Valorant: Operator Finally Nerfed!

Valorant Operator
The Operator is now very expensive!

Valorant’s deadliest weapon, The Operator, will receive some nerfs in the next day or so. This was revealed in an interview between Team Liquid's Lucas 'Mendo' Håkansson and Valorant dev Nick Wu Smith.

In the upcoming patch, set to be released on September 29, the Operator will be nerfed. The weapon is the most polarizing gun in Valorant with most hating it or loving it. If you have ever played a match with a great Operator player, you will know that the weapon swings games in the right hands.

The interview is quite long, but they discuss the balance changes around the 1:20 mark where they go into the reasons why the Operator will be nerfed.

Operator Changes

  • Price increased from 4500 to 5000
  • Scope Movement Speed reduced from 76% to 72%
  • Scope Deadzone increased from 30% to 50%
  • More inaccurate aiming sooner after moving and it slowly becomes accurate after 2.2 seconds
  • Fire Rate buffed from 0.75 to 0.6
  • Equip Time is now 0.5s - It was 0.3s
  • Leg Shot damage reduced from 127 to 120 dmg
  • Slightly longer inaccuracy time after landing from a jump

The Operator will still be the high-risk, high reward head-shot playmaker, now with even more risk at 5000 credits. Overall, the nerfs decrease the peaking power of the Operator and the reduced leg damage means you can survive these shots with light armor. Hopefully, this change leads to a little more counterplay when facing down a sniper on long. We will have to see if these changes cause a major shift in the meta. But we leave that thought to the pros to figure out!

Make sure to come back to EarlyGame for moreValorant news and ring that bell button on our YouTube channel!

Paul Hayes

I did my BA in English Lit. and Language Studies at Western University in Canada and I use to play MTG competitively, but sadly to no success so I write instead! If a game doesn't challenge me, it's not the...