Riot dev confirms Valorant will get new weapons in future episodes

Brad Norton
Valorant weapon skins

New weapons will indeed be coming to Valorant at some stage in the future, but what form might they take? Valorant Game Designer Nicholas Wu Smith has provided some fresh insight.

When Valorant launched, it did so with just 18 weapons when you include the Tactical Knife. With six distinct styles of guns, just about every box appears to be ticked.

You’ve got the Operator for long-range one taps along with the Judge for pesky close range kills. From fast-firing SMGs to more precise revolvers, there’s already plenty of variation among Valorant’s arsenal. But could it soon be expanding?

As more and more Agents are added into the game, Smith believes it’s only a matter of time until new guns join the mix as well.

“Eventually, we’ll add new weapons,” he said in an April 12 Twitch stream.

As to when the next gun might release, or how many Riot may drop at once, the dev was tight-lipped. “Will we get new guns this year?” a viewer asked. “Probably not,” he quickly replied.

This means we won’t be seeing any major shakeups to the arsenal in 2021. But for future updates well down the line, it’s evidently not off-limits.

It’s still early days yet so specifics are yet to be nailed down. That being said, Smith is confident “pretty much every weapon in Valorant will be hitscan.” So for any future additions, “something very particular” will have to come up for Riot to go against the grain.

Eliminating one potential idea from the mix, he explained an old gun that was scrapped before release.

“We used to have an auto-sniper,” Smith revealed, just like CS:GO’s “Dak Dak.” However, “it just ended up being that the Guardian filled that role better than having the auto-sniper as well.”

So there’s no telling what Riot might look to add in the future and it’s clear we’re still a ways off for now. That being said, the devs still have plenty of options when it comes to shaking up the meta.

“I think weapon balance and character balance are evergreen,” Wu added. “You can always be changing them.”

As Valorant continues to evolve with new Agents, it’s a guarantee the meta will as well. As for new weapons though, don’t expect to see a major shakeup until 2022 at the absolute earliest.

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About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com