Valorant

Keeping this one on the lighter side again while we watch the best VCT teams exchange blows over the VALORANT Champions 2022 crown. Still some important bug work from our Social & Player Dynamics team below!

SOCIAL UPDATES

• Fixed an issue that allowed you to report yourself
• Fixed an issue where some of you did not receive a notification when attempting to join a party you’ve been kicked from
• Fixed an issue where a blank user would appear in the Social Panel when joining a party where players are in-game
• Fixed an issue where you could not successfully report a player in Agent Select after the game has been running for 30 minutes
• Fixed an issue where players with non-English characters in their Riot IDs could not be found via Invite by Riot ID
• Fixed an issue that caused the Context Menu and Friend Note text fields to close when a Friend's status updated in the Social Panel
• Fixed an issue that caused the Party Leader's matchmaking lobby selection to affect in-game Party Members' status in the Social Panel

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS UPDATES

• Fixed a bug where binding the “Home” key to an action does not work
• For certain languages, the tooltip values of rewarded credits in Overtime Rounds was incorrect.
  • Updated tooltip values to reflect that you will start with 5000 credits at the start of Overtime Rounds, no matter if you win or lose the previous round.

Don’t forget! It’s the start of Episode 5 Act II, so keep an eye out for all the updates not reflected below, like a fresh Battlepass, Competitive reset, a totally free Event Pass that celebrates Champions 2022, and then there’s a new limited skinline…maybe you’ve seen that trailer? The one that makes you feel like you’re shooting esports at people.

GAME SYSTEM

We’ve added a few quality of life improvements to crosshairs and are excited to share them with you!

• Added the ability to select a custom crosshair color.
  • Go to Settings >> Crosshair >> Primary, Aim Down Sights, or Sniper Scope
  • On the drop down menu for color, select Custom and input the Hex Code (6-digit RGB) value of desired color
  • If a non-Hex code is entered, crosshair will revert to the previous color.
• Added the ability to independently tune horizontal and vertical crosshair lines.
  • Go to Settings >> Crosshair >> Primary or Aim Down Sights >> Inner/Outer Length
    • Disabling the middle “chain” icon enables independent tuning.
    • Left slider is for horizontal line and the right slider is for the vertical line.
• Added the ability to copy spectating player’s crosshair settings
  • When spectating another player, type “/crosshair copy” or “/cc” to import the crosshair of the player you are spectating and save it as a new crosshair profile
• Increased the number of crosshair profiles available from 10 to 15

BUGS

• Fixed a bug where Yoru’s Gatecrash would sometimes leave floor markers in incorrect locations

GENERAL UPDATES

• Engine update to Unreal Engine 4.26
  • This update improves the tool set available to our developers in many ways, however this change will likely go unnoticed by you, as the goal of any Engine update is to happen under the radar.
  • There are some known issues this time around though, mostly the UI is misbehaving. We’re fixing these as quickly as we can, but expect some funkiness in the game and in the Main Menu. If anything interrupts your gameplay, please submit a bug report.
• Agent Browser visual design refresh
  • Just thought we should leverage some of the cool Agent art and lean more into our VALORANT style.

AGENT UPDATES

CHAMBER

As players in both ranked and pro play have mastered Chamber, his strengths have started to overshadow his weaknesses, making the counterplay to Rendezvous and his arsenal not as effective as we’d hoped. Chamber’s overall strength has also felt outsized, and we believe that we can reduce the complete power of his kit while still keeping him competitive with the rest of the roster.

ABILITY REGIONAL DAMAGE BREAKUP

We're updating the ultimates for the following Agent so that they follow similar regional damage rules to our weapons—where hitting the head and legs of an enemy applies different damage multipliers. Intent is to reward precision and create intuitive consistency across damage in VALORANT.

For Neon specifically, it also gives us more tuning levers for balancing her across different skill levels. This change should also add depth to the mastery needed when tracking while sprinting that her ult demands.

NEON

CHAMBER

JETT

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS UPDATES

• Added ability to change “Ghost” keybind outside of Custom Games
  • This option is listed under Settings >> Controls >> Actions

BUGS

Agents

• Fixed an issue with Jett’s Tailwind where switching weapons in the middle of the dash would cause the weapon pull out animation to take longer than desired.

