Valorant Episode 3 Act 1 begins today, adding the new Agent, KAY/O, as well as a new Battle Pass. There is also a long list of changes to existing Agents and weapons, so let’s not waste anymore time and jump right into the Valorant update 3.0 patch notes
Valorant update 3.0 patch notes
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 ef ect 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
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.
For more details, check out our full breakdown.
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 are the full patch notes for Valorant update 3.0, as shared by Riot Games. Stick with Shacknews for everything you need to know about Valorant.