Valorant patch notes

Why is my gun firing more slowly? What happened to that ability? Why can’t I afford anything?? Ahh, yes, patches. If you want to take a competitive game like Valorant seriously, it’s important to keep up to date with all the changes funnelled into the game. As of May 12, Valorant has just had it’s second big patch, tweaking the balance of several Agents and reworking a few maps. Thankfully, we’ve got the full breakdown on what has changed, so let’s get to it with the May 12 Valorant patch notes for version 0.50.

Valorant patch notes - May 12

The latest May 12 Valorant patch brings the game to version 0.50 and introduces a raft of balance tweaks to weapon mechanics, Agents and maps. The biggest mechanical changes include an adjustment to make tap firing more effective on rifles, improvements to the machine guns, and a change to how quickly

When it comes to balance, Sage and Cypher have taken the brunt of the nerfs. Sage has had her slow orb effect reduced, while Cypher’s camera recharges more slowly and his cage no longer slows anyone caught in it. Omen and Viper, on the other hand, got some slight buffs, improving their area denial. Right, that’s enough messing around, here are the full Valorant patch notes for the May 12 update, courtesy of Riot Games.

Gameplay and balance

Weapon updates

You will no longer enter the “walking accuracy” state when transitioning from run to stop

We noticed many players were entering a walking accuracy state during their run-to-stop transition that made it appear as if shots they fired/landed were done at full speed.

Deadzone accuracy speed threshold increased: 25% >> 30%

Now that you can’t gain walk accuracy while transitioning from a run to a stop, we've also slightly increased the size of the deadzone (full accuracy state) to make it a bit easier to get an accurate shot out quickly

All rifles

Recovery times on all Rifles have been updated, which should make tap and burst firing more efficient. Inaccuracy is accrued any time the weapon is re-fired prior to a complete duration of a weapon’s respective Gun Recovery Time.
Base walk accuracy: 0.6° >> 0.8°

We felt like walk-spraying with rifles was a little more effective than we'd like, particularly at longer ranges. We're going to pull back on this accuracy slightly and continue to monitor
Tap Efficiency Changes (Phantom & Vandal only)

Tap Efficiency determines the rate that inaccuracy is accrued when re-firing prior to waiting for the complete duration of a weapon’s respective Gun Recovery Time. The higher the Tap Efficiency, the lower the rate of inaccuracy accrual.

Vandal:

Horizontal (Yaw) Recoil reduced by 15% while crouched and stationary

This was intended to be the case and now properly matches the crouch benefits of other rifles

Gun Recovery Time: .4s >> .375s
Tap Efficiency: 4 >> 6

Phantom:

Fixed an issue where the Gun Recovery Time was higher than intended
Gun Recovery Time: .55s >> .35s
Tap Efficiency: 3 >> 4

Bulldog Automatic Fire:

Fixed an issue where the Gun Recovery Time was higher than intended
Gun Recovery Time: .55s >> .35s

Guardian

Fixed an issue where the Gun Recovery Time was higher than intended
Gun Recovery Time: .4s >> .35s

Machine Guns are significantly underperforming other weapons at their price points. Machine Guns are meant to be bullet hoses—powerful once they get going. This is a difficult balance to strike in a game where a single bullet from the Vandal will put you down. Our hope here is to make Machine Guns better at what they do (shoot lots and lots of bullets) while also increasing the power of the Ares relative to weapons at a similar price point.

Ares

Price reduced from 1700 to 1600 creds
Firing Error (this value is a curve that has intermediate values between each bullet; bullet 2 has slightly less error than bullet 1, and so on)

Bullet 1: 1.0° >> 0.8°
Bullet 5: 0.85° >> 0.75°
Bullet 10: 0.75° >> 0.7°

Reduced the amount and intensity of horizontal (Yaw) Recoil after the first 8 bullets.

Odin

Reduced the amount and intensity of horizontal (Yaw) Recoil after the first 8 bullets

Agent updates

Sage

Slow Orb zone duration decreased from 9 seconds to 7 seconds
Slow Orb slowing amount decreased from 65% to 50%

We all know Sage is OP. We’ve decided to try to reduce some of her stopping power while still allowing her to fulfill her role as the premier staller in VALORANT. These changes aim to reduce the overall efficacy of her Slow Orb, especially if they are chained back-to-back.

