VALORANT Patch 2.04

Overview

Don’t let the lighter notes fool you, this is the start of Episode 2: Act II, that drops our newest Agent, a fresh Battlepass, and the Prime//2.0 weapon skin line.

As our friend Max Grossman will tell you, this patch cycle is also to allow time for us to evaluate our recent changes while still getting the game in a good state for VALORANT Challengers moving forward.

AGENT UPDATES

• You can view her abilities on our Agents page .

MODES UPDATES

• Bind Teleporter exit doors are now permanently jammed open—if you want to camp it, get ready to fight for it!
• Bind’s pickrate is again evenly weighted

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

This patch marks the start of Competitive Episode 2: Act 2!

Placements have changed for the start of an Act. Now, if you have already placed this Episode, then:

• Your rank will no longer be lowered at the start of an Act
• Achieving Radiant now requires both being in the top 500 players in your region, as well as having a minimum amount of RR (See below for details).
• You must finish your placement game to display on the Leaderboard again for the new Act
• You’re only required to play 1 placement match to display your rank
• Players who have not previously placed in Competitive this Episode will still need to play 5 placement games to earn their initial rank.
• Regional requirements for Radiant cut off:
• BR: 200 Rank Rating
• NA & APAC: 300 RR
• EU: 400 RR
• The web leaderboard will be disabled briefly for maintenance at the start of this patch, expect it to be re-enabled within 24–48 hours
• Later this patch, we’ll reduce the total amount of average RR per win/loss by 5
• During this patch we will change demotion logic for players to start at 70RR(Previously 80RR).
• Ranks will no longer be displayed in Agent select or in-game. You will still be able to see ranks on the end of the game screen.
• You can now queue with a wider group of friends and teammates if you are at the lower ranks (see below image)
• We also hope this helps combat smurfing by reducing the incentive to make a new account to play with lower rank friends.

QUALITY OF LIFE

Below is an example of the Tactical VO super regions on Ascent.

• Added Tactical Voice Over
• Agent lines like "Spike spotted" or “Enemies spotted” will also say a map “Super Region” afterwards. (e.g., “Spike spotted C” or “Enemies spotted B”).
• We hope to provide richer information to the player with these changes. Tactical VO is not meant to be a full replacement for voice comms, so callouts will be ducked in volume when a teammate is speaking over VOIP.
• Overall, we hope this helps improve the quality of information that teams not heavily using voice comms are able to expect. We also believe this will improve the experience for those players who have muted another player for any reason.
• Additionally, we’ve added an option to place Tactical VO messaging into the Chat window
• Tactical VO FAQ
• Tactical VO can be disabled via toggle
• Tactical VO being ducked by VOIP can be disabled via toggle
• Tactical VO Chat messages can be enabled via toggle
• Improved Client framerate by 3% on average for medium to high spec machines in 10-player games, by optimizing inventory management

BUG FIXES

• Fixed jitteriness when using the ghost mode modifier in custom games—the character now moves more smoothly without constant movement corrections
• Fixed an issue where casting Brimstone’s Sky Smoke right after picking up an Ultimate orb would result in ability charges lost, and smokes not deployed
• Fixed a bug that caused the Custom game server dropdown to loop infinitely
• Fixed parts of Reyna’s Soul Orb feedback triggering when assisting kills on non-players
• Fixed Reyna’s Soul Orb timer not properly syncing with its actual duration
• Fixed issues where teleporting into narrow areas created by Sage’s wall with Omen’s Shrouded Step pushed him into a wall
• Fixed ult active indicators not working for Killjoy, Cypher, Brimstone, Sage, Breach, Jett and Viper