Gameplay Systems

• Fixed a bug where defuse animation wouldn’t consistently play if the orb is tapped in rapid succession.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Changing crosshair opacity settings in-game causes crosshair preview visual to flicker
• Spike Announcements UI displaying incorrectly

AGENT UPDATES

PHOENIX

We believe Phoenix's Curveball is the cornerstone of his kit, and as we explored adjustment options it became clear that Curveball being more powerful unlocks his kit as a whole. So we wanted to assess Phoenix in a world where Curveball is more competitive with the rest of the ecosystem to get a sense for the impact of the changes. We view Phoenix as an aggressive entry Agent, so the additional Run It Back and Blaze changes are intended to support his proactive intentions when taking space or fights early on into rounds.

YORU

We’ve noticed you Yoru players having a bit of friction achieving the dream of setting up a master plan while in ultimate. We’re hoping these changes will reduce a bit of that problem, rewarding you for using your flash during ultimate, while still preventing unhealthy play patterns that leave enemies without counterplay.

KAY/O

KAY/O hasn’t had much of a quality of life pass since we’ve last had some changes so we wanted to reduce some pain and help you access more parts of the kit that haven’t felt as accessible.

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS

• New Smurf Detection functionality (North America)
  • This addition to our smurf detection systems is designed to make sure that new players (that means all new accounts) are matched up with players of the correct skill level, much faster than before.
  • We’re testing this change in North America first, to make sure everything is working correctly before a global rollout.
  • Testing begins the week of July 11th, 2022
• Improved collision behavior when walking next to or behind another player.
  • This should heavily reduce the amount of jitteriness experienced when moving close to your allies (rushing a site as a group or moving out of spawn should feel better!).

GAME MODES

• Twin Hunters in Spike Rush will now damage destructible walls

BUGS

PERFORMANCE

• Fixed an issue where having the Raw Input Buffer setting enabled caused scrolling in chat or friends list to go directly to the top or bottom

YORU

• Fixed a bug with Dimensional Drift where the invulnerability kicked in later than intended after it was cast

SOVA

• Fixed issue with Sova’s Shock Bolt not damaging enemy traps and other game objects (other than players)

FADE

• Fixed issue where Fade’s Haunt would sometimes reveal enemies that were on the other side of a thin wall

MAP UPDATES

PEARL

• NEW MAP: Pearl goes live!
• Pearl-only queue
  • This queue is a standard, Unrated mode that will give players a chance to practice the new map before they see it in Competitive play.
  • Pearl-only queue will be available for 2 weeks, then after that Pearl will enter Competitive.

SPLIT

• We are temporarily removing Split from the map pool in Unrated and Competitive queues
• There are reasons! You can read more about our decision in our map pool update article.

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

NEW RANK: Ascendant

• Added an additional rank above Diamond, below Immortal, called “Ascendant.”
  • We believe our lower ranks have a few too many of you, especially Bronze and Silver. When we were looking at rank distribution, we realized that if we were to move some of you up and out of those lower ranks, it would overpopulate Platinum and Diamond. So by adding a new rank we can better distribute you across ranks, keep the prestige of high ranks, while helping better define the skill level of each rank.

• Moved the rank MMR targets that determine rank down, due to the addition of the new Ascendant rank, for all ranks below Ascendant. Moved the ranked target for Immortal 1/2/3 and Radiant up.
• • These are the cut-offs that say “You should be X MMR to reach this rank”. MMR targets determine your RR gains and help push your rank to match your MMR.

• This means players will go up in rank, if they are below Ascendant.
• To align with our expectations of what it means to be in the highest ranks of VALORANT, Immortal+ players will find it harder to climb back to their previous episode rank. This means Immortal will also have a smaller leaderboard population in all regions.
• Due to the seasonal reset, you may not see a rank increase at the start of the Episode without putting in some work; but the reset will be “less harsh” compared to the last Episode reset. So because we are pushing the player base upwards to fill Ascendant, the reset will not hit you as hard.
• Next time we reset ranks it will probably push you down more than this Episode’s reset. Please remember that the “less harsh” reset is unique to this Episode because of the introduction of Ascendant.

• Grouping restrictions for Ascendant are 3 ranks above or below the Ascendant ranked player
• • This fits in with our Platinum+ rule set for grouping.

• The highest placement allowed has increased to Ascendant 1 (previously Diamond 1)
• Five stacking 25% RR penalty now starts at Immortal 1 (previously Diamond 3)

• Solo/Duo/5-stack restriction now starts at Immortal 1 (previously Diamond 3)
• • Remember, Diamond 3 and above could previously only solo, duo, and 5-stack. This restriction now begins at Immortal 1.
  • By adding another rank we were able to push the Five Stack penalty and Solo/Duo restrictions into Immortal. This makes it more straight forward, Immortal is where the leaderboard starts and because of this we try to hold players more accountable for their standings.

