Just a few days after VALORANT was launched for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, Riot Games has released its first new patch for the popular 5v5 tactical shooter. Ever since VALORANT originally launched for the PC back in 2020, first-person-shooter enthusiasts have been requesting to get it on console, and now, Riot finally released the game after weeks of its beta test. Now, the developer is continuing to improve its console rollout in the latest patch, providing better tooltips for certain Agents, allowing some abilities to be toggleable, and fixing some bugs.
Downloadable right now, VALORANT's patch version 9.02 mainly focuses on improving the console version of the game but there are also key fixes that apply to the PC version as well. The latest update adds the Icebox map to the console version, and Riot is also ramping up the game's behavioral intervention system to impose harsher penalties on players who are toxic in comms.
VALORANT's social system will also get an update to allow players to see which platform their friends are playing the game on. Even though players can't cross-play between PC servers and console servers, they can still use the same Riot account to carry battle pass progression and cosmetics across platforms.
Riot is also bringing one of the better parts of the console version's beta, the Basic Training tutorial, to the PC version. Additionally, the developer added The Range to the console version, meaning PlayStation and Xbox gamers can practice with their shooting skills and Agent abilities in one spot. Although there are no major map changes in the latest update, it's worth highlighting that players can can no longer jump on the tall box in A Alley in Sunset.
You can check the full rundown of the VALORANT Update 9.02 below:
VALORANT Update 9.02 Patch Notes
All Platforms
PLAYER BEHAVIOR UPDATES
Behavioral Intervention Update: People who engage in comms abuse will experience
increased penalties.
BUG FIXES
Agents
Neon
Fixed a bug where Neon’s hitbox could be slightly offset while sliding
Gameplay Systems
Fixed an issue in Premier Overtime voting that prevented people from calling an Overtime Timeout when switching sides.
Fixed an issue with Ability HUD persisting into deathcam.
Maps
Abyss
Fixed several areas where the Spike could get stuck on certain ledges outside the map.
Fixed a bug where Omen could die by teleporting in a specific spot in Mid Bottom.
Several Visual Bugs fixed.
Sunset
You can no longer jump on the tall box in A Alley.
PC
GENERAL UPDATES
We have made the new Basic Training (tutorial) and The Range from Console available on PC!
All new players will be required to play through the tutorial, and will have an option to play a Bot Training Match.
For current players, you can access the Basic Training and The Range by going to the Practice menu.
GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS UPDATES
Combat Report
Visual refresh! The in-game combat report has a new look.
Combat Report will now be visible during the Buy Phase by default. You will still be able to toggle it on and off during this phase.
PREMIER UPDATES
Playoffs in Contender and Invite Divisions have a best of 3 finals. Rounds prior to finals are best of 1.
Map pick and ban takes place before agent select for each game in a match.
Once a map is played, it is removed from the map pool for subsequent games in the match.
Added playoff qualification rules in the side panel on the standings page.
SOCIAL UPDATES
Added platform information in the social panel. It is now clearer when a friend who is playing VALORANT is on a different platform
BUG FIXES
Premier
Fixed an issue where the playoff results text on the standings page was always displayed in English.
Fixed an issue where the team page was showing the wrong background.
Fixed an issue where changing the Stage in the dropdown on the standings page sometimes wouldn’t refresh the content.
KNOWN ISSUES
Gameplay Systems
Combat Report additional details window is missing headers for “Weapon /Ability”, “Damage”, and “Hits”. This will be resolved in an upcoming release.
Premier
During a tournament, sometimes the rest period timer between matches may not display.
If the text on the lobby says “MATCH STARTING” and a match has not started after 10 seconds, try navigating to the Premier tab and back to the lobby to get an updated timer.
Even if this timer doesn’t display, your match will still start at the appropriate time. You will still receive the MATCH FOUND notification.
You will always have at least 5 minutes in between matches. This time may be longer if you’re waiting on a match to finish in order to determine your next opponent.
Console
GENERAL UPDATES
The ‘Keep Player Centered’ minimap setting will now be forced on for minimap zoom levels above 1.0. This prevents non-centered minimap views from getting into an unusable state for high zoom levels.
AGENT UPDATES
Toggleable Abilities: Select abilities which require you to press and hold a button down can now be set to ‘Toggle’, allowing you to press and let go of the input to steer the ability freely while it’s active.
The following abilities can be set to Togglable in the Agent Profile Settings:
Harbor: High Tide
Phoenix: Fire Wall
Skye: Guiding Light
Neon
High Gear
High Gear’s description in the Ability Info Panel has been updated to match the ability’s bindings.
Sova
Hunter’s Fury
Hunter’s Fury applies less drag on your controls, allowing more control over the charge’s duration.
MAP UPDATES
Icebox enters Competitive, Unrated, Swift Play, and Deathmatch queues.
SOCIAL UPDATES
The in-match scoreboard now has voice control shortcuts. You can now open the scoreboard and press a button to quickly mute other people or switch voice channels.
Added audio to social notifications. Now when you receive a friend request or party invite
you’ll hear a notification sound.
Added party information to the social panel. The friends list now shows the number of people in your friend’s party and the remaining open party slots.
BUG FIXES
General
Fixed an issue where you can lose input when interfacing with the surrender vote
system.
Fixed an issue where unbound inputs displayed incorrect controller bindings.
Fixed issue where megamap sometimes rotated when spectating other people after dying.
Credits are now localized properly in the tutorial.
Fixed an issue where the weapon wheel was not displaying the correct inputs when changing controls in individual Agent Profiles.
Gameplay Systems
Fixed an update with timestamp and ability status text overlapping in Combat Reports.
Fixed “Self” and “Ally” not localizing in Combat Report text.
Fixed overrun texts in Combat Reports for Indonesian localized texts.
Performance
Fixed a performance issue when changing controller presets.
Social
Fixed a bug where you could not remove someone as a friend while in match.
Fixed a bug where your presence sometimes would not update after a match.
Fixed a bug where social systems would sometimes not respect block.
Fixed a bug where your name would sometimes display in match even when you have set it to hidden.
Weapons
Mitigated an issue when using scoped weapons where your sensitivity would sharply increase at the beginning of scope zoom in transitions.
KNOWN ISSUES
General
While playing through the Basic Training Event, the “End of Game” Basic Training Event banner in the Progression Hub will show your current milestone as +1 instead of +2 after you complete the second milestone. It is correct everywhere else in the client and people are still earning XP. This will be fixed in Patch 9.03.
VALORANT is now available to download for free on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. To get notified with the latest VALORANT news, follow our new VALORANT news page on Facebook.
