What’s up, gamers. Jo-Ellen here.

Major update for this patch: our Basic Training Event. Read more about it below.

PROGRESSION UPDATES

Basic Training Event

• We are releasing an update to our Welcome Contract for new players! The new structure includes clearer missions and milestones to help you navigate the New Player Experience with a bit more guidance before your Ranked climb.
• The Basic Training Event will appear similar to other Events, allowing you to view your progress, understand your goals at each milestone, and complete them to earn rewards to jumpstart your VALORANT experience.
• If you have previously completed the Welcome Contract, you will not see the Basic Training Event (don’t worry, you have already earned all the same rewards!).
• If you are partially complete with the Welcome Contract, your previously earned rewards will be reflected in the Basic Training Event when it comes online, and you will be able to proceed through Basic Training, earning XP toward your Battlepass.

BUG FIXES

Agent

• Fixed an issue where shots fired immediately after exiting Cypher’s Spycam (E) would bypass the weapon’s raise animation and not deal damage. The weapon raise animation is now played for its full duration.
• Fixed issues where the timer for Clove’s Pick-Me-Up (C) could be restarted which would allow Clove to have more time than intended to activate the ability.

Howdy, y’all. Jo-Ellen here with Patch Notes 8.09.

It’s a short one this week as we prepare for bigger things in the near future.

As Brimstone likes to say: "I can't close the settings menu on my bracer. How do I—oh, got it."

AGENT UPDATES

Brimstone

• We’ve done some small updates to Brimstone’s Sky Smoke (E) to ensure that it fully covers the area indicated by the UI when you are placing it. This should ensure that when the outer edge of the targeting UI covers a choke point that the spawned smoke will fully cover that area as well. This change includes a slight increase to the radius of Brimstone’s smoke that should make it match the smoke size of his peers like Omen.
  • Sky Smoke (E)
    • Radius increased 410 >>> 415
    • UI targeting size updated so that outer edge properly reflects the size of the smoke

BUG FIXES

Gameplay Systems

• Fixed an issue that resulted in you losing your crosshair profiles.
  • While we can not recover lost crosshair profile settings, we are sincerely grateful for all the information you have provided to help us reach a swift resolution and will continue to monitor closely.
  • If your newly created crosshair profiles still keep disappearing, please let Player Support know.
• Fixed an issue regarding Killed By feed on Combat Reports being incorrect.
• Fixed bullet tracers still being visible after being turned off in Settings if the player fires away from the map.
• Fixed an issue where the client would freeze after a game ends and would require a client restart to continue.

Hi, friends. Jo-Ellen here.

Is it really almost time to say goodbye to Episode 8? Not quite. We still have plenty in store for the last Act. Check out the Viper and Cypher updates below. Also, new Act, new Stage of Premier.

AGENT UPDATES

Chamber

• We’ve updated Chamber’s voice lines and added interaction lines with Reyna, Astra, and Omen.

Cypher

Since his updates in 7.09, we’ve been excited to see Cypher solidify a stronger spot on the Sentinel roster, but feel it’s pushed his stalling power further than we’d like for an Agent that specializes in global information. Additionally, we’ve seen play patterns around Spycam (E) that lack counterplay for the enemy team.

• Updates to Cypher’s Trapwire (C) gives enemies more time to deal with it after it has been triggered while the reduction in slow duration provides those caught a slightly better chance to use movement to avoid death.
  • Trapwire (C)
    • Re-arm time increased 1 >>> 2s
    • Slow on Trapwire reduced 2 >>> 1.25s

• We’ve seen it become common for Cyphers’ to hide Spycams (E) in the playspace and continually watch enemies without them knowing. We’ve added an audio telegraph for enemies who are being watched to provide those who are quietly moving a cue that they are being watched.
  • Spycam (E)
    • Enemies now hear looping audio when they are actively being watched by Cypher from within the Spycam (E).

