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Valorant patch 8.01 comes out at varying times on January 24, 2024, depending on your region. This is the second update of the year and includes balance updates to Skye, Iso, and Raze. There will also be a small update to Breeze included in this patch, alongside regular performance and bug fixes.
This article covers everything that will be altered in the new update of Riot Games' character-based tactical shooter.
Valorant patch 8.01 official notes: All changes coming on January 24, 2024
1) Agent updates in Valorant patch 8.01
Skye
Developer comments: In the latter half of 2023, Skye became an increasingly dominant force within the Initiator role and began to clearly overshadow her peers in pick rate both in solo queue and coordinated play. Her core ability, Guiding Light (E), has been a main factor in her prominence, as it offers strong combat advantage, valuable recon and provided Skye with the only recharging flash amongst the Initiators. While we like Skye’s position having a mix of flash and recon and the diversity that can be brought to team comps, she’s lacked clear downsides to balance out this broad power.
These changes are centered around pushing Skye to be more intentional with Guiding Light (E). They should create a clearer opportunity cost when taking Skye in comps while also maintaining her uniquely powerful combination of combat advantage and recon within the Initiator role. We hope this update will land Skye in a spot where she is still viable in solo queue and coordinated play, but give room for other flash Agents to thrive. We'll be sure to keep a close eye to see if further changes are needed.
Guiding Light (E)
- Guiding Light no longer regenerates charges during a round.
- Guiding Light now automatically activates the flash at the end of its lifetime.
Developer comments: Removing the recharge on Guiding Light (E) sharpens the decision point of when to commit one throughout the round and balances the power of it providing both combat advantage and recon as a signature. This should create clear tradeoffs with use cases like early round info gathering and push Skye to be more deliberate while maintaining her unique optionality.
Skye’s flash activating at the end of the duration pushes her to be more intentional when throwing fake flashes while also making it easier for Skye to fly Guiding Light (E) to its max distance and still get its output.
Seekers (X)
- When a Seeker gets close to its target, the target player will now get a yellow directional warning indicator.
Developer comments: In the 6.07 patch, we removed the yellow warning indicators that appeared for people who were being chased by a close Seeker (X). We’re adding the indicators back in to make interactions with Seekers (X) more clear in chaotic engagements.
Iso
Developer comments: We’re updating Iso to push the agency and combat advantage that you get from Double Tap (E).
Double Tap (E)
- Vision radius reduced 180 degrees >>> 100 degrees
- Added a representation of the Turret’s vision cone on Killjoy’s minimap when placing the Turret.
- Added VFX and updated the Turret’s animations to communicate the Turret’s new vision radius.
Developer comments: The increase to energy orb duration provides a slightly larger time window to deal with threats around you and still get your shield. Increasing the buff and shield duration should give you slightly more time to find the right engagements to take. Reduction in the visual width of the Double Tap (E) shield should increase the combat advantage you have when entering space by providing enemies less telegraph that you are swinging around the corner.
Contingency (C)
- Cost reduced 250 >>> 200
Developer comments: We’ve reduced the cost of Contingency to better reflect the value we see it generating in game.
Raze
Developer comments: With her Blast Pack (Q), Raze is often able to traverse a vast amount of space and suddenly become a threat to enemies. This audio update is meant to make it clearer when Raze is potentially Blast Packing (Q) into your area, especially when a lot of other action is going on at the same time.
Blast Pack (Q)
- Audio for Raze traveling through the air with Blast Pack is now louder when she is traveling towards you
2) Map updates in Valorant patch 8.01
Breeze
A Hall reopened
- We’re still observing and gathering feedback on the most recent Breeze changes. We’ve been satisfied with the simplifications to A Main, Mid and B Site. However, we’ve noticed that attacking can feel overly restrictive due to the changes in addition to the closure of A Hall. As a result, we’re reopening A Hall to give attackers more options while retaining the rest of the changes to the map.
Before
After
3) Gameplay system updates in Valorant patch 8.01
Projectile Jump Throw Normalization
Developer comments: We have implemented a feature to make jump throw lineup behavior more consistently reproducible. If you press the throw projectile input within 100 ms of jump start, the projectile will consistently have the same amount of velocity imparted from the thrower and as a result land consistently in the same location.
Most existing jump throw lineups should still behave as they have in the past while being more consistent in output. In some cases, some minor adjustments may need to be made.
HRTF
Developer comments: HRTF will now be enabled if ticked and using Stereo speaker configuration.
4) Performance updates in Valorant patch 8.01
- Improved boot and match load times by optimizing file IO performance.
5) Player behaviour updates in Valorant patch 8.01
Developer comments: Added additional details to our behavioral messaging system in order to improve clarity and visibility into our Terms of Service and our Penalties and Bans FAQ.
6) Bug fixes in Valorant patch 8.01
Agents
Gekko
- Fixed a bug where occasionally Thrash's (X) explosion was blocked from affecting enemies due to corners of geometry.
Iso
- After eliminating practice bots in the Range, Iso’s energy orbs will now spawn. They will still not spawn in Shooting Tests.
Reyna
- After eliminating practice bots in the Range, Reyna’s Soul Orbs will now spawn. They will still not spawn in Shooting Tests.
Gameplay Systems
- Fixed an issue when transitioning from inspect to scope using the Outlaw.
- Fixed bullet tracers with Chamber’s Tour De Force (X) and the Operator when penetrating through corners.
- Fixed a minimap visual issue where when you first load into a match, it showed a similar VFX to Omen’s From The Shadows (X).
- Fixed an issue where the Spike’s white circle indicator on the minimap did not appear when Spike was dropped on the edge of someone’s minimap.
Maps
Breeze
- Fixed a bug where the A Hall Door was starting in the open position.
Lotus
- Fixed a bug where you could stand on top of the crumbled pillar on C Site.
Icebox
- Fixed a bug where you could stand on the container in B Green.
Split
- Fixed a bug where you could stand on a vent in B Garage.
Modes
Team Deathmatch
- Fixed a bug where, if the Outlaw was picked up from a weapon spawner, it had no reserve ammunition.
Premier
- Fixed a bug that was causing Premier Standings to not load your zone/division the first time you click into it.
- Fixed a bug that was causing teams to not appear on the Standings tab right after their Season Match.
