On January 12, Valorant will be updated with a new Battle Pass, numerous balance changes, the long-awaited Agent-Neon, and lots of new content in general. Let's see what Riot has prepared for us in the first patch this year.
Looking at how Episode 4 starts, we already feel that 2022 will be a big year for Valorant. On January 12, the new Valorant Episode called "Disruption" will come to the game with an update including plenty of new content and balance changes. After checking all the patch 4.0 notes, we probably won't exaggerate if we say that Valorant might just get a new life. Don't believe us? Check them out for yourself!
Episode 4 Act 1 Menu pic.twitter.com/dMAKY2Y7MS
— EarlyGame (@earlygamegg) January 7, 2022
Neon - New Duelist Agent
Of course, the biggest highlight of this patch will be the official release of Neon, a new Duelist Agent. As with other Agents, you will only be able to unlock her after completing 5 Tiers of her contract. However, if you can't wait and want to try out Neon as soon as possible, keep in mind that you can also purchase those Tiers instead of leveling them up (a single tier will cost you 200 Valorant Points). Other than the Neon release, there will be no more changes regarding Agents, although we can expect some later this Act.
Neon Contract pic.twitter.com/axb60RUn9W
— EarlyGame (@earlygamegg) January 7, 2022
- Learn more about Neon: Valorant Agent 18, Neon: Abilities, Role, Release Date & More
Episode 4 Act 1 Battle Pass
Another thing many Valorant players are anticipating will be a new Battle Pass with a bunch of new cosmetics. Here is the distribution and presentation of all the Episode 4 Act 1 Battle Pass rewards:
| Cosmetic type | Amount |
| Weapon skins | 14 |
| Gun buddies | 9 |
| Player cards | 12 |
| Titles | 3 |
| Sprays | 15 |
| Radianite Points | 130 |
Episode 4 Act 1 Battle Pass Rewards pic.twitter.com/MRGdTrFjUH
— EarlyGame (@earlygamegg) January 7, 2022
The new Battle Pass will cost 1000 Valorant Points, which is something about $10. If you want to learn how the battle pass system works in Valorant, we encourage you to check out our article on it. And if you know how it works, see how to level it up faster.
Weapon Changes
We haven't seen so many weapon buffs in a while! We're about to list them all for you, but let's briefly answer - what do they mean for the game? Well, most importantly, we might experience a change in weapon selection for force and half-eco round. Thanks to the fact that more weapons have become better, buying a cheaper rifle such as Bulldog or Guardian will not necessarily mean a significant disadvantage. Moreover, Spectre gets nerfed, but that was somewhat to be expected, although we didn't think those nerfs will be so big. What we also didn't expect are the three Melee weapon buffs; and that means more knife kills!
Melee
- Right click hitboxes are now 1.5x larger. Left click hitboxes are now larger than a right click and have a slightly longer range too.
- Targets closer to the center of your knife attacks will get hit first, so you still have precision if you need it.
- Knifing walls now have instant feedback when slicing up walls.
Bulldog
- Hip fire rate improved from 9.5 to 10
- Recovery on burst fire improved from .4 to .35
Guardian
- Removed firing rate penalty on ADS.
- Added an extra bullet before it enters a recovery curve.
Spectre
- Firing error will now occur at earlier bullet stages.
- Increased pitch and yaw (vertical/horizontal) recoil multipliers when running/jumping/on ascender from 1.25 to 1.5.
- Protected bullet count from yaw (horizontal) switching while spraying, decreased from 8 to 5 bullets.
- Lowering time to switch yaw from .24 to .18 seconds.
Ares
- Removed spin up.
- Firing rate increased from 10 to 13.
Map Updates
Patch 4.0 will feature changes for two maps - Bind and Breeze. And although these changes are not so significant, they will take away some lineups and angles, so you might want to prepare some new ones once these changes go live.
Bind
- The double stack of cover at short A has been changed to remove a very powerful one-way smoke location that made the area a little too difficult for Attackers to approach. There’s also a small, new bench for a mix up when taking that first peek.
Episode 4 Bind Changes: A Short | #VALORANT pic.twitter.com/D37JA1wXBR
— Mike - Valorant Leaks & Info (@ValorLeaks) January 7, 2022
Breeze
- Increased the width of the A Main choke and removed 50/50s.
- Door on A can no longer be reactivated until it is finished opening or closing.
- Added a stack of two crates in cave.
- Adjusted the cover on the back of A Site and extended the pool to the far wall.
- Adjusted curved wall in mid.
Breeze Changes (A & B Sites) | #VALORANT pic.twitter.com/Afv63aEnY2
— Mike - Valorant Leaks & Info (@ValorLeaks) January 6, 2022
Competitive Changes
When it comes to Competitive, a one big change is coming to the game that may somewhat discourage players from creating up smurf accounts.
- Starting with Patch 4.0, accounts that have yet to play in Ranked are required to reach account level 20 level before they are able to enter the Competitive queue. For those that have not yet reached account level 20, but have already played in Competitive queue, you will still be able to play in ranked.
As we wrote not too long ago, Riot is planning to take some big steps to fight cheaters and smurfs, and this is apparently one of the first steps they took this year. We honestly like it, as winning 10 games is not so hard (especially if you're cheating), and you can do it in one evening, but grinding that level 20 will definitely take lots of time away from you.
Bug Fixes
And lastly, some minor bug fixes regarding eSports features. Knowing that the VCT 2022 will start soon, and Riot is working on implementing a fully-fledged tournament mode, we expect that this is what they will be focusing on in the coming months.
- Fixed an issue where the Signature Kill Counter was not updating visually Esports Features.
- Coaches should no longer experience the issue where swapping targets with number keys + mouse clicks occasionally fails.