Valorant’s Latest Agent, the Non-Binary Clove, Has Finally Arrived!

Riot Games has a way of introducing their new agents into Valorant that just gets the community head over heels every single time. They have mastered the delicate art of building hype around upcoming hero characters with subtle teasers at first, such as by revealing a player card, and then with some serious reveals, such as a new song or character voice lines in the game’s data files.

The first official look at the character was revealed through the cover art for the song “2 Worlds” by Mage.

As such, our latest Valorant Agent is Clove which hit the roster on March 26/27, depending on your local time zone. Since Clove already garnered much attention from the Valorant community prior to her release, the hero shooter game has witnessed a significant spike in the daily player count as many rushed to buy Valorant accounts to check out the new hero agent.

About Valorant New Agent Clove

Clove is the 25th Agent to be added to Valorant and of the five-character roles present in the game, Clove belongs to the Controller role. Controllers are vital to Valorant battlegrounds as they help their teammates with their vision-blocking abilities by hindering enemies’ line of sight and securing areas for their teammates. When played the right way, Controllers practically shape the flow of the match and play a crucial role in team coordination.

As a Controller, Clove is naturally gifted with vision-blocking smoke abilities. Here is the complete skillset:

• (C) Pick Me Up
• (Q) Meddle
• (E) Ruse

In addition to this, Clove’s ultimate lets her revive herself. Although this is not surprising as we got to learn about Clove’s Ultimate a couple of weeks back, it sure is a nice Ultimate.

Clove’s Role in Team Dynamics

After dying, Clove can use their Ruse smokes and, if their Not Dead Yet ultimate is available, they can revive themselves instantly. However, they must cast it right away and obtain a swift kill to prevent dying again. Clove is therefore more appropriate for playing more aggressively than the majority of other controllers.  Clove’s other skills complement this technique as well.

Meddle is a thrown object that explodes on the ground, causing all targets caught inside to decay. This can be used as a post-plant aid or as zone clearance on the offensive side. Whereas, Pick-me-up is ideal for the competitive personality or the technically inclined who must play smoking. With the quick cast of Pick-me-up, Clove can absorb the haste effect and temporary health of an enemy that she has either harmed or killed.

As an ally, they will be an incredible delight to work with, and as an opponent, they will be a threat to be reckoned with thanks to their range of game-changing skills and newly developed Controller role.

As per the original leaked voice line, Clove says “Imagine when me and the new kid go on the same mission, other team gonna be stressing’, with both of us coming back to life.” And this voice is of a gifted voice artist from Edinburgh, Scotland, Isla Campbell. They have never before portrayed characters in animated titles or video games, apart from their most recent collaboration with Riot Games and VALORANT.

Now

Although Clove’s exceptional skills can seem self-serving for a controller agent in VALORANT, she can be a great asset when working in a team.

Do you want a combative setup without selecting two duelists? Simply pair Clove and Omen. Then we also have Jett and Raze. Similar to Jett, Raze is a quick duelist who can trade Clove or assist her in gaining control of the battlefield in VALORANT. Then, Gekko is an assertive initiator who is ideal for beginning Clove’s playstyle. Additionally, Chamber can virtually always trade Clove and, in an emergency, even get out of a sticky situation because he is a pseudo-duelist himself.

Clove’s Reception and Controversy

Now that Clove has finally been released, many players have mixed reviews about her. Despite boasting a highly useful ability skillset, players are having second thoughts when it comes to choosing Clove as their hero agent in the game.

And we know why. It all boils down to her gender.

Admittedly, even though Clove is the first non-binary agent in Valorant, it is not the first time that there has been a queer representation in the game. Speaking of which, Valorant’s first-ever LGBTQ+ characters were Raze and Killjoy back in 2022. They were shown in an image as a lesbian couple sharing a kiss.

Undoubtedly, the post attracted a large number of fans, from both the LGBTQ+ and Gaming communities; sparking a controversy. Where one-half of the users bashed the developers, others highlighted the need to represent minority groups in video games.

Encouraging Players to Experience Clove

What do you think? Haven’t tried Clove yet? How about you buy Valorant points from Eldorado, play as Clove with skins, and then let us know of your experience down in the comments below?!