VALORANT Patch Notes 2.06

Viper and Yoru changes crank the heat. Bucky is tweaked and HRTF audio arrives.
Game Updates
Jeff Landa

With Masters behind us, it’s time to get to work on those promised Viper and Yoru changes. Details are below, but remember that we’ll keep a close eye on how these play out once they’re live.

Slide on those headphones and enjoy HRTF, which helps pinpoint enemy footsteps, reloads, and Deathmatch respawns using a simulated surround sound space. Also, your love of Escalation means we’re returning the favor with some ability updates and loadout variations for the mode.

Oh my goodness, Bucky, look at your nerf.

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AGENT UPDATES

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VIPER

In the wake of Masters we’re introducing some bigger updates to our Agents, with Viper first in line. We looked at a lot of possible changes for her, but ultimately landed on changes that pushed what makes Viper’s play pattern unique and still resonate with her theme. When compared to other Controllers, we want Viper to make big, committed decisions that truly alter the map and how both sides plan around her influence. She should claim ground with force and dare opponents to challenge her. The updates to Toxin should also project more threat on enemies who consider pushing her smoke and will hopefully add a significant bite to her marque Toxic Screen. Paired with a couple other buffs and some new tools for learning and practicing lineups, we’re excited to see if Viper can deliver on the deadly impact she promises while solidifying her spot on our roster.

Toxin (passive)

Enemies that cross through Viper's Poison Cloud, Toxic Screen, or Viper's Pit are instantly inflicted with at least 50 decay. Their decay level increases the longer they remain in contact with toxin.

While in cloud, Decay over time decreased 15 >>> 10

When out of Viper’s cloud, delay before health regen decreased 2.5 >>> 1.5
Poison Cloud (Q)

Can now immediately be redeployed when picked up, but grants a temporary charge instead of a permanent charge

If active when Viper dies, Poison Cloud now remains up for an additional 2 seconds, or until Viper runs out of fuel.

Pickup distance increased 200 >>> 400
Toxic Screen (E)

If active when Viper dies, Toxic Screen now remains up for an additional 2 seconds before deactivating

Full blind distance from the wall increased to better match the blind distance from the edge of smokes
Snakebite (C)
Equip time decreased 1.1 >>> .8
Practice Tools

In custom games with cheats and infinite abilities enabled, Viper can hold down “activate” on Poison Cloud and Toxic Screen to recall them

In custom games with cheats and infinite abilities enabled, Poison Cloud’s landing location is shown on the minimap while equipped

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YORU

Yoru carries a fantasy that you’ve been excited to see through, but we believe a few restrictions have made it harder to access. Although Yoru is a unique duelist on the roster, both in pace and in playstyle, we think he should still be a strong contender for good compositions and want to ensure the value he offers to his team is more consistent throughout a match. 

Blindside (Q)

Flash activation time decreased 0.8>>> 0.6 seconds

Flash duration increased from 1.1>>>1.5
Gatecrash (E)

Gatecrash is no longer refreshed on kills and is instead replenished every 35 seconds

Lifetime of the Gatecrash fragment increased 20 seconds >>> 30 seconds

The range at which the Gatecrash fragment is revealed from stealth decreased 7m >>> 4m

Visuals for visibility range added to the moving fragment
Dimensional Drift (X)
Ult Points reduced 7 >>> 6
Yoru can now reactivate Gatecrash while in Dimensional Drift

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KILLJOY

Nanoswarm (C)
Killjoy can now pick up deployed Nanoswarm grenades during the buy phase to get the charge back

WEAPON UPDATES

BUCKY

We want to focus the Bucky more on it's actual primary firing mode (left click) and make that the strength you try to optimize when choosing a bucky vs its alternate firing mode (right-click). The right click should be more of a tool you can use when you can't get into that effective left-click range, or you just need some reliable chip damage. The spreads are reduced on both to increase reliability and smooth the damage curve. The alt-fire's significant reduction in pellet count is a trade off to being able to extend the range as much as it does for a shotgun.

