Valorant Episode 4 Act 1 "Disruption" Patch Notes: Release Date, New Agent Neon, Breeze Changes, Battle Pass Rewards And Everything You Need To Know

Valorant's next major update arrives TODAY as Riot will release Episode 4 Act 1.

It's a huge update to kick off 2022 and will bring with it a new agent, some map changes and plenty of new cosmetics.

While it still may seem some time away for avid players of the game worldwide, we can always speculate into what's coming with the next update.

Here's all we know regarding Valorant Episode 4 Act 1!

Some players have pin-pointed the release date of the new Episode based on the conclusion of the battle pass for the current Act.

With is currently set to end on January 11, 2022, players should expect as of now for Episode 4 Act 1 to release on January 12, 2022!

WEAPON UPDATES

MELEE

The melee’s been too tricky to aim with, making it tough to rely on. So we’ve updated both left and right click melee attacks for more reliable Agent-whacking action.

• 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.
• Bonus: Knifing walls now have instant feedback when slicing up walls (predicted on the client side)

SPECTRE

The Spectre’s versatility makes us happy, but it was over-performing in long range engagements and was too powerful even within its intended close range and mobile scenarios. By making the accuracy error come in a bit earlier and switching yaws more often, we hope it will make it more difficult to get kills when spraying over a long range. Likewise, the close range sprays will require more control to be effective.

• Firing error occurs at earlier bullet stages
  • For example, instead of errors occurring at bullets 4, 7, 10 (in terms of firing order) they will instead happen at bullets 3, 6, 8
• Increased pitch and yaw (vertical and horizontal) recoil multipliers when running/jumping/on ascender from 1.25 >>> 1.5
• Protected bullet count from yaw (horizontal) switching while spraying, decreased 8 >>> 5 bullets
• Lowering time to switch yaw from .24 >>> .18 seconds
  • While spraying, the time you have until you could switch yaws (horizontal movement) again is lower, meaning it can happen more often

ARES

Alongside changes to the Spectre, we hope to improve the feel and power of the Ares and take it out of the shadow of other weapons in its price tier.

• Removed spin up
• Firing rate increased from 10 >>> 13

GUARDIAN

The Guardian didn’t need the fire rate penalty compared to its fully-automatic counterparts, so we’re removing it. Adding another bullet before it starts to get unstable should make the weapon feel much more proficient at tapping shots, and improve its overall effectiveness in a fight.

• Removed firing rate penalty on ADS (Aiming Down Sight)
• Added an extra bullet before it enters a recovery curve

BULLDOG

We’re giving the Bulldog some love to help make it feel like a better buy in those situations when you might need a cheaper but versatile rifle option.

• Hip fire rate increased 9.5 >>> 10
• Recovery on burst fire improved from .4 >>> .35
  • Inaccuracy is accrued any time the weapon is re-fired prior to a complete duration of a weapon’s respective Gun Recovery Time. Lower recovery time should improve burst fire efficiency.

MAP UPDATES

Check out the full map updates here.

COMPETITIVE

As the map and Agent pool has increased, it's become increasingly difficult for new players to effectively learn and play VALORANT. However, we haven’t made any changes to when players are able to access our most competitive experience. We believe everyone should take time to learn the ins and outs of core gameplay, and have ample exposure to all the maps and Agents VALORANT will throw at you before competing in our ranked experience. To force this learning period, we’ve decided to add an Account Level requirement to play in Competitive.

• 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.

Reduced 5-stack Rank Rating penalty

After getting our initial data on 5-stacks in ranked, we've realized we may have been too harsh on the penalty you receive to your RR gains/losses while in a 5-stack. Match fairness for 5-stacks is equal to non-five stacks, meaning it’s difficult for you to bring in a higher ranking player and potentially boost a low rank player. Because of this data, we are reducing the penalties for lower ranks.

• Diamond 2 and below players will see their RR penalty reduced by 25% compared to the current balance. This means the new minimum penalty is 25% reduced gains/losses compared to the previous 50%
• We only made this change for ranks not breaking into, or on, the leaderboard to help maintain leaderboard integrity.

Increased Map Randomization

• Increased our map weights, which should lead to an increase in map variety and reduction in map duplicates from match to match

BUGS

Game Systems

• 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.
  • Thanks RobWiz for the report!

Each new Episode in Valorant usually brings one of the following, a new Agent or a new map. On this occassion, Neon will be joining the cast of colourful agents in Valorant.

Neon is going to be an ultra-fast character that's going to have movement based abilties, along with some other notable ones.

Here's all of Neon's abilties:

• High Gear
  • Instantly channel Neon's power for increased speed. When charged, ALT FIRE to trigger an electric slide. Slie charge resets every two kills.
• Fast Lane
  • Fire two energy lines forward on the ground that extend a short distance or until they hit a surface. The lines rise into walls of static electricity that block vision and damage enemies passing through them.
• Relay Bolt
  • Instantly throw an energy bolt that bounces once. Upon hitting each surface, the bolt electrifies the ground below with a concussive blast.
• Ultimate: Overdrive
  • Unleash Neon's full power and speed for a short duration. Fire to channel the power into a deadly lightning beam with high movement accuracy. The duration resets on each kill.

With the sheer amount of leaks in surrounding Episode 4 Act 1, there's been some more news coming out in recent days.

ValorLeaks has noted we're once again going to be getting Ranked Gunbuddys for our performance in the last Act.

ValorLeaks has also noted that Breeze is recieving a significant rework this Episode, with notable changes to both bomb sites which can be viewed down below.

The annual battle pass is one of the best ways for players to earn some pretty amazing Valorant skins, without forking over an ample amount of money.

Coming in Episode 4 is perhaps the best final reward we've seen out of the game, and this will be a Krambit for players to unlock.

The battle pass itself will run players around 1000 Valorant Points, which equals out to around $10 USD!

Check out the other rewards courtesy of @ValorLeaks.

• Hydrodrip
• Schema
• Velocity
• Karambit
• Gunbuddys
• Playercards
• Sprays