The new Valorant patch 4.04 has taken its place on live servers with Yoru rework , a reshaping of the Control Specialist role, and tweaks to the Icebox map. Like every major update, Valorant Chapter 4 Part 2 release came with its own detailed list of changes and tweaks. Many of these will fly under the radar, while others will be in the headlines throughout the day.
While some players are still waiting to download Riot Games' Chapter 4 Part 2 patch , others are already preparing to unlock the new Battle Pass . The first thing to know before moving on to this new update is that the development team has made some major agent changes .
Riot Games has added a new one to the character changes and competition area of the game. LATAM is testing a new "deterministic map system" that increases the variety of maps players will encounter. The goal is to roll out the new system to regions and if there are no issues, they plan to release it in the next few days/weeks. Here are some highlights from the Valorant 4.04 patch notes that fans will want to know.
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► Valorant Chapter 4 Part 2 Battle Pass Skins
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Agent Updates
Improved ability placement system on targeted floors. With this update, it will be easier to find a valid place to place abilities in tight spaces. The abilities that will be affected by this are:
Omen's Secret Step ability
Viper's Lair ability
Chamber's Business Card and Dating capabilities
All Killjoy abilities
Yoru's Breakthrough ability
Sage's Barrier Orb ability
OMEN
| Veil of Darkness | Secret Step | Paranoia |
• Cooldown decreased: 40 sec >>> 30 sec • Cost increased: 100 >>> 150 • Rate of fire increased: 2800 >>> 6400 | • Cost decreased: 150 >>> 100 • Delay before teleport decreased: 1 sec >>> 0.7 sec | • Distance range has been added to the spawn feature . Thus, players standing at the bottom of the Omen will not take damage. |
BRIMSTONE
| Smoky Airspace | Sign of Force |
• Activation time decreased: 2 sec >>> 1 sec • The radius of action increased: 5000 >>> 5500 • The height of the smoke dome has been equalized with that of other Controllers. | • Now gives an additional 15% speed boost in addition to Rapid Fire. |
ASTRA
| stars | Gravity Area | Nova Strike | Star Cloud | Astral Traveler |
• Maximum number of stars decreased: 5 >> 4 • Increased cooldown when retrieving star: 14 >>> 25 • Astra can now earn credits by picking up the stars they have placed in the purchase phase and returning their skill stacks. • Increased maximum distance to place stars to allow placing stars at the farthest corners of maps: 10000 >>> 30000 | • Cooldown increased: 25 >>> 45 • Gravity Field size decreased: 525 >>> 475 • Gravity Field will no longer affect anyone who is completely below it. | • Cooldown increased: 25 >>> 45 • Nova Strike will no longer affect anyone who is completely below it. | • Cooldown increased: 14 >>> 25 • Star Cloud's cooldowns will now progress sequentially, not instantaneously. • The Star Cloud has increased in size: 410 >>> 475 | • Signals will no longer be blocked by map structures that Astra cannot see while in the Astral Passenger state. • Reduced the number of target circles Astra has while in the Astral Passenger state to one, thus matching the range of her other abilities. • Astra's circle will not randomly disappear when targeting different map locations. • The speed of the overlay UI has been increased when Astra is transitioning to Astral Passenger or returning to its normal state. • Fixed a bug that caused stars to appear slightly above the position placed by Astra. |
VIPER
| Fuel | Poison Curtain | Acid Pool |
• Fuel consumption will increase by 50% while the Poison Curtain and Poison Cloud abilities are active at the same time. • Viper's fuel gauge will turn red if he doesn't have enough fuel to use his abilities. | • Increased cooldown after disable: 6 >>> 8 • Cooldown countdown will now be triggered when smoke begins to spread, not when a disabling sound is heard. • Deactivation delay decreased: 1 >>> 0.8 • Added yellow lights to the Poison Screen to indicate it is on cooldown. • Removed the delay to disable Venom Curtain while the Viper is ingested. • Added a new line to be heard when the smoke is deactivated due to the Viper's ingestion. | • Effect duration decreased: 6.5 >>> 5.5 |
YORU REWORK
Fake Horse
Catkapi
Interdimensional Transition
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► Valorant's Changing Competitive Environment in 2022
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Map Updates
ICEBOX
This update to Icebox focused on Zone B and fixed some of the hotspots affecting the entire map. You'll see an in-depth article by Map Designer Joey Simas on the changes we've made and what we hope to see in Icebox in the near term.
