Valorant Episode 5 Act 2 is upon us, and with any new act comes a slew of new cosmetic goodies that can be earned through its battle pass system. This time round, Riot Games is drawing on inspiration from “different cultures and stories” from time immemorial.
Looking at the Valorant skins that players will be able to snag by scaling up the pass’ tiers, we have the Immortalized, Piedra del Sol, and Premiere Collision skin lines. While the latter is perhaps something a bit more intergalactic in nature, the other two have clear links to ancient civilizations.
“We worked very closely with our Latin America office on the Piedra del Sol skinline”, says producer Laura Baltzer. “They helped us on everything from the colour palette to the final naming of the weapons. It was so great to learn from them about some of the beautiful Aztec art and rich mythology.”
Noting that the pass for the upcoming act is Riot’s first attempt to build one around a singular concept, Baltzer says the studio “wanted the battle pass to reflect some of the things that were going on in Valorant, and make it feel like a memorable part of this moment in time for players.”
Between the ‘Shattered’ cinematic that kicked off Episode 5, and Valorant Champions beginning next month, Baltzer stresses that Riot wants players “to feel just as legendary on their ranked climb as the pros playing on the main stage, or as our agents immortalised in comic books”
Besides the skins, there is of course the usual suite of gun buddies, sprays, and player cards players will naturally collect while climbing the Valorant ranks; many of which are tied to the central theme in some capacity. For example, the ‘Hit in the Ankle Spray’ is a clear reference to Achilles, while the ‘Kiss the Frog’ buddy is a nod to ‘The Princess and the Frog’. Additionally, the ‘Anansi’ buddy, Baltzer notes, “is inspired by the many folktales of the spider by the same name.”
Riot hasn’t only looked to external tales for inspiration, either, with the ‘Garden of Heroes’ player card line serving to “explore the legends in our own game”, according to Baltzer.
The new battle pass collection certainly looks the part, but if anything we’re just excited for the chance to earn some new frog-based cosmetics to plaster over our loot. We better hop to it…