A new year is here and Valorant Episode 8 Act 1 is just around the corner. Since this will be the first Valorant Episode of 2024, we can expect a lot of new and exciting content, to start 2024 in the best way possible.
Episode 8 Act 1 will gift us a new Battle Pass, new skinlines, and new skin bundles. Furthermore, a reworked map is also making its way into the game, as well as a new weapon! Some massive agent changes are also going to take place.
So let's find out everything about Valorant Episode 8 Act 1.
Episode 8 Act 1 release date
As mentioned above, the new Valorant Episode arrives at the beginning of 2024. To be more precise, Episode 8 Act 1 goes live on 10 January, at around 7pm ET/12am GMT.
With this being a brand-new episode, and also the first Valorant episode of 2024, it's clear that Riot Games wants to start the year with a bang. That's why apart from the traditional new Battle Pass and balance changes, we also have a map making its return and a new weapon being introduced.
Valorant Episode 8 Act 1 Battle Pass
As always, the arrival of a new Valorant Episode also means a new Battle Pass will be introduced. With the last Valorant Battle Passes leaving a lot to be desired, the community is hoping this Battle Pass will turn the tide.
Episode 8 Act 1 Battle Pass will introduce three new skin lines, as well as Playercards, sprays, and Gunbuddies. The three skin lines included in the Episode 8 Act 1 Battle Pass are named Tactiplay, Guardrail, and Fiber Optic. They all have a unique design, with the Fiber Optic skinline having four different variations.
These skinlines were met with mostly positive reactions by the Valorant community, especially the Guardrail skinline, which fans think looks incredibly good.
That's mostly because of its unique melee weapon, the Guardrail Hammer, which is without a doubt one of the best melee weapons a Battle Pass has ever offered. It looks imposing, and it's sure to strike fear in the hearts of your opponents.
The Guardrail skinline includes skins for the Vandal, Frenzy, Shorty, and Guardian. The Fiber Optic skinline brings us skins for the Spectre, Ghost, Marshal, and Classic. As for the Tactiplay skinline, it includes a skin for the Bulldog, Odin, Phantom, and the Stinger.
As usual, this Battle Pass will also introduce 15 new emotes, with at least two of them being animated. Some emotes illustrate situations players often go through in-game, while others are simply funny or great to use when you make a big play.
Episode 8 Act 1 Battle Pass also brings 13 new Playercards, with all of them looking astonishing. It also includes eight new Gunbuddies that are equally great-looking.
The Battle Pass price won't change, and players will be able to acquire it for 1000 Valorant Points. As usual, to unlock all of the Battle Pass rewards, players will need to play games and complete challenges, to earn XP and reach new levels.
Competitive map rotation
The Valorant map competitive rotation system consists of seven active maps, and for a new map to be added an active map needs to leave, as developers have explained they don't want more than seven active maps.
Because of that, the Valorant competitive map rotation suffers changes from time to time, with new maps coming in, while old ones leave to be reworked. The last time this rotation changed was in September when Sunset and Breeze entered the active map pool and Pearl and Fracture were removed from it.
Valorant Episode 8 Act 1 will finally introduce a change to the competitive map rotation, with Icebox making its way back to the game after more than 238 days since it was removed.
To make way for Icebox, Haven will be leaving the activate map rotation. This was a decision the Valorant community didn't like, as most players feel there are other maps, such as Ascent, that should be removed instead.
Map changes
Two maps underwent a rework that will go live in Episode 8 Act 1.
One of them is the returning Icebox map, which suffered some massive changes. You can check out our Icebox Changes article if you want to have a look at these changes and see how they will impact how the map is played here.
The second map to undergo a rework was Lotus, and similar to Icebox, the changes it underwent were significant. If you want to have an in-depth look into these changes and their consequences, our Lotus article has you covered.
It's worth noting that, all these changes were leaked by credible Valorant leaker Mike Valorant Leaks. This means none of them are official as of right now.
New Controller Agent: Smoke Dancer
In 2023, Valorant introduced three new agents, Gekko, Deadlock, and Iso. All of them have a unique ability kit and can impact the game in different ways.
We expect Valorant to follow the same formula in 2024, with at least three new agents coming to the game. As mentioned above, Riot Games wants to start 2024 with a bang, and what better way to do that than by releasing a new agent?
Unfortunately, that's not going to happen, as the next Valorant agent, codename Smoke Dancer, will only come in Episode 8 Act 2, which is set for release in March 2024. This upcoming agent is rumoured to be a Controller and wields pink-themed smokes.
Hopefully, Riot Games will give us some more information about it soon. For now, be sure to check out everything we know about Smoke Dancer here.
Balance changes
When a new Valorant Episode goes live, it's normally followed by a patch that introduces some important balance changes. Episode 8 Act 1 won't be any different, with Patch 8.0 going live on the same day the Episode releases.
This patch will introduce some significant changes, with Deadlock receiving huge buffs, while Killjoy received a slight nerf. It will be on this patch that the map changes mentioned above will go live, with Icebox and Lotus getting a new look.
Valorant Patch 8.0 will also introduce a small change to the Team Deathmatch mode. The Sheriff, which is a stage 2 weapon, will go from offering heavy shields to just light shields.
Premier is also introducing some new features, with one of them being the captain role, which lets players add or remove members from the team.
Players will also be able to see the Premier standings across multiple divisions, have a preview of the division in which they are going to be placed, depending on the region they choose, and new rewards are also being added.
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