Viper

As you have continued to improve leveraging Viper’s strengths, she’s grown into a dominant meta force and constant presence in pro play. With this update, we hope to solidify clear weaknesses that Viper has compared to her peers while still maintaining her unique identity as a Controller / Sentinel hybrid. You should feel that Viper has to commit to her positions and manage shorter individual up times per smoke use with her unique ability to control her smoke over time.

• Reduction in total smoke uptime coupled with reduction in the cooldown of reactivating aim to reduce her total stalling uptime and push you to better manage your fuel. Increasing the minimum fuel to activate her smokes creates a larger window for enemies to attack when her fuel is fully drained.
• Poison Cloud (Q) only being retrievable in the Buy Phase pushes you to make sharper calls of where you’ll place the ability each round and sharpen her identity of high influence in a highly committed area.
• Reducing Snake Bite (C) to a single charge reduces how often Viper can use the ability to fill the gaps while her smokes are down and increases the importance of fuel management. The increase in duration ensures that a single Snake Bite (C) charge is lethal to all enemies that are in the acid for its full duration.

We messaged this out on socials but want to call out again that in 7.09 we unintentionally shipped some number changes to Viper’s fuel. For full visibility, you’ll see three numbers in some of the changes listed below: First will be before 7.09, second after 7.09, and the final is the update for 8.08.

• Toxic Screen (E) and Poison Cloud (Q)
  • Max uptime on each individual smoke source reduced 15 >>> 13.5 >>> 12s
  • Minimum fuel needed to activate smoke increased 20% >>> 30%
  • Cooldown on re-activating smokes after putting them down reduced 8 >>> 5.5 >>> 5s
• Poison Cloud (Q)
  • Can now only be picked up during the Buy Phase
• Snake Bite (C)
  • Charges reduced 2 >>> 1
  • Price increased 200 >>> 300
  • Duration increased 5.5 >>> 6.5s

PREMIER UPDATES

A new Stage of Premier starts! With this one, we’re adding promotion.

• See your division's promotion requirements on the standings page.
• Meet those requirements to be placed at least one division higher in Stage E9A1.
• The Premier Score playoff qualification threshold is 600 for all divisions.

BUG FIXES

• Agent
  • Fixed issues related to inaccurate line-of-sight checks near certain abilities (e.g., Phoenix’s Blaze (C)). This could manifest in flashes not working appropriately when the detonation was on the other side of a wall that was in the process of raising or lowering.
    • This fix applies to Phoenix’s Blaze (C), Neon’s Fast Lane (C), Harbor’s High Tide (E), and Viper’s Toxic Screen (E) and Viper’s Pit (X).
  • Fixed an issue where AI-controlled abilities (e.g., Killjoy’s Turret (E)) could detect you through Harbor’s High Tide (E).
  • Fixed Clove’s icons being incorrect when Ruse (E) was equipped.
  • Fixed a bug where Cypher’s Trapwire (C) showed on the map even when disabled.

• Maps
  • Fixed an exploit on Split that allowed Agents to stand on a sign on A Site.

• Gameplay Systems
  • Fixed an issue where footsteps were not produced when in ADS and when running while slowed by Sage’s Slow Orb (Q) ability.

• Premier
  • Fixed a bug where practice matches did not lock your division in.

Hey, friends! Jo-Ellen here. Nice to see you again.

There’s not much time left in Act II so better make the most of it. Below, we’ve got an update to Omen, lots of Clove bug fixes, and more.

GENERAL UPDATES

• Interaction prompts have received an accessibility update, adding contrast to make them easier to read in-game. Prompt text has been simplified and weapon prompts no longer show skinline names.

AGENT UPDATES

OMEN

• Omen is now able to pick up the Spike and interact with other useables like doors while in the Shade form of From the Shadows (X) without having to cancel the ability. Our goal is to make these interactions more intuitive and clearly intended.

BUG FIXES

GENERAL

• Damage Display
  • We fixed a bug where fractional damage would represent the total damage taken incorrectly on the HUD. This bug resulted in issues like close range Classic body shots on armored targets appearing to deal 25 instead of 26 damage and Clove appearing to heal to 151 health with Pick-Me-Up (C) in some circumstances.
    • NOTE: this is purely a visual fix and the underlying gameplay around damage has not changed.

