Exclusive Riot Dev Interview: “Clove Is for You If You Feel like You’re a Brave Player”

Clove, Valorant’s 25th Agent, is out now and making a lot of noise in the community for their adorable Scottish self and immortality traits. Thanks to Riot Games, I got an early access invite to try Clove and noticed a lot of things that make them different from other agents on offer. However, as a cherry on the cake, I also got the opportunity for an exclusive interview with Dan Hardison, Agent Gameplay Designer at Riot Games on the ‘Making of Clove.’ We dive deep into various aspects, shining a light on the new agressive-controller agent. Here is how it all went down.

The Approach and Playstyle

It is important to note that Valorant is all about how players play an agent. Since that is what finally determines not only creation but the entire experience.

Q. What approach did Riot take when adding the new agent to the game, considering the play style of an individual player?

“When adding a new agent to the game, we often think of gaps within the player experience,” Dan told me. He further said, “For Clove, we identified early on into the process that we felt like aggressive controller players had limited characters to play within the controller roster, and wanted there to be more choice competition and variety within that space.“

It is evident that the developer team took a more aggressive approach with Clove. But what about their play style? Agents such as Viper or Brimstone are usually great in post-plants, so my next question was: What makes the new agent different from other controllers, in the sense what will make me pick the new agent instead of my go-to controllers like Brimstone or Viper?

To this, Dan said, “Clove is mostly focused around risk-taking: the entire kit is built around being willing to sacrifice yourself to take opponents down or win rounds.” He further added, “Clove is for you if you feel like you’re a brave player who wishes to make a difference early on into rounds, and not for you if you feel like you just want to have strong utility output and play to stay alive the whole round.“

Clove is for you if you feel like you’re a brave player who wishes to make a difference early on into rounds.

It is also notable that post-plant is not ideal for Clove’s Q as it detonates after a limited time. He further added that Meddle doesn’t deal straight damage and is weaker than their other abilities. Clove’s post-plant utility and strength comes with their ultimate and, obviously, the smokes.

What Clove Does Best Even as a Controller

Following up on the question of being an aggressive controller and, of course, the smokes, I could not wait to know what variety Clove’s abilities bring in for all controller players in Valorant.

Q. We all know the smokes are supposed to cut off the vision of players primarily. However, with Viper, the utility of smokes equipped with decay, and now with Astra’s fake smokes and Harbor’s armored smokes, the smoke has evolved. What significant smoke changes will the new agent possess that will change the usage of smoke?

Dan did not hesitate to answer this question immediately saying: “Being able to smoke post-death adds a whole bunch of reliability to the output – dying in the right place is something that we’re hoping is important on Clove and we believe spike sites are uniquely powerful places for Clove given their willingness to fight to the death on those locations and still have impact in clutches or post plants.“

..dying in the right place is something that we’re hoping is important on Clove and we believe spike sites are uniquely powerful places for Clove given their willingness to fight to the death..

It is evident that the ability to post-death smoke is a selling point for Clove. As we already know, controller players tend to stay on the backfoot so that can use all of their utilities properly and give their team a chance to enter the site. With Clove, that concept is turned on its head.

Of course, I snuck in a question related to smoke that can damage or heal in between. Cause, why not? Well, luckily, Dan did not skip a beat and said, “Not on Clove, but never say never in general! On VALORANT, we are always open to exploring new mechanics on our new agents.”

So, if you see a healing or damage-dealing smoke in the future, you heard it first here on Beebom, folks!

Duelist-Oriented Ultimate Makes Clove Stand Out

This obviously is an interview about Clove and their place Valorant, so I just couldn’t let it end without talking about the agent’s ultimate, right? While self-revive sounds very duelist-like, my question to Dan was:

Q. Controller ultimates are all about taking site control. Brimstone has a massive damaging ultimate, while Viper and Astra take away vision from enemies. It is all defensive except for Omen’s mobile ultimate and Harbor’s fight-initiating ultimate. What makes the new controllers ultimately special?

While answering this question, Dan also revealed how to use this ability properly:

“Clove’s ultimate allows them to fix situations where they mess up and die too far away to place smokes, as well as gives them another shot to take another duel and play the round in. Clove’s ultimate is also uniquely powerful in post-plant situations where the spike is planted, as they can often checkmate opponents due to playing time around the spike.“

Clove’s ultimate is also uniquely powerful in post-plant situations where the spike is planted, as they can often checkmate opponents due to playing time around the spike.

After getting some insights on a few odds and ends about Dan’s vision for the game, we wrapped up our conversation. Thanks to Dan Hardison for his time and, of course, the entire Riot Games team for arranging this interview. As a Valorant veteran and die-hard fan, this was an experience I will remember.

Clove is available for everyone globally, so go and check them out. I cannot wait to see a controller being insta-locked in Valorant, at least you’ll see me do that. What do you think about Dan’s answers? Do drop your opinions on Clove and their utility in the current company meta in the comments down below!