VALORANT Episode Eight, Act Three is arriving soon, and as usual, there’ll be a new battle pass and your ranks get a soft reset. This is the final Act before Episode Nine, so here’s everything we know to expect from it.
VALORANT’s Episode Eight, Act Three release date
According to the days left on the current battle pass, Episode Eight, Act Three starts on April 30 for the Americas region—a couple of hours after the server maintenance ends. The new Act should go live early May 1 for servers in the Asia-Pacific and Europe regions.
What to expect from VALORANT’s Episode Eight, Act Three?
New bundle
Riot Games adds a new weapon collection with every Act’s kick-off, and it appears Episode Eight, Act Three continues the tradition. Based on the leaks, you can expect weapon skins for the Operator, Phantom, Sheriff, Judge, and knife in the next bundle.
The melee design is rumored to be like the Kunai, and the bundle will also be available in a pink variant.
Premier mode changes
Once Episode Eight, Act Three goes live in VALORANT, teams with 600 or higher Premier Score can qualify for playoffs. Until Act Two, this score was set at 675, with Riot lowering this threshold to give more teams a chance at going pro. Additionally, from Episode Eight, Act Three onward, playoff winners earn a stage promotion. “If a team in Advanced 1 wins the Stage E8A3 Playoffs, Premier will place them in Advanced 2 for Stage E9A1,” Riot said on April 24.
While the new Invite Division won’t be available until Episode Nine, Act One, launching on June 25, teams can still qualify for it in Episode Eight, Act Three, by placing in the top 32 of the Contender Division standings.
New battle pass, agent changes, bug fixes, and more
Like always, Patch 8.08 is expected to bring adjustments to agents and maps alongside quality-of-life changes and bug fixes. The new patch will fix Cypher’s Trapwire glitch and reintroduce Split after its removal on April 23 from all modes because of a game-breaking exploit.
Interestingly, the devs are supposedly working on a new agent select screen, which will make it difficult for players to insta-lock.
The new Act will also add a new battle pass for players to grind and unlock weapon skins, gun buddies, player cards, sprays, and Radianite Points. Some players want map rotations, but there are no leaks or news about this so far, so it’s unlikely the next Act will include any map changes.
Given Sunset was the last new map, introduced on Aug. 29, 2023, players can expect a new map with Episode Nine, along with some old ones returning to VALORANT’s active map pool.
