Valorant's leaked new agent has a turret, which is (potentially) fine
Peek at Killjoy's kill toys
Riot have accidentally leaked footage and ability details about Killjoy, Valorant's upcoming twelfth agent. She's a turret-loving engineer type looking to show up Brimstone, according to the enthusiasm with which she's pitched her talents to the murder squad. Her reveal page briefly went live a few days ago, you see, and we got a peek at Killjoy's portfolio.
She's got area denial coming out the wazoo.
Let's leap straight into the abilities, as helpfully snapped by Dexerto before that launch page was taken down.
"Ability 1 (C) — Alarmbot
Equip and deploy a bot that hunts down enemies who dare to get in range. When my killer robot friend reaches its target, boom goes the idiot. Alarmbot not only deals damage, it temporarily leaves affected targets vulnerable to double damage from all sources. Hold equip if you want to recall your deployed bot.
Ability 2 (Q) — Turret
Sometimes it's good to plant some roots. Deploy a turret that fires at enemies within its 180-degree cone. Hold equip to recall the deployed turret. With my turret, I can hold an area pretty well myself while the others cover the angles I can't.
Signature Ability (E) — Nanoswarm
OK check this out. Throw the grenade. When it lands, it goes quiet. Then, activate the Nanoswarm to deploy a damaging swarm of nanobots and catch the enemy crying. I love this trick!
Ultimate Ability (X) — Lockdown
You’ll have to adjust your timing for the windup, but once you get this device going, it detains all enemies caught in its radius for about 8 seconds. Yeah, enemies can destroy it — except I built plenty more."
And here they are in action:
I have seen many anti-turret murmurs, and I think I understand them. There are already five beings out to murder you at anyone time in Valorant, and rubbing up against an additional automated one could be a grind. It doesn't seem too deadly in the video above, though, and in practice may well work out to be more of a distraction than a self-sufficient murderer. I would ask that you withhold judgment on the turret.
That grenade/mine looks like it has a nasty area of effect, mind, considering it can lay there all invisible like. And being frozen by her Lockdown ultimate sounds almost as agonizing as the panicked shouting and miscoordination that's likely to fill the windup time. Erk.
There's no sign of when Killjoy will actually start killing joy in-game, though the state of the now-removed reveal page suggests she's rearing to go.