Recon Balisong

EP 3: Reflection, Act 1 · August 24, 2021 · 3,550 VP (individually) / 7,100 VP (full bundle). The first ever butterfly knife in VALORANT. Players had been requesting a balisong since the game launched in June 2020, and Riot finally confirmed it was coming in June 2021, over a year later. Art Lead Sean Marino said "Recon naturally was one of the more highly anticipated skins we were developing due to the fact that it has a butterfly knife. We spent a lot of time looking at videos of butterfly knife tricks, seeing how other games have implemented them and really just dug deep into delivering on an awesome experience." He added that "once we had all of the animations in place it was just really fun for everyone to walk around in game spamming their equips, inspects and attacks to just watch the knife spin and flip in the character's hands." The Recon line was designed to capture what Marino described as "the fantasy of being in a more traditional modern shooter, having a gun that feels more representative of something you might see in modern combat." The collection has a military inspired, battle worn camo aesthetic that drew comparisons to Call of Duty: Warzone. The gun skins uniquely feature randomized cosmetic attachments (scopes, lasers, grips) that change each time you equip, though they have zero gameplay impact. The Balisong has 2 upgrade levels (level 2 unlocks custom flip animations) and 3 camo variants (red, blue, green). Arrived alongside Patch 3.04. Widely considered a landmark release for VALORANT melee skins, it opened the door for every butterfly knife that followed, including Champions 2022, RGX Firefly, Black.Market, and Singularity versions.