Another Valorant patch is here and this one is packed with changes and updates. Best grab a quick snack and sit back – these patch notes are very, very extensive. Almost a Valorant read. So if you really want to know everything there is to know, here it comes.

This patch is quite extensive and detailed, so first show an overview of the highlights and then add the full official Valorant patch notes below:

Quick Overview

• All Rifles in the game have been updated. Shooting with Single-Tap and Burst Fire is now more efficient than before. This has been changed to give each shooting style (Tap, Burst, Spray) a raison d’être in different situations.
• Some of the agents get changes: Sage, Cypher, Omen, Viper, Brimstone and Phoenix. The changes are to make the agents fit their intended roles better and to balance their abilities in situations where they were too strong or too weak.
• The cost of some agent abilities has also been adjusted to better reflect their value.
• You can no longer go over 9000 credits as a team to help the trailing team catch up.
• The spike now automatically drops down when dropped in elevated places and some map bugs and exploits have been adjusted.

Here are the official patch notes straight from the Valorant Blog and Valorant’s Comms Associate Jeff Landa.

GAMEPLAY AND BALANCE

WEAPONS UPDATES.

• Players are no longer considered walking for accuracy determination purposes when they stop directly from running.
  • We noticed that for many players, accuracy was treated as if they were walking when transitioning from running to stopping. This made it seem like they were taking their shots at full speed.
• Deadzone accuracy speed limit increased: 25% >> 30%.
  • Since you now can’t achieve the accuracy associated with running when transitioning from running to standing still, we increased the size of the deadzone (full accuracy) slightly to allow for faster accurate shots.

ALL ASSAULT RIFLES

• The recovery times of all assault rifles have been revised to make single shots and bursts of fire more efficient. If a weapon is fired again before its weapon recovery time has fully expired, it becomes less accurate.
• Basic accuracy when walking: 0.6° >> 0.8°.
  • We feel that sustained fire while walking works a bit too well – especially at long range. We’ll be tweaking this value for a while, keeping a close eye on the effects.

• Vandal:

• Horizontal recoil has been reduced by 15% when crouching and standing.
  • This was always planned and now matches the crouch bonuses of other rifles.
• Weapon recovery time: 0.4 sec >> 0.375 sec.
• Tip efficiency: 4 >> 6

• Phantom:

  • Fixed an issue where the weapon recovery time was higher than intended.
  • Weapon recovery time: 0.55 sec >> 0.325 sec.

• Bulldog (Full Auto Fire Mode):

  • Fixed an issue where the weapon recovery time was higher than intended.
  • Weapon recovery time: 0.55 sec >> 0.325 sec.

• Guardian:

  • Fixed an issue that caused the weapon recovery time to be higher than intended.
  • Weapon recovery time: 0.4 sec >> 0.35 sec.

Machine guns are currently significantly behind weapons of similar cost. Machine guns should be real slingshots – powerful once they get going. However, it’s not easy to find the right balance in a game where a single bullet from a Vandal means the end. We hope to make machine guns better at what they do (unleash a murderous hail of bullets) while matching the penetrating power of the Ares to that of weapons with similar costs.

• Ares
  • The weapon now costs 1600 credits (previously 1700).
  • Shot deviation (this value represents a curve that has intermediate values between each bullet: The second bullet has less deviation than the first and so on).
    • 1st bullet: 1,0° >> 0,8°.
    • 5th ball: 0.85° >> 0.75°
    • 10th bullet: 0.75° >> 0.7°
• Horizontal recoil reduced after the first eight balls.

• Odin

  • Horizontal recoil reduced after the first eight balls.

AGENT UPDATES

SAGE

• Slowdown Sphere: Duration is now 7 seconds (previously 9).
• Slowdown sphere now slows down by 50% (previously 65%).
  • We all know that Sage is OP. We’ve decided to tone down her abilities to limit enemies a bit, without taking away her role as the best agent to buy time. These changes should reduce the overall efficiency of her slowdown sphere, especially when it is used over and over again.

CYPHER

• Cyber Cage no longer slows down enemies that move through it.
  • For us, Cypher has always been the number one guard, gathering info on his opponents and then taking them out one by one, but the slowdown on his cage put him too much in Sage’s purview, as he could stop an entire enemy team. We still think he can buy some time with this ability, but the enemy team now has additional options to fight through his defenses.
• Spy Camera: Cooldown after destruction is now 45 seconds (previously 30).
  • Spy Cameras used to fly into enemy territory at the beginning of a turn like Sova’s arrows because the penalty for losing them was so small. This change should encourage players to find a safe hiding place for their first camera (not in a crate, please).

OMEN

• Sinister Veil: Smoke duration is now 15 seconds (previously 12).
• Sinister Veil: Projectile speed increased.
• Sinister Veil: Cooldown is now 35 seconds (previously 30).
  • Especially at high game levels, Brimstone has become the dominant agent in terms of battlefield control. We therefore want to give his competitors a bit of a hand – while hopefully maintaining their unique playstyles.

