"The intent is to create a competitor to Sova": Valorant devs on inspiration behind new Agent Fade

Fade, a Turkish bounty hunter, is the latest addition to Valorant's roster of Agents. Scheduled to be released alongside Episode 4 Act 3, fans can expect the new Initiator to arrive with Patch 4.08 on Wednesday, April 27.

While Fade will be the fifth Initiator to join the Valorant Protocol, her ability toolkit is entirely new to the game. With utilities that can reveal the location of enemies and track their movements, Fade was created to compete with Sova's efficacy at gathering information.

According to Riot Games, Fade is an Agent capable of hunting down her targets and crushing their deepest fears, obliterating them in the process. After the Agent was revealed to the community, Valorant developers who are credited for creating Fade shared their thoughts on the design of the Agent.

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Valorant devs talk about the inspiration behind the design of Fade, the Turkish Initiator Agent

Nicholas Smith, a Game Designer at Riot Games, was one of the chief architects behind Fade's character design. When asked about his vision behind the Agent's design, Smith compared Fade to Sova, highlighting one of the key factors behind her creation. He stated,

"The intent is to create a competitor to Sova that plays out differently. Fade brings recon to a personal level, more potent in a localized area (doesn’t have mapwide potential like Sova)."

According to Nicholas Smith, Riot Games created Fade with the intent of adding more options for players in terms of recon Agents. Skye, Sova, and KAY/O are the only Agents capable of using their utility to gain information for site entry, among other situations.

Sova is also capable of deploying his Recon and Shock Darts from anywhere across the map, an ability that is invaluable in competitive Valorant. With Sova being a menacing presence even in the game's professional environment, an Agent with recon abilities like Fade might finally be the answer.

Smith added on,

"We wanted to keep the player close to the action and always in-body. So that meant no possessible utility or different states of being (i.e., Drone/Wolf/Astral Form). Also wanted to have a recon character that was less reliant on line-ups."

With the release of Fade, the developers wanted to lessen the player's potential to use cross-site utility while playing the role of an Initiator. Fade will also lack a possessible utility like Sova's Owl Drone or Skye's Trailblazer, as intended by the Agent's designers.

Nicholas Smith also mentioned the aim of the designers to reduce the Agent's reliance on line-up abilities. From what we know of Fade so far, she has abilities that can be thrown onto a specific location similar to other line-up abilities in Valorant. The range of her utilities, however, forces players to rely on them far less than Sova's recon and shock darts.

Alongside the release of Fade, players can also expect changes to existing Agents like Jett and Sova to enhance the community's gameplay experience. Additionally, a new Battlepass, the RGX 11z Pro 2 skin bundle, and several new items will arrive at the player's footsteps with the release of Patch 4.08.

Valorant's audience is yet to receive the patch update that will introduce the new Agent. However, enthusiasts can take a look at Fade's gameplay, as demonstrated by players and content creators all over the world, for a better look at the Agent's utility toolkit and playstyle.