One of VALORANT’s original meta agents spies a return to prominence while Fade players fear PBE nerfs

Riot has released the list of VALORANT changes that will be accessible during this weekend’s Public Beta Environment (PBE) session, confirming the reports and rumors of a buff to Cypher and a nerf to Fade.

Cypher’s buffs focus on his Trapwires, his Spycam tracker, and his Neural Theft ultimate in addition to providing some quality of life improvements. The maximum length of Trapwire has increased from 1000 to 1500. The Neural Theft ultimate now pulses twice, with a four second delay in between, and Cypher players can now cast it faster on an enemy body and from further away.

Additionally, the yellow silhouette used for Cypher’s reveal on Spycam and Neural Theft has been updated. It now disappears when an enemy becomes visible to you, to “reduce confusion of seeing two representations of the enemy in different places.” The silhouette also “starts dimmer and fades faster to make it more distinguishable from an actual enemy,” and Cypher’s utility can no longer be destroyed by allied AOE damage.

Per the official post from Riot on the PBE subreddit, these changes should make Trapwire placements less predictable, and make the Neural Theft more rewarding and accessible. Riot hopes to see new Trapwire setups and placements going forward from these changes.

Fade, meanwhile, has received a nerf to her Prowler ability and her Nightfall ultimate cost has increased from seven points to eight. The duration of the Prowler cast has reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds, the delay before the Prowler bite has slightly increased, the Nearsight duration has reduced from 3.5 to 2.75 seconds, and its hitbox has been “improved” for counterplay. Also, Prowlers “now fizzle out and no longer debuff instead of debuffing its target if they teleported away before it finished its animation.”

Riot hopes that the duration changes “encourage Fade to be more deliberate in the areas that she chooses to sweep” with Prowler, while making it easier to play against. Additionally, they found the “baseline value” of Nightfall to be higher compared to other ultimates, leading to the increase in its cost.