Valorant’s new agent Neon, Episode 4 and a Protocol skin line have today been fully revealed by Riot Games.
Neon agent in Valorant: Abilities revealed
Filipino agent Neon is a nimble new playable character who fires ‘bursts of bioelectric radiance as fast as her body generates it’. She races ahead to catch enemies off guard, then strikes them down quickly.
Neon has also been compared to Zeri, the new champion in League of Legends who also features electric abilities.
Her abilities are as follows:
(E) HIGH GEAR
Instantly channel Neon’s power for increased speed. When charged, alt fire to trigger an electric slide. Slide charge resets every two kills.
(Q) RELAY BOLT
Instantly throw an energy bolt that bounces once. Upon hitting each surface, the bolt electrifies the ground below with a concussive blast.
(C) FAST LANE
Fire two energy lines forward on the ground that extend a short distance or until they hit a surface. The lines rise into walls of static electricity that block vision and damage enemies passing through them.
(X) OVERDRIVE
Unleash Neon’s full power and speed for a short duration. Fire to channel the power into a deadly lightning beam with high movement accuracy. The duration resets on each kill.
Valorant game designer Ryan ‘rycou’ Cousart said: “I’ve been at Riot for a while now and until now, there’s only been talk here and there of making a character from the Philippines. I’m a Filipino designer, so the opportunity to help bring a Filipina agent to life in Valorant is an absolute blessing to me all the way down to the core.
“I vividly remember the day John Goscicki and Jay Watford broke the news to me that I was going to have this opportunity and thankfully my camera wasn’t working, as I was choked up and full of tears. I remember not being able to speak for a few minutes and though speechless I let out a very quiet, “thank you, so much.”
“To see all the work that the Neon pod, in conjunction with our Riot team in SEA, has put into bringing Neon to life in the most authentic way we can, is something I’m genuinely proud of even if just a small part.”
“I’ve been at Riot for a while now and until now, there’s only been talk here and there of making a character from the Philippines. I’m a Filipino designer, so the opportunity to help bring a Filipina agent to life in Valorant is an absolute blessing to me all the way down to the core.”
Ryan ‘rycou’ Cousart, Riot Games
Ryan added: “Everything on her kit had two words we kept going back to on the design side to keep it cohesive. These were “fast” and “frenetic.” I remember when August Browning (League of Legends lead champion designer) had originally come to us with this idea for having an agent with the ability to sprint fast on a basic ability – I had lots of reasons why I thought it would be an insurmountable amount of work to achieve it.
“The goal we had aligned on for Neon was that she would move fast and her utility should supplement. After seeing how far it had gone with Jay and August before I hopped on to take it to the finish line, I was so excited to see how well we had hit the goal of having abilities that pair well with going fast, that it left the prototype phase with basically the same kit.”
Valorant’s new Protocol skin line
In terms of the thinking behind this new skin line, the press release read: “An oppressive shadow government must quell disorder in its ranks. Enter Protocol 781-A: an arsenal specially designed to provide combat assistance, monitor performance, and enforce compliance with every command.”
Here’s the key info for the Protocol skin line:
Weapons:
- Personal Administrative Melee Unit (melee)
- Protocol 781-A Phantom
- Protocol 781-A Spectre
- Protocol 781-A Bulldog
- Protocol 781-A Sheriff
Price Tier:
UE tier: 9,900 VP
Bundle includes:
- Personal Administrative Melee Unit (melee)
- Protocol 781-A Phantom
- Protocol 781-A Spectre
- Protocol 781-A Bulldog
- Protocol 781-A Sheriff
- Protocol 781-A Gun Buddy
- Protocol 781-A Card
- Protocol 781-A Spray
Levels:
- Melee
- Level 1 – New melee weapon model
- Level 2 – Brand new animations and visual effects; two alternating inspect animations and attack sets depending on which pose the weapon is held in
- Level 3 – Custom male voice-over for inspect animation and various other triggers that occur in-game (approximately 60 unique VO lines); the voice-over is “visualized” in the in-game interface when the weapon talks to you
- Variant 1 – White/Pink Variant with female voice-over
- Variant 2 – Red/Blue Variant with male voice-over
- Variant 3 – Green Variant with female voice-over
- Guns
- Level 1 – New gun model; custom ADS reticle; custom bullets
- Level 2 – Custom muzzle flash visual effects and firing audio
- Level 3 – Custom animations and visual effects during equip, reload, and inspect; weapon “transforms” during equip, reload, and inspect
- Level 4 – Finisher and Kill Banner
- Level 5 – Custom male voice-over for inspect animation and various other triggers that occur in-game (approximately 60 unique VO lines); the voice-over is “visualized” in the in-game interface when the weapon talks to you
- Variant 1 – White/Pink Variant with female voice-over
- Variant 2 – Red/Blue Variant with male voice-over
- Variant 3 – Green Variant with female voice-over
Valorant Episode 4 Act 1 Battlepass
- Price: 1,000 VP
- Free Highlights:
- Velocity Shorty w/ Variants
- Operation: Fracture Player Card
- Valentine’s Tactics Player Card
- Chicken Out Gun Buddy
- Lost Connection Spray
- Paid Highlights:
- Velocity Karambit w/ Variants
- Schema Vandal
- Velocity Phantom w/ Variants
- Hydrodip Frenzy
- Unstoppable // Sage Player Card
- Be Mine Valentine’s Day Player Card series
- Big Brain Gun Buddy
- Nice One Spray
All these updates will go live in Valorant on Tuesday January 11th 2022.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
