Valorant devs reveal Clove got massively nerfed during development

The introduction of Clove to Valorant brought some interesting mechanics to the FPS involving using abilities while dead. In an article about the agent, Riot developers revealed Clove could have been even more powerful post-death.

Clove is a Valorant agent that plays between the boundary of life and death. Their ultimate ability allows them to self-revive for a short time and if they get a kill, then they will be back in the game.

The Controller agent can also place smokes in a limited area after death as well, which can create headaches for enemies trying to storm a bombsite.

In an article about the development of the agent, Valorant devs revealed that Clove could have been even more powerful after death as Riot’s initial idea was for them to be able to flash while dead.

“Clove being able to flash you after death was extremely frustrating, and Clove being able to stall out chokes after dying was powerful, but not very engaging,” Riot penguin said in the article.

The devs explained that they wanted to create a Controller agent that players could be aggressive with, as most people who pick up the smoke role feel the need to play passive to provide value to their team.

However, post-death abilities that were more from the Initiator class, like flashes, were too unfair during the testing process. While smokes can be annoying for enemies to deal with, getting flashed by a player you already killed does not sound fun.

Clove’s current power level and abilities seem relatively balanced as the community hasn’t called for nerfs or changes right out of the gate, yet. The philosophy around the agent’s design, sans-flash, is risk vs. reward as players are rewarded for jumping into fights and trying to come back or assist their team while dead.