Have you ever caught yourself thinking “what is the story behind this?” while looking at the myriad of gun buddies on your collection page? Well, turns out that some of them have really interesting ones! In this article, you’ll find three of these histories.
Everything has a history behind it, be it big or small, and for our little gun friends, these stories can be fascinating. With more and more being added with each agent and battle pass, sometimes, knowing, or even going after, these little backstories can be quite complicated; however, I have to say that learning about them can, without a doubt, lead you to some interesting places. Even make you see the game with different eyes, I would say.
In this article, you’ll find the history behind a couple of these amazing gun buddies: one born by the will of the community; another, found in the crazy artwork that makes each Valorant map unique; the last ones being part of something seemingly limitless.
So, without further ado, meet our first buddy…
The first buddy on the list comes from the Japanese lands of Split, more specifically in the bottom part of mid, right next to Market. For those of you not familiar with the early Valorant days, before launch, during the closed beta period of the game, our beloved frog statue didn’t have his characteristic green hat. Its addition was, actually, a response from the Devs to an amazing post created by the community. While difficult to know if any older frog hatters existed before him, with the help of the ghost mode available during custom games and a lot of free time, two Redditors firstshowed the world the frog that we learned to love. The hat was made cannon right after it during the patch implemented by Riot together with the launch of the game, Patch 1.0.
Unfortunately, with the short time between the viralization of our frog with a hat and the launching of the game, and more specifically the Battle Pass that came together with it, we couldn’t see any inspired gun buddy in Episode 1: Ignition: Act 1’s battle pass; it was only in the next battle pass (Ignition: Act 2) that we finally got it in your hands. Besides that, our little amphibian wasn’t the only one introduced during this battle pass: it was also here that we first saw the addition of buddies inspired by the artwork characteristic of Valorant’s maps and other in-game stuff in the battle pass (some of which will also be visited later in this article).
Outside of the buddy universe, it’s quite certain that the popularity of Froggie made the creation of the Polyfrog skin line, featured in Episode 2: Formation: Act 2’s battle pass, possible. This second interaction of the Poly series, the first one being the Polyfox, can be seen as a reference to the original Reddit post if you look at it together with the spray that complements the set.
The next buddy on our list comes from the same Japanese background as our lovely frog but in a way more discreet manner. Presented in the same battle pass as the first buddy covered in the article, the Danger Lizard buddy shows us how, just like we hover the map trying to find easter eggs and lineups, the Devs’ creative team scan their maps looking for inspiration in order to delivery to us these amazing gun buddies. Different from Froggie Hat, we can find our perilous friend across the whole Split map printed in these posters.
While running through the map, I was able to find 8 different locations where our little lizard could be seen. However, just like our buddies in the next section of the article, it’s possible that more Dangerous Lizards could be seen printed around the map.
To finish our article we’ll talk about not one specific buddy, since I’m sure that more will come in the future, but a whole thematic build around something that when first discovered shook on the community: the Tactianimals. Similar to our Valorant Protocol, the tactianimals crew grew in number over the several game patches; turning what consisted of a bear solo unit during the Closed Beta period of the game into a diverse team of, until the moment, six different animals.
Returning to what was briefly mentioned in the last paragraph; the first hidden tactianimals discovered by the player base was the tactibear, present in all of the first three maps released during Closed Beta. Next, after seeing the popularity of these little bear plushies the Dev team went overboard, and, together with the release of the fourth in-game map (Ascent), we saw the addition of three new tactianimals: the bunny, the squirrel, and the earthworm. It is interesting to notice that these new members weren’t added only to Ascent, searching again in the older maps revealed new locations filled with other non-bear types of plushies.
After Ascent, the next two maps also brought new additions to the crew: in the icy lands of Icebox we were presented to Dan, the penguin (also the first tactianimal with an official name), and his comrade Chilly Mcfreeze (which I believe not being part of the tactianimals protocol, just Dan’s friend or acquaintance); next, on the paradisiac beaches of Breeze, we found our commando sloth, Trevor. Unfortunately, up to this moment, no new tactianimal was discovered in Fracture.
Now, how does one know the name of said tactianimals or even their tactianimals crew name? Simple: this little easter egg got so big that it found its way to other mainstream parts of the game. For Dan and Trevor’s names, for example, sprays unlocked via battle pass carried their names in the name of the spray (Dan’s buddy also carries his name). Same for older tactianimals that appeared in other sprays and, for the case of Bear and Squirrel, gun buddies (each one found in the battle passes of Episode 1: Act 2 and Episode 1: Act 3 respectively).
Their influence, however, didn’t stop spreading after they find their way in every aspect of the game, and during the first-ever transmitted Valorant Champions, tactianimals could be seen all over the studio, Riot even made a little hide n’ seek game with them. Honestly, I don’t even know if we can call them easter eggs anymore, since it, sometimes, almost look like a feature of the game.
If you take the time to go and surf through the gun buddy page in the in-game collection menu, you’ll see that it isn’t just these couple of buddies featured in this article that have deep ties with other parts of the game. And while this isn’t a game-breaking Sova recon dart lineup, these little things help make the game more fun, giving us something a little cozier and slow-paced to do if ever tired of the endless gunfights. To end this piece, I invite you all to go explore these maps filled with details and things to search for. You may, just like me, find it surprisingly funny.
