VALORANT Patch 8.09 patch notes: All buffs, nerfs, and changes

Being a mid-Act update, VALORANT’s Patch 8.09 is a small one, but it brings one crucial agent change as well as a bunch of bug fixes to look forward to.

Patch 8.9 is scheduled for deployment on May 14 and introduces a minor yet vital update to Brimstone’s Sky Smokes, bringing them in line with other dome-shaped smokes in VALORANT. The patch also addresses four annoying bugs that have been prevailing since Episode Eight, Act Three dropped last month.

What does VALORANT’s Patch 8.09 include? 

Brimstone’s smokes now cover more space

Brimstone’s Sky Smokes are the longest-lasting vision blockers in VALORANT, but they also had the smallest radius among all smokes, making them somewhat unsuitable for wider chokepoints (like A Elbow on Sunset).

Patch 8.09 fixes this inconsistency by slightly increasing the Sky Smoke’s radius and improving the UI targeting size on his bracer to reflect the new radius accurately. According to the notes, the devs intended to ensure that “when the outer edge of the targeting UI covers a choke point, the spawned smoke will fully cover that area as well.”

Here are the changes of note in bullet points:

Sky Smoke (E)

• Radius increased from 410 to 415.
• UI targeting size updated so the outer edge properly reflects the size of the smoke.

Riot says this change, although seemingly minor, is a precursor to “bigger things in the near future,” possibly indicating upcoming changes to the controller meta. 

All bug fixes in VALORANT’s Patch 8.09

Here are all the bug fixes included with Patch 8.09:

• Fixed a widely-reported bug causing crosshair profiles to disappear from players’ saved settings. If you’re still facing issues, Riot encourages you to contact Support. 
• Fixed an urgent issue causing the “Killed By” section of the Combat Reports to show incorrect information. 
• Fixed an issue causing the client to freeze after a game ends, forcing players to restart. 
• Fixed an issue affecting bullet tracers that was causing tracers to show up even when turned off when a player fired away from the map. 

You can view the full patch notes here.