Valorant: Patch Notes for 0.49, full list of changes

Valorant, Riot Games' class-based tactical shooter, has set the gaming world alight in its closed beta period – and we're now three weeks in.

The game has just received its latest 0.49 patch notes. Here's everything that's included, taken from Riot's own blog post.

Valorant Patch Notes – Version 0.49

GAMEPLAY AND BALANCE

Omen

Omen now immediately becomes vulnerable and no longer appears dark after he leaves his alternate shadow formIf you were to find enemy Omen teleporting in, it was often confusing when you should shoot him to get the kill (vs. sending him back). This change is to both account for an invulnerability bug and score some extra points of clarityThe attenuation radius of the arrival sound on Omen's From the Shadows has been reduced to 2250Attenuation is a big word, but the short of it is you have to be closer to Omen to echolocate where he’s teleporting to. We’re trying to give him some spook back since if you do find him, you should now have him dead to rights

Sage

Barrier Orb will only spawn a chunk of the barrier if it is supported by the ground, this means it will sometimes only spawn 2 barrier chunksBarrier Orb can no longer be placed on "small" pieces of geometry, it must be placed on the ground or on top of boxesWe love supporting boost gameplay, especially when multiple characters combine their abilities (looking at you Jett and Omen). However, we felt with the current placement requirements, characters were able to boost to too many unintended spots. With this change, players can still boost into some unexpected positions, but they hopefully won't be 30 feet in the sky and floating in the middle of the site to look through a tiny pinhole in the map.

CHARACTER UPDATES

[Omen] Updated Omen’s visuals[Breach] Updated Breach’s visuals

MAP UPDATES

Added curtains to the top of double doors on Haven to remove the Sage Barrier Orb boost that allowed players to see through a sliver of the door at the topFixed issue with Cypher camera being placed on the Haven A Main boxesMultiple fixes to the geometry on Haven, Bind, and Split to fix exploits and help optimize gameplay—massive thanks to all of the folks who helped to identify these! We see youUpdated materials on Bind and Haven to make surfaces more consistent overallChanged color of Radianite crates in order to unify overall visuals

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

Added Competitive mode and ranked matchmaking, to go live in the near future

OBSERVER MODE

Added “Ghost cheat” as an option to custom games with cheats enabled, allowing you to fly around the map in no-clip modeAbility HUD no longer displays when entering drone camera as an observerExiting drone camera will now swap back to the most recently viewed player if they’re still a valid view targetSwapping through players to view will now iterate through an entire team before going to players on the other team

HUD & UI

In-game

New directional damage indicator visualNew low health and low ammo visualsRemoved character portrait from player’s minimap icon to better distinguish player icon; icon will receive additional color and polish in the futureVoice activity is now shown above allies’ headsAdded color to spike icon above ally’s head to make it easier to seeFixed the ultimate ability icon above teammates’ heads showing as charged after gaining 1 ult point instead of when actually chargedPing elements now fade when under player aim; previously only text faded

Out-of-game

Relocated Find Match button from social panel to Play screen; renamed to StartRelocated Practice button from social panel to Play screenAdded Play Again button to End of Game screenMade the flyouts on the nav progression widget clickableMade main navigation button click targets easier to clickAdded an option to orient the fixed minimap so that player’s starting side is always at the bottomAdjusted all map assets so that full fixed orientations consistently place attackers at bottom and defenders at topAdded hover tooltips to thumbnails in the Collections view to show item nameScroll speed tweaked to make scrolling social panel smootherMade crosshair preview in Settings shorter to make more room for controls

