Valorant

What’s up? Jo-Ellen here.

Happy last Act of the year and cheers to Iso’s release! Get out there and try out our newest Duelist (let us know what you think) and don’t forget: there’s a rank reset, fresh Battlepass, and a new Premier Stage.

Aside from all the new things released at the beginning of a new Act, we also have some Agent updates below.

GENERAL UPDATES

• We changed your loadout retrieval to reduce match load times. This primarily affects those on lower spec hardware.

AGENT UPDATES

ISO

• Iso goes live!
  • Learn about his abilities on our Agents page
  • Watch our newest Duelist hunt his latest targets below.

Hiya! Jo-Ellen here.

We’ve got some updates under the Agent Updates section regarding smoke visuals and ability equipping audio. Also, your Level Border and Player Card collections are going to look a little different. You can read about these and more below.

And we always welcome your feedback so don’t hesitate to send it our way. Thank you!

GENERAL UPDATES

• We made a slight adjustment to the rows of Agents you can select from at the bottom of the screen in order to make room for future Agents.

AGENT UPDATES

• Smoke Visual Update
  • Some of the key smokes can manipulate the play space for a good chunk of time and we feel it is important to be able to make the right decisions in the moment. We’ve added audio and visual cues at the end of our longer lasting smokes to give you a bit of a heads up for when the smoke will disappear.
    • Smokes play an audio and visual cue 1.5 seconds before they are about to fade. The following Agents’ smokes have been affected:
      • Astra
      • Brimstone
      • Omen
• Ability equipping sounds are no longer audible to your Allies.
  • Previously, the sound of you equipping abilities as certain Agents could be heard by allies that were very close to you. Hearing this audio was inconsistent with equipping guns, which are silent to allies, and resulted in confusion around if enemies were able to hear these sounds. We hope this change will make the rules around equipping gun and ability audio more consistent and make what can be heard by enemies easier to learn and understand.

PREMIER UPDATES

Premier Playoffs Tournament Queue Changes

• The Playoffs Tournament Queue is now only 15 minutes instead of 1 hour. If you don’t queue up and stay queued within the 15 minute window, your team will not be able to play in the Tournament.
• At the end of the waiting period, all teams that are still in the queue will be matched at one time into evenly distributed brackets seeded by Premier Score.
• This change ensures that having a better regular season record gives you a higher seeding in your tournament.

STORE UPDATES

• Your Level Borders and Player Card collection UI is getting an upgrade! You’ll now be able to search, navigate, and equip your Level Borders and Player Cards using our grid UI.

BUG FIXES

Agent

• Deadlock
  • Annihilation (X) can no longer open Bind’s automatic doors from outside the teleporter rooms.
  • Annihilation (X) can no longer open Breeze’s Mid Chute trapdoor from below.
• Neon
  • Fast Lane (C) now more reliably fully extends through Fracture’s A Door when cast from the outside, behaving the same as when used from inside A Hall.

General

• Fixed a bug where the music would hitch/skip while loading into a map or the Range.
• Fixed a bug where shooting range bots would not reset their hitbox position properly when respawning.

Player Behavior

• Fixed a bug so that you’ll receive the correct Ranked Rating penalties for disruptive behavior.

Weapons

• Fixed a bug where killbanner audio was playing too quietly.

Hi, everyone! Jo-Ellen here.

Episode 7 Act 2 ends in just a couple of weeks, but we’ve still got Patch 7.07 until then. Below, you’ll find a Haven update, Performance update, and a few bug fixes.

And again, we’re always listening to your feedback so please send it our way!

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

After listening to your feedback, we have decided to remove the recent rank restriction made to 5 stacks that was implemented in Patch 7.06. We know how important it is to play with your friends and your need for flexibility in order to do that.

Initially, the rank restriction was made to prevent people from illegitimately boosting to the highest ranks like Radiant. In the end, we realized that your ability to have flexibility with your 5 stack was more important than the very small number of people who abuse this exploit. However, we still recognize that boosting is a risk to competitive integrity and are working on an appropriate long term solution that doesn't impact your ability to play with friends in a 5 stack.

MAP UPDATES

Haven

• Updated the destruction VFX for the destructible door panels located at Mid Doors/Garage in order to make it easier to see through as it falls away.

PERFORMANCE UPDATES

• Enabled multithreaded rendering for discrete Intel GPUs and lowered required CPU core count.

BUG FIXES

General

In Patch 7.06, we fixed a bug that allowed the game to output surround sound when certain conditions were met, but the surround mix was untested and unsupported. VALORANT currently only supports stereo and mono sound output.

