Valorant devs discuss potential new weapons and Operator changes

It’s always interesting to get a glimpse inside the minds of the talented people behind Valorant. As a whole, Riot have been very open about the reasoning behind specific updates and plans for the future, but it’s still fun to take a deeper look.

Recently, German streamer and YouTuber @aSmoogl had the chance to interview a couple of the devs. Character design lead Ryan “Morello” Scott and game designer Nicholas “Nickwu” Smith answered a bunch of the community’s top questions.

Following a series of Shotgun nerfs in the 1.07 patch, the conversation primarily focused on the Valorant arsenal, and the balance between certain weapons.

Perhaps most noteworthy was the discussion around the Operator. The sniper has been subject to plenty of scrutiny as of late, with players complaining that it is simply impossible to counter with certain agents.

As stated in a recent Ask Valorant blog post, Smith reiterated, “We are definitely looking to smooth out the experience… and that comes from every possible angle we can think of, in terms of characters, maps and the weapon itself”.

He added that popular nerf suggestions such as a scope sound or slower movement speed when holding the Op are being looked into and could be implemented down the line. However, limiting Operators to one per team seems to be off the cards.

On the topic of new guns, I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. “I think new weapons are an avenue of content we want to do eventually, but there are no current plans for new weapons right now” confirmed Smith.

They explained that there would have to be a really good reason to introduce something new and that it would require a lot of work to get right. With competitive integrity being one of the core pillars of Valorant, it was never likely that the arsenal would chop and change too frequently.

Shoutout again to Smoogl and Riot for taking the time to have this chat, you can check out the full video here.