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Valorant regularly receives updates from developer Riot Games. These updates almost always deliver buffs and nerfs to agents to provide better balance for gameplay and matches. Riot Games always provide exact details in their patch notes, but they have recently shared that a powerful Valorant agent received an unintended nerf that was meant for a future update.
You can find the patch notes for update 8.05. This is the most recent patch, and it is the update that delivered Clove to the game. Clove is a new Controller with incredible abilities, and they are part of Episode 8 Act 3 which introduced changes and fixes to Premier Mode.
Clove has already become a fan-favorite amongst the Valorant community, but arguably the biggest fan-favorite and most selected Agent in the game is Viper. Fans have previously complained about Viper being too OP, but, as it turns out, they actually have received a nerf that Riot Games didn’t share and didn’t intend to deliver.
Valorant agent Viper gets unintentional nerf
Riot Games has shared on the official VALORANT Twitter account that Viper received an unintentional nerf back in update 7.09. This was delivered in October 2023, and the nerf to Viper cannot be seen in the official patch notes.
Update 7.09 is famous for adding new agent at the time, Iso. It also provided balance changes to the following agents:
- Cypher
- Skye
- Fade
- Raze
There was no mention of Viper at all in the patch notes, but Riot Games has shared that her smoke uptime was shortened. Per Riot Games, this happened ‘due to an update that had unintentionally shipped in 7.09 resulting in reduced smoke duration and cooldown after deactivating Viper’s smoke’.
Riot Games says that this was not meant to go out, but they will not be reverting the change because of how Viper has proven such a dominant force in the meta even with the smoke duration reduction. In addition, the nerf was intended for the future and it gives a rough preview for patch 8.08.
For more Valorant, check out our 18 tips on how to get better at the game along with our guide for how to appear offline if you don’t want certain friends knowing you’re playing. We also have guides for how to chat with the team, all, and private, along with how to add friends.
Valorant is available on PC.