Cypher

Cyber Cage no longer slows enemies that move through it

We’ve always envisioned Cypher as a premier sentinel gathering info on his enemies and picking them off, but the slow on the cage was allowing him to move into Sage’s territory by stalling an entire enemy team. We still think this will be a tool he uses to buy some time, but enemies will now have more options when pushing his defenses, especially when coordinated.

Spycam cooldown when destroyed increased 30 >> 45 seconds

Spycams have been flying into enemy territory like Sova darts at the start of rounds because the punishment for losing one to an enemy is so low. Hopefully this change pushes you to find a safe hiding place for your initial camera (please not inside a box).

Omen

Dark Cover smoke duration increased 12 >> 15 seconds
Dark Cover smoke projectile speed increased
Dark Cover cooldown increased 30 >> 35 seconds

Especially at high-tier play, we’ve seen Brimstone become the dominant controller and we wanted to give his peers a boost to make them more viable while hopefully maintaining their unique playstyles.

Viper

Snake Bite radius increased 350 >> 450

We’re increasing Snake Bite’s radius to match other area denial abilities

Brimstone/Phoenix/Viper

We see you b-hoppers out there, jumping through Incendiary, Fireball, and Snake Bite while taking no damage. We don’t want to completely negate this skill but we also don’t want it to trivialize a whole set of character abilities.

Height required to jump out of all damaging area denial abilities 80 >> 120
Snake Bite, Fireball, and Incendiary damage tick speed increased (total damage per second unchanged)

Agent ability credit cost changes

We felt the credit cost of some abilities did not match the impact those abilities brought to a match, and made adjustments for a more accurate reflection

Sage Barrier Orb increased from 300 to 400 credits
Raze Blast Pack increased from 100 to 200 credits
Phoenix Curveball increased from 100 to 200 credits
Brimstone’s Incendiary increased from 200 to 300 credits
Jett’s Updraft reduced from 200 to 100 credits

Agent Armor

Armor carried over from prior rounds is no longer destroyed when new armor is purchased, allowing you to sell newly purchased armor and return to your previous armor status (instead of having no armor)

Max credit cap

Total credit cap is is reduced from 12,000 to 9,000

We’re noticing that players/teams who manage to bank a high amount of credits are maintaining a rich economic state for too long, and it becomes a monumental challenge for the opposing team to dethrone their economy

Character updates

Sova's Owl Drone now includes a layer of sound for engine rotors

Audio should better reflect thematics, while maintaining how noticeable the previous version of Owl Drone audio was for allies and enemies, as heard in 3rd-person

Map updates

Split

Attacking teams have been having difficulty finding a foothold in territory control across the map. We’ve made a few changes that should allow attackers better opportunities to contest A Main, Mid Top, and B Tower.

Barrier locations (those clear blue walls) have been adjusted across the map to provide attackers more of a foothold into territory control across the map

Defender barrier in B Mid has been pulled back. New barriers are in the entrance to Vent and atop the staircase in B Tower
Defender barrier has been pulled back at A Ramps
Attacker barrier has been pushed forward at A Main
Attacker barrier has been pushed forward slightly at B Main

Angled the wall on the left interior of B Tower when pushing up the stairs from Mid

This removes a 50/50 angle check when pushing into this space, which should make it more approachable for you to try and gain control of B Tower

Radianite crate in B has been changed to a metal crate to provide more cover when planting the Spike
Revised art to improve performance throughout the map

Haven

A new map exploit system is in effect which will have negative effects on anyone trying to escape the playspace
Updated several floor sections so that they now have appropriate material sounds

All maps

Added fixes for Cypher Spy Camera exploits to all three maps— a huge thanks to everyone who has helped us track these down, including clutch stream’s we lurked in for two days, writing down every camera placement and fixing them in real time
Backside of spawn barriers are now opaque to prevent some abuse cases
Added ability for Spike to automatically fall from elevated boost positions
Fixed multiple spots where Sova’s Recon Dart could over-penetrate map geometry—another shout out to everyone that helped with these as well!

