Over the last few days, Riot Games has been teasing a new game mode coming to Valorant when patch 2.09 goes live. It’s called Replication, and we were able to get the details ahead of its release in Valorant.
The early video clips teasing it appeared to show agents having unlimited use of their abilities. As we suspected, Riot was trying to hoodwink us. In Replication, all players on a team will play as the same agent. That’s why you can have numerous Brimstone Sky Smokes or Skye Guiding Lights. Other than that, the rules of Replication are basically the same as Unrated mode.
It’s not as bad as agents with unlimited ability use, but I still don’t think it’s going to be an enjoyable mode. When Overwatch first launched, teams could pick multiple versions of the same hero. That was eventually changed to allow only one version of each hero because the best strategies were too powerful. And the games were incredibly dull.
Replication mode details
Replication mode is a best of nine rounds — the first to five wins. At the start of the round players will be given a set number of Credits, regardless of winning or losing. You will get 900 in round one, 2,400 in round two, 3,900 in round three, and 6,000 in round four. Then you’ll swap sides, and the Credits will reset.
Your gun, shields, and abilities are also reset after each round. Only Ultimate abilities are not. Plus, you receive one point in your Ultimate at the beginning of every round.
Gear up for VALORANT's newest game mode, Replication. Coming soon. pic.twitter.com/zuMO1rXlc4
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) May 10, 2021
The agent your team plays in Replication mode will be voted on before the match starts. Everyone gets one vote, and the agent with the most votes is the winner. This is going to be a mess. I can already foresee players leaving when they don’t get the agent they want.
A new mechanic called Flashguard has been added to Valorant for Replication mode. If a player is flashed twice within four seconds, they will be granted Flashguard, which prevents them from being blinded for five seconds.
Replication will replace Escalation mode for two weeks. After that time, it looks like Riot will be constantly rotating between its more experimental modes. So, it’s likely there will be more coming beyond Episode 2 Act III.
I’m a big fan of experimenting to push a game forward. But I hope Riot is astute enough to ditch something that isn’t working. I also hope I’m wrong about Replication.
Published: May 11, 2021 11:45 am