Publisher and developer Riot Games today announced that Valorant’s newest limited-time mode, Escalation, goes live tomorrow, showcasing it’s action-packed battles in a trailer that you can watch below.
Although it does seem to shift away somewhat from the tactical nature of Valorant’s main mode, Escalation tests how good your aim is with different weapons. The 5v5 mode tasks players with climbing 12 levels by killing opponents.
Escalation levels are assigned team-wide but each player has their own weapon level to increase and needs to score a kill in order to advance to the next one. Teams advance to the next Escalation level upon scoring 7 points. Killing an opponent on the current level earns the team 1 point, or 0.5 points if you’re lagging behind.
Teams can still advance to the next Escalation level even if some players are having trouble progressing their individual weapon level. Similarly, regardless of how far ahead your teammates are, you can only advance one weapon level at a time.
Weapon loadouts are assigned automatically and your character choice won’t determine the abilities you get during matches. Here’s a breakdown of how this works:
- Level 1: Always either Raze’s Showstopper or Vandal/Phantom
- Level 2: Always Vandal or Phantom.
- Levels 3–11: Assorted weapons and abilities
- Level 12: Possible Shorty, Classic, Knife, Shock Dart...or even the Snowball Launcher
- Health: Every death drops a health pack that expires after 10 seconds
Fast respawns will be active alongside a 5-second invulnerability window. The first team to reach level 12 or the furthest along when the 10-minute time limit expires is declared the winner, getting an additional 200 XP on top of the 800 XP earned for completing a match.
There’s no word on how long Valorant’s Escalation mode will stick around, but you can hop in and give it a shot starting with tomorrow, February 17.
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