Riot Games has revealed Clove, the next agent that will come to Valorant as part of Episode 8, Act II. This character brings some pretty awesome “post-death” abilities that give players a way to fight back after getting killed, continuing the trend of Riot adding game-changing new agents to Valorant.
Clove is a nonbinary immortal from Scotland that fits into Valorant’s Controller archetype. Clove being immortal plays into their abilities, as some of them work from beyond the grave. One of those is Ruse, which lets Clove set up clouds that block the vision lines of other players anywhere on the map; this can be done during active gameplay or after death.
Meddle is an ability that throws a fragment of immortality essence that applies a decay debuff to any agents within its area of effect, while Pick-me-up can be used on killed enemy agents to gain a temporary haste and health buff. Clove’s coolest ability is their ultimate: Not Dead Yet. As its name implies, Not Dead Yet resurrects Clove if they are killed; if players don’t want to die again, they’ll need to earn or assist with a kill within about 12 seconds of respawning.
“Optimal Clove gameplay is about playing with fire — you need to take risks and trade your own life for the greater good to remove enemy utility from the round by killing opponents to have success,” agent gameplay designer Dan Hardison explained in comments provided to Digital Trends. “They’re unlike other controllers in that their raw execute utility should be weaker on average, but their ability to contribute post-death means that you should almost always fight to the death rather than cower from your opponents.”
As someone who dies a lot when playing shooters, consider me intriuged by Clove’s focus on post-death gameplay. They will be added to Valorant when Episode 8, Act II begins on March 26.
