VALORANT was released at the beginning of the summer and Riot Games still has its foot on the gas pedal with new content for players to enjoy.
Earlier in July, a data miner discovered the first traces of Killjoy, a potential upcoming VALORANT agent. Several voice lines, as well as her ultimate ability animation, were seen and hype levels went through the roof with Patch 1.04.
The patch introduced a couple of Easter eggs scattered around Split, which served as a tease for the data-mined Killjoy.
Riot finally confirmed the agent’s arrival with a trailer on July 29. The teaser features short cinematics of Killjoy’s abilities alongside in-game clips featuring the next VALORANT agent while using them.
Who is Killjoy?
The 48th tier of the current VALORANT Battle Pass features a card named “Vetraulich,” which is the German correspondence of “confidential.” None of the VALORANT agents have roots in Germany, although Killjoy could be of German origin.
The “Vetraulich” card features mechs and the leaked voice lines, featuring Killjoy, indicate that she might be an engineer. While this is just speculation, all the pieces seem to match.
Other voice lines that were data-mined also feature comments about Killjoy’s height, which may be a sensitive subject for the next VALORANT agent.
Killjoy’s abilities
VALORANT is approaching the end of its first act. As we get closer to its end date of Aug. 4, more leaks have surfaced, showcasing Killjoy’s abilities.
VALORANT fans recently discovered Killjoy’s official release page, which also featured videos of her abilities. Though the videos were shortly set to private, the site still remains up.
Riot’s recent teaser video also showcased all of Killjoy’s abilities so we have pretty good idea of her ability kit looks like.
Here’s Killjoy’s full set of abilities.
Alarmbot
“Equip and deploy a bot that hunts down enemies who dare to get in range. When my killer robot friend reaches its target, boom goes the idiot. Alarmbot not only deals damage, it temporarily leaves affected targets vulnerable to double damage from all sources. Hold equip if you want to recall your deployed bot.”
Turret
“Sometimes it’s good to plant some roots. Deploy a turret that fires at enemies within its 180 degree cone. Hold equip to recall the deployed turret. With my turret, I can hold an area pretty well myself while the others cover the angles I can’t.”
Nanoswarm
“Equip a Nanoswarm grenade. Fire to throw the grenade. Upon landing, the Nanoswarm goes covert. Activate the Nanoswarm to deploy a damaging swarm of nanobots.”
Ultimate ability: Lockdown
“Equip the Lockdown device. Fire to deploy the device. After a long windup, the device detains all enemies caught in the radius. The device can be destroyed by enemies.”
It looks like Killjoy has a rather diversified ability pool that allows her to scale at both defending chokepoints and pushing bombsites. With the limited information we have on her, she looks stronger on defense. But the opposite may very well be true, depending on VALORANT‘s meta during her release period. Regardless of her strong suit, make sure to watch for robots every time you pass a corner.
Though everything looks fully-fledged, Riot still hasn’t announced Killjoy officially, meaning that what we know so far may not be finalized since the developer can still make changes until her release date.
When will Killjoy be available on live servers?
The roadmap poster featuring three acts of VALORANT’s first episode includes the same model that the cardboard on Split had. While this isn’t confirmed by any means, Killjoy could be the big reveal of the second act, like Reyna was for the first act.
The expected release date of Act Two is Aug. 4.