• Due to a naming clash with the new rank, we’ve renamed Sage’s tier 8 Agent Contract unlock—the new Sage title is “Dauntless”
  • Renaming this title was not something we chose lightly, but after talking about the title we felt like it was a chance to give the title more meaning to Sage and her personality/theme.

BUGS

Maps

• Fixed a bug on Haven that was preventing players from using their spray on a wall in A Garden
  • Shout out to @eminakob for passionately pointing out this bug

Agents

• Fixed a bug where Jett could equip a weapon during Tailwind
• Fixed a bug where Agents revealed by Sova’s Recon Bolt or Fade’s Haunt would sometimes briefly appear in an incorrect location on the minimap
• Fixed a bug where the scope visual effect would sometimes disappear when aiming with Chamber’s Tour De Force

Game Systems

• Fixed a bug where using an Ultimate point orb or defusing the Spike at maximum range could cause channeling and progress bar animations to flicker
• Fixed a bug where the use channeling progression bar does not update if the player disconnects and reconnects during the match
• Fixed a bug where some weapon equips could play the wrong equip speed animation, which could visually misrepresent when you were able to fire. Some situations impacted by this bug were:
  • Cypher exiting Spycam
  • Capturing Ultimate point Orbs
  • Canceling and completing Spike plant

SOCIAL UPDATES

• Clutch Mute - You now have the option to mass mute your teammates and/or party members so you can focus during clutch moments!
  • Go to Settings (Esc) > Controls > Communication
  • Set keybinds for Party and Team Voice Clutch Mute Keys
  • Press the keybind while in-game to Toggle "ON" the Party and/or Team Voice Clutch Mute and then again to Toggle "OFF"
  • When “ON,” you can toggle the mute any time during your match when you hit the assigned keybind. An icon will appear so you know when it's enabled.

BUGS

Agents

• Fixed a bug where Skye would sometimes make an unintended pose, seen in third-person, when holding a gun
• Fixed a bug where Jett could reach very faster than intended speeds by using Tailwind in specific locations (aka. “superdash”)
• Fixed a bug where Yoru could use weapons earlier than intended when exiting Dimensional Drift (...again)
  • Some of you creative types continue to find new ways to trigger variants of this bug since the last few patches. Fixing these loopholes is intended to improve systems that are used by all abilities in the game. Because of this (in addition to the bad experience of getting shot by invisible Yoru), we are keeping a close eye on the results of these changes.
• Fixed a bug where Yoru’s mask would flicker while running forward during Dimensional Drift
• Fixed a bug where you would sometimes see the location of enemy Astra stars
• Fixed a bug where you were unable to re-stabilize KAY/O after being themselves resurrected by Sage
• Fixed a bug where the following abilities would sometimes disappear from the minimap:
  • Viper’s Toxic Screen and Poison Cloud
  • Killjoy’s Nanoswarm
  • Cypher’s Cyber Cage
• Fixed a bug where after switching Agents in the range or in custom game, the buy menu would sometimes show invalid items
• Fixed a bug where Chamber’s model would still teleport if killed mid-teleport
• Fixed a bug where Skye’s Seekers and Fade’s Prowler and trails would not navigate down the chute on Breeze
• Fixed Sova’s trick shot VO line so that it plays when he kills an enemy with a 1 or 2 bounce Shock Bolt
  • It was never intended for these VO lines to play when destroying an enemy trap. This provided information that wasn’t readily available to Sova and his team through other means. We’ve added this back, but restricted it to play only when Sova kills an enemy player with a bouncing Shock Bolt.

• Fixed a bug where Killjoy’s Alarmbot and Chamber’s Trademark created large white circles on Brimstone’s Sky Smoke targeting map
• Fixed a bug where Chamber’s Rendezvous range indicator does not disappear when far enough away to be off of the minimap
• Fixed an issue where our spawn point scoring system in Deathmatch wasn’t updating correctly.
  • You should now consistently spawn farther from where you died and experience fewer "revenge" kills.
  • We're aware the spawn system could be better and we’ll continue to make changes that improve the experience.

AGENT UPDATES

• Agent Progress/Charge Bars - Moved to a consistent location and made a consistent size on the following Agents:
  • Reyna
  • Cypher
  • Breach
  • Fade
  • Jett
  • Omen
  • Phoenix
  • Raze
  • Skye
  • Yoru

OMEN

• Updated 3P model to increase detail and fidelity.

MAP UPDATES

HAVEN

• Removed some pixel collision on the following areas:
  • Can no longer walk up the front of A site cover
  • Can no longer jump onto the top of C site cover without a boost ability

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS

• Added new Performance graph to display Shooting Error values for recent shots on the Client. This is the same information visible in the crosshair error settings, but should help players to better diagnose their own performance after an engagement.

