Riot Games shooter Valorant is out now on PC and is updated with a new patch that affects Agents, Game Modes, Maps and more.
Riot Games has released the notes of the new patch 1.01 coming to its shooter, Valorant, to apply slight changes to agents such as Sage (who was currently in Tier S), adjustments to improve game performance and homogenize the combat experience, in addition to add greater compatibility with high-end computers. The new game mode “Spike Fever” also receives an additional selection of orbs, such as a “golden weapon orb”, which will allow us to kill any enemy with a single shot. We tell you everything in detail below.
Changes in gameplay and balance experience – Sage
Because Sage had too high an amount of power currently, since Riot they have decided to nerfize it somewhat to adjust it to the rest of the shooter’s agents and level the value of all of them. Specifically, the range of the Barrier Orb is reduced: from 20m to 10m. They detail that in his sentinel role, “Sage should be more effective in defending terrain that his team has already managed to control.” To adjust this parameter, they have decided to reduce the scope of the Barrier Orb, as long as it continues to be powerful when defending but is somewhat less effective when making aggressive plays.
Map updates
Valorant maps only get a few minor tweaks to polish specific points, such as the bug that caused weapons to fall through terrain and wall penetration issues in Ascent (now fixed). Additionally, the names of some announcements have been modified to better match player terminology on all maps.
“Fever of the Spike” update
Spike Fever games now include a random selection of 5 orbs. Also, the orb that charges the ultimate will always be among them, while the other 4 orbs will be randomly selected from the remaining 7 variants. As for the selected orbs, they will be shown in a list of descriptions that will appear in the agent selection and during the pre-round.
New types of orbs
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Orb of Life: Instantly regenerates all equipment, lasting 20s and 12 health per second (3 per pulse). The visual and sound effects will only activate when the player is healing.
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Orb of Deception: Apply Paranoia to the entire enemy team 3s after being captured. It is 10s long and greatly reduces the visual field (and slightly displaces it). Affected players will hear false footsteps and gunshots, in addition to disabling the minimap.
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Golden Weapon Orb: Grants the player who is captured a golden weapon that kills with one shot, does not lose precision when firing, makes the wielder move at the same speed as with the razor, has a single bullet in the magazine and two spare and get an extra bullet by getting a murder.
Other performance changes and updates
On the other hand, a new HUD element has been added during the pre-round that shows the types of weapons and orbs that can appear during the round. In addition, from this patch 1.01 players get a point of the final when collecting any orb. As for updates to the overall performance of Valorant, from Riot they detail that this version focuses on improving performance during combat and adapting to high-end PCs by increasing the average rate of available FPS.
Quality improvements and bug fixes
- Sova’s recon dart will behave more consistently and will only reveal the part of the enemies behind a wall.
- An option has been added that allows inventory to be displayed at all times.
- Alerts will no longer stay fixed on allied and enemy models when launched behind them.
- The transition screen at the end of the game will now show the map you just played on instead of Brimstone and Sage walking towards a teleporter.
- On the firing range, the agent change now uses a lighter and better performing UI than required for normal games.
- End-of-game screen missions will now appear organized by progress and type.
- Minor visual enhancements have been made to contract and battle pass rewards that appear in the progression bar at the top of the screen.
As for the solution of certain minor errors, they focus on elements that affect certain agents and their abilities such as Reyna, Cypher and Sova, in addition to correcting others that affect specific menu parameters, HUD and others. To cite a couple of examples:
- Cypher’s “Cyber Prison” no longer prevents Bind’s teleporter doors from closing
- The area of effect indicators for Sova Recon Projectile and Reyna’s Lascivious Gaze are now only displayed on the enemy mini-map if there is a member of that team near the affected area.
Source: Riot Games (Play Valorant)
