VALORANT Patch Notes 12.06: Waylay Nerfed, End-of-Game Screens Refreshed, and More

Riot Games has shipped patch 12.06, and while it’s not the heaviest patch of the season, it carries a meaningful Waylay nerf, a backend overhaul for Viper’s Pit, a long-requested Flex movespeed fix, and more. Here’s everything in the update.

General Updates in 12.06

Patch 12.06 brings updated visuals and sound effects to the Victory, Defeat, and Draw end-of-game screens. It’s a cosmetic-facing change, but one that players will see at the end of every session.

Agent Updates

Waylay’s Saturate: INSTANT → EQUIP

The headlining balance change in 12.06 is a nerf to Waylay’s Saturate ability. Riot has changed it from an INSTANT cast to an EQUIP.

The reasoning: while Riot are happy that Waylay has found her role in team compositions, Saturate was creating situations with little to no counterplay. Specifically, Waylay was able to combo her abilities to safely target players with Saturate for teammates to follow up on, with almost no risk to herself. Riot’s design intent is that Duelists play best when risk falls primarily on them, not on the enemies or teammates around them.

By shifting Saturate to an EQUIP, Waylay can no longer Hinder enemies instantly while airborne or reactively on contact without greater risk to herself. The intent is to push Waylay toward coordinating with her team to mitigate her own risk, rather than using Saturate as a low-risk setup piece.

Change:

• Saturate changed from INSTANT to EQUIP.

Viper: Viper’s Pit Backend Update

Riot has made backend technical improvements to Viper’s Pit. Most players are unlikely to notice a dramatic difference, but the goal is more consistent behavior for the chemical cloud and the removal of any possibility of a failure to cast — particularly on certain sections of specific maps. Riot called out Haven A Tower and Icebox A Pipes as examples of areas where the improvement will be noticeable.

Change:

• Viper’s Pit chemical cloud updated to spread more consistently around map geometry.

Yoru: New Voice Lines

• New voice lines have been added for Yoru.

Cosmetics Updates: Flex Movespeed Increase

Since Flex launched over a year ago, player feedback has consistently flagged one friction point: Flex uses Ability movespeed rather than Melee movespeed, with Ability movespeed sitting at 90% of Melee movespeed. Players have reported being hesitant to equip Flex out of fear of accidentally activating them mid-round via a misclick — effectively self-nerfing their movespeed at a critical moment.

After testing, Riot is rolling out the fix with competitive integrity guardrails in place (all Flex will follow competitive integrity guidelines in third-person).

Change:

• Flex movespeed increased to match Melee movespeed. This applies to all past and future Flex.

Performance Updates

Riot is enabling Push-model Replication as a server-side optimization, intended to deliver performance gains and unlock future improvements. No changes to the game client are expected, but Riot has asked players to flag anything unusual.

Bug Fixes

Agents

• Fixed a bug where Veto’s Crosscut icon was missing on the minimap when the Enemy Highlight Color setting was set to red.
• Fixed a bug where some of Miks’ Harmonize first-person VFX were disappearing early.
• Fixed a bug where Miks’ Harmonize targeting UI could overlap with an ally’s loadout.
• Fixed a bug where Miks’ Waveform ability placement UI would persist briefly in third-person after he placed a smoke.
• Fixed a bug where Miks’ M-pulse could become stuck in certain spots on the map and could not be destroyed.
• Fixed a bug where Clove’s post-death Ruse could not be unequipped without casting it.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Tejo’s Guided Salvo to be cast three times.

General — End-of-Game UI

• Various spacing and sizing fixes across End of Game screens.
  • Adjusted spacing around sub navigation across all pages so elements are no longer squished together.
  • Reduced overall text sizes in summary, scoreboard, timeline, and performance views.
  • Timeline: Adjusted match round box sizes to fit more across the screen.
• Leaderboards: Fixed spacing between rows.
• Career Match History: Fixed alignment issues in left buttons and dropdown; adjusted text sizes within each match row.

Store

• Fixed a bug where skin names in the rotational store had clipped text in Japanese.
• Fixed misaligned text on the accessories shop, rotational store tiles, Radianite Point store, and when selecting a gifting recipient.
• Fixed misaligned subheader text when purchasing a skin.
• Fixed an issue with squished bundle images in the gifting center.
• Fixed an issue where weapons appeared too high on the purchase complete screen.
• Added a hover state when mousing over offers in the featured store.
• Adjusted opacity of offer tile when gifting a Flex in the gifting center.

PC Only 12.06 Valorant Patch Notes

Bug Fixes — Premier

• Fixed an issue where the View Team modal would sometimes incorrectly display the zone icon as a blank white box.
• Fixed a bug where the tournament queue timer wasn’t properly showing the time remaining to queue.
• Fixed a bug where “Make Captain” and “Transfer Ownership” options were not disabled during a tournament.

Progression Updates — Battlepass

• Paginated arrow buttons have been added to the Battlepass to make navigating between chapters easier.
• A scroll issue has been fixed — players can now scroll both forwards and backwards through reward tiers and the tracker.

Patch 12.06 is a focused update with implications for the meta. The Waylay nerf is the most significant competitive change, directly addressing the low-risk, high-reward patterns that emerged around Saturate. Viper’s Pit getting a backend pass should quietly improve consistency for one of the game’s most iconic ultimates.