Riot reveals Valorant’s next character, the Russian scout Sova

Riot Games has unveiled its third character (or agent) for Valorant in as many weeks. Sova hails from Russia and specializes in scouting the positions of his enemies. And then efficiently eliminating them. In the latest video released by Riot, we are treated to some more Valorant gameplay, which highlights the effectiveness of Sova’s abilities.

SOVA /// Russia
"Wherever they run, I will find them."#VALORANT pic.twitter.com/PGVmZMXNLh

— VALORANT (@VALORANT) March 19, 2020

Valorant‘s Sova has an arsenal of scouting abilities at his disposal. He can use them to see around corners and through walls. So, he’s a Russian with wallhacks. CS:GO players will no doubt have nightmare-inducing flashbacks thinking about this.

Sova’s abilities in Valorant

Shock Bolt is the first ability in Sova’s arsenal. Riot gave us a very brief look at the ability in one of its gameplay videos, but it never hit anyone to reveal how exactly it works. Well, now we know it fires an explosive bolt that releases a damaging pulse of static energy on impact. It’s his only ability that doesn’t help reveal enemies.

The second basic ability is the Owl Drone. This has been shown off numerous times in Valorant gameplay videos and is featured again in Sova’s reveal video. The Owl Drone can fly around freely and reveal enemies hit by the dart it fires. We don’t know if it can fire multiple darts or how much damage the drone can take.

The ability we’ve seen Sova use the most in the gameplay footage is his signature ability, Recon Bolt. Much like Hanzo’s ability in Overwatch, Sova fires an arrow that uses sonar to ping and tag enemies in an area, thereby revealing them. Enemies can destroy the Recon Bolt to help them hide their numbers. However, this still informs Sova and his allies that at least one enemy is in the area.

Sova’s Recon Bolt highlights enemies for his team.

Sova’s ultimate ability

Riot hasn’t yet shown us any gameplay footage of Sova’s ultimate ability in action. That’s a pity, too, because it sounds devastating. It’s possibly an excellent counter to Viper’s ultimate, Viper Pit. Sova’s ultimate, Hunter’s Fury, allows him to fire three deadly energy blasts that spear across the entire map. These deal heavy damage to each hit enemy while also marking them.

We don’t know exactly how these mechanics will work in-game. One energy blast could hit multiple enemies, or it could stop when it hits one. We also have no idea what it means for an enemy to be marked or how long they are marked for. There are a lot of details we’d love to know. However, just the wording used to describe the ultimate ability makes it sound devastatingly lethal.

Sova’s character model.

Obligatory Valorant beta speculation

Riot seems to be officially revealing one character per week. If it sticks to this schedule, then all 10 characters that will be available at launch (five free and five that need to be unlocked) will be revealed with Twitter videos by May 7. This would mean (he says with his conspiracy theory hat on) that the Valorant beta could arrive around May 15. We’ll see if Riot opts for that schedule, or if they take us by surprise yet again.

If you missed the reveal of the first two Valorant agents, Phoenix and Viper, you can check out our detailed coverage of them. And, if you would like more info about Valorant‘s style of gameplay, you can check out our article that looks at the 10 defining details of the game.