VIPER

• Contamination: Radius is now 450 (previously 350).
  • We are increasing the radius of Contamination to bring it in line with the size of other range abilities.

BRIMSTONE/PHOENIX/VIPER

• We see you Springinsfelds out there hopping through incendiary fire, fireball, and contamination without taking damage. We don’t want to throw this out completely, but currently it completely cancels out several character abilities.
  • The amount to avoid damage from area abilities is now 120 (previously 80).
  • Contamination, Fireball, and Incendiary Fire now do faster tick damage (total damage per second not changed).

COST ADJUSTMENTS TO SOME AGENT ABILITIES

• We felt that the cost of some abilities did not match their impact on gameplay, so we made a few adjustments.
  • Sage’s barrier sphere now costs 400 credits (previously 300).
  • Raze’s Explosive Pack now costs 200 credits (previously 100).
  • Phoenix’s Nasty Throw now costs 200 credits (previously 100).
  • Brimstone’s Incendiary Bombardment now costs 300 credits (previously 200).
  • Jett’s updraft now costs 100 credits (previously 200).

AGENT SHIELDS

• Shields left over from previous rounds are no longer destroyed when new shields are purchased, allowing you to resell newly purchased shields and return to your previous shield value (instead of having no shields at all).

CREDIT LIMIT

• The credit limit is now 9000 (previously 12000).
  • We noticed that players/teams with a pile of ashes on the high side stayed rich for way too long. The opposing team then has a hard time getting back into the game.

CHARACTER UPDATES

• Sova’s owl drone has now received sound effects for engine rotors.
  • The sounds should now fit the theme without affecting how well the owl drone sounds were heard by allies and enemies in previous versions.

MAP UPDATES

SPLIT

Attack teams were having a hard time making their way into defender controlled areas all over the map. We made a few changes that should make it easier for attackers to tackle A Main, Center Top, and B Tower.

• The barriers (the clear blue things) have been moved around the map a bit to give the attackers a foot in the door in terms of area control across the map.
  • The defender barrier at B center has been moved to the back. New barriers are at the entrance to the ventilation and at the top of the stairs from B Tower.
  • The defender barrier at A Ramps has been moved to the back.
  • The attacker barrier at A Main has been moved to the front.
  • The attacker barrier at B Main has been moved slightly forward.
  • The wall on the inside left of B Tower (when going up the stairs from the center) now has a different angle.
• This has removed a 50/50 angle check when advancing into this area, which should make it easier to capture B Tower.
• The radianite crate in B has been replaced with a metal crate to provide more cover when placing the spike.
• Textures throughout the map have been reworked to improve performance.

HAVEN

• Negative effects now affect players when they leave the game area. This is to prevent exploits.
• Several floor areas have been reworked to emit the appropriate sounds.

SPLIT/HAVEN/BIND

• Exploits involving Cypher’s cameras have been removed from all three maps – a huge thank you to everyone who helped us find all of them, including the great streams where we loitered for two days and wrote down every camera placed so we could fix them live.
• The back of the spawn barriers are now no longer transparent. Some players had taken advantage of that.
• The spike is now afraid of heights and falls to the ground on its own from elevated positions.
• Reworked several points where Sova’s arrow could shoot too far through the map walls. Again, thanks to everyone who helped find it.

USER INTERFACE AND HUD

• Team member shields are now displayed on the scoreboard.
• When the spike is placed, the spike icon at the top center of the UI now flashes at the same time as the sounds.
• Pings have been revised to be more understandable.

• Portraits

  • Portraits for player icons on the mini-map have been re-enabled.
  • Size of portraits and icons has been reduced by several pixels.
  • Your own player icon on the mini-map has been given color with a slightly thicker border to make it easier to find yourself (on the mini-map, not in real life).
• Added regulation of chat messages when using the radio menu or wheel.
• The text message when the shield is destroyed has been enlarged to make it easier to see.
• The title menu has been adjusted and now opens in a more meaningful place.
• The “Exit Match” button has been moved closer to the other “Exit” buttons.
• The “Logout” button is now red to match the “Exit” button, as they both serve a similar function.
• Moved the “Skip” button on the MVP screen to prevent players from accidentally clicking “Play Again”.
• Adjusted the behavior of the radio command wheel so that the mouse wheel always selects other wheels regardless of other button assignments.
• The “Need Help” icon is now a flag.
• Attack/Defend icons at the top center of the UI are now enabled for all players.
• “Ult is almost ready” voice output is now played when a character uses the radio command to ult status and is still one ult away from a full charge.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Cheaters are no longer referred to as “hackers”.
• Added swearword filter. When enabled, this removes swear words from chat.
• Added a setting to toggle walking and running by pressing instead of holding a button.
• Viper’s Poison Cloud no longer starts on a cooldown when purchased in the buy phase.
• Sova’s Wrath of the Hunter has now been given an enemy coloration.
• An order advancement animation now plays when unlocking free characters or purchasing additional order levels.
• Tooltips and explanations have been added to help new players activate their first order.
• Skin levels that a player does not own will now display their respective cost in Radianite points in the collection, along with a description.
• Performance adjustments have been made to prevent FPS drops when shooting.
• Various adjustments have been made to the social window to better support error handling and messaging.
• The “Keep Player Centered” mini-map setting is now active by default.
• The graphics setting “Improved graphics in first-person perspective” is now called “Bloom”.
  • As u/Far_OW found out on Reddit, this setting affects more than just the graphics in the first-person perspective – in fact, it’s a visual bloom (a glow effect) that mainly affects the weapon models.
• The “Shadow” graphics setting is now called “Shadow (first person perspective)”.
  • This setting only affects the shadows displayed on a player’s weapons, hands and arms.

