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How To Unlock All Of The Valorant Agents Quickly & Efficiently

Just as with any other champion-based game out there, unlocking every single agent in Valorant is pretty tricky, grindy, and pain-inducing. That's why most players give up on the idea, and simply trudge out the games with what they've got.

 

However, today, we're here to change that!

 

In this article, we're going to give you a full and comprehensive guide on every little detail you should know in order to unlock new agents quickly and efficiently in Valorant.

 

From how the contracts work to the way experience points are awarded, we'll take you through all of the essential details that play into you being able to unlock all of the agents that are available, without the insane time or effort input.

 

Let's dive right in!

 

What Are Contracts & Why You Should Activate Them

Every single player in Valorant has access to two open contract slots. These slots allow you to activate agent contracts, battles passes, and certain cosmetic rewards. Both of these contracts will earn equal experience gain at the same time, which allows you to juice out the most out of every game you play and focus on several reward milestones at once.

 

Once you level an agent contract up to Tier 5, the contract will automatically unlock the agent for you permanently.

 

But, how exactly do you activate a contract in Valorant?

 

Thankfully, it's pretty darn simple! Just head over to your Collection and scroll through the list of locked agents. Click on any of the locked agents that you'd like to unlock, and if you have a contract slot open, you can start earning experience towards unlocking that champion as soon as you activate their contract.

 

Don't Forget To Use Your Agent Unlock Reward Tokens

In all honesty, it can be incredibly tempting to just speed through the earlier stages of the game when you first start playing Valorant.

 

However, surprisingly, unbeknownst to many players - you get two free tokens that allow you to unlock any agent of your choice as soon as you complete the "Onboarding Pass" mini-contract at the start of the game.

 

The onboarding pass allows you to get a token once at level 5, and for a second time at level 10.

 

So don't forget to activate the mini-contract and use the tokens once you acquire them. And if you don't know which agent to unlock with either of the tokens - you can try any of the agents in the game, without having them unlocked, in the range (practice mode).

 

How Does XP Work In Valorant & How Can You Earn More Of It?

At the moment, there are two main ways for a player to earn experience points (XP) in Valorant. One way is by completing the in-game challenges, and the second way is the value a given player adds to the outcome of any given round in their match.

 

Each round you play awards you with a base 100 XP. However, if you win, you'll get an additional 200 XP. As such, a player on the winning team of a game will get 4,800 XP. In addition to this, if you go into overtime, you could potentially be looking at 5,100 XP, should you win the game.

 

However, as we mentioned earlier - there are also challenges in the game, that allows you to boost that XP counter a little higher. These challenges fall into two core categories, daily and weekly. And they range from just playing a quick game all the way over to dealing a particular amount of damage to enemies across several matches.

 

This means challenges are definitely worth your time as they can effectively boost the amount of XP you get per game played. And with that being said, it's also important to keep in mind that any XP awarded from both matches and challenges applies to each of the contracts in your two active slots.

 

How Much XP Is Needed To Unlock A New Agent?

Just like in League of Legends, Riot made sure that unlocking new agents in Valorant was an abysmally slow process.

 

Earlier on we mentioned that you'll need to reach Tier 5 on an agent's contract to unlock them permanently.

 

But how much XP does Tier 5 actually translate to? Let's do some quick math and find out!

 

Each tier requires 25,000 additional experience over the prior tier. So for example:

·   Tier 1 would be completed at 25,000 XP.

·   Tier 2 would require 75,000 (25,000 + 50,000).

·   Tier 3 will require a total of 150,000 XP (75,000 + 50,000 + 25,000). Tier 4 would need a total of 250,000 XP (100,000 + 75,000 + 50,000 + 25,000).

·   Finally, Tier 5 would be finished at 375,000 XP ( 125,000 + 100,000 + 75,000 + 50,000 + 25,000).

 

And given that without missions, an average game would net you anywhere between 4,000 and 4,800 XP depending on your win rate. And if we assume that the average game lasts 30 minutes - you're basically earning anywhere between 2,000 and 2,400 XP per hour.

 

As such, reaching 375,000 XP on a contract at that hourly gain would mean a time investment of between 156 and 188 hours.

 

That's right, it will take you up to 188 hours to unlock a champion in Valorant!

 

However, keep in mind that we only accounted for the flat XP gain you'd get from playing the game. And in addition to this, you can actually unlock two champions simultaneously thanks to having two contract slots available, which realistically doubles the rewards on time spent.

 

How Can You Maximize XP Gain By Doing Missions In Valorant?

While our calculations above may have given you a somewhat grim outlook on farming up new agents in Valorant, missions may just be here to save the day.

 

From the very start of the game, you'll be able to do two simultaneous missions that grant huge amounts of bonus XP.

 

In fact, you could easily net as much as 5,000 XP for completing particular missions throughout the game. However, the finite experience gain is highly dependant on the particular mission you're working on.

 

Given that 5,000 XP is only 100 points short of the amount you'd get from winning an overtime match - completing a mission can easily shave off 45-50 minutes of time that you'd have to put in to unlock a new agent.

 

Closing Thoughts

Valorant has quite a few fun and enticing agents for you to try out and enjoy playing. However, unlocking the entire roster is a significant challenge.

 

While most players simply assume that it will happen "one of these days" - in today's guide, we've shown you some of the ways that you can maximize your in-game XP gain in order to unlock any agent you want quickly and efficiently.

 

We covered the most essential game mechanics that factor into this, we're broken down how XP gain works in the game, and finally, we've even touched base on some of the easily-overlooked elements in the game that could help you pick up the agent you want that much quicker.

 

With that, we wish you luck on your grind. And don't forget to check out our Valorant services to get a helping hand up the ranked ladder from professional players if you ever get stuck on the climb.