Major changes have arrived in Valorant. The July 22 Valorant 3.0 update brings new agent KAY/O into the game, but also adds far more sweeping changes to almost all weapons and agents. Keen to know more? We’ve summarized the key details below, along with providing the full Valorant 3.0 patch notes for the June 22 update.
Valorant 3.0 patch notes - June 22 update
© Riot
The biggest addition in Valorant’s 3.0 patch is KAY/O, a new robot agent who excels at entering sites and shutting down opponents’ powers. His toolkit includes a suppression spike, a flashbang grenade, and an Ultimate which allows him to be revived after falling on the field.
Sweeping changes have been introduced to the agents and weapons too. Almost all guns have been reduced in cost by around 50-200 Credits, but the infamous Judge shotgun has been pushed up from 1,600 Creds to 1,850 Creds. And yes, you can now spend credits in increments of 50.
Conversely, almost all agent abilities have been increased in cost. Jett suffered a particularly heavy nerf, with her Ultimate increased in cost by one pip, and her Tailwind dash no longer breaking Cypher tripwires.
With pricier abilities and cheaper weapons, it’s clear that Riot wants to push an increased focus on gunplay over mass ability executions. On top of that, nerfs have been made to run-and-gun accuracy, so no more complaining when that enemy Reyna perfectly jiggle peeks you.
Here are the full Valorant 3.0 patch notes for June 22, from Riot Games:
Agent updates
All agents
- Signature abilities now only provide a minimum of one charge per round instead of accumulating a charge every round.
- For example, if you have a two charge signature ability and you end the round with one charge remaining, you will not gain an additional charge
- Charges gained from cooldowns are now always temporary
- Visibility returns faster during the fadeout period of all flashes
Astra
- Nova Pulse (Q)
- Cooldown time increased 12 >>> 25
- Gravity Well (C)
- Cooldown time increased 12 >>> 25
- Stars/Astral Form (X)
- Stars are now inactive when placed during the buy phase
- When the barriers drop, her Stars charge for 1.4 seconds before becoming active and usable.
- On Attack, Astra can now see the Spike’s location in Astral form
- This representation does not animate so it will not provide additional info on the status of the Spike.
- Recall cooldown increased 8 >>> 15
- Granted signature charges decreased 2 >>> 1
- Star cost decreased 200 >>>150
Breach
- Flashpoint (Q)
- Total charges reduced 3 >>> 2
- Cost increased 200 >>> 250
- Projectile speed decreased 2500 >>>2000
- Fault Line (E)
- Full charge time decreased 1.5 >>> 1 second
- Width increased 600 >>> 750
- Telegraph windup time decreased 1.3 >>> 1
- Concussion duration increased 3 >>> 3.5
- Unequip time after firing decreased 1 >>> .7
- Cooldown time increased 35 >>> 40
- After Shock (C)
- Now explodes 3 times with each blast dealing 60 damage with no fall off, blasts are .6 seconds apart
- Explosion radius increased 260 >>> 300
- Unuequip time after firing decreased 1.1 >>> .9 seconds
- Cost increased 100 >>> 200
- Rolling Thunder (X)
- Width of all explosions increased to 2300, which was the previous width of the final explosion
Brimstone
- Incendiary (Q)
- Cost increased 200 >>> 250
Cypher
- Neural Theft (X)
- Ultimate points required decreased 7 >>> 6
Jett
- Updraft (Q)
- Cost increased 100 >>> 150
- Tailwind (E)
- No longer breaks Cypher’s Trapwire
- Cloudburst (C)
- Cost increased 100 >>> 200
- Bladestorm (X)
- Ultimate points required increased 6 >>> 7
Killjoy
- Alarmbot (Q)
- Cooldown after pickup increased 7 >>> 20
- Turret (E)
- Cooldown after pickup increased 10 >>> 20
Omen
- Paranoia (Q)
