Free-for-all Deathmatch is coming to VALORANT on Wednesday, a day after the start of VALORANT Act II.
One of the most requested features by casual and pro players since the game went into closed beta, the new game mode will allow players to warm up by testing their aim before diving into competitive play. Not only for practice, FFA Deathmatch will be the first solo mode in VALORANT, as 10 players will be dropped onto a map where there are no official teams and all abilities are turned off.
Once dropped onto the map, the 10 players will battle it out. Players will win the match once they reach 30 kills or if they have the most kills after six minutes. Players can buy any gun they want and swap it out at any time, and every player will spawn with heavy armor. The developers have also endeavored to make respawning in FFA Deathmatch as fair as possible, promising respawning players will have their backs to the wall once revived and have no enemies in light of sight.
After a player is killed and has to wait three seconds to respawn (with eight seconds of invulnerability following respawn that goes away on firing/moving), there will be a health pack left in their place, allowing someone to bandage up to full health. VALORANT's development team hopes that the dropped health packs will promote more aggressive play and encourage players to be more mobile on the map.
Camping corners will be frowned upon in FFA Deathmatch. To combat players from sitting in a corner with a shotgun and turning the game mode into a deadly version of hide-and-seek, a radar will reveal the positions of all parties on the map every five seconds in the game. This, like the health packs, is in hopes that players will be more daring with their play instead of sitting at one spot until the six minutes are up.
For players who want to use FFA Deathmatch as a simple warm-up tool and want to drop out, that option is available at any time by simply selecting "Leave Match" in the options menu.
While the game mode will release Wednesday, it will only be in a beta mode as Riot Games tests server performance and game stability. When the developers believe that the servers are stable and the game mode is performing to their expectations, FFA Deathmatch will be left as a permanent playable mode for all players in VALORANT.