QUALITY OF LIFE

Added the ability to abandon a multiplayer Custom Game. Using the “Leave match” button in the ESC menu will allow you to permanently leave the match without penalty. Leaving the custom game in any other way (exit client, alt+f4, etc.) will still allow you to return to the matchUpdated the audio occlusion system to help players better differentiate audio distancing cues. For example, Haven B to A short, you should perceive sounds from their correct distance and not as if they were right next to youPlayers who abandon matchmade games, or dodge agent selects, will now experience penalties that prevent them from queuing for a period of time. Frequent offenders will experience higher queue time penalties. Leaving ruins the match for everyone else, and should only be a last resortEnabled the ability to see VALORANT players online in Riot gamesAdjusted play flow UX moving queue buttons into lobby screensAdjusted social panel UX to accommodate additional spaceAdjusted End of Game UX to clean up design of various widgetsAdjusted chat disconnect error state to be less… intimidatingSpawn practice bots option in the shooting range moved from the F3 menu to an in-world shootable switchFor all shotguns, moved the crosshair’s center dot by 1px to center it on the screen. The devs expect shotgun lethality to increase by 4,000% as a result (this is a joke)

BUG FIXES: IN-GAME

[Phoenix] Fixed a bug where Phoenix would get teleported back to an ascender (rope ladder) after respawning, in cases where Phoenix died while Run It Back was active and he was attached to an ascender[Phoenix] Fixed a bug where, for a brief time after Run It Back ended, Phoenix could be damaged in the place where he fizzled[Viper] Updated the appearance of Viper's Toxic Screen on the minimap to show gaps in the wall[Viper] Fixed Viper being able to animation-cancel Viper’s PitPrevent “Spike Planted” announcement from playing after a round has ended and hiding the round end announcement, which should clearly indicate the result of after-the-buzzer plant rounds[Cypher] Fixed a bug where Cypher's Cyber Cage would be selected at a larger range than intended causing overlapping interaction issuesFixed Spike Carrier Killed announcement from also showing Ally DefusingFixed a rare issue where players’ weapons would float in front of them; too spookyFixed a rare issue where third-person player models could get desynced from the server when double tapping a defuse, causing some shots to missFixed aim issue that caused some players who were using low sensitivity to have small mouse movements droppedFixed issue where canceling a plant or orb pickup could sometimes play the wrong (slower) re-equip animation, making it look as if the player could fire too quickly after canceling (timing was correct, animation wasn’t)Fixed map region names as they appear below the minimap from not localizing properlySmoothed out movement during player-to-player collisionsFixed a bug where item UI prompt in the game world would appear to block bulletsFixed a bug where the Z ping wheel could be opened alongside the map ping wheel, creating a scenario where multiple ping wheels could be open at onceFixed a bug where ping wheel wouldn’t show disabled when direct bound pings were used to reach usage limitFixed a rare bug where either team could win a round by elimination on the same frame that the spike was defused, granting two points for that round.Fixed overlap in ally planting announcementFixed a bug where the VO radial wheel would hit the rate limit by opening and closing it without selecting a VO optionMinimap will no longer randomly hide for all players in a gameUpdate to Bucky’s alternate fire to instead apply instantaneous, hitscan damageAlt. fire was previously a projectile that was able to kill enemies shortly after the user was killed. No other weapon works this way so now it performs as a hitscan.

BUG FIXES: GAME CLIENT

Fixed an issue that allowed players to purchase items not available in their respective storeFixed an issue that let players equip content they didn't ownFixed issue where display settings would get re-applied when joining/leaving games, which could move the window or change display mode in rare casesFixed network stability indicator sometimes appearing when setting was disabledLine of sight is no longer required to pick up the spike when overlapped by a playerFixed issue where the spike would sometimes become unretrievableFixed an issue preventing some player reports from submittingFixed various connection issues with voice chatFixed various connection issues with text chatFixed various issues with player state being incorrect in social panelFixed an issue where some players could not requeue after a game without reloggingFixed issues with receiving party invitationsFixed transparent player card icons in Custom Game lobbiesFixed resetting controls for Voice Chat in settingsFixed voice defaulting to automatic transmission for Custom GamesFixed voice being interrupted when navigating Custom Game optionsFixed a handful of localization issues across menu screens