Gameplay Consistency Updates

For more information about the below performance graphs and bug fix, please check out the VALORANT Gameplay Consistency Update 2 article.

• Fixed an issue where ping or framerate spikes could cause an excessive move processing buffer to develop and persist for multiple seconds. While this was happening, you may have been experienced:
  • Increased Server side input latency, which could make inputs take longer to be applied than would be expected based on your ping.
  • Additional delay in your view of other players, which could give you less time to react.
  • In both of these cases, the additional latencies were not reflected in the current “Network RTT Avg/Max” graph or in-game scoreboard ping values.

• Added new Performance graph showing “Network RTT Jitter” to help you understand if you're experiencing network issues not reflected in the Network RTT Avg/Max values
• Added new Performance graph "Network RTT + Processing Delays," which captures the effective latency you experience due to Network Round Trip Time, Server move processing, and Client move processing delays

BUGS

Agents

• “Destroyed” Voice lines for deployable abilities will now be heard globally by allies. This includes:
  • Chamber: Trademark and Rendezvous
  • Killjoy: Turret and Alarmbot
  • Cypher: Trapwire and Spycam
  • Yoru: Gatecrash
• Fixed a bug where Neon’s High Gear would automatically stop after using Fast Lane or Relay Bolt
• Fixed issue where observers would see Viper’s enemies glow red when they were near but outside of Viper’s Pit.
• Fixed Chamber’s Rendezvous radius not showing for spectators and observers
• Fixed Brimstone’s Incendiary (Q) feeling damage in chunks of 15 instead of 1 like the other zone damage abilities in the game
  • Overall DPS should be unchanged.

Cosmetics

• Bug fix for some minor flickering that was occurring on Protocol weapon’s transparent line VFX when inspecting, ADSing, reloading, etc.

Gameplay Systems

• Fixed a bug where agent specific keybinds would sometimes not work properly even though the settings menu showed them as applied
  • This fix actually went out in 4.09, but we wanted to make sure users on the live game weren’t experiencing issues in this area before calling it “fixed.”
• Fixed a bug where the combat report would rarely not show up for the entirety of the game.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Spike plant and defuse bar are not shown for Observers with Minimal HUD enabled, even when spectating the Agent who is planting or defusing.

AGENT UPDATES

FADE

CHAMBER

Right now, Chamber's Trademark outperforms other Sentinel tools in both reliability and power, which feels inappropriate given the amount of defensive combat tools Chamber has spread across the rest of his kit. We believe Chamber's identity is defined by his unique weapons and defensive combat mobility, so we are decreasing his level of global flank protection/information and increasing counterplay on a single premium trap. This means Chamber will have to make a choice based on if he wants to play selfishly around his Trademark, or place it to help his teammates instead.

A quick note about Sentinels: When we think about the Sentinel role, we think about its overall ability to keep map control and defend space. We believe that Sentinels and Sentinel players should have many options and methods to control and defend, whether it’s through the use of Sage’s reactive slow abilities, Cypher’s flank-watching gadgets, or defensively-oriented combat and guns like Chamber. Like all our Agents, it’s important to carve out sharp strengths and weaknesses for Chamber in the roster. If you take him for his weapon arsenal and disengage, you should feel as if you're giving up a strength—like traps or stall—that his peers excel at. As usual, all eyes are now on Chamber changes, and we’ll adjust if we see him suffer disproportionately on defense relative to attack. —Jay Watford, Lead Agent Designer, and Dan Hardison, Game Designer

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

• Party Lead Transfer — You can now change the lead of your party
  • Current party leader can right click the player name they want to transfer the responsibility to, and choose “Make Leader” in the drop down menu.
• A number of small tweaks and updates made to the UI

ESPORTS FEATURES

• Added Observer ability to toggle Scoreboard on/off

BUGS

Agents

• Fixed a bug where Jett’s Tailwind would sometimes fail to cast when used immediately after curving a Cloudburst smoke
• Fixed a bug where Jett’s ultimate indicator would sometimes stay active after firing all kunai

Gameplay Systems

• Fixed an issue where an unintended ‘use’ input could happen after abilities such as Skye’s Trailblazer or Sova’s Owl Drone is activated while using the ‘use’ key

The Agent of your dreams is here, ready to turn them into nightmares. Patch 4.08 introduces the next Initiator Agent, Fade, to the roster, you get new tiers of exclusives in the Battlepass, and access to a skinline that pops.

