Valorant developers hint at new Weekly Challenges design

Valorant recently entered Act III, and Riot Games is taking in questions and suggestions from the community to help improve the game. As was expected, a new map always brings new bugs and glitches. Nevertheless, Riot Games are staying on top of the community with their efforts to digest as much of the feedback as possible.

Image Credits - Riot Games

Questions ranged from the price of gun skins, to quality of life changes added to the game. The Valorant developers usually take the time to scour through every little detail and query. This is what makes the game one of the best in the FPS genre.

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Valorant developers speak about new Weekly Challenge design

You ask, we answer. This week on ASK VALORANT, we’re covering weekly challenges, what we’re doing to keep your matches smurf free, and when VALORANT is getting a test server. Read up: https://t.co/CArQ2GY9GI pic.twitter.com/SyzloX1loS

— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) October 22, 2020

In their Q/A blog named "Ask Valorant", three new topics were discussed. One had to do with smurfing in Valorant, and the other one was about PBE Servers in 2021. However, the third and most important question, remained about the weekly challenges and everyday progression of a player. To unlock new Agents, players need XP, and that has a challenge-based system in Valorant.

Weekly Challenges: [Thread] #VALORANT WEEK 6:Get 45 Headshots: 13550 XPPurchase 200 Items: 13000 XPUse Ultimate 40 Times: 18000 XPWEEK 7:Deal 25000 Damage: 14600 XPPlay 150 Rounds: 20000 XPUse 200 Abilities: 14000 XP

— Valorant Leaks (@ValorLeaks) September 1, 2020

For instance, weekly and daily challenges in Valorant keep players on an even keel, thereby allowing them to grow steadily. At the same time, Valorant developers have expressed how this XP progress is beneficial to the players.

Regardless of that, players did express concerns about how long it can take to hit your ultimate 10 times, or to deal 10,000 damage to the opponent. While some challenges can be finished quickly, others take an exorbitant amount of time.

The goal of weekly challenges was to provide a bulk source of XP progress and tie some playful texture to the progression experience. To be frank, we're not happy with the current state, as some of them can be a grind. It's also been difficult to strike the right balance between interesting missions and not promoting unhealthy play patterns (eg. playing only to harvest orbs and use your ult).

Our short term outlook is to reduce the completion requirement for many weeklies in Act III and remove the worst offenders completely. So hopefully these changes, along with the extended length of Act III, many more of you will progress further and faster into the Battlepass.

Long term, we want to revisit how to keep game-to-game progression engaging. It's still early, but we have a design that seems promising for further exploration.

The first thing one notices from this answer from Valorant's Senior Production Manager, Naoise Creavan, is that they have a design ready for the future. This points to the fact that Riot Games have been formulating a strategic approach for XP progress.

i'll keep saying this the challenges are way too long for weekly challenges on valorant

— kxfer (@kxfer_) August 27, 2020

In their blog, Valorant developers mentioned that they are not quite happy with the current state of Weekly Challenges. That does indicate that they want to go ahead and restructure the XP system in Valorant. Simultaneously, it also means that new game modes will perhaps be introduced to help out with the grind.

did anyone else's #VALORANT weekly challenges disappear before finished? they were available earlier today during act 2 but im not sure if that changed or my client is bugged

— disappointed (@John_DouglasJR) August 5, 2020

Act III has so far been a celebration for the fans, with Icebox being introduced. As players now, already have a comprehensive understanding about the new Agent - Skye, the wait is now just for her official release. However, before that, Riot Games will want to make sure that players have a good way to earn XP quickly, and thereby add Skye to their Agent pool.