Valorant 4.08 Introduces Fade, Patch Notes Revealed

Riot Games’ tactical first-person shooter has received a new update. Titled Patch 4.08, this update introduces Fade, the new agent that supposedly has the initiator role, allowing him to storm a bomb site quite easily. Her disruption so far is impeccable to any of the existing agents, so it will be entertaining to see how players would counter her.

In a recent post, Riot Games has posted an update for the Valorant Patch 4.08. The patch notes reveal that three other agents are receiving changes but in a negative way. Jett, Sova, and Neon will sustain a slight nerf, considering their overpowered status. However, the main highlight of this patch is the new Fade agent, which trailer shows some of her extraordinary skills. If you would like to see her in action, check her debut trailer below.

Furthermore, this update also brings some gentle and warming changes to 5-stacks. From now on, 5-stack queues will be faster as they face some optimization to minimize queue time. It also addresses the rank disparity well, so that penalization is milder than before. Without further ado, you can find the complete patch notes for 4.08 in the segment below.

Valorant 4.08 Patch Notes

AGENT UPDATES

FADE GOES LIVE

See her abilities on our Agents page.
See Fade’s debut trailer. You’ll wake up screaming.

JETT

The team loves what Jett has continually brought to the fight, but as the game has evolved, some of her impacts have pushed beyond what we think is healthy for the tactical promise of VALORANT. Our update to Tailwind aims to address these concerns while maintaining the aggressive site takes and awe inspiring highlight plays Jett should bring to the roster. Check out our full article on the Jett update here for a complete breakdown of our approach and the philosophies that drove this update. We expect this change to have ripple effects on the Agents around Jett and the ecosystem overall, so we’ll keep a close eye not only on Jett, but any cascading impacts on the entire roster.

Tailwind

Upon pressing E, Jett consumes her Tailwind charge and after a .75 second delay, activates a 12-second window where she’s able to dash on next key press
Jett’s Tailwind charge can still be regained with 2 kills
To keep parity with the changes to Jett dash, the functionality for Dash during Knife rounds in Escalation will be adjusted

NEON

We’ve been keeping an eye on Neon and wanted to make some quality of life changes to help remove some friction when playing as, or with, Neon.

General

Battery energy received upon killing an enemy increased 25%>>>100%

High Gear

We’ve noticed Neon has faced some friction when using movement to lead into combat, specifically failed inputs due to the velocity restriction. We hope these changes help with making her slide a lot more natural when engaging in fights.

Slide cannot be cast during equip delay
Velocity restriction removed
Neon can now slide sideways and forward, and only requires that she is moving
Energy drain increased 6.7/s>>>10/s

Fast Lane

Wall damage removed
- This change is intended to push Fast Lane into a more attractive option for Neon, or for an ally by preventing the disruptive portion of doing incidental damage and by adding a bit of safety moving forward.

SOVA

At high-level ranked or pro play, Sova’s been a staple for quite some time. While his power has not been felt as viscerally as Jett’s, his impact in coordinated settings is nearly unmatched. We wanted to focus on addressing the amount of space that the Owl Drone practically guaranteed, and introduce additional counter play opportunities for opponents. A reduced Drone duration means Sova has to incur more risk in his positioning to clear deeper angles, and the adjustments to ping reveal (below) give opponents more opportunity to mix up their repositioning without feeling forced to completely exit the area. Shock Dart has also taken a hit as we continue to sharpen damage outputs on non-ultimate abilities, so that they kill less frequently

Owl Drone

Duration reduced 10s >>> 7s
Health reduced 125 >>> 100
Dart Reveal
- Number of reveal pings reduced 3 >>> 2
- Initial delay before first ping reveals increased 1.2s >>> 1.6s*
  - *Delay between the first and second ping remains 1.2s

Quality of Life
- Changed crosshair color to green to better stand out against the white HUD
- Removed delay on [Target Hit] confirmation text
- [Target Hit] confirmation text now remains on the player HUD when transitioning out of Owl Drone.
- [Target Hit] confirmation text now remains on screen for 2s, previously 1s
- Adjusted audio on drone dart hits for both Sova, and the player hit, to make confirmations more noticeable
Fixed a bug with Owl Drone, where the Dart Cooldown UI element would not properly update after tagging an opponent.

Shock Dart

Max Damage decreased 90 >>> 75
- Radial damage has been scaled in accordance with new max damage.

AGENT ABILITY AMMO

Jett’s Bladestorm, Raze’s Showstopper, and Sova’s Hunter’s Fury will now show how much ammo they have left when equipped

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

5-STACK QUEUES

Reduced Rank Rating gain/loss penalty for different 5-stack configurations
- If EVERYONE in your party is Iron–Diamond 2:
  - No RR penalty if within normal grouping
  - 25% RR penalty for all players if any player falls outside of normal grouping
- If ANYONE in your party is Diamond 3–Immortal 3 (but no one in your party is Radiant)
  - 25% RR penalty for all players
- If ANYONE in your party is Radiant
  - 75% RR penalty for all players
Tuned matchmaking to reduce wait time for 5-stacks
You can read the basics on how Rank Rating penalties work for 5-stacks in our previous patch notes.

BUGS

AGENTS

Fixed a bug where Jett could find herself unable to use abilities or weapons when using Tailwind immediately after depleting her Bladestorm daggers
Fixed a bug where Yoru could teleport out of bounds when using Gatecrash
Fixed various exploits allowing Yoru to use weapons before fully decloaking at the end of his ultimate