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Valorant welcomes a new act every few months, and a new episode every three acts. Every act brings a new Battle Pass that players can purchase to receive weapon skins, sprays, gun buddies, player cards, and most importantly, a bunch of Radianite points to evolve their already owned weapon skins.
Alongside these, players can also expect premium cosmetic bundles, new in-game content, and lore. Riot Games leave subtle clues in-game to fuel speculation among fans. Based on popular theories, Episode 5 "Dimension" in Valorant is expected to be very eventful in terms of lore and content.
Valorant's free-to-play tactical FPS characteristic requires officials to keep introducing new content to maintain the playerbase's interest. The lack of in-game meta evolution can quickly turn the game obsolete. Riot Games introduces new maps, Agents, and lore frequently to keep players on their toes.
What can players expect in Valorant's Episode 5 Act 2?
The upcoming Act with be the 14th new time frame that players can make use of to climb up the ranked ladder, grab new cosmetics, and more. A new Agent is also expected to enter Valorant's roster with Episode 5 Act 2, introducing another yet another learning graph for players to master.
Riot Games introduced the eighth map, Pearl, to Valorant's map list with this Act, but pulled out one of the oldest maps, Split, to maintain a 7-map pool. A new map isn't expected to drop before the next Act kicks in.
Release date of Episode 5 Act 2
Episode 5 Act 1 began on June 22, 2022, and is scheduled to end on August 24, according to the in-game timer. A new Battle Pass and premium weapon skin bundle is expected to drop with the upcoming Act 2 in the game. The exact release date of Episode 5 Act 2 is yet to be known, but leaks suggest a start date of August 24.
New Agent: Varun Batra
Episode 5 Act 2 could mark the introduction of the much-speculated Agent of Indian origin. Varun Batra, the speculated formal name of the new Agent, was earlier codenamed 'Mage', according to leaks. There are also ongoing speculations of him belonging to either the Controller or Sentinel classes.
However, Varun Batra's representative name in the Valorant Protocol is currently unknown. Riot Games revealed more about him by hiding a secret in the game's Open Range. A secretive message that Fade sends to Brimstone describes Varun as an antiquities expert and REALM operative.
Varun is currently in possession of Legion's new power source, as showcased in Episode 5's cinematic, Shattered. According to the cinematic, Legion, a mirror of Valorant Protocol on Omega Earth, is planning to use Radianite to create a life-support system.
It would be interesting to see how Riot Games pans out the lore to introduce this new Agent who, as his codename suggests, could be inspired by the popular League of Legends champion type. With that being said, it isn't clear whether the officials are planning to release the 20th Agent in the upcoming Act or the one after.
New weapon bundle (based on a leak)
A few days ago, the official Valorant Twitter account accidentally revealed prominent information regarding an upcoming skin collection through a tweet. Although they quickly deleted the tweet, keen fans and leakers were able to grab some details.
Interestingly, the potential upcoming weapon skin collection, Daedalus, is inspired by old weapon skin concepts. This Daedalus skin could become a Battle Pass collection, or be made available as a separate weapon skin collection in the Store.
Bug fixes and quality of life changes
Updates associated with new Acts are usually of a larger size, with Riot Games trying to address many changes and improvements simultaneously. Players can definitely expect some changes to Agents, along with bug fixes associated with them and the game itself.
