VALORANT in-game Cosmetics, Store, and Battle Pass

Riot Games has released details on their store and how people will be able to acquire skins from the shop. Not only will people be able to purchase skins with VALORANT points, but they will also be able to work towards certain skins through completing Agent Contracts. All the details can be found in Riot’s most recent post, but we are here to give a quick run down!

Joe Lee, the Riot Games Revenue lead, gave a breakdown of how the store will function as well as making it clear that skins are not just micro-transactions for the dev team. He also wanted to note that these items in store will never affect the player experience in-game.

“First and foremost: we care about making a great game. The collection of optional extras will never affect gameplay, so all you need to focus on is hitting your shots and going B, but then going A. Or going A, but going A,” Lee goes on to say in the post.

This is huge for the gaming industry, which is wrought with developers and publishers who want nothing more than a consumer for their game. Riot wants to make sure that players never have to worry about a scummy pay-to-win format like games such as Battlefront and FIFA.

Lee then goes on to quickly summarize how players will be able to get a hold of the skins, whether in shop or not:

• Unlock weapon skins in the Store by using VALORANT Points
• “Evolve” certain weapon skins and go deeper on a theme by spending Radianite Points
• Unlock new Agents, weapon skins, player cards, and sprays by completing Agent contracts
• Earn items in the Battle Pass (available at launch) on the free and paid track

What this highlights is the fact that Riot Games has future plans for VALORANT. The team clearly wants this game to thrive, so adding in skins and items into the game allows the community to function as a way to keep the game moving forward with content.

The post also highlights how the store will rotate certain items and how Featured items differ from Offers. Featured items, which are special items sold at a higher cost of VALORANT Points (VP) will be rotated every 2-3 weeks. Offers, sold at a lower amount of VP will be rotated at a pace of 2-3 days. This seems to be a healthy cycle that allows players the time to purchase VP when they want something in store, while also keeping the store fresh with new items. VALORANT Points will be available to purchase in-game with real-world currency.

Agent Contracts and the Battle Pass are key features under the overall “Contract” umbrella that Lee goes on to highlight in the post. The two will be split into two different slots that have specific challenges that offer different rewards, as to not seem repetitive. Agent Contracts will be used to unlock characters in-game as well as different items that won’t be found on the Battle Pass. Joe Lee then speaks on how tiers work for each Agent. “Each Agent comes with 10 tiers of Contracts that, when completed, reward you with all kinds of special items—but most important, a new Agent.” You can either purchase the Agents, or you can grind out the contracts to achieve each Agent. The Battle Pass will be released at the official launch of the game, the only information released by Lee is that players can use it to unlock cosmetics by just playing the game. There will be two ways of progressing through the contract, the free track, and the paid track. But that is all the information given on the Battle Pass for now.

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