Valorant’s Act 2 has come to end, meaning a bunch of new changes are on the horizon for the competitive FPS. We already know that the beginning Act 3 will be bringing a new map, with a new agent to follow, but there are many more changes hitting Riot Games’ team-based shooter in its major 1.10 update.
Valorant update 1.10 patch notes
Icebox
Early in the patch, players queuing for Unrated will more often get placed on Icebox
Ascenders (Ropes) / Ziplines
Acceleration adjusted to prevent sudden shifts in direction (this was added last patch but wasn’t in the patch notes because well, you might start asking about ziplines)
Added weapon tagging when shot while on Ascenders
These changes are intended to make players that are using Ascenders and Ziplines less evasive during combat.
You can now select your preferred server(s), increasing the chance you will play on a server you want
Rank disparity for parties capped at 3 tiers (from 6).
We have also tightened our competitive matchmaking to reduce skill disparity.
Immortal+ ranked changes will only be impacted by winning and losing and the decisiveness of the game outcome (how many rounds won or lost by) and not factor individual performance into the calculation
We’ll be testing and monitoring this change in Act III for potential future implementation in all ranks.
Deathmatch
Increased player count 10 >>> 14 players
Updated spawning algorithm to encourage safer spawns
Removed periodic location pulse, and you’ll now only receive a pulse right when you respawn
Increased match length, first to 40 kills (was 30), time limit upped to 9 minutes (was 6)
Kill Reloads: On every kill, players get an automatic, immediate full reload of their active weapon (Ares & Odin get 30 bullets back)
XP gain increased from 500 to 900 XP
Quality of life
The Battlepass now has upgrade Variants for the Surge skin line, including the free track Surge Sheriff
Minimap performance increased
Tournament mode enabled custom games can now fit up to 12 observers
Requested guns can now be sold back to the shop, doing so will refund the player who fulfilled the request
Observer can now hold walk when in freecam mode to reduce speed (fast and slow speed can be configured in settings menu)
In-world pings are now team-colored for observers
Reyna and Phoenix ult timers correctly update for observers
The keybind text in the current spectate target widget has been removed for observers
Flashed indicator for observers has been updated with new art
Crosshair setting added that allows crosshair colors to be locked to team color for observers
Players no longer get stuck trying to descend vent ropes while walking (leaving A-Tower)
Added new modifier keybind for observers to jump straight to freecam when jumping to a player (left shift by default)
Plant/defuse progress UI is now always visible to observers, and includes which player is taking the action
Observer player no longer see player-specific hud indicators (e.g. taking damage indicator) when in freecam
Ability timers now work for dead / spectating players & observers (e.g. reyna & phoenix ult durations)
Bug fixes
Fixed a Shooting Range bug in the plant/defuse module in the shooting range where players couldn’t buy abilities
Various Shooting Range UI bug fixes in the plant/defuse module, including incorrect text in the buy phase announcement, also adding a halfway tick to the defuse progress bar
Fixed a bug where other players’ messages would be forcefully filtered out of chat after you sent a message
Fixed a bug where the text box would not fade away in game
That covers it for everything listed in the Valorant update 1.10 patch notes. With the introduction of a brand new Act, there are some major changes coming to the games core modes. There aren’t any substantial agent or weapon tweaks in this patch, but it’s likely that we’ll see some in upcoming updates. Stick with Shacknews for your latest Valorant news.