The Valorant patch notes for the 5.10 update have arrived, and in comparison to the vast majority of Episode 5’s changes, the adjustments contained within are pretty huge. Neglected sentinel agent Cypher finally gets some much-needed buffs, whereas creepy initiator Fade is hit with the nerf hammer. Harbor also gets a little upgrade, and Riot has revealed the FPS game‘s new toxicity deterrence feature.
Valorant Cypher buffs – finally
Rejoice oh Cypher mains! The Moroccan intelligence agent is finally seeing some massive changes to his kit after a spell at the bottom end of the Valorant tier list.
First off, the mysterious character’s Trapwire can now extend over a length of 1,500 instead of 1,000, allowing you to set up traps across wider areas. This is perfect for the likes of Fracture or Icebox, where open spaces are key.
Next up is his Neural Theft ultimate, which now reveals two enemies instead of one, with a buffer of four seconds. The maximum cast distance has been increased to 1,800, as well, and a series of QoL updates make it much easier to pinpoint where enemy agents are on the map. The time restriction to cast has also been removed, meaning you’ll be able to see enemies a lot quicker.
Valorant Fade nerfs
As one agent gets buffed, another gets nerfed. Phantom bounty hunter Fade remains one of the game’s most powerful agents, leading Riot to retune both her ultimate and Prowlers.
Nightfall will now cost eight ult points instead of seven, and her Prowlers won’t be able to survive as long unless they pick up a trail. They also will take longer to snap up their prey, and their nearsight ability has been reduced from 3.5 seconds to 2.75.
This will likely slash the agent’s dominance by quite a bit, given her Prowlers are a key part of her kit. While she’ll still be able to provide recon for her team, getting onto the site will be a lot harder.
Valorant patch notes: 5.10 update
Below are the full Valorant patch notes for the 5.10 update, courtesy of Riot Games.
Agent Updates
Cypher
Trapwire
- Maximum Trapwire length increased 1000 >>> 1500.
Neural Theft
- Now reveals enemies two times. There is a four second delay between the reveals.
- Time restriction to cast on enemy corpses has been removed.
- Maximum cast distance increased 1200 >>> 1800.
Quality of Life
- 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).
- Delay on bite after reaching target increased .4 >>> .6 seconds.
- Hitbox improvements.
- 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.
Harbor
Cascade
- Number of purchasable charges 1 >>> 2.
Gameplay System Updates
Real Time Text Evaluation (NA only to start)
- In addition to our existing interventions, we are launching a new feature to begin muting players in chat who send disruptive text messages in game. Interventions for disruptive text will now be applied sooner rather than later as we continue updating our systems to evaluate more types of text communication.
- These improvements will be added to North America first and expanded to more regions in the near future.
- With the implementation of more immediate text evaluation, we hope to detect and reduce disruptive situations while players are still in game and help you feel safer to engage in Valorant.
Social Updates
Fixed an issue that caused the “Auto-Reject Friend Requests: On” notification to be misaligned in the Social Panel for some languages.
Bugs
Agents
Astra
- Fixed a bug where Astra could cast a fake Nebula right at the start of a round before her Star charged up.
Chamber
- Fixed a bug where Chamber would fail to equip a gun at the start of a new round.
Harbor
- Fixed Harbor’s Cascade being visible on Minimap for enemies with vision of it.
- 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.
Neon
- Fixed a bug where Neon’s Slide could be used to boost upwards in specific map locations.
If you’re looking to pick up Cypher, you’ll need to be able to juggle his extensive utility with gunplay, so you’ll need one of the best Valorant crosshairs. Play well enough, and you may just make it into Valorant Premier mode, where the competition is steeper than ever before.