The arrival of a new gun in Call of Duty is so routine that it's easy to not notice it; the arrival of a new gun in Valorant is the biggest thing to happen to Riot's competitive FPS since its launch. After almost four years, a new sniper rifle is now available. Called the Outlaw, it's a two-round sniper capable of putting two shots through an enemy's chest. Priced at 2,400 credits, it falls somewhere between the economical Marshal (950) and the one-hit-kill Operator (4,700).

At first glance, the Outlaw is a quirky, outdated firearm that would be more at home in the muddy swamps of Hunt: Showdown than on Valorant's neo-futuristic streets, but its outdated design gives Valorant's carefully curated weapons locker a distinct role in Valorant's meticulously maintained weapons locker. Although it can only fire two shots before reloading long, these shots hit hard and can be fired twice without descending. This can be a major problem for players who avoid marshaling, which usually relies on head shots. For outlaws, two shots to the body will get the job done.

As Valorant YouTuber AverageJonas pointed out in early access, Outlaw will probably work well with Duelist agents who are good at hit-and-run, such as Jett and Chamber. also noted that Outlaw is theoretically better at cheeky walloping than Marshal because of the higher penetration of bullets.

So is Outlaw worth 2,400 credits? That probably depends on how you feel about sniping with the Valorant; it is interesting that Outlaw is not exactly in between Marshal and Operator, and has its own two-tap firing pace. However, I suspect that many players will still feel more comfortable with the popular (and similarly priced) Vandal assault rifle. A more experienced Valorant player than I can provide examples of map/round scenarios where the Outlaw might be a smart buy, but for another 500 credits, you can get the Vandal, which offers more flexibility from medium to close range and a one-tap head shot.

Valor is a very good example of a possible map/round scenario.

While the Valorant community tends to think primarily in terms of competitive viability, another raison d'etre of the outlaw is that it looks fun to shoot. The boom of the large-caliber slug asserts itself across the map, and unlike other rifles in the same category, one shot from the Outlaw means that another will soon follow; two-tap kills are satisfying, and for the perfect kill, nothing beats the "thud" of a smoke round ejecting from the barrel. It's also cool that Riot is expanding Valorant's weapon pool (slightly), which may have something to do with Valve's promise to add more guns to Counter-Strike 2, but I'm not sure why they chose to do that now. The sniper is a high-impact gun, and it is a bit odd that Valorant has only had two so far, compared to CS2.

The Outlaw will appear in Valorant's Episode 8 Act 1 patch, which arrives on January 9.