VALORANT Patch 1.05 introduces a new Agent, game mode, and a few Agent updates to balance the roster of characters. Act Ranks and competitive changes are also live, which means players can now track their ranks through each Act and will need to play another three placement matches to receive their new rank.
The latest update adds a new character and major changes in competitive matchmaking. (Photo courtesy Riot Games)
Agent Updates
Killjoy, the latest Agent introduced in VALORANT, is now available for players to unlock or purchase. The German Engineer is a defensive Sentinel who has three unique gadgets and a powerful Ultimate ability that can potentially trap an entire enemy team. A full breakdown of Killjoy’s abilities can be found here.
Raze also received a slight nerf in the latest patch. Raze’s Showstopper Ultimate ability now takes slightly longer to equip, and the VFX when the rocket is fired and in the air has been reduced. These changes are meant to give players more time to prepare when they hear Raze’s Ultimate ability to activate and to provide more opportunity to eliminate Raze before she fires her rocket.
Raze’s Blast Pack damage has also been reduced from 75 to 50, and the item will now do 600 damage to objects consistently. Riot Games believed the Blast Pack had too much power against armored enemies in certain situations, so they reduced the damage against players while making it a consistent tool when clearing objects.
Deathmatch is here
VALORANT has finally received a Deathmatch mode where players can warm-up before matches.
The Deathmatch mode is a 10-player free for all, and the first player to 30 kills wins the game. There are no abilities in this new mode, and each player will load in as a random Agent they own.
The mode is similar to Deathmatch in CS:GO, as players can purchase any weapons they want and heavy armor is provided automatically. Enemies will drop health kits upon dying, which fully restore health and armor. The health kit also automatically reloads your weapon, so players could potentially go on intense kill streaks.
All enemies will be shown on the minimap periodically to prevent any players from camping in corners. Deathmatch is currently in beta and will be available to specific windows starting on Wednesday, August 5th.
Competitive Updates
Act Ranks are now live and will allow players to track their competitive performance in real-time. Players who earned a rank in Act I will have to play another three placement matches to unlock their rank again in Act II. Players will likely be placed lower than expected, but don’t panic; this is intentional.
All players will be placed roughly two ranks below their rank in Act I so Riot can make sure they are actually at or above that skill in Act II. Performance in early games of Act II will have a significant impact, so expect to rank up quickly if you perform well. Players will also have a higher chance of matching with similar-sized groups in competitive matches, but the ranked queue will now be slightly longer.
The Rank Indicators after each match will now also provide more transparency on rank changes. Players will now see one, two, or three arrows pointing upwards or downwards based on their performance that match. This will allow players to understand how much their rank was affected by the game, which was not always clear.
VALORANT Patch 1.05 also introduced various quality of life changes and bug fixes. A full list of these changes can be found in the official patch notes.
