Recent Valorant datamined leaks reveal potential new prototype for Yoru’s Fakeout ability

Valorant players are eagerly waiting for changes in the Japanese duelist agent, Yoru, who has suffered a non-viable pick rate for a long time.

Yoru has been heavily criticized by the Valorant community for its lack of capability to take direct fights or cause damage to enemies like other Valorant duelist agents. His ability toolkit mostly allows him to gather intel, which is most suitable for the initiator class in Valorant. Moreover, a pick rate of 4.3% in Valorant with a 46.5% win rate was reported in Episode 3 Act 1, according to Blitz.gg.

Recently, after the Riot Games announcement about the changes being “indefinitely delayed” on patch note 3.03 release day, fans were quite disappointed. Valorant character producer John Goscicki said:

“Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the team is going to have to indefinitely delay the Yoru updates...We’re in a situation at the moment where certain resources needed to do this work are unavailable to us. As soon as we get a clearer picture of when we can ship these changes, you’ll be the first to know. Sincere apologies to everyone who has been looking forward to these.”

However, a Valorant dataminer, Shiick recently discovered a new prototype for Yoru’s C ability, i.e., Fakeout.

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Riot Games might rework on Yoru’s Fakeout ability in Valorant

Yoru’s abilities are mostly based on intel gathering, which makes the agent less of a duelist. This is one of the reasons behind his low pick rate in Valorant, especially when compared to other duelist agents like Jett, Raze, Reyna and Pheonix.

So um. I could be totally wrong about it and make me a fool, but, a new prototype for Yoru's C ability was added to the game. Appears to be named "Clone_Nearsight", probably related to the fake steps rework. Though once again, I could be totally wrong about it.

— Shiick (@Shiick) August 13, 2021

Yoru’s Fakeout (C) ability creates fake footsteps, which is not very effective in most of the scenarios. This is because of the unrealistic sound effect created due to this ability, which can easily be distinguished from real ones. However, a new prototype, discovered by Shiick, named “Clone_Nearsight" can be a rework of Yoru’s Fakeout ability.

Nothing more about the the “Clone_Nearsight" or Yoru updates has been discovered yet. This is merely speculation, and nothing has been officially confirmed by the Riot Games. However, a rework on Yoru's abilities will help in increasing the agent's pick rate.