♦ B Green
The door of the Attacking Start building next to the green corridor has been moved to the first cell. The purpose of this change was to offer a new way of approaching from B Green for attackers who had no choice but to use two similar positions.
The green corridor has widened a little. The purpose of this was to make it more comfortable to move around in this area.
The recess in the Green corridor next to the Yellow got a little bigger. This was to make the angles looking at Zone B and the Snowman clearer and more readable.
♦ B Area Renovation
The refurbishment in Zone B was focused on increasing the importance of controlling the area when attacking and making interactions around the area more manageable.
The direction of the yellow container has been changed and a new stack of boxes has been added next to it. As players get used to the Icebox, we've noticed that many of the rounds where Spike is deployed revolve around the strategy of hiding behind the yellow container. This change will allow the yellow container to provide some power while also increasing the value of holding space in the area.
The lower container was removed and a tiny recess opened there facing Green. The top container's door has been slightly widened and positioned. This will allow players to better isolate conflicts around the area and make using abilities more meaningful.
The outer wall of Zone B and the crane were placed towards the inside of the zone. With the shrinking of the region, Control Specialists will be able to use their abilities comfortably without worrying about the gaps.
The building at B Arka is closed. We want to encourage attackers to push further and hold more territory. With this building closed, players can better position themselves in the Snowman. It will make it more prominent to use the B Fence to block enemies heading in a certain direction.
Adjusted the Spike placement area in Zone B. The purpose of this change was to encourage different ways of placing the Spike, while retaining some of the safer strategies to choose from. You will now be able to place Spikes on the bridge between the Kitchen and the top box.
♦ Medium
Changes to Medium have generally focused on adjusting viewing angles and making these areas more comfortable to play.
The back wall of the kitchen has been remodeled. With this change, it will be more comfortable to move forward in this area and players will be able to clear this area more easily.
Added box to the orange corridor to block the view under the passage.
The ramp to the Boiler Room has been simplified and narrowed a bit. Smoke grenades will now completely fill the Boiler Room and players sticking their heads off the ramp will be more predictable.
♦ Zone A
Area A was putting a bit of a burden on the defenders. These changes will give them new options and help them better isolate the attackers' line of sight.
Changed the cover behind Zone A. This change will give defenders an extra small area to take shelter.
Removed the protrusion next to the pipeline on the attackers' side that allows for a head-up gaze. It was a bit too much for the attackers to be able to look here from Zone A. This change will allow defenders to better isolate where threats may come from.
Lowered the threshold of the door leading to A to avoid getting shot in the feet of above-screen players.
Competition Updates
The decisive map selection system will follow three rules when choosing a map after players are selected for the match.
The system will look at the maps players have played in the last five matches in that mode.
The system will remove all maps the player has played for the second time in the last five matches from the map pool.
The system will choose the least played map.
- If all maps have been removed due to the "Double Play" rule, they will all be added back to the map pool and the least played map will be selected.
Errors
Fixed an issue where on rare occasions enemies would not trigger Cypher's Booby Trap.
Fixed an issue where the explosion was not visible to Astra when Spike was deployed while Astra was an Astral Passenger.
Fixed the ability's sound playing at the start of the next turn when Viper's Venom Curtain was activated at the end of a full turn.
Fixed an issue where Yoru's Breakthrough icon would appear as a large white circle on Brimstone's target map.
Fixed a bug where Chamber's teleport would sometimes fail when cast right after the Headhunter's last shell fired.
Fixed a bug where Chamber's Sharp Style cast during KAY/O's CANCEL/Command was creating inconsistent slow zones.
Fixed an issue with AFKs in the climb game mode.
Fixed an issue where the time seemed to overlap when looking at the megamap as an observer.
Fixed an issue where clicking the mouse wheel would make a destruction sound even though the Spike was not destroyed.
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