AGENTS

• Chamber
  • Fixed an exploit where Chamber could place Trademark (C) in unintended locations.
• Clove
  • Submitted a speculative fix for an issue where Clove’s corpse would sometimes remain upright after dying.
    • If you still see this in your match, please report it here: https://support-valorant.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/requests/new and choose “Technical Issues: Install, patch, lag, or crashes”.
  • Fixed a bug where Clove's Not Dead Yet (X) does not progress the “Use Your Ultimate” weekly mission and Match Details incorrectly reports 0 casts.
  • Fixed a bug where Clove’s Ruse (E) used after death does not report to the Match Details.
  • Fixed a bug where damage to Clove’s Pick-Me-Up (C) temporary health did not appear in Combat Report.
  • Fixed a bug where Clove’s aim direction would abruptly change when suppressed during Not Dead Yet (X). Thank you @FLOWSHIZZLETV, @FatalGlytch and @papashlomo for the testing and report.
  • Fixed a bug where Clove would sometimes resurrect without their primary weapon when using Not Dead Yet (X).
  • Fixed a bug where Clove’s head and arm hitboxes could be offset when aiming sharply up or down with Ruse (E) equipped.
    • Fixed the same bug that also applied while Clove was crouched with Ruse (E) equipped.
  • Fixed a bug where Clove’s Meddle (Q) used an incorrect ability icon in the Combat Report.
  • Submitted a speculative fix for Clove’s Pick-Me-Up (C) HUD sometimes showing > 150 total health values when taking fall damage as Clove activated the ability.
  • Fixed a bug where moving through the edges of Clove’s smoke would cause flickering vision rather than a smooth transition.
  • Fixed a bug where dead allies or observers spectating Clove would skip the death camera ceremony upon Clove’s death.
  • Fixed a bug where Clove’s Meddle (Q) could rarely cause a client-side hitch.

COSMETICS

• Weapon and Skins Audio
  • We had several reports of skins’ audio being bugged, which are now fixed:
    • Glitchpop Classic
    • Prime Classic
    • Cryostasis Classic
    • Gravitational Uranium Neuroblaster (G.U.N) Classic
    • Spectrum Classic
    • Elderflame Operator
    • Ion Sheriff (Note: This was already hotfixed during 8.05, but adding here so everyone is aware.)
  • We also had several other guns/skins reported as having audio issues (Standard/Default Phantom, Oni Phantom, Recon Phantom, etc.), but we verified these are actually working properly. If these guns or any other first person audio sounds different on headphones than it sounded before 8.05, it could be due to your speaker configuration in the VALORANT audio settings. This can happen if your USB headphones appear to Windows to be a surround sound device with multiple channels and you have opted into Auto-Detect in the VALORANT audio settings. If you are listening on headphones, have selected Auto-Detect, and do not have Spatial Audio enabled, your speaker configuration should appear as 2.0. If any other number of channels is shown, you can either set your VALORANT speaker configuration back to Stereo or enable Spatial Audio in Windows to fix this.

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS

• Fixed an issue where Radio Commands Menu being bound to number keys caused a conflict when trying to activate commands.

PREMIER

• Fixed a bug where your status displayed in the roster list was sometimes too small to read.
• Fixed a bug where ties on the Standings were not broken correctly.

Hi, everyone! Alice here with some more patch notes.

This patch we’re releasing a brand new Agent, Clove. They’re the latest Controller to join our roster and hail from Scotland. We’re excited to see you all play them today, and also can’t wait to hear what you think of them, so be sure to let us know.

We also have a small update to Premier, voice indicators, and a few bug fixes. Welcome to Patch 8.05 and we hope you have fun defying death.

