Riot Games has announced a new time-limited multiplayer mode for its competitive first-person shooter Valorant.
Replication, which will temporarily replace Escalation, goes live with Valorant’s 2.09 Patch which will release later today (May 11).
Replication is a new game mode where players all play copies of the same agent — something that is not usually possible.
Players can vote for which agent they want to play in a modified version of the usual agent selection screen. The winning agent will then be played by all five players on the team.
Gear up for VALORANT's newest game mode, Replication. Coming soon. pic.twitter.com/zuMO1rXlc4
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) May 10, 2021
Games are in Valorant’s regular best-of-nine format, but all abilities, bar ultimate abilities, are refreshed each round. All players will also have Flashguard, a passive ability that triggers if a player is flashed twice within a four second window.
The passive ability protects the player from being blinded for five seconds on activation.
Kyle Powell, Valorant’s game designer, explained in a press release that Replication was designed in order to “create novel moments by widening the player theorycrafting space.”
As a result of the unique format, Powell explained that Replication creates “lots of hilarious near game-breaking plays for players to discover.”
Earlier this year, Riot Games announced that it will begin to record voice chat in Valorant in order to root out toxic players.
“We know disruptive behaviour using our voice chat is a concern for a lot of players, and we’re committed to addressing it more effectively,” Riot said.
Riot acknowledges that “there’s still work to be done” and will continue “exploring other approaches that we believe will improve in-game experiences”.
The latest agent added to the game was the cosmically-themed Astra, who came to the game in February.
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