Valorant Cypher Buff Is Finally Happening; PBE Reveals Sentinel Changes & Fade Nerf

Riot Games has long promised changes to the utility of Valorant’s underperforming sentinel, Cypher, in order to bring him into the meta, and a new update to the Public Beta Environment suggests they’re coming sooner rather than later. Notably, too, Fade seems set for a much-needed nerf, and there’s even the reveal of a new map codename as well.

The news comes by way of access to Valorant’s Public Beta Environment (PBE) which went live over the weekend and has now been recorded over on Reddit. You can read the full list of changes to Cypher and Fade below.

• Trapwire
  • Maximum Trapwire length increased 1000 >>> 1500.
  • Neural Theft
    • Neural Theft now reveals enemies two times. There is a four-second delay between the reveals.
    • The time restriction to cast on enemy corpses has been removed.
    • Maximum cast distance increased 1200 >>> 1800.
• Quality of Life
  • Updated the yellow silhouette used for Cypher’s reveal on Spycam and Neural Theft.
  • Yellow silhouette now disappears if the revealed enemy becomes visible to you to help reduce confusion of seeing two representations of the enemy in different places.
  • Yellow silhouette now starts dimmer and fades faster to make it more distinguishable from an actual enemy.

Meanwhile, Fade is being nerfed. The Agent has enjoyed a very high pick rate since entering the meta back in April of this year, and in pro play, she’s absolutely dominating a role previously held by Sova. The following changes are being trialled:

• Prowlers
  • Duration reduced from 3 >>> 2.5 seconds. (Time the prowler is alive without a trail).
  • Delay on bite after reaching target increased .4 >>> .6 seconds.
  • Hitbox improvements.
  • Nearsight duration on hit reduced 3.5 >>> 2.75 seconds.
  • Prowlers now fizzle out and no longer debuff instead of debuffing its target if they teleported away before it finished its animation.
• Nightfall
  • Cost increased 7 >>> 8.

Finally, the PBE update reveals one interesting detail datamined by ValorLeaks: the codename of the new map. It’s called ‘Jam.’ No further information has been revealed and so we don’t really have anything else to go on, but speculation is sure to begin as to what the name might indicate about the future map’s design.

What do you think about the Valorant Cypher buff and Fade nerf that has hit the game’s PBE server? Are they strong enough or is there more Riot Games should be doing? Let us know in the comments below, but keep in mind the changes are only being trialled and are subject to change.

If you’re in the mood to read about more Valorant content then why not check out Twinfinite latest feature about the game’s deathmatch mode, which really needs fixing?