Yoru officially revealed as Valorant’s 14th Agent: abilities, release date

The leaks were true ⁠— Yoru is joining Valorant’s roster as the 14th Agent in Episode 2 Act 1. The Japanese duelist incorporates invisibility, breaking time and space to warp through the dimensions of Middle Earth and take down his foes.

Valorant’s Episode 2 is kicking off with a bang, as Yoru becomes the 14th Agent to fight on Future Earth. The Japanese duelist is the fifth in his class, although he harnesses a different playstyle to his predecessors.

“Japanese native Yoru rips holes straight through reality to infiltrate enemy lines unseen,” Riot  described the new agent. “Using deception and aggression in equal measure, he gets the drop on each target before they know where to look.”

Despite having a knack for invisibility, Yoru’s reveal has been anything but that. The Agent was leaked back in early December, and there was even a teaser on Icebox featuring his invisible footsteps. However, he’s coming out of the shadows for good when Episode 2 drops.

Yoru abilities

If the teaser didn’t give enough away, Yoru will be able to wander around your favorite Valorant maps completely invisible. On top of that, you have to make sure he’s actually there when he does pop out.

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Yoru can throw out decoys with his Fakeout ability, mimicking fake footsteps to sell a push. He can then traverse the map quickly with his Gatecrash teleport, and get himself onto site with his Blindside flashes that attach to walls.

However, his trump card is his Dimensional Drift ultimate. He can parse between dimensions, becoming invisible as he walks around the map, only to appear behind enemy lines to mow them down. You can find a full breakdown of his kit below.

• Ability 1 ⁠— Fakeout: EQUIP an echo that mimics footsteps when activated. FIRE to activate and send the echo forward. ALT FIRE to place an echo in place. USE the inactive echo to send it forward.
• Ability 2 ⁠— Gatecrash: EQUIP to harness a rift tether. FIRE to send the tether out moving forward. ALT FIRE to place a tether in place. ACTIVATE to teleport to the tether’s location.
• Signature Ability ⁠— Blindside: EQUIP to rip an unstable dimensional fragment from reality. FIRE to throw the fragment, activating a flash that winds up once it collides with a hard surface.
• Ultimate Ability ⁠— Dimensional Drift: EQUIP a mask that can see between dimensions. FIRE to drift into Yoru’s dimension, unable to be affected or seen by enemies from the outside.

Riot’s intention with Yoru’s design was “stealthy infiltration,” giving players the tools to “create some really high moments throughout the game.”

“The idea of ‘Stealthy Infiltration’ is something we toyed around with for years, but could never fit in the game. We felt that if we started from the ground up, we could create an Agent that revolved around the idea of ‘Stealthy Infiltration’ in some way,” character lead John Goscicki said.

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“We also wanted Yoru to be an Agent that could create some really high moments throughout the game. The kind of rounds where if you pull everything off correctly you feel like the greatest player ever.”

His kit lends itself to lurkers ⁠— a role that has needed some diversity within the Valorant line-up. Riot tried to tie that into his design, giving him a classic rebel feel.

“Oftentimes you find yourself as the Solo player, setting stuff up for your team without them. Given that we took inspiration from the rebel bad boy archetype, the kinda guy you love to hate, something about him makes you want to fix him, but you really shouldn’t,” Goscicki added.

Yoru release date

Yoru is set to be released when Episode 2 drops on January 12, 2021. Valorant’s first big update of 2021 won’t feature a new map ⁠— Icebox was pushed forward to Episode 1 Act 3 ⁠— but will have a host of new content, including a new battle pass and the Run-It-Back skin bundle.