[GameSpot] - Valorant Episode 5 - New Map Pearl, Competitive Rank, And More

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Valorant's fifth episode, Dimension, kicks off today, and with it players may as well be taking a step into a brand new world, because they literally will be. Players who dive in this season have a lot of new content to work through including a new map and event pass that are front and center for the beginning of this first Act. Folks who love the grind are bound to find something they enjoy in Valorant's latest battle pass and some of our favorite weapons are even getting a new series of electrifying premium skins. You can check out this season's patch notes here, but other here's a quick rundown of what's in Valorant's new episode

Valorant's new map, Pearl, is set on an alternate Earth

Riot Games has done a decent job of constantly introducing new maps to Valorant since it first released two years ago. However, none of the maps introduced before have ever taken place on Omega Earth, Valorant's canonical alternate reality Earth where familiar characters are in fact the bad guys. Pearl, the newest map being added in Dimension: Act I, actually sits under a dome in the water on Omega Earth, since it has been ravaged by climate collapse. It's also inspired by and set in Portugal, which lends the map a distinct look and sound that the team hasn't explored much as they've continued hopping all over the world.

While most Valorant maps feature some kind of gimmick, like Bind's one-way teleporters or Fracture's collapsed middle and ziplines that span the length of the map, Pearl was designed as a straightforward map without one. Instead, it brings typical three-lane gameplay back to the forefront of the game. To help the map shine, a queue has been added to exclusively play Pearl for two weeks. The queue is Unrated and after the two weeks are up, Pearl will be added to the competitive rotation.

Ascendant Rank in Competitive

Riot has added an entirely new rank with Dimension called Ascendant. It's now situated between Diamond and Immortal, meaning that if you're trying to climb into the prestige ranks, your task just became a little harder now. The purpose of the new rank was to spread player diversity out over the ranked queues more evenly. Lower ranks were beginning to get too crowded, but rather than just move players up and into more sparse queues, which would overwhelm those, Riot settled on making a new rank entirely.

Valorant's new map, Pearl.

New battle pass

Every season of Valorant comes with a brand new battle pass and Dimension's first is no slouch in that department. Among the highlights this season are the Spitfire weapon skin for guns like the Ares and Guardian or the Shimmer skins for the Stinger and the Bulldog. Maybe you prefer skins that look really tech-y like the Task Force ones. There's also a player card that adorably looks like a bunch of the Valorant agents packed into a van for a beach trip. Oh and of course, Tactibear and Tactibunny cards. Who can forget those adorable furry friends?

Gallery

New event pass with comic book cards

Until July 12, there's also an event pass going on that's free for everyone who just logs in and plays Valorant. The event is called Crossover and is actually inspired by Dimension's story cinematic, where Killjoy, Neon, and Reyna come across comic books of themselves on Omega Earth. Appropriately, three of the rewards on the Crossover pass are player cards that are actually Omega Earth comic book covers of most of the Valorant agents, including Omen, who dons a cover entirely by himself because he's cool and ominous and edgy and we all love him for it.

Prelude to Chaos weapon skins

Dimension is also kicking off with an ominously titled line of premium skins in the store called Prelude to Chaos. They all start dark and slightly edgy (though there are alternate colorways as usual) and as you level them up, the skins will become further imbued with a dark electricity while bullets will begin to sound more distinctly like lasers. At the highest weapon level, the new finisher animation will summon chains from underground to pull your opponents under.

When does Episode 5: Act I end?

According to the battle pass, Dimension's first Act is due to end approximately August 23, though things are liable to change if Riot sees fit to cut the season short or even extend it.

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