  • Primary fire (left-click) bullet spread decreased 3.4 >>> 2.6
  • Decreased spread on Alt-fire (right-click) 3.4 >>> 2.0
  • Updated damage curve for both primary and alt-fire
    • 0m–8m is 20dmg per pellet
    • 8m–12m is 12dmg per pellet
    • Beyond 12m is 9dmg per pellet
  • Reduced amount of pellets in a right click shot from 15 >>> 5

MODES UPDATES

ESCALATION

We’ve taken a pass on a couple abilities to add depth to their gameplay and create some more dynamic combat situations, as well as added some spicy loadout variations to the mix.

Abilities

  • Raze’s Showstopper now comes with two Blast Pack Charges which refill when you touch the ground. Practice those boosts!
  • Snowball Launcher now comes with Skates—the increased mobility should give you an edge against the generally more lethal weapons.
  • Big Knife now comes with one Tailwind (Jett Dash) charge which refills on kill. Close all the gaps!
  • Loadout variations will be a bit of a surprise, and they’ll show up rarely. Let us know which ones you like!

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

  • You can now view a person's career from the in-game Leaderboard
    • We heard some of you asking for the ability to view more info around how the best of the best were doing in their games. So you can now right click on a leaderboard entry and view their career to check out their Match History, see details of their games, and look at their Act Rank progress.
    • If you are on the the Leaderboard, but don’t want to give away who you are, you can leverage our in-client toggle to label yourself a ‘Secret Agent’.

QUALITY OF LIFE

  • To improve legibility, the megamap now consistently uses a mouse pointer instead of a crosshair for map pings

Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF)

What direction did those Raze footsteps come from? Is she moving from in front or behind you? With HRTF on and a pair of headphones, you’ll be able to better pinpoint other players based on certain sounds.

HRTF processing relies on a profile that contains measurements such as head size and ear shape, among other things. This implementation uses a profile based on a single set of measurements, and may not feel natural at first to all listeners depending on how closely the profile matches their own measurements. We encourage users to give HRTF a few tries as it may take some getting used to. Focused ear training outside a high pressure game environment may pay off in better ability to interpret the HRTF processing. We suggest a custom game or training for this! Watch our video demo below.

  • Added an audio toggle located in the Audio settings panel to enable HRTF
    • HRTF allows players wearing headphones to play audio in a simulated surround sound audio space.
    • Currently, only footsteps, reloads, and Deathmatch respawns will be rendered in 3D with HRTF enabled.
    • It’s recommended that players please turn off any other “3D Audio” processing while using this feature.

BUGS

Agents

  • Fixed Raze’s Boombot blowing up when it hit the Spike if she was on defender side
  • Fixed unintentional delay when deactivating Viper’s Poison Orb or Toxic Screen
  • Fixed Yoru’s 1P audio on Gatecrash sometimes playing twice when casting the teleport
  • Fixed issue where it looks like Astra is casting a Star but doesn’t actually create one when targeting close to another Star
  • Fixed issue with Astra’s Star targeting being unreliable on stairs and slopes
  • Fixed players not being removed from possessables when their base Agent is detained
  • Fixed issue where Cypher’s Spycam broke Sage’s Barrier Orb when placed close to it. We see your tricks.
  • Fixed issue where Omen’s targeting world could have Astra’s materials if he had spectated her
  • Fixed Reyna and Yoru taking decay damage while intangible

QoL

  • Fixed an issue where spectating Astra could cause Omen’s Dark Cover Phased World map to display as pink.

Competitive

  • Fixed a bug that was causing Act Rank badges to show your top wins out of order
  • Fixed a bug that was showing the “Hide Act Rank” button when viewing a friend’s career
  • Fixed a bug where Party leaders couldn’t kick Observers from a Custom Game lobby
  • Fixed a bug that caused the last round’s Combat Score to not properly display sometimes

Social

  • Fixed a bug where AFK warnings were not being displayed at the end-of-game screen.
  • Fixed a bug where comms-banned players were not receiving the explanatory message indicating that they will not be able to queue for ranked while the comms ban is in effect
  • A timer has been added to indicate how long until queue restricted players can queue in ranked games again after receiving a penalty
  • Fixed a bug where team voice chat indicators sometimes did not appear at the end of the round
  • Fixed a bug where players previously could not type special characters and certain punctuation in the comment field on the Report a Player menu
  • Fixed a bug where matches that ended through vanguard’s cheater detection would wrongfully penalize innocent players for being AFK
    • We apologize for this and have removed penalties from affected player accounts.