Valorant's Fracture to receive quality-of-life updates in future patches: Neutral Space, A-Site tweaks and more

Fans will be pleased to know that Riot Games is finally planning to renovate Valorant's Fracture map and make it balanced for both attackers as well as defenders. Some important locations like the A-Site and the dish at the back of the A-Site are confirmed to receive quality-of-life changes, as one of the prominent members of Valorant's map design team revealed.

Valorant received its seventh map, Fracture, with the introduction of Episode 3 Act 2, letting fans experience the vibe of a research facility in ruins. The new map promotes a concoction of close and long-range fights, in addition to unexpected ambushes. Popular opinion suggests that Fracture heavily favors the T-side, and as a result, many fans have demanded changes to it for a long time now.

The design team strives to keep things balanced for players by frequently adding changes to existing maps. However, Fracture has been in the game for almost a year now, and this is the first time the developers seem to be planning any major rework for the map.

Valorant's map pool holds eight maps, out of which seven are currently in rotation. One of the beta maps, Split, was removed after the addition of Pearl, the last addition to the game. As the developers mentioned during the start of Episode 5, Split may return to the rotation later, with a few changes here and there.

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What changes will Fracture possibly receive in Valorant?

As disclosed in a TikTok post by the official Valorant handle, the team is working to "flip the Neutral Space" for Fracture. Joe Lansford, the Design Lead on Valorant's Maps and Modes, also took the liberty to explain what Neutral Space is and how Fracture's current state is making it hard for defenders.

"Neutral Space is the territory between each each team's half of the map. So, attackers kind of own their attacker spawn area, defenders own the sites and that kind of half the map. And, there's generally the space in between, that sort of nebulous."

As Lansford further explained, defenders on Fracture get centered from both sites, leaving them with little to no options. The team is planning to flip the Neutral Space, making it easier for defenders to hold sites or flank. Once the changes are deployed, it is expected they will feature more control over the space they have.

While some exciting details were teased, Lansford didn't mention a release window for the changes. However, the changes are officially confirmed to be happening, sooner or later, via future patches.

As of now, Fracture remains one of the community's least favorite maps alongside Pearl and Breeze. It seems like it is high time the design team looked into the players' feedback for this year-old but highly-promising map.