AGENT UPDATES

• Clove goes live!
  • Abilities:
    • Ruse (E): EQUIP to view the battlefield. FIRE to set the locations where Clove’s clouds will settle. ALT FIRE to confirm, launching clouds that block vision in the chosen areas. Clove can use this ability after death.
    • Meddle (Q): EQUIP a fragment of immortality essence. FIRE to throw the fragment, which erupts after a short delay and temporarily decays all targets caught inside.
    • Pick-me-up (C): INSTANTLY absorb the life force of a fallen enemy that Clove damaged or killed, gaining haste and temporary health.
    • Not Dead Yet (X): After dying, ACTIVATE to resurrect. Once resurrected, Clove must earn a kill or a damaging assist within a set time or they will die.
  • You can also learn more about Clove from our in devs in the Clove: Death is Only The Beginning article or on our Agents page.
  • Watch our newest Controller defy death below.

Hi, everyone! Alice here, and welcome to Episode 8 Act 2!

This patch we’ve got some updates to Premier just in time for the next Stage, so grab your squad and queue up! We also have some bug fixes across the board, including one to fix KAY/O’s ZERO/point (E), sometimes reporting inaccurate information.

MODES UPDATES

• Added character portraits and minimap icons for Training Bots in the Range.

PREMIER UPDATES

A new Stage of Premier starts! Here’s what’s new:

• No more enrollment! You can make a team and start playing at any time in the Stage.
• Provisional divisions are shown immediately upon team creation, update whenever the roster or Zone changes, and are locked in once your team plays your first match of the Stage.
• Teams can change their Zone anytime before they play their first match of the Stage.
• Weekly matches now have rematch protection, so you won’t face the same team twice in a Stage (unless you’ve been in queue a long time).
• You can only play 2 matches per week, so no jumping between teams as a free agent within the same week.
• Standings show Playoff results once Playoffs start and lock in 48 hours after Playoffs end.

ESPORTS FEATURES

Masters Madrid is right around the corner, and we have a few updates for the Esports Hub:

• As Kickoff concludes and teams secure their place at Masters Madrid, the Global Events tab of the Hub will unlock, letting you explore participating teams, schedules and the new format.
• You can check out the Swiss Bracket page for Groups and watch teams qualify for the Playoffs.

BUG FIXES

• Agent
  • Fixed known cases where KAY/O’s ZERO/point (E) would sometimes report inaccurate information. Please report any further instances.
  • Fixed a bug where if you were revived by Sage’s Resurrection (X), you would be nudged slightly at the end of the animation.
  • Fixed a bug where bullets could pass through the corners of Sage's Barrier Orb (C).

• Esports Features
  • Fixed a bug where the Esports Hub Schedule was not automatically taking you to the current day.
  • Fixed a visual bug in the Play In Groups Bracket that showed duplicate information.

• Gameplay Systems
  • Fixed a bug with abilities extending past the minimap widget such as Killjoy’s Lockdown (X).

• Premier
  • Fixed a bug where the start button wouldn’t update immediately if you’re in the lobby when an event starts.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Premier
  • A team creation deadline is sometimes displayed on the Premier hub. There is no longer a deadline for team creation - feel free to create at any time in the Stage!

Hello, friends! Jo-Ellen here.

We’ve got some Chamber updates in this patch as well as new Breach voice lines, and more. As always let us know what you think. Enjoy.

AGENT UPDATES

Breach

Chamber

Continuing with our recent focus of sharpening the strengths and weaknesses of the Sentinel role, this update aims to push Chamber’s ability to hold territory with his unique arsenal of weapons. The changes should provide you with more access to the Headhunter (Q) as a save or sidearm without draining your econ, and increase the clear strength of Chamber’s ultimate compared to the Operator.

ESPORTS FEATURE UPDATES

Teams Tab

• You can purchase bundles and support your favorite team from within Esports Hub.
• You can preview each Team Capsule Bundle on their respective team page.

PERFORMANCE UPDATES

• Streamlined the time from launch to the main menu appearing by removing stalls from that flow. This landed in Patch 8.02.

STORE UPDATES

Esports Store

• The Esports Store is live!
  • Support your favorite team with the VCT Team Capsules, accessible through a new Esports Store tab.
  • Teams will earn 50% of profits from their respective Capsules.
  • Each capsule contains a Classic, Gun Buddy, Player Card, and Spray.

