The Valorant Night Market returns every few months, with fans saving up to buy their dream skins each time. But Valorant patch 11.06’s Night Market is already drawing mixed reactions.
While Valorant skins aren’t necessarily the priciest compared to those in some other games, they’re still not cheap, and so Riot gives players a way to save through its Night Market. The event returns roughly every two months, and it offers limited-time discounts on older weapon skins, with savings ranging anywhere between 12% and 45% on eligible cosmetic items.
The last Night Market was in July, and now just two months later, the developer has announced the game’s 30th thrifting event to a mixed response.
For patch 11.06, the next Night Market will appear between September 25 and October 9 with six skins on sale.
With this latest patch, a total of 78 bundles are eligible to appear, offering players plenty of options to spend their VP on. This will include the newly-added Valorant GO! Vol. 3, which wasn’t available during the last Night Market. Players will have 14 days to shop for their favorite skins before the store disappears for another two months.
Valorant agents. Image credit: Riot Games
The Valorant Night Market has been around for five years, and while initially seen as helpful by most players, some aren’t entirely satisfied with how the system works.
The Night Market works on a chance-based system with discounted skins appearing at random. When there was a smaller collection of skins, players didn’t complain as much, as their dream skins could appear more easily. When Valorant was released in 2020, the game only had about 20 skin bundles in the game, making the luck-based system feel less frustrating for most players.
But now there are over 130 skin bundles in the game, and the cosmetics pool has become so bloated that the odds of getting something you actually want are quite low. This turns Night Market into little more than an often disappointing roll of the dice, rather than a genuine discount shop on items players really want. Those same players complain that the Night Market banks on frustration and FOMO to push impulse buys, instead of rewarding loyal players with meaningful choices on the in-game goods they actually desire.
Image credit: Riot Games
For patch 11.06, Night Market is going live with about 80 eligible bundles, and players will surely complain about never getting their favorite skins in the rotation. The chances of any one skin appearing out of roughly 400 possibilities are as low as 1.5%.
Many players have point out that the “Your Shop” feature in League of Legends, another popular title from Riot Games, gives guaranteed discounts on skins chosen based on a player’s match history, so you know you’ll get offers relevant to what you actually play. By contrast, Valorant’s Night Market does little to customize its offerings towards the game’s players.
One of the most common requests from Valorant players is for Riot to add a reroll option to Night Market. Right now the selection is completely random and the Night Market offers often leave players with six skins they have no interest in, while the “Your Shop” route in League at least guarantees some relevant picks. Fans argue that even a limited reroll system, which could allow players to swap out one or two cards for fresh ones, would make the feature feel less punishing without removing its element of randomness and surprise.
Featured image credit: Riot Games
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