abilities while in that mode.