- Cost decreased 400 >>> 300
- Dark Cover (E)
- Granted signature charges reduced 2 >>> 1
- Omen now must buy his second smoke for 100
- Cooldown time increased 35 >>> 40
- Shrouded Step (C)
- Cost increased 100 >>> 150
Phoenix
- Curveball (Q)
- Cost increased 200 >>> 250
Raze
- Model Update
- Model has been updated with a polish pass
- Boombot (C)
- Cost increased 200 >>> 400
- Showstopper (X)
- Ultimate points required increased 7 >>> 8
Reyna
- Leer (C)
- Cost increased 200 >>> 250
Sage
- Slow Orb (Q)
- Cost increased 100 >>> 200
- Barrier Orb (C)
- Cost increased 300 >>> 400
- Resurrection (X)
- Ultimate points required increased 7 >>> 8
Skye
- Trailblazer (Q)
- Vision radius increased 1750 >>> 2250
- Max concussion duration increased 3 >>> 4
- Cost increased 200 >>> 250
- Guiding Light (E)
- Charges reduced 3 >>> 2
- Charges are now replenished on a 40-second cooldown
- Skye no longer needs to re-equip to trigger her flash
- Guiding Light’s projectile now goes around corners tighter when free flying and is more responsive to guiding
- Audio attenuation when cast reduced 3250 >>> 1250
- Cost of charges increased 100 >>> 250
Sova
- Shock Dart (Q)
- Cost increased 100 >>> 150
- Recon Bolt (E)
- Cooldown time increased 35 >>> 40
- Owl Drone (C)
- Cost increased 300 >>> 400
- Hunter’s Fury (X)
- Ultimate points required increased 7 >>> 8
Viper
- Snakebite (C)
- Duration reduced 8 >>> 6.5
- Outer edges of Viper’s acid patch form faster to ensure it is lethal if an enemy sits in the entire duration
- Cost increased 100 >>> 200
Yoru
- Blindside (Q)
- Cost increased 200 >>> 250
- Gatecrash (E)
- Cooldown time increased 35 >>> 40
Weapon updates
All weapons
- Bullet tagging changed from 75% slow >>> 72.5% slow
- “Tagging” is the slowing effect you feel when hit by bullets
- Weapon deadzones changed from 30% >>> 27.5%
- “Deadzone” in VALORANT refers to the movement speed a player becomes inaccurate
All rifles
- Walking inaccuracy changed from 1.3 >>> 2.0
- Running unchanged at 5.0
All heavies
- Walking Inaccuracy changed from .5 >>> 2.4
- Running unchanged at 6.0
All SMGs
- Walking inaccuracy changed from .3 >>> 1.0
- Running inaccuracy changed from 2.0 >>> 2.5
Classic
- Walking inaccuracy changed from .25 >>> .84
- Running inaccuracy changed from 1.5 >>> 2.1
Frenzy
- Price decreased 500 >>> 450
- Walking inaccuracy changed from .25 >>> .8
- Running inaccuracy changed from 1.0 >>> 2.0
Ghost
- Walking inaccuracy changed from .25 >>> .92
- Running Inaccuracy changed from 1.85 >>> 2.3
Sheriff
- Walking inaccuracy changed from .25 >>> 1.2
- Running inaccuracy changed from 2.0 >>> 3.0
Judge
- Price increased 1600 >>> 1850
- Damage falloff at 10m changed from 13 per pellet >>> 10 per pellet
- Damage falloff at 15m changed from 10 per pellet >>> 7 per pellet
Bulldog
- Hip-fire (full auto mode) firing rate increased from 9.15 RPS >>> 9.5 RPS
- Price decreased 2100 >>> 2050
Shorty
- Price decreased 200 >>> 150
Stinger
- Price decreased 1100 >>> 950
Bucky
- Price decreased 900 >>> 850
Marshal
- Price decreased 1000 >>> 950
Ares
- Price decreased 1600 >>> 1550
Operator
- Price decreased from 5000 >>> 4700
Competitive updates
Here’s some of what you can expect from our changes:
- Reduced the possibility of feeling “hard stuck” on older accounts. If your skill improves, your rank should properly reflect that, regardless of account age.
- Matchmaking accuracy will improve across all ranks, which should lead to a smoother ranked climb and reduce how hard you may swing up and down in rank
- While winning games is still the most important factor, individual performance will also be accounted for to improve matchmaking at Immortal+
- This should result in better matches at the highest levels.
