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Valorant will soon welcome the sixth Episode and a fresh Act in its seasonal content timeline. Apart from the usual new Act features, the latest iteration is also expected to bring influential content updates, further meta changes, new tactical features, and more.
With only a few weeks left before its commencement, fans will likely participate in major anticipation regarding what's coming in the next Episode.
Everything you can expect from Episode 6 Act 1 in Valorant
Riot Games are yet to reveal their plans for Valorant's Episode 6 and its first Act comprehensively, thus increasing the anticipation in players. It's natural to expect huge content updates from a new Episode, which resets once in six months. The developers usually target the start of one for an Agent or map release and major feature updates.
As per the in-game timer, the ongoing Act (and consequently, Episode 5) will end on January 10, 2023, a little more than a couple of weeks from now. Once it concludes, Riot Games will take the servers off the grid for a few hours to conduct a pre-patch maintenance, following which the update will be made available to the public.
Valorant's patch 6.0 will be the doorway to Valorant's Episode 6 Act 1, which is set to begin on January 10 PT (or January 11, based on regional time differences). The exact time for each area will be announced as the final day closes in.
The upcoming sections of this article talk about all the expected content and feature updates in the popular tactical shooter's new phase.
New map
Ever since Harbor's introduction, Riot Games has been adding in-game Easter Eggs featuring hints for the upcoming map in Valorant. So far, players have managed to garner some interesting information regarding it.
As per informants, the map is supposedly codenamed "Jam" and is expected to be based on a real-life location of an Indian city - Jaipur. Based on Easter Eggs that revealed a deep conversation between Astra and Harbor, Jam indicates a location on Omega Earth, the parallel universe in war with Alpha Earth. If this is true, it will be the second Omega-based map after Pearl.
A while earlier, Valorant's design lead Joe Lansford revealed that the upcoming map will feature a new mechanic, but left the comment unfinished. He ruled out teleporters and anything complicated, but refused to offer further tidbits during the interview.
Back in November, informants had run into a secret audio file titled "Play_Jam_StoneDoor_Break.uasset," featuring an intriguing sound effect that appears to be of a stone door breaking down. Presently, no Valorant maps feature stone-based construction. Hence, the structures could possibly be one of Jam's exclusive features.
Return of Split and removal of Breeze and Bind
Split was one of the first maps to be added to the game and a fan-favorite one as well. However, it was removed from the map pool back in June to accommodate Pearl due to the seven-map limitation.
During Pearl's introduction in patch 5.0 (Episode 5), the developers had promised Split's return after some possible design tweaks, but had failed to announce an ETA on the same. The community was deeply disturbed at Split's removal and has been demanding its return ever since.
To every fan's utmost delight, the developers recently announced that they will be reinstating Split to the map pool in the upcoming update. However, they will also be taking two maps - Breeze and Bind - out of the rotation. Split's return only accounts for one of the gaps in the seven-map pool. This is also why fans are expecting Riot to launch a new map in Episode 6 Act 1 and fulfill the gap.
Competitive ranks will reset entirely
Valorant's Episodes cause a player's competitive ranks to hard reset. With a new Episode approaching this time, every players' MMR will be majorly affected.
At the start of Episode 6 Act 1, one will have to play five matches to unlock their competitive rank, unlike a new Act's one-match policy. The game's rank rating system will assign a rank based on your performance and your previous MMR. Players are usually assigned a few ranks lower than what they had achieved in the previous Episode.
New Agent meta, tactical features, QoL updates, and more
Valorant's patch 6.0 will undoubtedly influence the game's general and mechanical state majorly. As stated by Riot Games, the team has been working on automatic smurf-detection systems, which has been trialed in North America so far. Such a system could be implemented globally this time.
One can expect new Agent buffs and nerfs, which will probably not be as harsh as patch 5.12. In addition, the developers may add gameplay updates, map changes, and more QoL improvements to smoothen player experiences.
The Valorant team at Riot Games is currently on a "winter break" until the end of 2022. No official announcements regarding the upcoming Episode or Act are expected to show up until next year, which is just a week away.