HUD & UI

Teammate armor is now shown on the scoreboard
When the Spike is planted, the Spike icon in the upper middle UI now pulses with the audio beeps
New artwork for pings to increase readability in the world
Portraits

Re-enabled portrait for player’s minimap icon
Reduced size of portraits and icons by several pixels
Added color to the player’s own minimap icon with a slightly thicker border to aid in finding oneself (on the minimap, not in life)

Added regulation of chat messages when using the radio menu or radio wheel
Slight increase to broken armor text size to make it easier to notice
Relocated flyout menu for Titles dropdown so it opens in a more sensible location
Moved Leave Match button closer to the other “Exit” buttons in the menu
Made Logout button red to match Exit button, since they both exit
Shifted location of Skip button on MVP screen so players do not accidentally press Play Again button when slamming the Skip button
Adjusted radio wheel behavior so that mouse wheel up and down always select the other wheels regardless of other keybinds
Icon for Need Help changed from the little bug thing to a flag
Enabled attack/defend icons in the upper middle game info UI for all players, not just observers
Hooked up “Ult Almost Ready” VO when character uses the Ult Status radio command and are within 1 ult point of being fully charged

Quality of life

Cheaters are no longer referred to as “Hackers”
Profanity filter setting added; when enabled, will filter out profanity from chat
Added a setting that allows toggling between walking and running
Viper’s Poison Cloud no longer enters cooldown when picked up during the buy phase
Added foe coloring for Sova’s Hunter’s Fury
Added Contract level-up animation when unlocking free characters or purchasing contract levels
Added tooltips and explanations guiding new players towards activating their first contract
Unowned skin levels now list their individual cost (in Radianite Points) and description in the collection pages
Made performance optimizations to address FPS drops when you or allies are shooting
Various social panel improvements to support better error handling and messaging
“Keep Player Centered” minimap setting is now a default setting
Renamed “First Person Enhanced Visuals” graphics setting to “Bloom”

As discovered by u/Far_OW on reddit, this setting affects more than just first-person visuals—it’s actually a visual bloom, or glow effect, which primarily affects weapon renders

Renamed “Shadows” graphics setting to “First Person Shadows”

This setting only affects shadows cast on a player’s weapon, hands and arms

Observer HUD

Dead players will now appear greyed out on the HUD rather than hidden
Team colors on the HUD will swap when switching sides, rather than the teams on the HUD changing position

Bug fixes: In-game

Cypher and Sova will no longer float in the air if the Sage Barrier Orb wall they are standing on is destroyed while when using the Spycam or Owl Drone, respectively
Cypher can no longer pick up his trap after an enemy has triggered it.
Sova’s Owl Drone can no longer rapid-fire darts if the prior one hits an enemy
Reduced collision size on Sova’s arrows so they don’t get stuck on corners when fired near them
Removed placeholder mesh from Viper’s Toxic Screen projectile
When using the ping wheel on the map, right clicking now correctly cancels the action and does not place a ping
Fixed a bug where the Spike UI would sometimes overlap with the HUD
Fixed a bug where a weapon’s ammo count on the HUD would disappear if swapping your knife, then back, while on low ammo.
Removed Spike icon from being visible on enemy player minimap icons
Spike can no longer be planted partially in map geometry

This also fixes cases where the Spike camera was appearing inside the Spike

Barriers on the minimap no longer adjust positions incorrectly during the buy phase if you open the megamap
Fixed bug where various issues would occur after multiple players would fulfill a weapon buy request at the same time
Fixed issue where the game would hitch/stutter when opening the in-game options menu
Fixed issue where the game would hitch/stutter when opening the in-game shop
Fixed rare movement bug where resurrected players who were tagged would have jittery movement in 1st-person perspective
Fixed a bug where some weapons lost their muzzle flashes in 1st-person POV when tracers were disabled
Fixed a rare bug where players appeared to be standing, when they were actually crouching
Ability details in the combat report will now correctly appear in the buy phase of the round when teams switch sides
Fixed miscellaneous Observer mode HUD issues
Spectators can now see weapon inspect animations
Fixed a bug where the camera could take an invalid position during character select
Fixed an issue where the combat report would show 150 damage but the enemy player was still alive (in cases where healing was not involved)
Fixed an issue where a teammate’s voice activity would incorrectly light up more than their own icon in the above-character UI element
Selecting a ping on the ping wheel and canceling no longer incorrectly spawns the canceled ping next time the player uses the basic ping

Bug fixes: Game Client

Fixed incorrect location of text when hovering rewards in the contracts
Fixed a bug where purchase refunds were not reflected in client until it was restarted
Fixed a bug where player cards were cropped on the arsenal menu screen
Fixed a bug where, in some languages, mission descriptions could appear truncated
Fixed an issue where the Distortion Graphics setting was not properly enabled

Enabling this may have a performance impact on some older graphics cards

More Valorant guides:

And there you have it! The complete Valorant patch notes for May 12 and the 0.50 update. Click here to see the previous update's notes, or head over to our game hub for more tips, tricks and useful advice for Riot's competitive shooter.