Agent YORU Part 2: Check out the second part of Yoru’s rework

The second part of Yoru’s rework is now available in VALORANT. Part 2 of the Yoru Update article from last year, written by the Characters Team. The Yoru revamp will be released during Episode 4 Act II, according to the developers. Before we get there, we’d like to show you the design direction we’re going in, as well as our concept explorations to go along with the gameplay adjustments and in-game work-in-progress art. Take a look at Yoru’s rework in its entirety. Agent YORU Part 2: Check out the second part of Yoru’s rework

“Our time is being spent on bringing these changes to life—which always takes a long time! The circle of producing art to match gameplay, playtesting, and iterating depending on feedback takes a long time, but it’s what makes VALORANT’s tactical gameplay so consistent.”

FAKEOUT

Fakeout—an ability that currently directionally mimics the sound of Yoru’s footsteps to mislead enemies—is now a full copy of Yoru, that runs forward, and when damaged, explodes and debuffs enemies.

Given the fast-paced, millisecond reaction speed nature of VALORANT gameplay, we needed to clearly differentiate:

• As an ally of Yoru, you will be to tell that it is his copy, and not the real Yoru. This is so that Yoru is not accidentally confusing his allies between who the real one is, and who the copy is.
• As an enemy of Yoru, they will see an identical copy of Yoru.
  • During playtests we found that the copy was effective at disrupting an enemies moment-to-moment gameplay—which is awesome—but not when your team gets confused. Below are some of the early explorations for how to visualize the ally Yoru copy.

GATECRASH

Not much has changed with this one since the last post, aside from the team creating the additional art elements needed to bring this portion of Yoru’s update to life. The big thing here is the “puddle” left on the ground after a fake teleport. While the goal of the fake teleport is to create confusion about Yoru’s location, you should be able to go to where the fake teleport occurred, and then understand whether the real Yoru is around, or was it a misdirection?

DIMENSIONAL DRIFT

OK, prepare for a text dump. Here’s a summary of the changes during Yoru’s ult:

• Yoru is no longer revealed to enemies
• Yoru is able to cast all utility while in Dimensional Drift
• Enemies can hear Yoru’s footsteps
• Nearsighted is removed
• Unequip delay time is increased slightly
• Cast delay added when casting Dimensional Drift, preventing the invulnerability frame on the cast.