Reaver knife keychain

EP 1: Ignition, Act 3 · November 3, 2020 · 3,550 VP. The OG Reaver melee. This assassin style dagger first appeared during the Closed Beta as part of Reaver, VALORANT's very first skin prototype dating back to 2018, originally codenamed "Dark Fantasy" (later "SoulStealer" in the files). Concept artist inspiration drew from dark magic, runes, and vampire hunters. The Beta version featured a unique "summoning" equip animation where the weapon materialized out of a magical channel, but it was removed after heavy player feedback that it was hard to tell when the weapon was ready to use. Reaver was never meant to return after launch. The devs called it "a ritual sacrifice for the greater good of VALORANT skins" since it existed purely as a prototype to test custom models, animations, VFX, audio, and finishers. But relentless community demand ("bring back Reaver") forced Riot's hand. They reworked it to post launch quality and re released it in November 2020, even designing the EP 1 Player Card to depict a group of mages performing a dark ritual to summon Reaver back from the dead. The dev team later described the dagger as "stealthy and badass," noting it was especially loved by "self identified edgelords, Omen, and Fade mains." The Reaver Knife also appears as a canonical in world item inside a display case on the map Abyss.