• To simulate surround sound on headphones, we offer an HRTF setting. We do not recommend combining the HRTF setting in game with other surround sound virtualization software at the same time since this will result in double processing.
• Note that other surround sound virtualization software cannot derive surround sound information from the stereo mix.

Agent

• Cypher
  • Neural Theft (X) now completes even if Cypher dies after casting.
  • Fixed an issue where you could remain blinded if spectating a flash through Cypher’s Spycam (E) as the round ended.
• Gekko
  • Dizzy’s (E) enemy detection range is now correctly reduced while inside of Viper’s Pit (X) ability.

Premier

• Fixed an issue where the Attacker team takes priority over the Defender team in the Overtime vote.
• Fixed a bug where a second timer bar would appear after the “Choose Side” vote had already ended.
• Fixed a bug where certain scenarios would cause subsequent Overtime Priority votes to occur in the following round.

Hey, all! Still Jo-Ellen here.

The biggest update for this patch is our change to who can queue with who in Competitive mode. As always, please give us your feedback. We’re always listening!

AGENT UPDATES

Sage

• We’ve updated Sage’s voice lines and added interaction lines with more Agents.

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

• There has been a wave of competitive rank boosting with bots and real players. In an effort to protect against this abuse, we have introduced restrictions where Ascendant players and higher can only invite players with Platinum rank and higher to their competitive party.
• We will continue to actively monitor botting abuse and ban any accounts suspicious of this behavior.
• For more information on our Gameplay Systems and our approach to combating disruptive behavior, check out our recent VALORANT Systems Health Series.

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS UPDATES

• Made some back end updates for Combat Reports in order to fix instances where all the correct information wasn't showing. Please let us know if there are any weird behaviors—especially after death and pre-round start.

BUG FIXES

Gameplay Systems

• Fixed a rare bug where you would be revealed unintentionally in places that you shouldn’t be seen after purchasing a weapon.
• Fixed an issue where the Spike plant and defuse UI bar did not appear for minimal HUD observers.
• Fixed a bug where vision cones would flicker at the start of a round on Sunset.

Hi, everyone. Jo-Ellen here.

It’s been a week—ready for Sunset in Competitive mode, yet?

AGENT UPDATES

ASTRA

Going in and out of Astral form is a complex mechanical task that leaves Astra vulnerable to attackers by denying her information about her surroundings. The change we’ve made to her Astral Form (X) gives Astra back some agency and information, allowing you to react to enemy footsteps and utility you may have missed while in Astral Form.

MAP UPDATES

SUNSET

• Sunset will now be in the map rotation for Competitive mode.
• Competitive map rotation includes: Sunset, Breeze, Ascent, Haven, Bind, Split, and Lotus

BUG FIXES

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug where the SFX volume would default back to 100% volume when Alt-Tab-ing out of game.

AGENT

• Fixed a bug where there was a small audio deadzone in Astra’s Cosmic Divide (X).
• Fixed a bug where Deadlock’s Sonic Sensor (Q) would trigger when Gekko’s Wingman (Q) walks near it.
• Fixed a bug where other Agents were not animating when they moved through Omen’s Dark Cover (E) ability.
• Fixed a bug where Cypher’s Trapwire (C) would sometimes fail to activate when placed on stairs.

PLAYER BEHAVIOR

• Fixed an issue where people who were chat restricted by Real-Time Interventions were also disconnected from the text chat instead of just muted from text chat.
• Fixed an issue where there was no warning message when you had a conflicting keybind for team or party voice chat.
• Fixed an issue where switching between Unrated and Competitive queues would cause the restriction timer for the queue delay to replace the ranked restriction timer.
• Fixed an issue where creating an Agent Profile reverted Push-to-Talk keybinds back to their defaults.

EDITOR’S NOTE

This is a preview of the Agent balance changes shipping with Patch 7.04 at the start of Episode 7 Act 2. The complete Patch Notes with all upcoming updates will go up next week.

AGENTS

VALORANT asks you to make tough decisions when interacting with enemy utility—shooting, dodging, and timing your moment to take a decisive action. We want everyone to come away from rounds feeling like they had the possibility of making a better play if only they were a little faster or smarter. The team has noticed that when faced with multiple pieces of utility or some of larger scale ultimates, your avenues for counterplay can sometimes be overloaded, leading you to feel unsure of what's happening or what you could do differently next time.

While Patch 7.04 includes changes to over half of the roster, the changes are sharply focused on increasing game state clarity by making the following adjustments:

• Reducing the frequency of large area of effect of ultimates
• Reducing the amount of time utility is active in the world
• Reducing the HP of shootable utility
• We also believe the Ultimate cost updates below better align large area, high-impact ults with the pressure they place on the enemy, creating both a better pacing of the round-defining abilities and a clearer choice competition between high and low cost ults.

