The new FPS goliath that is Valorant continues to chug along through its closed beta phase. Late last month, Riot Games released update 0.49 that saw the introduction of Competitive mode as well as a significant number of tweaks and quality of life features. Now, a new update is on the horizon that takes aim at the game’s rifles, as well as offering numerous agent changes and bug fixes.

Riot Games recently took to its Valorant website to offer up the full patch notes for update 0.50. Announced today, the update firstly removed the “walking accuracy” state when players transition from running to a full stop. Riot is also improving deadzone accuracy, effectively meaning that it’s easier to get an accurate shot out more quickly upon coming to said full stop.

Rifles are easily the main subject of Valorant update 0.50, with Riot offering up changes to the Vandal, Phantom, the Guardian, and the Bulldog’s automatic fire rate.The game’s two machine guns have also received some significant buffs given that they’ve been underperforming in combat.

There’s a lot to go over in regards to the agent updates, so I’ll let the patch notes speak for themselves:

VALORANT – AGENT UPDATES

SAGE

• Slow Orb zone duration decreased from 9 seconds to 7 seconds
• Slow Orb slowing amount decreased from 65% to 50%
  • We all know Sage is OP.  We’ve decided to try to reduce some of her stopping power while still allowing her to fulfill her role as the premier staller in VALORANT.  These changes aim to reduce the overall efficacy of her Slow Orb, especially if they are chained back-to-back.

Cypher

• Cyber Cage no longer slows enemies that move through it
  • We’ve always envisioned Cypher as a premier sentinel gathering info on his enemies and picking them off, but the slow on the cage was allowing him to move into Sage’s territory by stalling an entire enemy team. We still think this will be a tool he uses to buy some time, but enemies will now have more options when pushing his defensenes, especially when coordinated.
• Spycam cooldown when destroyed increased 30 >> 45 seconds
  • Spycams have been flying into enemy territory like Sova darts at the start of rounds because the punishment for losing one to an enemy is so low. Hopefully this change pushes you to find a safe hiding place for your initial camera (please not inside a box).

OMEN

• Dark Cover smoke duration increased 12 >> 15 seconds
• Dark Cover smoke projectile speed increased
• Dark Cover cooldown increased 30 >> 35 seconds
  • Especially at high-tier play, we’ve seen Brimstone become the dominant controller and we wanted to give his peers a boost to make them more viable while hopefully maintaining their unique playstyles.

VIPER

• Snake Bite radius increased 350 >> 450
  • We’re increasing Snake Bite’s radius to match other area denial abilities

BRIMSTONE/PHOENIX/VIPER 

• We see you b-hoppers out there, jumping through Incendiary, Fireball, and Snake Bite while taking no damage. We don’t want to completely negate this skill but we also don’t want it to trivialize a whole set of character abilities.
  • Height required to jump out of all damaging area denial abilities 80 >> 120
  • Snake Bite, Fireball, and Incendiary damage tick speed increased (total damage per second unchanged)

AGENT ABILITY CREDIT COST TUNING

• We felt the credit cost of some abilities did not match the impact those abilities brought to a match, and made adjustments for a more accurate reflection
  • Sage Barrier Orb increased from 300 to 400 credits
  • Raze Blast Pack increased from 100 to 200 credits
  • Phoenix Curveball increased from 100 to 200 credits
  • Brimstone’s Incendiary increased from 200 to 300 credits
  • Jett’s Updraft reduced from 200 to 100 credits

AGENT ARMOR

• Armor carried over from prior rounds is no longer destroyed when new armor is purchased, allowing you to sell newly purchased armor and return to your previous armor status (instead of having no armor)

MAX CREDIT CAP

• Total credit cap is is reduced from 12,000 to 9,000
  • We’re noticing that players/teams who manage to bank a high amount of credits are maintaining a rich economic state for too long, and it becomes a monumental challenge for the opposing team to dethrone their economy

Full patch notes for Valorant update 0.50 can be found right here. Valorant is now in closed beta on PC.

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