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Riot Games has officially launched Act 3 of Valorant, alongside patch 1.10, which adds the new map Icebox, changes deathmatch mode and more.
Leading the new content is the game’s fifth overall map, Icebox. The sprawling area, which Riot Games has called a “complex combat space that features plenty of cover and verticality”, is available to play now in unrated, deathmatch and Spike Rush modes. For the time being, players will also face a higher likelihood of being placed on Icebox.
However, the new map will not be available to play in competitive mode as of yet. Riot Games says it wants to “optimise the performance on the map as well as continue to fix any bugs that might appear” before releasing it into competitive play.
Deathmatch mode has also received a minor overhaul, with changes made to the number of players, match length and more. Player count for a deathmatch game has been increased from 10 to 14, and periodic location pulse of enemies on the mini-map has been removed as a result.
“Now that there are 14 players on the map, the pulse feels completely unnecessary,” Riot Games explained. “We’re keeping a single pulse for players right when they respawn so that they can help get their bearings and find a quick fight without getting caught off guard.”
Deathmatch length has also been increased to a maximum of nine minutes or until the first player reaches 40 kills – up from six minutes and 30 kills, respectively. In addition, weapons will fully reload after a kill – except for the Ares and Odin machine guns, which will get 30 bullets back instead – and XP gain for a match has been upped to 900 from 500.
As previously reported, Act 3 and patch 1.10 also include a slew of competitive updates. They range from a tweaked rank disparity cap, changes to rank calculation for those in Immortal tier and above, as well as the option for players to choose their preferred servers.
Other changes in this new update include, a new battlepass, a slew of quality of life tweaks, bug fixes and more. Check out the full patch notes here.
Later this month, Riot Games will introduce a new agent, named Skye, as part of the Act 3 update. She was originally intended to be released alongside the launch of the new Valorant act, but was later postponed to Patch 1.11 – currently scheduled to be released on October 27 – to make way for Icebox.
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