If you’ve just started playing Valorant, you’ve probably noticed you don’t have access to the full agent roster right away. New accounts start with a small pool of agents, and unlocking the rest runs through a currency called Kingdom Credits (KC). Riot’s free, play-to-earn system for unlocking agents and cosmetics without spending real money.
This guide breaks down exactly how Kingdom Credits work, how many agents you start with, what unlocking a new agent actually costs, and how to spend your first credits wisely.
What Agents Do You Start With?
New accounts begin with a handful of agents unlocked by default, enough to fill out a basic team composition across roles, but nowhere near the full 29-agent roster. Everything beyond your starting agents has to be unlocked, either through Kingdom Credits, Valorant Points (VP), or a limited-time recruitment event when an agent first launches.
This is intentional, it’s Riot’s way of easing new players into the game’s agent variety instead of overwhelming them with 29 kits on day one.
What Are Kingdom Credits?
Kingdom Credits are one of Valorant’s three in-game currencies, alongside Valorant Points (VP) and Radianite Points. The key difference is that KC can only be earned by playing, there’s no way to buy it directly with real money, which makes it the main free-to-play path toward unlocking new agents and cosmetic items.
KC replaced the old agent contract grind, where players had to level up an individual agent’s XP contract just to unlock that one character. Kingdom Credits work differently: instead of grinding toward one specific agent, you earn a shared pool of currency through normal play and then choose which agent (or cosmetic) to spend it on.
How to Earn Kingdom Credits
You earn Kingdom Credits simply by playing matches, no separate missions or menus to dig through. Broadly, KC comes from:
- Winning rounds in Unrated, Swiftplay, Competitive, or Premier
- Playing matches in modes like Spike Rush, Escalation, or Team Deathmatch, which grant a flat amount per game rather than per round
- Daily and weekly milestones, which top up your total for consistent play
One important detail: Kingdom Credits are capped, generally around 10,000. If you let your balance sit at the cap, any further credits you earn are wasted. The practical takeaway is simple — don’t hoard KC. If you’re close to the cap and don’t have an agent to unlock yet, spend the excess on agent gear or the Accessories Shop rather than losing it.
How Much Does It Cost to Unlock an Agent?
Once an agent is available in the general Agent Store (more on the exception below), unlocking them costs 8,000 Kingdom Credits. Alternatively, if you’d rather skip the grind, you can unlock the same agent instantly using 1,000 Valorant Points, which does require real money.
There’s no wrong choice here; VP unlocks are faster if you’re impatient or want to jump into a new agent’s release week, while KC unlocks are essentially free, just slower.
The Recruitment Event: Unlocking New Agents for Free
When Riot releases a brand-new agent, that agent isn’t immediately purchasable with Kingdom Credits. Instead, they go through a 28-day Agent Recruitment Event. During this window, you can unlock the new agent for free by earning a set amount of XP, typically around 200,000, through normal play.
This is worth planning around: if you want a new agent without spending VP, play consistently during their first four weeks after release. Once the Recruitment Event ends, the agent moves into the standard Agent Store at the usual 8,000 KC price, with no more free-XP shortcut.
Agent Gear: What Happens After You Unlock an Agent
Unlocking an agent isn’t the end of the road for Kingdom Credits; each agent also has their own Gear track, roughly ten tiers of agent-specific cosmetics (player cards, sprays, and eventually a signature weapon skin) that you unlock with additional KC once you own that agent.
A couple of details worth knowing:
- Progressing through an agent’s Gear tiers costs Kingdom Credits per tier, with the full track adding up to a significant total, well beyond what it costs to unlock the agent itself.
- Reaching certain milestones (commonly the halfway tier) refunds a chunk of KC back to you, softening the overall cost.
- The final tier usually unlocks an agent-specific weapon skin, which is the main long-term incentive for grinding a favorite agent’s full Gear track.
This is a long-term system — most players fill it out gradually over weeks or months rather than rushing it, since Kingdom Credits are better prioritized on unlocking new agents first.
The Accessories Shop
The third way to spend Kingdom Credits is the Accessories Shop, a rotating storefront that resurfaces cosmetic items from older Battle Passes — player cards, gun buddies, sprays, and titles you may have missed the first time around. The shop’s selection rotates on a set schedule, so if something catches your eye, it’s worth grabbing before it’s replaced.
This is a good place to dump excess Kingdom Credits if you’ve already unlocked the agents you want and are sitting near the KC cap.
Smart Ways to Spend Your First Kingdom Credits
For a new player specifically, here’s a sensible order of priorities:
- Unlock one agent per role first. Rather than saving up for one specific favorite, spread your first unlocks across Duelist, Controller, Initiator, and Sentinel so you can actually fill out a team composition and try different playstyles.
- Catch new agents during their Recruitment Event. If a new agent drops while you’re actively playing, prioritize hitting that free XP threshold instead of saving KC — it’s the only way to get them without either grinding 8,000 KC later or spending VP.
- Don’t dump everything into one agent’s Gear track early. Cosmetics are nice, but a new player benefits more from having a wider agent pool than from maxing out one character’s skin line.
- Watch your KC balance. If you’re approaching the cap and don’t have an agent queued up to unlock, spend the overflow in the Accessories Shop rather than let it go to waste.
Final Thoughts
Kingdom Credits make Valorant genuinely playable as a true free-to-play experience — you don’t need to spend a cent to eventually unlock every agent in the game, you just need to play consistently. The system rewards patience and planning far more than it punishes new players: unlock agents across roles early, take advantage of Recruitment Events when new characters launch, and let your Gear track progress happen naturally over time rather than rushing it.
Once you’ve got a few agents unlocked across different roles, the next step is figuring out which one actually fits your playstyle.