Though many of these changes are subtle, We hope all together they improve gamestate clarity and the sense that you have even more opportunities for your skill to shine through.

BREACH

BRIMSTONE

FADE

GEKKO

KILLJOY

Omen

SKYE

Skye has become a keystone of the current meta through her blend of recon and space taking utility. While we like that she can potentially unlock new comps through this combo, we think she has lacked clear weaknesses compared to her peers given the wide range of value she brings. These changes reduce the distance in which Guiding Light can provide info. Changes also helps reduce the amount of time enemies need to worry about her flash when she flies it a great distance without activating it. We’ve also reduced the health of Trailblazer and Seekers to make them slightly easier for enemies to deal with, Skye’s ultimate cost will increase to better reflect the high level of baseline value it provides.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on these updates to see if they push the choice competition between Skye and her peers into a healthy place, or if further updates are needed in either direction.

SOVA

VIPER

ASTRA

We've noticed a large power disparity between Astra’s Gravity Well and Nova Pulse. Our goal is to create clearer use cases for both abilities: Gravity Well will be Astra’s tool for controlling space, and Nova Pulse for quickly affecting an area. At the same time, we hope to reduce some of the oppressive and long duration pressure Astra’s stars produce by providing enemies a chance to push past activated Gravity Well during its windup period if they act quickly.

We're updating Cosmic Divide to help clarify the overall game state by eliminating uncertainty around whether you or your enemies are close enough to the wall to be heard. We also think this gives Astra’s wall a clearer power profile for her and her allies to play around.

JETT

Since the last time we released changes to Jett, she has continued to be a mainstay of both competitive and professional play. We like that the dash changes in 4.08 pushed her to be more deliberate and tactical, but still feel that Jett is often given more reliable power windows and generous tuning than other Duelists and Agents in general.

Our goal with these changes is further sharpening Jett as the aggressive, high precision Duelist by increasing the intentionality of her ability usage and power windows. We want to maintain her unique ability to break through chokes and dash onto site, while reducing her defensive power-holding angles and her ability to reactively undo tactical mistakes with her array of quickly cast abilities.

We believe these changes align Jett’s overall power level and place in the Tactical Cycle with our other Agents, while maintaining Jett’s unique role and fantasy on the VALORANT roster. To help explain our thought process, we’ve provided context on how each change aims to support these goals, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on how these changes land at all levels of play.

Hey, everyone. It’s Jo-Ellen here.

In this patch: an update to muting people, some quality of life changes when purchasing or unlocking items after a game, and more.

GENERAL UPDATES

• We have restructured the rendering system with the goal of making the system more maintainable in the future.

PLAY BEHAVIOR UPDATES

• We added party text mutes for people who have received team text mutes.
• We added formatting changes to our behavioral warning messaging system in order to improve visibility and readability.

STORE UPDATES

Favoriting After Purchase and End-Of-Game Unlock

• After purchasing or unlocking Battlepass or event pass items at the end of a game, you will now have the ability to immediately Favorite your newly purchased/unlocked weapon or accessory item (titles not included) on the confirmation screen.

Navigation to Sprays Collection

• After purchasing or unlocking a Battlepass or event pass Spray at the end of a game, you will now be able to directly navigate to that newly acquired Spray in the Collections tab from the confirmation screen.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed a bug where a white line appeared on Player Portraits when an Ultimate was used.
• Fixed an issue where a shield's number value appears red in the shop upon damage and then when buying it back again.
• Fixed a font issue where Greek Tonos was not rendering for Account Names.
• Fixed a bug where VOIP Ducks Flavor VO (a setting that, when turned on, makes in-game sounds slightly lower in order to prioritize party/team comms) was not functioning as intended.
• Fixed a bug in the Esports Hub that was causing the Schedule to show incorrect Time/Days due to UTC time conversion.

Hello, all. It’s still Jo-Ellen here.

If you call yourself a Deadlock player, we’ve fixed a number of Annihilation bugs. Also something to look out for—what will Jett say?

AGENT UPDATES

• We’ve updated Jett’s voice lines, and added interaction lines with Gekko and Neon.

ESPORTS FEATURES

Esports Hub is live!

• Dive into VCT Champions 2023, the ultimate competition that is the culmination of the 2023 VCT Season!
• In between your own matches, you can now follow the Esports action. Get up to speed with all the teams competing, check the schedule, and follow along as your favorite teams make their way through Group Stages and Playoff brackets.
• The Esports Hub will be live in game on August 2. Matches kick off on August 6 and run through to Grand Finals on August 26.

