Here are the updates and notes for VALORANT Patch 1.03

Riot is going easy on the balance changes in the latest VALORANT patch.

The developers are avoiding agents altogether in Patch 1.03, and instead, targeting weapons, maps, game modes, and quality of life changes.

The Guardian is receiving a makeover, reducing its price, and its short-range capabilities. A new orb, called Twin Hunters, is joining Spike Rush. And the unrated and competitive surrender requirements are being adjusted.

Here’s the full list of changes coming to VALORANT in Patch 1.03

Weapon updates

Guardian

• Price reduced from 2700 to 2500
• Rate of Fire reduced from 6.5 to 4.75
• Penetration power increased from Medium to Heavy
• Input queue updated from 0.083 to 0.1175
• Riot hopes these changes will “sharpen the Guardian’s identity” as a long-range, versatile weapon
• Its lower price should provide some more nuanced choice competition between the top rifles

Map updates

Haven

• Removed spot where Spike was unable to be retrieved once dropped

All maps

• Fixed multiple spots where players were able to clip inside level geometry
• Removed more locations where Sova’s sensor arrow was able to go through walls

Mode updates

Spike Rush

• New Orb: Twin Hunters 
• Capturing the orb releases two hunting wolves to track down the two nearest enemies (from orb location, they will not change targets after spawning)
• Wolves speed up when they spot an enemy and dash at them when close, slowing and near-sighting for 4 seconds upon impact.
• Wolves have 150 HP and can be damaged
• Wolves will time out at 15 seconds, or when their target is killed
• Split: Orb Location
• Mid defender side orb has been moved onto mid platform to make it slightly less defender favored

Quality of life

Surrender changes

• Unrated Mode vote requirements to pass changed from 100% to 80%
• Competitive Mode vote requirements to pass remains at 100%
• You can now call a surrender vote starting with round 5 versus round 8
•  A new button in the in-game menu has been added to call a surrender vote

• In the Collection screens, there is now a checkbox to toggle between showing all items or only owned ones (additional options and improvements for managing your collection will be coming in future patches)
• Fixed a bug where the mission “You or your ally plant/defuse spikes” sometimes did not take into account plants and defuses by allies
• Transition screens and startup screens are now letterboxed
• Fixed text overlap issues in the Battlepass and Contract screens in some languages
• Players in custom games with cheats enabled can select a different Agent to use on the next round in the cheats menu.
• Removing a friend will now prompt a confirmation dialogue
• Pressing Escape while typing in the chat box will clear the message
• Revised layout of confirmation dialogs to make primary action larger and always on the left; applied color in various places, like using red for destructive actions; revised the locations of some confirmation and cancel buttons for consistency
• Minor fixes for visual artifacts on Bind on Intel GPUs
• Minor render improvements for modern hardware
• Added an error popup for crashes on startup linking to troubleshooting guide for crashes
• Patch notes and payment windows will scale correctly on 4K monitors
• IME input on payment windows will now work correctly (Japanese/Chinese)
• Players can now view individual skin levels in the collections and store view
• Updates to censored hit impact effects for better readability
• Added Agent silhouettes for observers
• Improved render performance for silhouettes
• Agent health bars are now visible to observers
• Fulfilling a buy request while moving will no longer interrupt your movement
• Custom Games Tournament Mode:
• Custom games can now be set to Tournament Mode. This allows every player in the game to have access to the Toggle Match Timer cheat in game without having all other cheats enabled. It also allows observers to be flagged as moderators, which grants them access to additional cheats that they can use as necessary. Regular observers cannot use cheats anymore.

Bug fixes

• Fixed a Cypher bug where traps that were placed such that they were on the inside of a doorway, would not trigger when someone walked through them
• Fixed an issue with the Match Timer hitching under unstable network conditions
• Fixed an issue where players couldn’t jump off ascenders if jump was bound to the mousewheel
• Fixed some visual issues that could occur when reconnecting to the game while dead
• Fixed Barrier phase announcement showing up in normal games for observers
• Fixed various UI issues on observer scoreboard