Riot Games has finally answered the community’s calls with VALORANT Patch 10.09, bringing some long-awaited nerfs to Tejo, who’s been dominating both ranked and pro play since his debut.
The update also introduces a small but impactful adjustment to another initiator, Breach, along with Swiftlplay changes focusing on ultimate point costs, Gifting system enhancement, and a few bug fixes.
Read on for a full breakdown of VALORANT patch 10.09.
VALORANT patch notes 10.09 (May 13)
Major Tejo nerfs
Riot has acknowledged what most players have been saying for weeks, that Tejo has been a bit too powerful, especially when it comes to his Guided Salvo rockets. In patch 10.09, that ability sees a major rework.
Gone are the days of endlessly recharging rockets mid-round. Similar to how Skye’s Guiding Light was tweaked, Guided Salvo can no longer be refreshed. Instead, Tejo now gets two charges per round, with each rocket use burning one charge, which costs 150 credits. To soften the blow, you still get one charge for free at the start of every round.
On top of that, the map targeting range for Guided Salvo has been reduced from 55m to 45m, which is a big hit to his versatility on larger maps like Haven, Pearl, and Lotus.
“We’re constantly monitoring the state of our Agents and feel that Tejo’s rockets have led to higher frequency of unhealthy game states, such as Tejo’s repeated usage of his rockets being able to swing rounds without sacrificing as much compared to other Initiators. We want to maintain Guided Salvo as an ability that is very powerful and reliable at clearing space, but increase the commitment so that wasted or uninformed casts are less free, and so opponents have room to iterate and try different things round-over-round,” Riot explained on the blog.
Additionally, Stealth Drone is now pricier, going up from 300 to 400 credits, and his Armageddon ultimate now takes a bit longer to acquire with its cost increased from eight to nine ult points. There’s still a small win for Tejo players, as Special Delivery becomes cheaper, dropping from 300 to 200 credits.
Breach adjustment
Breach gets a minor tweak in VALORANT patch 10.09, but it’s one that could make a big difference. His signature ability, Fault Line, now takes a little longer to go off, with the detonation time increased from 1.0 to 1.2 seconds.
It might not seem like much, but that extra 0.2 seconds gives players caught in the center of the stun a better shot at dodging it. It’s a small timing window, but in competitive matches, that can be the difference between getting picked off or staying in the fight.
Swiftplay ultimate cost updates
Riot has adjusted the starting ultimate points for a few agents in Swiftplay to better match the mode’s faster pace and updated ult costs. Breach (Rolling Thunder), Killjoy (Lockdown), and Viper (Viper’s Pit) now starts with three ult points instead of two.
This change gives these agents a more realistic chance of getting their ultimates online within a half, while also aligning with their current ult costs, which have gone up since Swiftplay first launched. It’s a small adjustment, but it helps keep the mode balanced
Gifting system enhancement
Starting May 15, Riot is doubling the daily gifting limit from five to 10 items. This update comes after strong community feedback following the feature’s debut in the previous VALORANT patch. The timing lines up perfectly with the launch of the Give Back // V25 bundle, giving you even more chances to gift your friends and support a good cause at the same time.
Bug fixes
- Cosmetics
- In patch 10.08, Riot fixed a visual bug that was found in the Bolt skinline that caused the skins to glow brighter than intended after equipping and inspecting the Bolt Flex. Initially, they thought this bug could cause potential issues for photosensitive players. But after conducting extensive photosensitivity testing, they’ve concluded that there is no substantial risk, so they’ve decided to revert that bug fix and leave it as an Easter egg.
- Fixed a bug where Kill Banners for certain skins (Oni, Evori Dreamwings, EX.O, Prelude to Chaos, Mystbloom, and more) were appearing smaller than normal after the first kill.
