Valorant Fade nerfs and Cypher buffs are the focus of the 5.10 PBE patch notes for the Riot Games multiplayer game. Also included in the Valorant update are some tweaks to the game’s menus following feedback about Valorant UI changes, and bug fixes for new Valorant agent Harbor and Astra. Riot Games is always looking to make balance tweaks to help adjust the meta of one of the best FPS games on PC, and this latest round of changes have two particular agents in the crosshairs.
Addressing Fade, Riot says that her Prowlers “have been a versatile and difficult to play against ability that we’re looking to sharpen with these changes.” It is reducing their duration and slowing their time to bite enemies, while also lowering the duration of Nearsight applied to any enemies hit by them, in a change Riot says “encourages Fade to be more deliberate in the areas that she chooses to sweep” while helping her opponents to better counterplay her.
Cypher, on the other hand, is getting some nice bumps in power along with several quality of life improvements. His Trapwire length has been increased dramatically, in an attempt to address its predictability. Riot aims to improve the reward for pulling off his ultimate, Neural Theft, by removing the time restriction to cast it on enemy corpses, increasing its maximum cast range, and adding a second enemy reveal four seconds after the first.
Perhaps even more exciting for Cypher mains are his quality of life tweaks. The yellow silhouette on his Spycam and Neural Theft abilities now starts dimmer and fades faster to distinguish it from an actual enemy, and will disappear if the revealed enemy becomes visible to you in order to “help reduce confusion of seeing two representations of the enemy in different places.”
Valorant 5.10 PBE patch notes – November 4
General
- Menus Update: Having heard the pain caused by removing one-click access to most of our menus, we’ve returned that functionality in the form of icon buttons in the universal navigation at the top of the screen. You’ll now be able to jump from Home, Battlepass, Agents, Career, Collection, and Store with one click from anywhere. Not sure what icon is what? Give them a hover – we’ve added tool tips to help you familiarize yourself.
- Like most changes, this one isn’t final and we’ll adjust based on your feedback!
Agent Updates
Cypher
- Maximum Trapwire length increased 1000 >>> 1500.
- Neural Theft now reveals enemies two times. There is a four second delay between the reveals.
- Neural Theft time restriction to cast on enemy corpses has been removed.
- Neural Theft maximum cast distance increased 1200 >>> 1800.
- Updated the yellow silhouette used for Cypher’s reveal on Spycam and Neural Theft.
- Yellow silhouette now disappears if the revealed enemy becomes visible to you to help reduce confusion of seeing two representations of the enemy in different places.
- Yellow silhouette now starts dimmer and fades faster to make it more distinguishable from an actual enemy.
- Cypher’s placed utility is no longer destroyed by allies’ AOE damage.
Fade
- Prowlers duration reduced from 3 >>> 2.5 seconds. (Time the prowler is alive without a trail).
- Prowlers delay on bite after reaching target increased 0.4 >>> 0.6 seconds.
- Prowlers hitbox improvements.
- Prowlers Nearsight duration on hit reduced 3.5 >>> 2.75 seconds.
- Prowlers now fizzle out and no longer debuff instead of debuffing its target if they teleported away before it finished its animation.
- Nightfall cost increased 7 >>> 8.
Bugs
Harbor
- Fixed a bug where Harbor’s Cascade would sometimes spawn under the map.
- Fixed a bug where Harbor’s Cascade targeter on the minimap would shorten when aiming up or down even though the Cascade would travel the same distance.
- Fixed a bug where Harbor’s Cascade targeter on the minimap was slightly shorter than the actual distance it would travel.
Astra
- Fixed a bug where Astra could cast a fake Nebula right at the start of a round before her Star charged up.
Known issues
- Button highlight/coloring state inconsistencies on the new universal navigation buttons for Home, Battlepass, Agents, Career, Collection, and Store.
- Selected universal navigation icons do not navigate to the selected menu when used from any sub-nav menu.
Full patch notes via Riot’s JoEllenPDF on the ValorantPBE Reddit.
Be sure to check our Valorant tier list so you know who the best agents are in the current meta, as well as our Valorant characters guide to all agents and abilities. We’ve also got the best Valorant crosshair codes to ensure your crosshairs are optimised. Meanwhile, YouTuber Valkyrae’s Valorant clutch has been wowing fans.