VALORANT Patch 1.09

Overview

The Operator is experiencing it’s coming-of-age movie. But before you get all “look how they massacred my boy” on us, let one of our lead designers walk you through our analysis. There’s also some systemic weapon updates to change your accuracy after landing from a jump.

Five Agents get the squeeze, including ongoing updates to make Viper a more flexible threat, and some parity across the fire rate buffs from Brimstone and Reyna.

OMEN

We’re keeping an eye on the overall power level of Paranoia, but as a first step wanted to resolve visual issues where players hit with Paranoia appear outside of its impact on their screen.

• Updated projectile VFX to better represent its hitbox, especially when it is traveling towards your POV

JETT

While we continue to investigate some of her outsized strengths, we think the burst fire on her Blade Storm has been over-performing at long ranges. The burst fire is intended to be a close range attack, but we found it frequently getting frags at over 20 meters away. These changes aim to rein in its effective range while retaining its close range potency.

• The time between consecutive Burst Fire use has increased from 0.33 seconds >>> 0.45 seconds
• Daggers thrown in Burst now have a damage falloff that begins at 12 meters and drops steadily (to 35 damage) at max falloff
• Headshot multiplier on Burst Fire reduced from 3x >>> 2x

VIPER

While Viper is stronger than ever, her overall impact is lower than we’d like. This round of changes continues in the same vein as patch 1.07 —increasing her flexibility, especially when trying to play with teammates.

Now that Viper can place her wall pre-round, we want her to be able to act with her team right at barrier drop without the tension of also trying to maximize her fuel for an initial move.

• Viper now starts the round at 100 fuel (previously 50)
• Vulnerable debuff applied from Snake Bite now lingers for 2 seconds after leaving Viper’s acid
• Move speed doubled while casting
• Viper now fast equips her weapon after casting, re-equip times vary per gun—but on average will reduce her weapon down time by .4 seconds

REYNA

At its previous fire rate, we felt Empress was too effective when using heavies/smgs, AND too fast to master the change in spray pattern on rifles. We hope this change allows us to address both issues at once, while also giving us a chance to have a unified fire rate increase (matching Brimstone’s stim below) that players can learn and master.

• Fire rate bonus decreased from 25% >>> 15%

BRIMSTONE

Paired with Reyna’s change (above), we felt Brimstone’s stim could use a little more punch. This also unifies our two fire rate increase buffs, making them easier to learn.

• Fire rate bonus increased from 10% >>> 15%

WEAPON UPDATES

Before you jump to press that “send” button, please read our thinking behind the Operator changes below. The Operator's been a frequent talking point around the community in the last few patches, so bear with us.

The Operator serves an important role in VALORANT: It provides the most difficult tactical challenge for teams to overcome, requiring strategic planning and clever utility use. We’ve been taking a long look at the weapon to try to understand the best way to adjust some of its outsized strengths while ensuring it remains the most powerful angle-holding weapon in the arsenal.

• Increased price from 4500 >>> 5000
• Decreased scoped movement speed from 76% >>> 72%
• Adjusted weapon deadzone from becoming inaccurate at 30% movement speed >>> 15% (become inaccurate sooner, become accurate later when stopping)
• Firing rate reduced from .75 >>> .6
• Instant equip time adjusted from 0.3 >>> 0.5 (instant equip plays after tapping orb, bomb defuse/plant tap, Jett Cloud Burst, and Phoenix Curveball)
• Leg shot damage decreased from 127 >>> 120
• Jump land inaccuracy state changed from gradual >>> binary
• Jump land inaccuracy duration increased from .2 >>> .225
• Jump land inaccuracy value increased from 5.0 >>> 7.0 (more inaccurate for .225s after a land)

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

• During this patch, the chances of being in an hour+ queue should be notably reduced

SOCIAL UPDATES

• Riot ID Reviews
• Removed Multi-line Breaks in Chat
• Changes to party push to talk settings will now take effect immediately
• The chat window can now be pinned to stay open across menus
• Social Panel Sorting Logic

BUG FIXES

• Fixed issue where Sova’s hitbox was incorrect while using his Owl Drone
• Fixed bug where Omen’s glowing eyes weren’t properly removed when he cancelled his ult
• Fixed a bug where Custom Game preferences would be wiped after navigating away from the Custom Game lobby