Five days before the highly anticipated closed beta begins, Riot has officially revealed another Valorant agent.
A “duelist” agent, Jett is is an agile and evasive fighter focused on speed and stealth. She “takes risks nobody else can,” running circles before every skirmish and striking before enemies even know what hit them. Jett’s four abilities reflect a focus on close-range combat.
Her first ability is Cloudburst, allowing her to throw out a cloud of fog that “obscures vision on impact.” You can bend the cloud’s in-flight trajectory by holding down the ability button. This ability not only creates the perfect cover for Jett to strike, but can create some dynamic strategies for your entire team, allowing them to move forward under cover or even duck out of a losing skirmish.
Updraft is Jett’s second ability. This gives her the power to propel herself upward after a brief wind up. While excellent for mobility options such as gaining high ground or avoiding combat, it’s definitely not a move that comes without risk. Valorant lead game designer Trevor “Classick” Romleski called agents’ abilities “intentional choices” that “take committment.” While Jett is using Updraft, waiting to launch, she won’t be able to fire her weapon.
Cloudburst and Updraft are abilities that must be purchased between rounds. These abilities last for multiple rounds until they’re used up. It’s not quite clear how many uses that entails.
Tailwind, Jett’s signature ability, allows her to immediately dash a short distance. This is an excellent ability for closing the distance on an unsuspecting enemy and attacking before they have a chance to respond. It’s not yet clear if this can be used directly after Updraft is activated, but if so, this adds even more flexibility to Jett’s mobility.
Signature abilities are available for free every round, meaning Jett will automatically start each round with Tailwind. This is the ability most of her strategy, purchases, and synergy will be based upon.
Then there’s Jett’s ultimate ability, Blade Storm, which is charged by getting eliminations. Blade Storm arms Jett with “several deadly throwing knives” that deal moderate damage but kill if they’re a headshot. Killing an enemy restores the knives. Players can opt to throw a single knife with a left click, or right click to throw all remaining knives a short distance.
Similar to Overwatch’s Genji, the idea is to use Tailwind to get up close to your enemy and then use Blade Storm to deal massive damage with multiple knives at once. That way, the kill would instantly restore her knives, allowing her to strike out again. It’s still unclear how often abilities are available or how long they take to reload if they’re able to be used multiple times per round.
Seeing all of these revealed agents has only made fans’ interest in Valorant’s closed beta even stronger. But what does it take to get in on the action?
First, players must sign up for a Riot account if they don’t already have one. Then, a Twitch account must be linked. While logged into the linked account, tune in for the Valorant streams starting on April 7. This wil give players the chance to be selected to take part in the beta.
Currently, Valorant’s closed beta is only available on PC. While the PC requirements are quite low, it’s not clear exactly how easy it will be to get a key.
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