On June 8th, the Valorant team announced via Twitter that the release of the game’s newest line of premium weapon skins, the Elderflame collection was on its way. The “Ultra Edition” Elderflame skins are the most complex and elaborate skins the game has had yet, with a number of advanced visual effects for the weapon animations including bullets, kills, and actions like reloading. The announcement follows Valorant’s latest game patch, that included character and map changes.
The new skin collection will include the flaming dragon-styled skins for the Vandal, Operator, Frenzy, and the Judge for $100, the most expensive bundle Valorant has had yet. The bundle includes unique animations for all weapons, along with the same weapon level progression seen in Valorant’s other skin bundles. In an interview with Polygon, the developers gave some insight into how balances, competitive play, and the community helped shape the work for the complex skin bundle.
According to the art lead behind the Elderflame set, Sean Marino, one of the most difficult parts of skin creation is making the weapon skin set feel “fair to use.” Due to the large animations that are a part of the Elderflame set, making the perfect skin effects for each weapon proved to be a difficult challenge, with development for the Elderflame Operator almost stopping.”We were on the verge of cutting it, because it’s the only dragon that has wings,” Marino said. “It was like, if you open up these wings, now it takes up all of your screen space, and that compromises competitive integrity.”
Along with adjusting the skins for competitive integrity, the team also made adjustments to the reload and weapon swap animations, ensuring that the times for these actions to complete stay consistent regardless of the skin equipped. The Elderflame collection is ready to ship out to the Valorant stores on July 10th, as the team behind the set eagerly awaits the community’s feedback.