Following the announcement of the release date, Riot shared a pretty badass cinematic video, showcasing the new agent. Appropriately named Retake, you can check out the video right below:
The New Agent: Yoru
Now, the new agent, Yoru looks like a pretty cool agent. As per the game description, Yoru is a native of Japan and is all about “strength and stealth”. His abilities allow him to move into enemy territory without being noticed and take them down when they are distracted.
Character Abilities
So, as usual, Yoru has 4 abilities, including his signature one. All of the abilities are pretty unique and some of them take cues from the abilities of other agents in the game.
1. Gatecrash
Gatecrash is a pretty unique ability and no other agents in the game has anything like it. With this, you can bind a portal to a specific location or set it on a specific path. After you equip the ability, you can press your “fire” button to set a “tether” for a portal that will start moving forward until it gets blocked by a wall. Otherwise, you can press your “alt-fire” to place the tether on a specific point on the map.
So, after the tether is deployed, Yoru can go anywhere and press the activate button, in the given time-limit, to instantly teleport back to the tether’s location. It is kind of like Phoenix’s ultimate, “Run it Back”, but not quite. The agent gets only one slot for Gatecrash each round.
2. Blindside (Signature)
Blindside is the second ability of Yoru and it is essentially a flash which is pretty much like the flashes of Breach, Skye, and Phoenix. It initiates as an inter-dimensional orb, like the ones Sage has and Yoru can throw these towards a hard surface to flash his enemies. It ricochets over the surface once before bursting into a blue-tinted flash.
The Blindside is Yoru’s signature ability and he gets one free cast each round. Once you use it in a round, it resets after two kills much like Phoenix’s or Jett’s signature.
3. Fakeout
Fakeout is one such ability of Yoru that no other agents in the game have. This one lets the agent deploy a trail of fake footsteps towards a course to confuse enemies. You can use this ability in two different ways. After you equip the ability, you can press the “fire” button to instantly activate the fake footsteps. Otherwise, you can place an initial point for the footsteps with your “alt-fire” button and activate it later remotely, much like Killjoy’s (one of the agents in the game) swamp grenades. Now, although the footsteps sound a bit unnatural compared to the footsteps of real players, it surely will confuse the opponent for a short time. Moreover, it can also activate the portal sounds in portal-supported maps. You will get two slots for Fakeout each round for this ability.
4. Dimensional Drift (Ultimate)
Dimensional Drift is Yoru’s ultimate ability and it equips him with a pair of a multi-dimensional mask that makes him invisible and invulnerable for a specific amount of time. While this is active, Yoru can travel to any part of the map really fast, but the enemies will not be able to see or shoot the agent.
However, they will be able to hear sound cues when he is near and will also get a glimpse of Yoru if he comes very close to the enemies. This is kind of like Wraith’s (from Apex Legends) portal but is a bit different. Moreover, Yoru can de-activate his ult on-demand. Now, as this is the ultimate ability of the character you will need 7 ult-points to use it, much like Sage’s ultimate. You get ult-points when you kill, assist, or perform well in rounds. So, these were all the abilities of Yoru. Apart from the above cinematic trailer, Riot also shared an official video showcasing the character’s abilities. It is a super-cool video that you can check out below.
Episode 2: New Battle Pass
Along with the upcoming agent and his abilities, Riot also brought a new Battle Pass season with some pretty fancy in-game items and gun skins. The developers also changed the design of the game menus. Prior to the latest update to the game, Riot released the official gameplay trailer of the new season which you can check out below.
Valorant Episode 2 is Here
So, this was all about the latest season of Valorant and the new agent, Yoru. Being a Valorant-head myself, I cannot be more excited to try out the new agent and all the new items and gun skins. I, especially, love the weapon skins and am also glad that the developers finally added an Odin skin in the Battle Pass collection. Thanks, Riot! You can download Valorant from the link here and enjoy the latest season for free.
