Valorant patch 4.08 official notes: Fade goes live, massive Neon buffs, Sova nerfs, and more

Valorant patch 4.08 will finally drop in a few hours, and the new update will bring Episode 4 Act 3 with it, along with the new Turkish Initiator, Fade.

Additionally, nerfs will be hitting both Sova and Jett, while Neon is in for some massive nerfs this time around.

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There will be some competitive changes to 5-Stack Queues as well, as Riot Games is looking to make matchmaking a bit more balanced for Ranked.

For a brief overview, here are all the major highlights.

Valorant patch 4.09 official notes

1) New Agent

Fade

The new Turkish Initiator will finally be dropping with Valorant patch 4.08

2) Valorant Agent changes

Jett

Tailwind

Upon pressing E, Jett consumes her Tailwind charge and after a .75 second delay, activates a 12-second window where she’s able to dash on next key press
Jett’s Tailwind charge can still be regained with 2 kills
To keep parity with the changes to Jett dash, the functionality for Dash during Knife rounds in Escalation will be adjusted

Neon

General

Battery energy received upon killing an enemy increased 25%>>>100%

High Gear

Slide cannot be cast during equip delay
Velocity restriction removed
Neon can now slide sideways and forward, and only requires that she is moving
Energy drain increased 6.7/s>>>10/s

Fast Lane

Wall damage removed
This change is intended to push Fast Lane into a more attractive option for Neon, or for an ally by preventing the disruptive portion of doing incidental damage and by adding a bit of safety moving forward.

Sova

Owl Drone

Duration reduced 10s >>> 7s
Health reduced 125 >>> 100
Dart Reveal
Number of reveal pings reduced 3 >>> 2
Initial delay before first ping reveals increased 1.2s >>> 1.6s*
*Delay between the first and second ping remains 1.2s

Quality of Life

Changed crosshair color to green to better stand out against the white HUD
Removed delay on [Target Hit] confirmation text
[Target Hit] confirmation text now remains on the player HUD when transitioning out of Owl Drone.
[Target Hit] confirmation text now remains on screen for 2s, previously 1s
Adjusted audio on drone dart hits for both Sova, and the player hit, to make confirmations more noticeable
Fixed a bug with Owl Drone, where the Dart Cooldown UI element would not properly update after tagging an opponent.

Shock Dart

Max Damage decreased 90 >>> 75
Radial damage has been scaled in accordance with new max damage.

Agent Ability Ammo

Jett’s Bladestorm, Raze’s Showstopper, and Sova’s Hunter’s Fury will now show how much ammo they have left when equipped

3) Competitive Updates

5-Stack Queues

Reduced Rank Rating gain/loss penalty for different 5-stack configurations
Tuned matchmaking to reduce wait time for 5-stacks

If EVERYONE in the player party is Iron–Diamond 2:

No RR penalty if within normal grouping
25% RR penalty for all players if any player falls outside of normal grouping

If ANYONE in the player party is Diamond 3–Immortal 3 (but no one in your party is Radiant)

25% RR penalty for all players

If ANYONE in the player party is Radiant

75% RR penalty for all players

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4) Bugs

Agents

Fixed a bug where Jett could find herself unable to use abilities or weapons when using Tailwind immediately after depleting her Bladestorm daggers
Fixed a bug where Yoru could teleport out of bounds when using Gatecrash
Fixed various exploits allowing Yoru to use weapons before fully decloaking at the end of his ultimate

Performance