Valorant FAQ: Everything You Need to Know

With the release of the Valorant closed beta, Riot Games’ newest title has taken the gaming world by storm. With so many people looking to get involved in the game a lot of confusion and false information has spread. Here, we’ve included some guides and FAQs to help answer some of the questions we’ve encountered.

Contents

1 How do I get Into the Valorant Beta?
2 When Does Valorant release?
3 What are the Valorant System Specs?
4 Is Valorant free-to-play?
5 Will Valorant Have Microtransactions?
6 Will Valorant beta purchases carry over to the full release?
7 Will Valorant have a single-player story?
8 Valorant Hero Guides
9 What is Valorant Esports?

How do I get Into the Valorant Beta?

Before you go watching Twitch streams in the hopes of a drop, it’s important to make sure you have all your accounts set up first. Simply follow the steps below:

Register for an account with Riot Games
Link your Riot Games account in your Twitch settings
Watch qualifying Valorant streams on Twitch, they’ll have a “drops enabled” tag under the stream

It’s important to note that the beta in limited in space and will require you to have no “pending the volatile logistics of launching a beta effectively during a global pandemic.”

For a full guide on “how many streams can I watch?” or “how long must I watch?” to unlock Valorant keys check out our full guide here on how to unlock access.

When Does Valorant release?

Riot is yet to drop an official date. However, they plan to release the game in the summer of 2020. The exact date will likely depend on feedback from the beta.

What are the Valorant System Specs?

Minimum:

CPU: Intel i3-370M
CPU SPEED: Info
RAM: 4 GB
OS: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit
VIDEO CARD: Intel HD 3000
PIXEL SHADER: 3.0
VERTEX SHADER: 3.0

Is Valorant free-to-play?

Yes. Valorant will be free-to-play and support via in-game cosmetics.

Will Valorant Have Microtransactions?

Valorant will be supported via cosmetic microtransactions. As of right now, that consists of weapon skins. You’ll also unlock characters (Agents) via in-game currency contracts which will cost you around 1000 Valorant Points ($10).

Will Valorant beta purchases carry over to the full release?

No, however, you will be refunded the full purchase amount in currency plus an additional 20%.

Will Valorant have a single-player story?

No, as of right now the game is solely a Multiplayer experience. It's likely that the game's story will be told outside the game or told in small characters and map descriptions.

Valorant Hero Guides

Raze Valorant agent

While each character in Valorant has a unique set of abilities and skills. Your weapon and some other cooldowns are not set, instead, you’ll use a pre-round buy menu to buy equipment for the upcoming round (like in CS:GO).

Each character will have the following:

Two purchasable abilities: Each character has access to two extra abilities that require charges bought from the store at the rounds start. These will serve a similar purpose to grenades in CS:GO, providing you will extra utility.
One Ultimate: Each character has access to one powerful, unique ability. This is earned from kills or completing objectives similar to how it works in Overwatch.
One Main ability: This is your default ability. It will always be available and free to use based on cooldown.

Check out the full written guide here.

What is Valorant Esports?

The graphic for the T1 Valorant Invitational, showing a red and black outline of the character Jet, above her outstreched hand the words $25K Prize Pool appear in black and red font.

The game’s esports ecosystem will be built around Riot Games’ three core pillars — competitive integrity, accessibility, and authenticity. Their hope is that all aspiring pro players have a chance to become pro through “merit-based competition.”.

Valorant will also call upon the community guidelines to devise a guide for third-party tournament organizers when it comes to planning events for the shooter.

Riot Games also stated that they’ve met with over 100 esports organizations to share its plans for Valorant esports and have gathered their feedback. No organizations were named, however.

So far we’ve seen a number of tournaments take place. The recent T1 event featured a $25,000 prize pool and was won by Gen.G, one of the first organizations to already join Valorant.

And that should be that! If you still have more questions let us know and we’ll be sure to update the post. Best of luck Agent.

Stay tuned to ESTNN for more Valorant and esports news. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram too!

Images via Riot Games.