- Close games will have a smaller effect on rank rating gains and losses
- Adjusted our Rank Rating curves, so climbing (or falling) should feel less volatile
- Updated Rank distribution
- Placements raised to Diamond 1
- This should help reduce the grind for our players at the top
Performance updates
Players with medium to high spec machines (CPU bound systems) may see up to 6% performance improvements as a result of the following work:
- Improved clipping plane calculations using multithreading
- Improved thread utilization across multiple cores for distributed tasks
- Optimized camera calculations
- Optimized ambient audio for each map
- General optimizations for all ability animations
Social updates
- Hover Cards have been added to the social panel
- Hover over your friends list to quickly learn more about the players you have added. Rank, Account Level, Riot ID, friend note, title, Player Card, and more
- You can now invite to party with Riot ID in custom games
Gameplay technology
Killfeed
- Your kills will get an additional highlighted border to make them stand out
- Kill assists will also be shown to the left of the killfeed entries
- The killfeed will also display a highlighted border for your assist portrait
- The killfeed will display certain ultimate abilities when players on either team are killed in a second-life state or revived
- For example: Sage’s player resurrection or Phoenix’s death during his Run It Back ability.
- Added multi-colored killfeeds in cases where kills would result in the same team color appearing side by side
“Round Rollback” feature for Tournament Mode Custom Games
- This feature allows you to set the game back to the start of a previous round and re-play the game starting from there
- To enable the feature, go to “Options” while setting up a Custom Game and toggle “On” Tournament Mode
- Moderators can activate a rollback
- If Cheats are enabled as a Custom Game option, all players can activate a rollback.
- During the match, the Round Rollback feature can be found in the “Cheats” section of the Menu.
- Added the ability to toggle on and off the outer crosshair lines!
- Adjusted assist timings and thresholds for utility-based assists to make them more consistent across different Agent abilities.
Progression updates
- Year One Event Pass—this is similar to a Battlepass but it’s completely free
- This will be active for the duration of Patch 3.0 and will only last till 3.01 goes live. So remember to get your goodie bag before the party ends.
- Added a Squad Boost: You will get extra XP when you play in a premade group.
- +8% boost for one additional player, +12% for two, +16% for three, and +20% for a full squad.
- This will also be active for the duration of 3.0.
- We’re also permanently adding Account Leveling
- Your account Player Card will now display a numeric level based on how much you play.
- In addition to that, you will also be boosted to a certain level based on how many games you’ve played before Patch 3.0.
Bugs
Agents
- Characters blocked by Sage’s Barrier Orb when resurrected now break the wall to ensure they don’t get pushed inside map geo
- Fixed Skye’s Seekers showing up on the minimap even when they aren’t visible to an enemy
- Fixed Viper’s ultimate not showing as active on the team UI when Viper’s Pit is up
- Fixed bug where Cypher’s Spy Camera could be placed inside the map on mid Icebox
- Fixed a bug where Reyna’s Dismiss ability could not be rebought if the Buy Menu is closed and reopened during the same Buy Phase
- Fixed a bug where cancelling Sova’s Hunter’s Fury while charging the shot allows player to skip unequip animation by equipping a weapon, ability, or Spike
- Fixed a bug where picking up Cypher’s TrapWires/Cages and Killjoy’s Nano Swarms during the Buy phase would prevent you from purchasing a second charge
Competitive
- Fixed a bug that was causing a delay in recent Competitive game’s Ranked Rating updates in Match History
- Fixed a Career screen visual bug that would show up for those who dropped out of Immortal
- Fixed a bug that caused a friend’s career to infinitely load
Social
- Fixed a bug where friends’ names were merging together in the social panel when interacting with them, jumbling them together at times. Word scramble no longer!
Content Support
- Fixed an issue causing a hitch when viewing skins in the Collection
Gameplay Technology
- Fixed a bug where the inner crosshair toggle feature wasn’t working
- Fixed a bug where AOE kills were not rewarding the appropriate character if the enemy was in a debuffed state
- Fixed a bug where the Spike icon pulse and beeping sound were not in sync
- Fixed a bug where Ally defuse progress bar sometimes fails to appear
- Fixed a bug where Observer’s Killfeed has no team colors
- Reverted our fix for the “swirly arms” in the last patch, since it was causing significant animation snapping
Those were the full Valorant 3.0 patch notes for the June 22 update. For more Valorant content, head to our hub page for the game.
Henry Stenhouse
Associate Editor