Valorant Patch Notes For 1.09 Update Reveal Major Viper Changes

The full patch notes for Valorant‘s 1.09 update have been revealed, and they include notable nerfs and buffs for some of the game’s top Agents and weapons.

Let’s start with the game’s Agents. Viper is arguably the biggest beneficiary of this update as she receives what essentially feels like a soft rework. She’ll now start each round with 100 fuel capacity (up from 50) and the debuff applied by her Snake Bite ability now remains for two seconds after the player leaves the field of acid. Additionally, her movement speed will be doubled when she casts her Viper’s Pit ability and she’ll now be able to much more quickly equip a weapon following a successful cast of that same ability.

Jett has also been altered quite a bit, though her changes ultimately amount to a nerf. For instance, the time between her burst fire attacks has been increased while the headshot damage multiplier on her burst attacks has been decreased from 3x to 2x. The burst fire ability of her daggers is now subject to a damage falloff effect which should reduce her ability to effectively use it as a long-range tool.

Other Agent alterations are relatively minor. The firing rate on Reyna’s Empress ability has been reduced, while the fire rate of Brimstone’s Stim Beacon received a small buff. Omen’s Paranoia ability has been updated to be more visually identifiable, though the team notes that they are monitoring the ability in case additional alterations are required.

Weapons-wise, the Operator has essentially been reworked in such a way that Riot hopes will increase “counterplay around high-mobility Operator play” and make it so that the weapon is still effective for peeking corners while not being so effective that it allows its users to duck in and out of safety with little room for punishment. The team has also implemented a universal weapon change that will make weapons more inaccurate for a longer period of time as players are recovering from a jump animation.

For more information on the latest Valorant patch (including bug fixes) be sure to check out the full breakdown of the recent update.

Valorant has had an interesting debut period. While the game seemingly hasn’t reached mainstream appeal (possibly due to its status as a PC only experience) the game’s mechanics have been well-received by veteran FPS fans who praise its tactical gameplay and fairly consistent updates. Overall, it’s been a successful experiment by Riot as they look to grow beyond their image as the “League of Legends studio.”