Valorant Mobile: Everything you need to know

Valorant is Riot Games' foray into the world of first-person tactical shooters, and it's quickly taken over the scene — playing similarly to games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with a dash of Overwatch. With the Valorant esports scene exploding and even more players flocking to the game, it makes sense that Riot would announce a mobile version of Valorant. However, questions of when a mobile version will release have begun to circulate.

While fans wait for more information, Riot Games likely hopes that Valorant Mobile will follow in the footsteps of its League of Legends mobile counterpart, and become one of the biggest and best Android games available. Here's all we know at the moment about Valorant Mobile.

What is Valorant?

For those unaware, Valorant is a tactical first-person shooter that plays very similarly to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. After development started in 2014, Riot Games officially announced the title in March 2020, and released a beta of the game a month later. Popularity for the game quickly shot up after its full release in June, and the game has gone on to become one of the biggest first-person shooters, both in the world of esports and regular play.

Thanks to Riot Games' support and general reputation for producing popular and technically sound games, Valorant's numbers have only continued to grow. According to the most recent information from Riot Games, Valorant has averaged more than 14 million players from around the world every month as of June 2021. This shows just how quickly people have flocked to the game, and just how popular the game has the potential to be.

What's gameplay like in Valorant?

Gameplay in Valorant is similar to other tactical shooters, albeit with a bit of class-based gameplay tossed in. Players play as a set of agents, each with their own special ability (similar to classes in Overwatch), and must either attack or defend a bomb site. Every player starts a round with a pistol, and can purchase better and more advanced weapons prior to the official start of the game depending on the outcome of the previous round.

Currently, Valorant has a roster of 15 agents, each with their own special abilities. Within these 15 agents, there are four sub-types — Duelists, Controllers, Initiators, and Sentinels — that help differentiate what these agents are special at.

Valorant features a handful of different modes, but its most popular is the standard competitive mode. Each match is a best of 25 — meaning you need to win 13 rounds in order to win — with the attacking players having to deliver a Spike to one of two sites or wipe the entire enemy team before the 100-second round timer ends.

While it's currently unknown exactly how gameplay will work in Valorant Mobile, we do have some other mobile shooters to look at for some inspiration. Titles like Call of Duty Mobile or PUBG Mobile have managed to successfully make the move to phones by keeping some, if not most, of the core gameplay mechanics intact.

When it comes to Valorant Mobile, you might not be able to get the precise aiming and movement of a mouse and keyboard, but you'll more than likely be able to use many of the controls you can on the PC version on your phone, albeit with some help from a game controller for Android or some clever positioning of your hands.

Will Valorant Mobile be different than the regular game?

Not too much about the upcoming Valorant Mobile is known, other than Riot Games recently acknowledged that a mobile version of the PC game is currently in development. However, the developer did tell The Verge that it's looking to build out the world of Valorant in order to allow more players around the world to play.

As far as gameplay goes, it's likely that Valorant Mobile will follow pretty close in step with its PC counterpart. If other Riot Games mobile efforts are anything to go by, players shouldn't expect the full Valorant experience from a mobile version right away, but can likely assume that many agents will be available to play, with the core gameplay experience remaining mostly the same.

It's important to note, though, that the version of Valorant that's on PC may not exactly be a 1:1 recreation when it lands on mobile devices. When Riot Games created League of Legends: Wild Rift, the company only released a handful of champions into the mobile version at launch, with more slowly being introduced into the game.

It wouldn't be too shocking to see Riot Games follow a similar method with Valorant Mobile, potentially releasing just a handful of agents or maps into the game in order to keep things simple at the start.

When will Valorant Mobile release?

Currently, no information regarding a release date for Valorant Mobile has been revealed. With the game likely still in the very early stages of development, don't expect too many news or updates from Riot Games until they're fully ready to get players into the world of Valorant Mobile.