Onimaru Kunitsuna

EP 6: Revelation, Act 2 · March 7, 2023 · 5,350 VP. The centerpiece of the Oni 2.0 bundle and the most expensive non limited time Premium Edition melee in VALORANT at launch (standard Premium melees cost 3,550 VP). Named after a real Japanese sword, the Onimaru Kunitsuna is one of the legendary Tenka Goken ("Five Swords Under Heaven"), five of the greatest swords in Japanese history. The real Onimaru was forged during the Kamakura Period (1185 to 1333) by the blacksmith Awataguchi Kunitsuna. According to legend, the sword's owner Hojo Tokiyori, regent of the Kamakura Shogunate, was tormented by a demon appearing in his dreams. One day the sword mysteriously fell from its stand on its own and sliced the leg off a nearby object, revealing a demon carving that looked exactly like the one in his nightmares. After that, the demon never returned. The sword was named Onimaru ("Demon Sword") for slaying the oni. The real blade is owned by the Japanese Imperial Family and is rarely displayed publicly. In VALORANT, the Onimaru Kunitsuna stays sheathed at level 1, which some players found visually underwhelming, but inspecting it at level 2 unleashes one of the most elaborate melee animations in the game. The devs noted the katana uses "brand new elements" and is not copied from the existing RGX katana. It has a unique interaction with agent Yoru: if Yoru has the Onimaru Kunitsuna equipped, the mask he pulls out during his ultimate Dimensional Drift changes to an Oni mask instead of his own. The Oni 2.0 bundle originally planned to include a Sheriff skin, but the devs scrapped it because they felt the equip animation (pulling the nose of the Oni mask) was not appropriate, replacing it with the Frenzy instead. Features 2 upgrade levels and 3 color variants. Shortly after release the community dubbed it "pay to lose" because the long sheathed katana model could potentially reveal the player's position around corners, a controversy that generated significant discussion but no changes from Riot.