Everything we know about Valorant Agent 16: Grenadier leaks, abilities, release date

Valorant has been steadily building its roster every Act. Agent 16, codenamed Grenadier, is on the way, but not in Episode 2 Act 3. Instead, players will have to wait a bit longer. Here’s what we know.

With the launch of Ghanaian Agent Astra, there are now 15 Valorant Agents for teams to strategize around. Players were expecting Agent 16 to come in Episode 2 Act 3, but Riot skipped over the release.

It’s sent the community into a bit of disarray, given Riot released a new map in Breeze. However, don’t be too worried, Agent 16 is coming, just not right now. Here’s everything we know.

Valorant Agent 16 leaks: Codename, more

Given the regular teasers of player cards and promo videos didn’t lead to anything in Episode 2 Act 3, there’s hasn’t been much to go off for Valorant’s next Agent.

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Players originally thought a promotion video on the Arabian Valorant account could have been a teaser for the new Agent. However, this turned out to be a trailer for Strike Arabia, a new tournament.

While weeks followed with no relevant teasers, a May 11 leak finally gave us some fresh information. Shortly after the 2.09 update went live, dataminers noticed a new character name hidden away in the game’s code.

‘Grenadier’ is the reported codename for Agent 16 in Valorant.

While this could be indicative of the Agent’s playstyle, it’s purely a codename for now. There’s a good chance the actual name for the next character is something entirely different.

Valorant Agent 16 details: Abilities & gameplay

In a blog post on May 28, Riot provided a brand-new teaser on Agent 16 and mentioned a bit about their abilities. According to the post, the next Agent will have abilities that should be familiar to gamers who enjoy traditional first person shooter titles — with some twists.

“This is an Agent who’s utility can create moments where you must rely on your gunplay,” Riot wrote. “The new Agent is coming soon enough, and we’re looking forward to seeing what you think when they finally say hello!”

Based on this, and the “Grenadier” leaks from earlier, we can start building a rough idea of how the Agent might play. Clearly, the new character jumps into every map with some form of explosive power. This could be in the form of a traditional grenade like Raze’s Paint Shells, or traps that require activation, like Killjoy’s Nanoswarm.

Creating “moments where you must rely on your gunplay” sure makes it sound like another Duelist or Sentinel is on the way as well — though Grenadiers are also known for their ability to break into enemy strongholds, so perhaps there’s a chance Agent 16 leans more towards the Initiator role instead.

Valorant Agent 16 teasers and clues

In the YR1 Valorant event run down on June 2, the dev blog included a banner to tease the new agent.

All we got was a symbol, presumably for one of the Agent’s abilities. At the time of the announcement, we had the names of Agents on their with information omitted.

Riot must have later updated it since there’s a renewed banner that omits the other Agents name’s even further. A few days after that update on June 8, Twitter user @cynprel noticed fresh clues popping up on the newest map Breeze, including a newly lit sign by the teleporter, and a knife sticking out of a Radianite crate.

It doesn’t take much to put together that the teleporter being activated points towards a new Agent arriving soon, and some players are theorizing that the knife in the Radianite box could also hint at the new character’s abilities.

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“Judging by the setup here, this may be the ability that disables other abilities,” Cynprel said on Twitter, and while we can’t say for sure that’s what it represents, it’s as good a guess as any so far.

Summer Games Fest trailer

In addition to all of this, the new Summer Games Fest Valorant trailer dropped on June 10, and gives us a sneak peek at what this Agent could possibly look like.

The clip shows off a robotic skeleton which appears to turn itself on, before panning down to a detached, robotic-looking head which comes to life before our very eyes.

https://twitter.com/PlayVALORANT/status/1403059944295915523

When the trailer dropped, the official Valorant Twitter account was fully decked out in all things Killjoy, with the name, biography and images edited to look as though the German genius herself had penned them.

It has us asking a few questions: was the new Agent built by our favorite Sentinel to protect Future Earth? Or is it an experiment gone wrong? Either way, there’s some serious Terminator vibes.

Valorant Agent 16 release date

Riot threw a spanner in the works by not following the previous schedule of one Agent per Act with Episode 2 Act 3.

That means we can expect Agent 16 to drop in Valorant Episode 3 Act 1, due to launch on June 22, 2021, right after the battle pass expires. This has been pretty heavily hinted at during Riot’s June 2 post discussing what’s coming up as part of the title’s one year anniversary celebrations.

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We’ll be updating this page as more information becomes available on the next character to release in Valorant.