Valorant 9.02 Patch Notes Revealed: Agent Improvements, Stricter Comms Bans, & More

The patch notes for the Valorant 9.02 update has officially been revealed by Riot Games, and it’s set to bring a number of important changes to the competitive shooter.

The update includes various agent improvements, stricter penalties for text and voice chat abuse, and several additional adjustments for both console and PC versions of the game.

Console players will be welcoming a new map, Icebox, to the Valorant map pool while PC players can enjoy new basic training and range. The changes to the PC version also include an updated combat report, which will now be visible during the buy phase by default.

Valorant 9.02 Patch Notes: All Changes Explained

Without further ado, let’s check out the detailed patch notes for the Valorant 9.02 update as revealed by Riot Games:

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.