VALORANT Patch Notes 9.02

Basic Training comes to PC, Icebox comes to Console.
Game Updates
Jo-Ellen “Riot JoEllen” Aragon

Hey, y’all. It’s Jo-Ellen and I’m here once more with Patch Notes 9.02.

What you’ll see below: a Player Behavior update whether you’re on Console or PC, an updated Combat Report and Basic Training now available for PC, and Icebox entering the scene on Console.

One last note: ready for Pick’Ems?

ALL PLATFORMS

PLAYER BEHAVIOR UPDATES

  • Behavioral Intervention Update: People who engage in comms abuse will experience increased penalties.

BUG FIXES

Agents

  • Neon
    • Fixed a bug where Neon’s hitbox could be slightly offset while sliding.

Gameplay Systems

  • Fixed an issue in Premier Overtime voting that prevented people from calling an Overtime Timeout when switching sides.
  • Fixed an issue with Ability HUD persisting into deathcam.

Maps

  • Abyss
    • Fixed several areas where the Spike could get stuck on certain ledges outside the map.
    • Fixed a bug where Omen could die by teleporting in a specific spot in Mid Bottom.
    • Several Visual Bugs fixed.
  • Sunset
    • You can no longer jump on the tall box in A Alley.

PC

GENERAL UPDATES

  • We have made the new Basic Training (tutorial) and The Range from Console available on PC!
    • All new players will be required to play through the tutorial, and will have an option to play a Bot Training Match.
    • For current players, you can access the Basic Training and The Range by going to the Practice menu.

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS UPDATES

  • Combat Report
    • Visual refresh! The in-game combat report has a new look.
    • Combat Report will now be visible during the Buy Phase by default. You will still be able to toggle it on and off during this phase.

PREMIER UPDATES

  • Playoffs in Contender and Invite Divisions have a best of 3 finals. Rounds prior to finals are best of 1.
    • Map pick and ban takes place before agent select for each game in a match.
    • Once a map is played, it is removed from the map pool for subsequent games in the match.
  • Added playoff qualification rules in the side panel on the standings page.

SOCIAL UPDATES

  • Added platform information in the social panel. It is now clearer when a friend who is playing VALORANT is on a different platform.

BUG FIXES

  • Premier
    • Fixed an issue where the playoff results text on the standings page was always displayed in English.
    • Fixed an issue where the team page was showing the wrong background.
    • Fixed an issue where changing the Stage in the dropdown on the standings page sometimes wouldn’t refresh the content.

KNOWN ISSUES

  • Gameplay Systems
    • Combat Report additional details window is missing headers for “Weapon / Ability,” “Damage,” and “Hits”. This will be resolved in an upcoming release.
  • Premier
    • During a tournament, sometimes the rest period timer between matches may not display.
      • If the text on the lobby says “MATCH STARTING” and a match has not started after 10 seconds, try navigating to the Premier tab and back to the lobby to get an updated timer.
      • Even if this timer doesn’t display, your match will still start at the appropriate time. You will still receive the MATCH FOUND notification.
      • You will always have at least 5 minutes in between matches. This time may be longer if you’re waiting on a match to finish in order to determine your next opponent.

CONSOLE

GENERAL UPDATES

  • The ‘Keep Player Centered’ minimap setting will now be forced on for minimap zoom levels above 1.0. This prevents non-centered minimap views from getting into an unusable state for high zoom levels.

AGENT UPDATES

  • Toggleable Abilities: Select abilities which require you to press and hold a button down can now be set to ‘Toggle,’ allowing you to press and let go of the input to steer the ability freely while it’s active.
    • The following abilities can be set to Togglable in the Agent Profile Settings:
      • Harbor: High Tide
      • Phoenix: Fire Wall
      • Skye: Guiding Light
  • Neon
    • High Gear
      • High Gear’s description in the Ability Info Panel has been updated to match the ability’s bindings.
  • Sova
    • Hunter’s Fury
      • Hunter’s Fury applies less drag on your controls, allowing more control over the charge’s duration.

MAP UPDATES

  • Icebox enters Competitive, Unrated, Swift Play, and Deathmatch queues.

SOCIAL UPDATES

  • The in-match scoreboard now has voice control shortcuts. You can now open the scoreboard and press a button to quickly mute other people or switch voice channels.
  • Added audio to social notifications. Now when you receive a friend request or party invite you’ll hear a notification sound.
  • Added party information to the social panel. The friends list now shows the number of people in your friend’s party and the remaining open party slots.

BUG FIXES

General

  • Fixed an issue where you can lose input when interfacing with the surrender vote system.
  • Fixed an issue where unbound inputs displayed incorrect controller bindings.
  • Fixed issue where megamap sometimes rotated when spectating other people after dying.
  • Credits are now localized properly in the tutorial.
  • Fixed an issue where the weapon wheel was not displaying the correct inputs when changing controls in individual Agent Profiles.

Gameplay Systems

  • Fixed an update with timestamp and ability status text overlapping in Combat Reports.
  • Fixed “Self” and “Ally” not localizing in Combat Report text.
  • Fixed overrun texts in Combat Reports for Indonesian localized texts.

Performance

  • Fixed a performance issue when changing controller presets.

Social

  • Fixed a bug where you could not remove someone as a friend while in match.
  • Fixed a bug where your presence sometimes would not update after a match.
  • Fixed a bug where social systems would sometimes not respect block.
  • Fixed a bug where your name would sometimes display in match even when you have set it to hidden.

Weapons

  • Mitigated an issue when using scoped weapons where your sensitivity would sharply increase at the beginning of scope zoom-in transitions.

KNOWN ISSUES

  • General
    • While playing through the Basic Training Event, the “End of Game” Basic Training Event banner in the Progression Hub will show your current milestone as +1 instead of +2 after you complete the second milestone. It is correct everywhere else in the client and people are still earning XP. This will be fixed in Patch 9.03.