PLAYER BEHAVIOR UPDATES

• We added party voice mutes for people who have received team voice mutes.
• We will begin a global rollout of our Real Time Text Evaluation and intervention system. Up until recently the system, which began muting people in voice and text chat who sent disruptive text messages in game, was tested in NA regions only. The test run has given us enough confidence to extend the coverage to global languages starting with a mid-patch update and continued staggered release.
• As we’ve said before, with the implementation of more immediate text evaluation, we hope to detect and reduce disruptive situations while you’re still in game and help you feel safer to engage while playing.

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed an issue where the Spray Wheel was not appearing in Team Deathmatch and Escalation during Warmups.
• Fixed a bug where the Spike Defuse animation would stop and start while standing on the edge of a Site.
• Fixed an issue where you were unable to toggle Walk if your Input settings were set to “Hold”.
• Fixed an issue where the Duplicate Profile button would not gray out after reaching the maximum number of Crosshair Profiles.

Agent

• Fixed a bug where Omen’s From The Shadows (X) and Shrouded Step (C) abilities were not properly canceled if he was hit by KAY/O’s ZERO/point (E) or Deadlock’s Annihilation (X) during the windup before teleporting. Additionally, we added visuals for when this windup is canceled.
• Fixed the Knife Handle collision on KAY/O’s ZERO/point (E) staying in world after the Suppression explosion.
• Fixed Deadlock’s Sonic Sensor (Q) not triggering when Wingman (Q) started defusing the Spike in its detection area under some circumstances.
• Fixed Chamber’s Rendezvous (E) not having the correct visuals at his departing location.
• Fixed issue where players trapped by Deadlock’s Annihilation (X) were not properly killed when hit by the Spike explosion.
• Fixed issues where Raze’s Showstopper (X) projectile would not explode when hitting players trapped by Deadlock’s Annihilation (X).
• Fixed issues where damage-over-time area abilities (like Phoenix’s Hot Hands [E]) were not damaging Deadlock’s Barrier Mesh (E).
• Fixed issue where Brimstone’s Orbital Strike (X) did not damage the cocoon of Deadlock’s Annihilation (X).
• Fixed an issue where Skye would get an additional charge of Guiding Light (E) upon swapping sides.

Maps

• Fixed a bug where going through the B side teleporter on Bind as a controlled ability, such as Sova’s Owl Drone (C), will cut off the teleport audio sound.

Premier

• Fixed an issue where the Premier Weekly Match Reset timer was not displaying Days left until reset.

KNOWN ISSUES

Cosmetics

• The Araxys skin line muzzle flash is currently displaying in black and white for chromas in third person.

Hi, everyone! It’s Jo-Ellen here.

Mastered Deadlock’s Ultimate yet? Or gotten a 4k with your Neo Frontier Sheriff? Either way, we always welcome feedback so please let us know how everything’s working.

Also, Premier’s Ignition Stage is open so grab some friends and compete!

AGENT UPDATES

• We've updated the ability action icons to be more consistent across all Agents and abilities that have a common cast paradigm or output. We've also added new ones to where it was necessary. These icons appear above your equipped ability.
• We’ve added voiceover line interactions between Gekko and Deadlock.

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

PREMIER

Ignition Stage is live!

• If you played in the Premier Open Beta, first of all, thank you! Second, everyone is starting from scratch with Ignition so you’ll have to make or join a new team this time around, too. Your team and match history will carry over from Ignition to the launch in August though, so choose your team name carefully. (You can’t change it later!)
• Enrollment runs until July 20, so get your team together and make sure to choose a Zone before then. The exact time for the end of Enrollment varies by Zone—make sure to check the schedule in the client for more information so you don’t miss it.
• Matches start on July 20 and run through August 12, with Playoffs on August 13. Earn a Premier Score of at least 375 by then to qualify and to have a chance to be crowned one of the best teams in your Division. (Oh…and get a sweet Premier Champion title and gun buddy, too.)

Check out our FAQ for all the nitty gritty details.

PLAYER BEHAVIOR UPDATES

• We added in-game bans for repeated AFK, Friendly Fire, and Queue Dodge in Competitive and Unrated modes.
• People who are text-muted in real time will now also be voice-muted for the entire match.

Hello, all! It’s still Jo-Ellen here.

Welcome to Episode 7 Act 1. We’ve got a number of things in store for you including a bunch of bug fixes (because who doesn’t love those?), a whole new Agent, new game mode, and an update to our Progression System.

Also, peep some updated ability descriptions in-game. Enjoy!

GENERAL UPDATES

Spray Wheel

• Added text to the Spray equip screen indicating your bound keybinds.

AGENT UPDATES

Deadlock

• Deadlock goes live!
  • Learn about her abilities on our Agents page.
  • Watch our latest Sentinel take on a mysterious creature below.