What do we know about Valorant's leaked new Sniper — Outlaw?

There hasn’t been a new weapon released in game since Valorant’s launch. This is because the ideal weapons for an FPS were included from the get go; the game has multiple shotguns, rifles as well as machine guns to choose from.

However, the trend of nerfing and buffing weapons instead of adding new ones seems like it’s going to end soon. In a leak from the Chinese showcase of the new Valiant bundle, a new weapon was spotted. Since then, the video the weapon was leaked via has been deleted and removed by the forum user who posted it. We will take a look at what we learned about the leaked weapon and its use case, as well as why it could be added to the game.

What is the leaked weapon in Valorant and why would Riot add it?

The leaked weapon is a sniper called Outlaw, said to cost around 2400 credits in the game. When we take a look at Outlaw’s model it seems similar to the SIG SG550-1. Currently, in Valorant there are two Snipers — Marshal and Operator. The major differences between the two weapons is the pricing and their body damage output. The Marshal costs 950 credits with a body damage output of 100, While the Operator costs around 5 times and is valued at 4700 credits and has an output of 150.

Credit: Riot Games

Looking at the difference in damage output, you can understand why the development team felt the need for another Sniper weapon. We’ve spoken about the economy concerning teams preferring half-shields instead of full-shields previously in our article about the Bulldog. The shield provides the player with an additional 25 health points. If you still aren’t able to connect the dots we’ll spell it out for you: due to teams trying to find new techniques to better their economy in each round, many have shifted to the use of half shields.

This shift has caused quite a drastic change in the professional Valorant meta concerning weapon preference. As the Marshal has a damage output of 100, it will result in the opponent being killed after one shot. If they have a half or full shield then it would require two body shots from the Marshal. Due to this Valorant might want to reduce the penchant for teams to ignore full shields in favor of running half shields. It’s not a stretch to expect Outlaw will have a body damage output of 125 — this would force many teams to start using full shields in the game during a full buy round.

Could the Outlaw remove the half shield meta?

Because Valorant only consists of hitboxes for character categories: one for legs, the body, and the head, it’s quite easy to guess the damage output of the Outlaw. If there is 100 damage on the leg, 125 damage on the body, and 150+ damage on the head this weapon will be the little brother of the Operator at half its price. Ideally, this weapon could be used during half-buys to keep some credit available for the next round. If the team is planning to save their credits in a given round then this weapon would be their one shot kill against opponents. But, these are just best guesses —only time will shift the Outlaw will cause once it’s launched in the game and available for play.