BUG FIXES

Agent

• Fixed an issue where Agents would look like they were still nearsighted in 3rd person for a short period of time if they destroyed Reyna’s Leer (C) right after it became shootable.

Competitive

• Fixed an issue where in the end-of-game summary, kills per round was incorrectly rounding up.

Gameplay Systems

• Fixed an issue in the scoreboard tab with Ultimate Charges being covered by very long usernames.

Maps

• Sunset
  • Adjusted fence in A Elbow to fix an issue when shooting through the top section.
  • Fixed a bug where you could jump to the top of the phone booth in A Lobby.
  • Fixed a bug that allowed Attackers to break Cypher’s Trapwires (C) in B Main from Mid.

Premier

• Fixed an issue in some regions where the Zone displayed in Standings did not match the one selected.

Hi, everyone! Jo-Ellen here.

We’ve got a light patch this time around. Check out some Viper related updates as well as the Esports Hub coming back online for the 2024 VCT Season below.

AGENT UPDATES

VIPER

• Viper’s Poison Cloud (Q) grenade has received an art update.

MISC.

• The visuals for our Decay debuff have been updated to be clearer and readily visible.

COSMETICS UPDATES

• The Snakebite Shorty has received an art update.

ESPORTS FEATURES

ESPORTS HUB

The Esports Hub is back for all of VCT 2024 with new and improved features!

• You can learn more about the full VCT format and follow along as our partnered teams compete in the four International Leagues, starting with VCT Kickoff.
  • Kickoff matches begin on February 16th with VCT Americas. VCT Pacific, EMEA and China will follow shortly after.
• As we progress throughout the season, global events like VCT Masters Madrid will unlock in the hub with even better tournament visualizations and brackets so you can keep up with all the action.
• Our live tag and filterable schedule page will let you know when matches are being played, and you can click out to the official streams directly from within the client.

BUG FIXES

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS

• Fixed an issue with killfeed not numbering correctly with area-of-effect abilities that kill multiple people.
• Fixed an issue with Auto Re-Enter Scope setting not updating properly.

PLAYER BEHAVIOR

• Fixed an issue where the links to the Terms of Service and Penalties and Bans FAQ were not localized to their respective regions.

Hey, friends! Jo-Ellen here.

January 2024 is almost over, but we’ve still got one more patch before we say goodbye to the first month of the new year. Below, you’ll see some Agent updates as well as one update to Breeze. Keep reading and I’ll see you all back in A Hall.

One last note: we’re always listening to your feedback so please let us know what you think.

MAP UPDATES

BREEZE

• A Hall reopened
  • We’re still observing and gathering feedback on the most recent Breeze changes. We’ve been satisfied with the simplifications to A Main, Mid and B Site. However, we’ve noticed that attacking can feel overly restrictive due to the changes in addition to the closure of A Hall. As a result, we’re reopening A Hall to give attackers more options while retaining the rest of the changes to the map.

AGENT UPDATES

SKYE

In the latter half of 2023, Skye became an increasingly dominant force within the Initiator role and began to clearly overshadow her peers in pick rate both in solo queue and coordinated play. Her core ability, Guiding Light (E), has been a main factor in her prominence, as it offers strong combat advantage, valuable recon and provided Skye with the only recharging flash amongst the Initiators. While we like Skye’s position having a mix of flash and recon and the diversity that can be brought to team comps, she’s lacked clear downsides to balance out this broad power.

These changes are centered around pushing Skye to be more intentional with Guiding Light (E). They should create a clearer opportunity cost when taking Skye in comps while also maintaining her uniquely powerful combination of combat advantage and recon within the Initiator role. We hope this update will land Skye in a spot where she is still viable in solo queue and coordinated play, but give room for other flash Agents to thrive. We'll be sure to keep a close eye to see if further changes are needed.

In the 6.07 patch, we removed the yellow warning indicators that appeared for people who were being chased by a close Seeker (X). We’re adding the indicators back in to make interactions with Seekers (X) more clear in chaotic engagements.

