Riot buffs the Guardian in VALORANT Patch 1.08

For when you can't buy a Vandal.
Image via Riot Games

Riot Games released new patch notes for VALORANT yesterday. In addition to nerfs for Raze’s Blast Pack, the semi-automatic Guardian rifle received a few buffs.

Recommended Videos

The Guardian is regularly looked at as inferior to other semi-automatic rifles like the Phantom and Vandal, but even at a price point of a few hundred credits cheaper, the gun felt underwhelming.

Along with lowering the price of the gun, Riot has improved both its rate of fire and its weapon recovery.

  • Price reduced to 2,400 from 2,500
  • Rate of fire improved to 5.25 rounds per second, up from 4.75
  • Weapon recovery improved to .2925 after three bullets, up from .35

In the developer notes for the change, Riot emphasized that this isn’t intended to make the Guardian usurp more expensive guns. Instead, the changes are supposed to make us feel a little bit less reluctant to buy in a round where we don’t have the credits for a Phantom or Vandal.

“We don’t think the Guardian can (or should) compete directly with the Phantom or Vandal,” the notes state. “But we’d like it to have a place where players can feel good opting into the gun at the new price, is a competitive purchase in certain economic circumstances or map scenarios, and isn’t as punishing when an enemy gets close!”

Along with changes to the Guardian in Patch 1.08, Riot nerfed Raze’s Blast Pack, changed the map rotation for the game, fixed a few bugs, and added some quality of life improvements to VALORANT.


Dot Esports is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article When can Clove use their revive ultimate ability in VALORANT?
VALORANT agent Clove in the midst of casting their self-resurrection ultimate ability.
Read Article Discord adds official but expensive VALORANT profile cosmetics and effects to its store
Clove wallpaper from VALORANT
Read Article VALORANT players discover broken Clove interaction that leads to easy smoke kills
Clove in VALORANT
Related Content
Read Article When can Clove use their revive ultimate ability in VALORANT?
VALORANT agent Clove in the midst of casting their self-resurrection ultimate ability.
Read Article Discord adds official but expensive VALORANT profile cosmetics and effects to its store
Clove wallpaper from VALORANT
Read Article VALORANT players discover broken Clove interaction that leads to easy smoke kills
Clove in VALORANT
Author
Max Miceli
Senior Staff Writer. Max graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a journalism and political science degree in 2015. He previously worked for The Esports Observer covering the streaming industry before joining Dot where he now helps with Overwatch 2 coverage.