Simply purchasing the Battle Pass and figuring out how it works can be a confusing experience. To help you out, we’ve put together a guide which’ll take you through everything you need to know.
Valorant Battle Pass - Contracts explained
Valorant’s Battle Pass revolves around earning EXP, completing Contracts, and getting sweet, sweet cosmetic rewards for doing so.
Key Points
Here’s a quick breakdown of the essentials:
All XP you earn in Valorant goes towards your Battle Pass, as well as your Agent contracts. Even if you don’t purchase the Premium version of the Battle Pass, you’ll still earn some free rewards as you play, earn XP, and level up the free version. If you purchase the Premium version of the Battle Pass, you’ll get more cosmetic rewards and that’s it. No gameplay advantages. The Premium Battle Pass costs 1000 RP, which is around £9.99. If you decide to purchase the Premium Battle Pass, you’ll be retroactively awarded all the rewards you would’ve earned otherwise.
How do I purchase the Battle Pass?
First, look at the top right of the home screen and click on the small “V” button next to the “Social” tab. This is where you’ll be able to purchase the Valorant Points (VP) needed to get the Premium Battle Pass. Scroll down and check the “I consent” box, then select the 1,100 VP option. After you’ve paid, look at the top left of the home screen and select the “Ignition: Act 1” button. It’s the one with the little star in the centre. Finally, look towards the bottom right of the screen and hit the green box to upgrade to the Premium Battle Pass.
What can I get from the Battle Pass?
The Battle Pass has 50 tiers and as you earn XP, you’ll get weapon skins, sprays, Radianite Points (which upgrade the appearance of certain skins), Title Cards, Titles, and Gun Buddies. Valorant’s first Battle Pass is Act 1 of Episode 1. Every 2 months, a new Act will start, and a new Battle Pass will become available. Think of the Episodes as big updates, the hefty patches which’ll introduce serious changes to Valorant. Each Episode will - presumably - contain three Acts (Battle Passes) or so. Each Battle Pass is broken up into 10 Chapters, and each of these contains 5 Premium tiers and rewards a free Chapter completion when unlocked. A Chapter is completed when all 5 Premium tiers have been unlocked with XP. One completed, you’ll earn the Free Chapter Completion Rewards and move onto the next Chapter. You don’t need to pay too much attention to the paragraph above. So long as you play, you’ll gradually unlock nice cosmetic items - and that’s pretty much all there is to it. One of the top rewards for the Premium Pass is the Kingdom Melee Knife, and there’s also a Kingdom Classic pistol which is available for both free and premium players. Beyond launch, Riot’s planning on releasing more Battle Passes with different themes and rewards. Once a Battle Pass expires, progression is locked and it won’t come back. So if you want everything, you’re going to have to put in the hours.
What do Radianite Points do?
Radianite Points give you ways to evolve certain weapon skins. So, you’ll unlock a skin then invest RP into making them look cooler, basically. They’ll get new visual effects, audio, animations, unique finishers, and variants. The video below shows how a weapon skin will evolve as you pour RP into it, and we’ve got to say, it does look like a decent system with a lot of potential. The Battle Pass will be the main way of earning RP, but you can buy more from the in-game store.
What are Contracts?
These are ‘reward tracks’ which reward you with cosmetics by playing games and earning EXP. There are two types of Contract: Agent specific and Battle Pass. The Agent specific contracts allow you to work towards unlocking a particular agent, or if you already own them, you’ll earn cosmetic rewards for them. For example, if you want to unlock some Sage cosmetics, you’ll activate her contract, play games, earn EXP, and gradually begin earning Sage goodies. If you don’t own Omen, for instance, you’ll activate his contract, earn EXP, and upon completing his contract you’ll unlock him. You won’t have access to the Agent specific Contract straight away. First you’ll have to complete what Riot calls the “onboarding pass” which is fancy spiel for a beginner pass which consists of 10 basic tiers. You’ll power through this pretty quickly if you play the game semi-regularly, and as you work your way through it you’ll get to unlock two agents of your choice.
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One you’ve completed the “onboarding pass” you’ll unlock the ability to activate the Agent specific Contracts. From experience, it takes a pretty long time to complete these Agent contracts. If you’re a casual player who jumps in for a game or two most days of the week, then expect a long, long grind to unlock an Agent. The Battle Pass Contract will always be active, so all games played, all EXP earned, basically everything you do will feed into this reward track. That’s it for the second iteration of our Valorant Battle Pass page but expect a big overhaul as we learn more. If you’re playing the game a lot right now, make sure you have a read through our Best Agents page an overview of the strongest agents. It also has links to all of our in-depth agent guides too!