ISO

We’re updating Iso to push the agency and combat advantage that you get from Double Tap (E).

• The increase to energy orb duration provides a slightly larger time window to deal with threats around you and still get your shield.
• Increasing the buff and shield duration should give you slightly more time to find the right engagements to take.
• Reduction in the visual width of the Double Tap (E) shield should increase the combat advantage you have when entering space by providing enemies less telegraph that you are swinging around the corner.

We’ve reduced the cost of Contingency to better reflect the value we see it generating in game.

RAZE

With her Blast Pack (Q), Raze is often able to traverse a vast amount of space and suddenly become a threat to enemies. This audio update is meant to make it clearer when Raze is potentially Blast Packing (Q) into your area, especially when a lot of other action is going on at the same time.

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS UPDATES

Projectile Jump Throw Normalization

We have implemented a feature to make jump throw lineup behavior more consistently reproducible. If you press the throw projectile input within 100 ms of jump start, the projectile will consistently have the same amount of velocity imparted from the thrower and as a result land consistently in the same location.

Most existing jump throw lineups should still behave as they have in the past while being more consistent in output. In some cases, some minor adjustments may need to be made.

HRTF

HRTF will now be enabled if ticked and using Stereo speaker configuration.

PERFORMANCE UPDATES

• Improved boot and match load times by optimizing file IO performance.

PLAYER BEHAVIOR UPDATES

• Added additional details to our behavioral messaging system in order to improve clarity and visibility into our Terms of Service and our Penalties and Bans FAQ.

BUG FIXES

AGENTS

• Gekko
  • Fixed a bug where occasionally Thrash's (X) explosion was blocked from affecting enemies due to corners of geometry.
• Iso
  • After eliminating practice bots in the Range, Iso’s energy orbs will now spawn. They will still not spawn in Shooting Tests.
• Reyna
  • After eliminating practice bots in the Range, Reyna’s Soul Orbs will now spawn. They will still not spawn in Shooting Tests.

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS

• Fixed an issue when transitioning from inspect to scope using the Outlaw.
• Fixed bullet tracers with Chamber’s Tour De Force (X) and the Operator when penetrating through corners.
• Fixed a minimap visual issue where when you first load into a match, it showed a similar VFX to Omen’s From The Shadows (X).
• Fixed an issue where the Spike’s white circle indicator on the minimap did not appear when Spike was dropped on the edge of someone’s minimap.

MAPS

• Breeze
  • Fixed a bug where the A Hall Door was starting in the open position.
• Lotus
  • Fixed a bug where you could stand on top of the crumbled pillar on C Site.
• Icebox
  • Fixed a bug where you could stand on the container in B Green.
• Split
  • Fixed a bug where you could stand on a vent in B Garage.

MODES

• Team Deathmatch
  • Fixed a bug where, if the Outlaw was picked up from a weapon spawner, it had no reserve ammunition.

PREMIER

• Fixed a bug that was causing Premier Standings to not load your zone/division the first time you click into it.
• Fixed a bug that was causing teams to not appear on the Standings tab right after their Season Match.

Greetings, friends! Still Jo-Ellen here.

Welcome to Episode 8 Act I and Patch 8.0. There’s lots in store in just the first patch of 2024 (Hello? New weapon?) so have at it and have fun. As always, send us your feedback—we’re always listening.

GENERAL UPDATES

• The Gun Buddy Carousel should now appear alphabetical by name. Hopefully, it is much easier to find what you want!

WEAPONS UPDATES

The Outlaw goes live!

• Introducing VALORANT’s first new weapon since launch, the Outlaw. A high impact, double-barreled sniper rifle built for do or die playmaking.
  • Semi-Automatic
  • Stay Zoomed
  • 2 slugs in a magazine
  • Longer reload when empty
    • The Outlaw uniquely has different reload timings when its reloading from empty vs. just reloading 1 shot
  • 2,400 credits
• Learn about our newest weapon in our Outlaw deep dive.
• Watch the Outlaw (and some familiar faces) in action below.