A nice round number patch in VALORANT means a new episode: Patch 9.00 will deploy on Tuesday, June 25, and kick off the game’s ninth episode.
VALORANT Patch 9.00 will be the first patch featuring the new staggered content release schedule. Balance changes will still go live on Tuesday, but new episodic content like the battle pass and the new ranked act will officially arrive on Wednesday. This is also the first patch to feature a number of fixes and improvements for the VALORANT console beta.
What’s coming in VALORANT Patch 9.00?
Iso balancing
After the massive changes to duelists agents in VALORANT Patch 8.11 drastically improved the power and playability of Iso, a much-needed balance update has been applied to Iso in Patch 9.00, nerfing his Double Tap shield ability.
- Double Tap’s base duration has been reduced from 20 seconds to 12 seconds.
- Double Tap will no longer reset after securing two kills.
With this change, the only way to extend Double Tap’s duration now is to shoot the orbs that spawn from a kill or assist while the ability is active.
Competitive and Premier changes: Abyss arrival, Path to Pro, and console queue
A slew of new changes are coming to the game’s ranked modes. Abyss has been added to the active competitive map pool with this update, though it will not officially arrive in the Premier map pool until Patch 9.02 is released.
VALORANT‘s “Path to Pro” is now officially open, with the Invite division now live in Premier. Contender teams that earned a promotion at the end of this past act will be promoted directly to Invite. Going forward, the Invite division will serve as the official entry way into VCT Challengers qualifiers.
Finally, Competitive is now live on consoles. The current competitive map pool on console contains Abyss, Ascent, Bind, Haven, and Sunset. New maps, like Lotus and Icebox, will be added slowly over the next few patches.
Console gameplay and system improvements
Console players will now have access to a “Controls preset” selection screen when first booting the game, allowing them to choose between various presets before jumping into the tutorial.
The following updates have been made specifically to VALORANT on console:
- Polished sound transitions between Focus and ADS to better reflect the aim state you’re transitioning into.
- Updated crosshair presets to reflect a better variety of usable crosshairs.
- Updated the Fighter controls preset so that Crouch is a Hold action instead of a Toggle action.
- Added holistic Aim Sensitivity slider.
- Added the ability to enter precision mode while in controls settings to adjust sensitivity sliders by .1 increments.
All VALORANT Patch 9.00 bug fixes
Agents
- Console: Fixed an issue with Jett’s Tailwind (diagonal dash) that was reducing the dash length.
Competitive systems
- Console: Fixed an issue in Team Deathmatch where you would incorrectly see DRAW as a final result in end-of-game screens.
- Console: Added specific scoreboard screens for Team Deathmatch and Deathmatch.
Gameplay systems
- Fixed a particle issue when using ADS on the Level three and four Mystbloom collection.
- Fixed an issue when exiting Cypher’s Spycam that caused Cypher’s hands to stutter for Spectators.
- Console: Fixed issue where Focus and ADS sounds would play during transitions.
- Console: Fixed Leave Game menu persisting through AFK idling.
- Console: Fixed animation bug with Leave Game Menu.
Maps
- Abyss: Fixed several unintended boost positions.
- Abyss: Fixed bugs allowing players to get under the map.
- Abyss: A Site cover should now properly appear in Omen and Astra smoke targeting world.
- Abyss: Fixed an Omen exploit allowing him to get between the spawn barriers.
Social
- Console: Fixed an issue where the friends list would sometimes display inaccurate platform information for friends.