You know about Jett, and now it’s time to learn about mix ups with Sova and Neon that should round out the last few months of impactful Agent balance. Competitive 5-stacks also get some love.

AGENT UPDATES

FADE GOES LIVE

• See her abilities on our Agents page.
• See Fade’s debut trailer. You’ll wake up screaming.

JETT

The team loves what Jett has continually brought to the fight, but as the game has evolved, some of her impacts have pushed beyond what we think is healthy for the tactical promise of VALORANT. Our update to Tailwind aims to address these concerns while maintaining the aggressive site takes and awe inspiring highlight plays Jett should bring to the roster. Check out our full article on the Jett update here for a complete breakdown of our approach and the philosophies that drove this update. We expect this change to have ripple effects on the Agents around Jett and the ecosystem overall, so we’ll keep a close eye not only on Jett, but any cascading impacts on the entire roster.

NEON

We’ve been keeping an eye on Neon and wanted to make some quality of life changes to help remove some friction when playing as, or with, Neon.

SOVA

At high-level ranked or pro play, Sova’s been a staple for quite some time. While his power has not been felt as viscerally as Jett’s, his impact in coordinated settings is nearly unmatched. We wanted to focus on addressing the amount of space that the Owl Drone practically guaranteed, and introduce additional counter play opportunities for opponents. A reduced Drone duration means Sova has to incur more risk in his positioning to clear deeper angles, and the adjustments to ping reveal (below) give opponents more opportunity to mix up their repositioning without feeling forced to completely exit the area. Shock Dart has also taken a hit as we continue to sharpen damage outputs on non-ultimate abilities, so that they kill less frequently

AGENT ABILITY AMMO

• Jett’s Bladestorm, Raze’s Showstopper, and Sova’s Hunter’s Fury will now show how much ammo they have left when equipped

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

5-Stack Queues

• Reduced Rank Rating gain/loss penalty for different 5-stack configurations
  • If EVERYONE in your party is Iron–Diamond 2:
    • No RR penalty if within normal grouping
    • 25% RR penalty for all players if any player falls outside of normal grouping
  • If ANYONE in your party is Diamond 3–Immortal 3 (but no one in your party is Radiant)
    • 25% RR penalty for all players
  • If ANYONE in your party is Radiant
    • 75% RR penalty for all players
• Tuned matchmaking to reduce wait time for 5-stacks
• You can read the basics on how Rank Rating penalties work for 5-stacks in our previous patch notes.

BUGS

Agents

• Fixed a bug where Jett could find herself unable to use abilities or weapons when using Tailwind immediately after depleting her Bladestorm daggers
• Fixed a bug where Yoru could teleport out of bounds when using Gatecrash
• Fixed various exploits allowing Yoru to use weapons before fully decloaking at the end of his ultimate

Performance

• Fixed a bug in the Shooting Range where bots would respawn unarmed

SERVER UPDATES

• Added a new set of servers in Latin America, which should help with latency in that region
  • Scheduled to turn on not long after 4.07 is live!

WEAPON UPDATES

• Bulldog and Stinger now delay firing inputs while bringing up the weapon to aim down sights (ADS)
  • Prevents you from getting burst mode accuracy improvements before they finish raising your weapon.
  • Adds a slight cost to the decision to switch to burst firing mid-combat.
  • You can still begin firing immediately while switching back to full auto/hip fire mode.

AGENT UPDATES

The VALORANT Agents have been busy with a pretty frightening problem. Explore around the Shooting Range to find out what they're up to.

STORE UPDATES

• Load times for the VP purchase page should now load in a matter of seconds (previously, it would take more than thirty seconds in some instances)

SOCIAL UPDATES

• Added new detections for different AFK-like behaviors in rotating game modes
  • Friendly reminder that discriminatory behavior is not tolerated in VALORANT, and if brought to our attention, we will be reviewing the incidents on a case by case basis and determining an appropriate punishment accordingly. We will also be updating our Code of Conduct to be more specific and avoid any misinterpretation. —S&PD Team

BUGS

Agents

• Fixed a bug where Yoru could use a weapon immediately at the end of his ultimate by exploiting an unwanted interaction with ropes
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to defuse the Spike while channeling abilities
• Skye’s Seekers can once again break through the destructible doors on Ascent

Social

• Fixed a bug where comms-restricted players could not listen to team voice chat
• Fixed a bug where players were not always immediately removed from the game after being banned

Competitive

• Fixed a bug that was causing performance bonuses to show at incorrect times

Gameplay Systems

• Fixed an issue where briefly tapping the “Use Spike” button to plant the Spike could cause you to end up holding the Spike instead of your last equipped weapon