New Valorant Escalation mode revealed: how it works, release date, more

Valorant’s first limited-time mode (LTM), Escalation, has just been released. Here’s everything you need to know about how Escalation works and when it’ll be available.

Valorant has been pretty slow when it comes to releasing new modes into the game’s nexus. We’ve got Unrated, Rated and Spike Rush, but except for the winter-themed Snowball Mode, new ways to play have been limited.

This, however, is about to change with the new Limited-time mode (LTM) Escalation, which sees players battle it out in a mode that reverses the usual Valorant gameplay.

So, here’s everything you need to know about Escalation, how it works, its release date and more.

Valorant Escalation Mode Trailer

Escalation Mode in Valorant

Riot describe Escalation as being a “a casual, fast-paced mode designed for fun social play and perfect for encouraging players to practice with new weapons.”

“In this mode, players are given powerful guns at the start of the match… but as they get more kills, their powerful weapons are periodically replaced with progressively more challenging and less lethal ones.”

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A full description of how Escalation works is detailed below:

•  Similar to a respawning team deathmatch.
• When the match starts, there is one randomly-generated set of 12 weapons/abilities which both teams must cycle through, roughly in order of ‘most lethal’ to ‘least lethal’.
  • A team must collectively get X number of kills/points in each of the 12 stages before they progress to the next one.
  • Upon progressing to the next stage, the player who got that latest kill to push the team over – automatically progresses to the next gun/ability in the cycle.
  • Members of the team who have already gotten a kill on a given level when it’s completed get a 5 second timer to press B (or their shop hotkey) to get the next weapon, after which they’ll get it automatically.
  • Members of the team who have not gotten a kill with that weapon will stay on the previous level until they get a kill, after which they’ll auto-upgrade to the next level.
  • If there is significant skill disparity, it is possible for “worse” players to be more than one stage behind. When they get their next kill, they progress to the next stage, not the latest team stage (ie they don’t skip any weapons).
• One exception: for the final stage only, the whole team gets the final weapon/ability as soon as that stage is reached.
• If no team has won after 10 minutes, the team in the lead wins and the match ends.
  There is a 15-90s warmup in which players are given random weapons from the weapon set on spawn, it functions as a simple team deathmatch while waiting for players to load in.

Sound a little but like Gun Game? Valorant Mode Engineer and Designer Kyle Leach explains, “I played Gun Game in CS:Source like crazy and had a ton of fun with it.

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“The satisfaction of getting several kills in quick succession with fun arcade-y sound effects and clean auto-equips, along with the thrill of racing opponents to a spectacular finish with a crazy weapon – these are feelings that Gun Game has always delivered fantastically that we’re hoping to capture in this mode.”

When is Escalation mode in Valorant?

Escalation will be available in-game from 17 February. No end date has been set for the limited time mode, however it may leave our Valorant lives when Act 2 drops.

Make sure that you make the most of this awesome new mode, before it’s gone!