Valorant devs hint Episode 3 agent will have EMP device

Valorant is currently enjoying one of the most exciting times in its short history, the game is coming up for a year old and the first international LAN event has been taking place this week with Valorant Masters Reykjavik bring together the best teams in the world all fighting to be considering the world's best.

The event itself has been fantastic - especially under the conditions - with great production (minus points for a few technical breaks), fantastic games and truly fulfilling its promise of bringing together teams from around the globe with different playstyles and seeing who comes out on top.

One thing that has grated slightly though is the post-plant situation, with perhaps North America's V1 and Europe's Fnatic both excelling here; capable of planting the spike, leaving the site and effectively shutting it down with a mixture of Sova's arrows, Killjoy's nano swarms, and Viper's Snake Bites. It can be frustrating to watch, never mind play against, and when these abilities are used in combination finding the time to defuse is almost impossible.

Of course, it's not just a problem at the highest level, and face a capable team in ranked mode and you are likely to come up against a similar scenario.

Help may be coming though in the form of a new Agent, with a recent developer's blog giving to not so subtle hints that the next Agent will have some sort of Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) device.

Promising someone who can "can create moments where you must rely on your gunplay", the blog post turns into a mess of random numbers, letters, and icons, before returning to normal, "sorry my keyboard just stopped working there," reads the blog with a nod and a wink seen from the International Space Station.

The developers were clearly enjoying themselves when they wrote this one out. (Picture: Riot Games)

The developers also state that the next Agent - which will be released with v3.0 aka Episode 3 Act 1 - will have abilities "familiar to folks who’ve played traditional FPS games" which ties in with rumours that a grenadier-type Agent is on the way.

Such an Agent will likely have a mixed reception. Though the introduction of an EMP device for those post-plant retakes would be well received another grenadier-type as we have already seen with Raze, would be less so, further moving as it does the goalposts from when Riot Games' CEO Nicolo Laurent infamously claimed that "you don’t kill with abilities."

Episode 3 Act 1 is due to be released at the end of June 2020.