• Observer HUD

  • Dead players are now grayed out on the HUD instead of being hidden.
  • Team colors on the HUD now change when sides are switched. Previously, teams on the HUD switched positions.

FIXES: IN GAME.

• Cypher and Sova no longer float in the air if they are standing on a barrier sphere and it is destroyed while they are using a spy camera and owl drone, respectively.
• Cypher can no longer pick up his trap if an opponent has picked it up.
• Sova’s Owl Drone can no longer fire its arrows in quick succession when the previous one hits an enemy.
• The collision detection for Sova’s arrows has been reduced so that they no longer get stuck on corners when fired near them.
• Viper’s toxin screen projectile has finally received textures.
• When using the ping wheel on the map, right-clicking now cancels the action as intended instead of placing a ping.
• Fixed a bug where the spike UI overlapped with the HUD.
• Fixed a bug where a weapon’s ammo indicator on the HUD would disappear after switching to the knife and back when the ammo level was low.
• The spike icon is no longer visible on the mini-map icons of enemy players.
• The spike can no longer be partially placed in walls or other parts of the map.
  • This also solves the problem that the spike camera sometimes appeared inside the spike.
• Barriers on the mini-map no longer incorrectly adjust their positions when the map is opened in the purchase phase.
• Fixed a bug that caused various problems when multiple players fulfilled a weapon purchase request at the same time.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game to hang or stutter when opening the options menu in the game.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game to hang or stutter when opening the in-game store.
• Fixed a rare movement bug that caused highlighted players to perform choppy movements in first-person perspective.
• Fixed a bug that caused some weapons to lose their muzzle flash when tracers were disabled in first-person perspective.
• Fixed a rare bug where players would appear to be standing even though they were crouching.
• Ability details in the combat report are now correctly displayed in the buy phase of a round where teams switch sides.
• Fixed several issues with the HUD in Observer mode.
• Spectators can now see the “View Weapon” animations.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the camera to take an invalid position during character selection.
• Fixed a bug where the combat report showed 150 damage but the enemy was still alive (in cases where healing was not performed).
• Fixed a bug where when a teammate used voice chat, more icons than just their own would light up.
• Selecting a ping on the ping wheel and then canceling it will no longer place the canceled ping the next time the player sets a basic ping.

BUG FIXES: GAME CLIENT

• When hovering over rewards in orders, the text is now displayed in the correct location.
• Fixed a bug where refunds would not display in the client until after a restart.
• Fixed a bug that caused player cards to be cut off in the Armory menu.
• Fixed a bug where mission descriptions were cut off in some languages.
• Fixed a bug where the “Distortion” graphics setting was not enabled as intended.
  • This setting could cause performance issues on older graphics cards.

Well done, Riot

One should also note: The patch has caused a bug for some players that removes blood and plays a ping noise on headshots. This is not intentional on Riot’s part and will be fixed.

Overall, we like the changes and love Riot’s commitment to the game and constantly processing player feedback. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that this game is still in beta because it’s so highly polished and already getting so much attention. With more patches of this magnitude, we’re really looking forward to the finished game.

What are Patchnotes?

Patchnotes are specially designed to appear only in the appropriate places.

What is Valorant?

Valorant initially appears to be a cross between CS:Go and Overwatch . A competitive shooter where two small teams compete against each other.

Your team is either ready to attack or defend, with the attackers placing a “stinger” (essentially a bomb) that the other team must then defuse or preferably prevent you from placing at all.

The attacking team can win by either eliminating the defenders or placing the stinger and then protecting it from defusing until the timer runs out. The defenders can similarly win by destroying the attackers before they have a chance to plant their stinger, or disarming the stinger after it has been planted.

Each team of five can play as both attackers and defenders during a game. Each game has a total of 25 rounds, with the first team to win 13 rounds declared the winner

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