VALORANT adds free-for-all Deathmatch mode in Act II
By Ty Brody
VALORANT has added a new free-for-all Deathmatch mode as part of their Act II update on Tuesday, August 4th.
The new FFA Deathmatch game mode debuts alongside VALORANT’s sophomore season. Act II has a lot to offer, including a new 100-Level Act Pass to progress through, a new Agent known as Killjoy, updates to the ranking system, and much more. The free-for-all deathmatch mode has been up towards the top of many VALORANT player’s wish list since the game wrapped up its Closed Beta in late-May.
Deathmatch will allow players to jump into a live game where they can sharpen their mechanics on real players and should be a great place to warm up before diving into Ranked. Players will load into a match as a random Agent that they’ve unlocked, but the Agent will not matter in Deathmatch because abilities have been turned off. There is no economy or spike, just free-for-all fragging to get solid practice in.
- 10-player free-for-all
- First to 30 kills with a time limit of 6 minutes
- No abilities
- Load in as a random Agent that you own
- Buy whatever weapons you want; heavy armor is given to you automatically
- Killing enemies drop health kits: picking one up fully restores your health/armor AND automatically reloads your weapon.
- All enemies are periodically revealed on the minimap
Matches end in one of two ways, a player reaches the 30-Kill mark, or the match reaches a six-minute time limit. I would have preferred a higher number of kills to win the match, some players may collect thirty kills fairly quickly considering the dropped kits that keep a player at full health.
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That said, VALORANT has been sure to point out that this is only a BETA version of Deathmatch, and that they’ll be closely monitoring game performance and stability. The team at Riot Games has done an excellent job of listening to the concerns of their community and acting quickly on the important issues. This game mode has been put together to allow players a change of pace and additional methods of practicing their in-game mechanics, similar to the Spike Rush game mode that was introduced at launch.
Deathmatch comes as a major feature in Act II, which is loaded will new skins and items to unlock. As the new game mode is tested out by players in the coming weeks, it will be interesting to see how much feedback the VALORANT team is willing to act on. My only concern, and one that I’ve yet to find an answer on, is if players use Deathmatch to warm up and prematurely disconnect from the match, will we experience 3-5 player lobbies after a few minutes and then roam aimlessly for the same handful of opponents? Hopefully, Deathmatch can be auto-filled by new players as some disconnect, plus I would love to see action queuing introduced specifically for this mode in the future.