VALORANT’s Patch 9.04 ushers in a new Act in Episode Nine, bringing a heap of new content for you to enjoy and a soft rank reset to freshen up your MMR on the ladder.
Set to go live on Aug. 28, Patch 9.04 marks the start of Episode Nine, Act Two, introducing a new sentinel agent, Vyse, who hones the power of liquid metal to disorient enemies, a new skinline inspired by a dark ritualistic fantasy theme, and the usual new battle pass full of rewards. The patch also brings a few basic changes, and a bunch of bug fixes to improve your experience.
For your reference, here’s the full VALORANT 9.04 patch notes.
What’s new in VALORANT’s Episode Nine, Act Two (Patch 9.04)?
Vyse is here to end all paths
Entering the battlefield as Agent 26, Vyse brings a bunch of unique abilities, giving you a sea of new opportunities. Besides being the first sentinel with the ability to blind opponents, she can jam your enemy’s primary weapons with her ultimate. Definitely a difficult agent to deal with, am I right?
Set to be released in a “staggered rollout” starting from Aug. 28 at 3pm CT, here’s a rundown of her abilities as per the official description:
- Arc Rose: EQUIP an Arc Rose. Target a surface and FIRE to place a stealthed Arc Rose, or ALT Fire to place the Arc Rose through it. REUSE to blind all players looking at it. This ability can be picked up to be REDEPLOYED.
- Shear: EQUIP filaments of liquid metal. FIRE to place a hidden wall trap. When an enemy crosses, an indestructible wall bursts from the ground behind them. The wall lasts for a brief time before dissipating.
- Razorvine: EQUIP a nest of liquid metal. FIRE to launch. Upon landing, the nest becomes invisible. When ACTIVATED, it sprawls out into a large razorvine nest which slows and damages all players who move through it.
- Steel Garden (ULT): EQUIP a bramble of liquid metal. FIRE to send the metal erupting from you as a torrent of metal thorns, JAMMING enemy primary weapons after a brief windup.
A new cheat update for your custom games
If you were using tricks to get unlimited fuel on abilities in your custom VALORANT games all this while, the hard work comes to an end with this update.
Patch 9.04 removes any fuel consumption from Neon’s High Gear, Skye’s Regrowth, and Viper’s Toxic Screen and Poison Cloud when the Unlimited Abilities cheat is activated, adding 100 percent fuel to each one of these abilities.
Gameplay System updates for PC
Patch 9.04 adds adjustments to tactical timeouts rules in Premier and Tournament Mode Custom Games, improving your esports experience within the game.
- Teams now have two tactical timeouts they can call at any time. Previously, teams could call only one tactical timeout per half.
- If the game goes into overtime, each team is given one additional tactical timeout.
Additionally, you can just press the M3 key (instead of Tab+M3) to open up the extra details panel of the combat report.
All console exclusive changes in VALORANT Patch 9.04
Agent changes
Sova
- Hunter’s Fury: There are now reduced spikes in rotational speed after firing each shot of Hunter’s Fury.
Astra
- Cosmic Divide: Cosmic Divide’s wall placement now prioritizes player input, allowing you to better control the placement of the ability.
Map pool changes
You can now play the Split map in Unrated and Swift Play queues.
Competitive changes
You can now access the Season Dropdown for your Act Rank and Leaderboard pages, so you can keep a tab on your Act Rank history.
All bug fixes in VALORANT’s Patch 9.04
A bunch of bugs related to agents, maps, and more were targeted and removed across PC and consoles with Patch 9.04. Here’s a list:
Agent
Skye
- Seekers: Fixed an issue where Seekers would not consume Ultimate Points under certain conditions.
Neon
- High Gear: Fixed an issue where Neon could slide into the barrier at the beginning of a round and get a free slide charge.
KAY/O
- Flash/Drive: Fixed an issue with Flash/Drive showing a second explosion if it is thrown behind a wall.
Gameplay Systems
Combat Report
- Fixed an issue where spike icons would not show on the combat report when killed by spike explosion damage.
- Fixed a minimap issue where parts of the minimap were not covered by Nearsight abilities if the player leaves the area they were affected in (such as using the Bind teleporters).
- Fixed an issue where the scoreboard would show a white box icon on a disconnected player if they disconnected from the game.
Maps
Abyss
- Fixed several areas around Mid and A Site to prevent agent abilities from going through walls.
- Updated the pre-round barriers around the edges of the map to be more visible.
- Updated an area around B Main to prevent agents camping spots out of bounds.
Icebox
- Fixed a geometry gap in A Main.
Lotus
- Fixed a visual issue where agents were floating next to the rope when using the ascender line.
New Player Tutorial
- Adjusted and fixed lighting around the New Player Experience Haven level.
All PC only bug fixes in Patch 9.04
Premier
- Fixed an issue where the schedule would sometimes scroll inconsistently when collapsing/expanding weeks
All console only bug fixes in Patch 9.04
General
- Fixed an issue that could cause you to be unable to swap to your Primary or Secondary weapon on the Traditional Control preset.
- Fixed an issue where the ability bar icons would be misaligned when unbound.
- Fixed an issue where incorrect text prompts could appear during a surrender vote.
- Fixed an issue where D-Pad and Stick inputs could change toggleable settings.
Competitive
- Fixed an issue where ranked updates in Match History page sometimes did not display.
- Fixed an issue where viewing players on the Leaderboard would display a missing player card.
- Fixed an issue where side elements in the Leaderboard page could not be navigated to after leaving a game.
- Fixed an issue where an observer would see an empty summary screen after finishing a custom game.
- Fixed an issue where the last match when viewing a friend’s career would be incorrect
Gameplay Systems
Combat Report
- Fixed an issue with Combat Reports flickering after respawning in Team Deathmatch.
- Fixed an issue with Combat Reports overlapping with the Victory/Defeat ceremony if the player is dead at the final round.
- Fixed a bug with Combat Reports not showing up after force closing the game and reconnecting to the match.
Check out the official patch notes here.
