It’s another patch day for Riot Games’ tactical shooter, Valorant, and this time around the big takeaway from Patch 2.09 is that Viper’s recent buff has been walked back.
The previous buff, which caused players to lose a whopping 50 decay damage just for touching any of her utility, has been reduced. It’s still risky to walk through, but now the damage is only 30, meaning that during pistol rounds players are not as susceptible to one-shot kills.
Elsewhere, a new game mode called Replication will temporarily replace Escalation. The mode follows the same ruleset as a standard Unrated game, but with modified round times and a set number of credits per round. The key difference is that all players will play the same Agent, which is voted on at the start of the game. It also only a first to five, as opposed to 13.
Oh, and don’t worry about getting flashed 20 times if Breach is the Agent selected since there’s a new “flash guard” mechanic especially for Replication that stops you from becoming simultaneously flashed. Phew!
Valorant game designer Kyle Powell said of the new mode in a press release:
“With Replication, we are looking to create exciting and novel moments by widening the player theorycrafting space while highlighting Agent abilities. Quintupling down on Agents that were balanced around normal Agent restrictions, we’ve created lots of hilarious near game-breaking plays for players to discover.”
Finally, patch 2.09 brings a bunch of smaller tweaks, from minor Breeze map adjustments to the addition of tactical timeout slots for custom tournament games. There’s also the usual bug fixing, too.
Below you can find the full Valorant Patch 2.09 notes. The patch is 1.3 GB and will go live today for North America, and tomorrow for EU and other regions.
Viper
Toxin (Passive)
● The instant decay inflicted when entering Viper’s smoke or crossing her wall, reduced 50 to 30
Mode Updates
Replication goes live!
Breeze
● Blocked vision of the gaps above Mid-Wood Doors and A Metal Doors
● Smoothed player collision in various locations
Game Updates
- Added tactical timeouts to Tournament Mode Custom Games
2 tactical timeouts can be called per game, per team
Tactical timeouts last 60 seconds. - Tactical timeouts freeze all player movements for the duration of the timeout.
- For technical pauses, the standard Pause Match Timer option is still available.
- Improved the visual synchronization of bullet tracers and impact effects for Observers
- This should fix most cases where it looks like a player is killed before a bullet reaches them in our esports viewing experience.
- Adjusted color of placeable utility on the minimap to match team color for Observers
- Adjusted color of names in player loadout HUD to match team color
- Spaced the End Game Phase and Pause Match Timer options in Custom Games to prevent misclicks
- Improved feel on rope ascenders in high latency situations
- Minor performance optimizations to UI in matches
Bugs
- Added team colors for placed Agent abilities, for observers
- Fixed issue where Astra’s Nebula was slightly offset once fully formed
- Fixed bullet impacts on Sova’s Owl Drone wings appearing in the wrong locations
- Fixed issues across multiple Agents with incorrect damage icons for abilities showing up in the kill feed
- Fixed issue where Killjoy’s Nanoswarm audio would cut off if it was destroyed right after activation
- Fixed an issue where Skye’s Seekers did not show how many enemies were affected in the combat report
- Omen can no longer drop the Spike or weapons while casting From the Shadows
- Fixed an issue where Killjoy’s Alarmbot would display flashed visual effects while invisible
Game Systems
- Fixed an issue where weapons could be instantly reloaded after spamming orb pick-ups
- Fixed an issue where sound was lowered by 5dB
Weapons
- Fixed 1P snow impacts that occurred rarely in gun fights
Breeze
- Fixed a number of exploits around the map
- Fixed an issue where players could sandwich themselves in between Sage’s wall and the Mechanical Doors on Breeze (or Ascent)
Competitive
- Fixed a bug that was causing a player’s leaderboard rank to not show up on their Act
- Rank badge – Fixed a bug that was showing the ranked rating threshold on the leaderbaord for previous Acts. Only the current Act should show a ranked rating threshold bar from now on.<
For Valorant Patch 2.08 notes, it’s here.
