Valorant Episode 2 is right around the corner, bringing a whole host of new changes to the game, including a new Battle Pass, Agent, nerfs and more.
Here is everything we know so far.
Release Date
Valorant Episode 2 is due to go live on January 12th/13th depending on your region. Downtime is expected to begin at 4am GMT on Wednesday 13th January for EU, while the update has just gone live in NA.
For your own region be sure to hop on the game and check when it goes live in your country.
Patch Notes
UPDATE:
Patch notes can now be found below.
Controller Changes
Brimstone Changes
Brimstone is all about the big site execute moment. In that spirit, we’ve increased the duration of his smokes and given him more flexibility in where he can position to drop smokes exactly where he wants them. While at it, we didn’t feel Stim Beacon was fitting smoothly into his execution pattern, or into the situations where you might want to use it.
Riot Games Patch Notes
- Stim Beacon: Will now Quick Cast (no equip time);
- Molotov: Cost reduced $300 -> $200;
- Sky Smokes: Cast Range increased 4200 -> 5000, Smoke Duration increased 14.25 -> 19.25;
- Sound: Brimstone no longer makes a sound that enemies can hear when confirming the location of his smokes;
Omen Changes
The projectile speed decrease here is meant to give Omen more pressure and responsiveness when smoking nearby targets, while taking a bit longer to get smokes to far away parts of the map that he isn’t actively covering. Paranoia has been quite strong for a while, and rather than reduce its effectiveness and take away some of the most exciting plays Omen can make, we decided to up the cost.
Riot Games Patch Notes
- Paranoia: Cost increased $200 -> $400;
- Dark Cover: Projectile Speed decreased 4000 -> 2800;
Following this, Riot Games have said Viper is also on their radar for a change in the future.
Weapon Updates
Classic ( Alt. Fire )
- Jumping Error increased 0.4 -> 1.0;
- Increased input queue on right-click 0.065 -> 0.225;
- Firing consecutively now jumps in error, starting at 1.9 for the first burst, 2.5 for the second burst, then 6.0 for the third and fourth;
- Right click now has a recovery curve starting at 0.1s;
Competitive Updates
- New Competitive Regional Leaderboards Live ( 01/12/21 );
- Rank System updated: rank progress bar, numerical progress, distribution changes;
- Immortal and Radiant ranks now capped at premade size of two;
- Ranked Rewards for Episode 1 added;
Regional Leaderboards
- Unique per region: NA, EU, APAC, BR, LATAM, KR;
- Radiant Players – Top 500 per Region;
- Immortal Players – Roughly 1% of Rank Players per region;
- Updates in Real Time;
- Requirements Updated: 50 Ranked Account Games to place, at least 1 Competitive Game a week
- Banned players will not show on Leaderboard;
Core Rank System
- Arrows removed;
- New Progress Bar and Rank Rating show proximity to next rank;
- Immortal 1, 2, and 3 players will fall under Immortal;
- Players will no longer have rank hidden for inactivity, only hidden during placements;
Rank Rating ( RR ) Explained
- RR gained for a win, RR lost for a loss;
- Win: between 10 RR and 50 RR gained, minimum 5 RR for Diamond +;
- Loss: between 0 RR and 30 RR lost, maximum drop of 50 RR for a loss Diamond +;
- On a draw, you will gain a max of 20 RR, performance based;
- Demotion Protection: must lose at 0 RR to demote, won’t go below 80 RR in lower rank;
- Promotion Boost: start at a minimum 10 RR on win;
- New Rank Ceremony and Celebration visuals;
For a detailed breakdown, see here: Valorant Ranked Updates – Episode 2
Social Updates
- Add Friend button removed from in-game player list;
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where Omen could sometimes teleport past the buy phase barriers;
- Fixed an issue where Omen could plant the Spike while elevated on a Sage wall;
- Fixed an issue where players on the opposing team could be seen on the minimap long after leaving line of sight;
- Fixed an issue where the desktop resolution was not restored after alt-tabbing from the game when playing in fullscreen mode, at lower-than-native resolution;
- Fixed an issue introduced in the 1.14 patch that incorrectly calculated client ping by including client frametime in the calculation;
Battle Pass
Valorant Episode 2 will come with a new Battle Pass, giving players the chance to earn lots of cosmetics and other rewards over the coming weeks and months.
We will detail everything you need to know about it when the update goes live.
New Agent
The next update will see a brand new Agent added to the game called Yoru.
“Yoru is an Infiltrating Duelist, using an array of tools to re-position himself, or create fakeouts. Yoru players will be lurking around the map, causing chaos, and getting frags”
Here is everything we know so far.
Abilities
C – Fakeout – EQUIP an echo that mimics footsteps when activated FIRE to activate and send the echo forward ALT FIRE to place an echo in place USE the inactive echo to send it forward
E – Gate Crash – EQUIP to harness a rift tether FIRE to send the tether out moving forward ALT FIRE to place a tether in place ACTIVATE to teleport to the tether’s location
Q – Blindside – EQUIP to rip an unstable dimensional fragment from reality. FIRE to throw the fragment, activating a flash that winds up once it collides with a hard surface in world
X – Dimensional Shift – EQUIP a mask that can see between dimensions. FIRE to drift into Yoru’s dimension, unable tobe affected or seen by enemies from the outside
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Agent Changes
Episode 2 will see some changes to Brimstone and Omen. Here are the changes that will be made.
- Sky Smoke Cast Range increased from 4200 to 5000. This means his map will have more visual for Brimstone to choose where to place his smokes. Its duration is also increased from 14.25 seconds to 19.25 seconds.
- Incendiary cost is lowered from $300 to $200.
- Stim Beacon will be casted quicker and taking out its equip time.
- Dark Cover’s travel speed is decreased from 4000 to 2800
- Paranoia’s cost increased from $200 to $400.
Nerfs
The Classic Pistol will be getting nerfed in the next update. The spray control for the gun spreads more dramatically when continually fired, forcing players to see the real value of using the classic ‘free’ gun.
‘Run It Back’ Skin Bundle
The ‘new-but-not-really’ skin bundle features skins from previous collections such as Oni Phantom, Prime Spectre, Spline Operator, and Sovereign Ghost. The perfect bundle for fans who would rather have some variety in their skin options than complete sets.
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