Valorant v1.05 patch notes: Killjoy Agent, Raze Nerf, Deathmatch mode, and new rank system

Valorant's latest patch will soon go live on servers at approximately 1 am BST, 5th August. Servers will go down for a short time before coming back with the brand new act and all this new content.

Patch v1.05 contains a ton of new content for players to get their teeth into including the latest agent - Killjoy. Deathmatch mode has been added and will be live from the 5th, Raze has received a nerf, and changes have been brought into the rank system to help players get a better understanding of what level they are at.

(Picture: Riot Games)

Alongside the new patch, there is also the start of the brand new Act, with a host of cosmetics to unlock whether you stick with the free track or opt for the premium path.

KIlljoy Agent

(Picture: Riot Games)

The headline update in patch v1.05 is the introduction of Killjoy, the tech-savvy sentinel who brings with her a bundle of killer robots to help control the battlefield. She has already raised fears of being over-powered to so it will be interesting to see if those are proved true and  how she might shake up the competitive meta.

Players will have to unlock her using through her contract, which will also allow you to earn rewards as you level it up.

Raze Nerf

(Picture: Riot Games)

Perhaps a surprise as it was rumoured that it would be Sage that would be receiving a nerf next. Raze has been handed a further nerf are have received one not long after she was first introduced in the closed beta.

It's again her overpowered Showstopper (read: rocket launcher) that has been nerfed. Equip time has been increased meaning her ability to quickly pull this one-shot-one-kill weapon when she herself is close to death and trade with her opponent will be greatly reduced. Good job Riot.

• Read more: Valorant Act II Battle Pass: Skins, Cost, Player Cards, Sprays, Gun Buddies and more

Her Blast Pack has also been given a damage reduction dropping from 75hp to 50.

Deathmatch mode

The much-requested Deathmatch mode is here, 10 players, no abilities or weapon buying, and a race to 30 kills. The perfect warm-up before heading into the main event. It's currently in "closed beta" and players will be able to access to it opening up on 5th of August.

Valorant v1.05 patch notes

Agent Updates

• KILLJOY
  • Killjoy brings her killer robot buddies and round spectacles to VALORANT
  • A new contract has been added to unlock Killjoy and her associated rewards
• RAZE
  • Showstopper
    • Equip Time increased 1.1 >>> 1.4
    • Quick Equip Time increased 0.5 >>> 0.7
    • VFX reduced when firing rocket
    • VFX on rocket’s trail slightly reduced
  • Blast Pack
    • Damage decreased 75 >>> 50
    • Damage to objects now consistently does 600
    • Raze’s Blast Pack has been hitting players a bit too hard, able to kill a fully armoured enemy in certain situations. We want to reduce this ability’s efficacy at damaging players while sharpening its ability at clearing enemy utility and obstacles.

Competitive

• Act Ranks have been added to the game; read our deep dive for more.
• Patch 1.05 marks the end of Competitive Act I—Competitive Act II starts
  • If you earned a rank in Act I, play 3 more games to show your rank again in Act II. If you are a new player you will still need to play 5 initial placement matches so we have more time to calibrate to your skill
  • Expect a conservative initial placement, ~2 rank tiers lower than your prior Act I rank, so we are confident you are at or above that skill in Act II. Performance will have a larger impact in your early games, so you will be able to quickly gain rank if you play well and win
• Competitive matchmaking now will have a higher chance to match solo and solo/duo players against similarly sized premade groups at the cost of queue times being slightly longer
  • Regardless of premade sizes, match balance is sitting fairly close to 50 / 50 for which team wins, but there is often a larger skill disparity between the best and worst players in the games with large premade sizes. This change should reduce the chance of solo players getting into games where there is high skill disparity.
• Rank indicators have been modified on a loss to provide more granularity into how your rank was changed— You can now receive:
  • Rating decreased slightly e (1 down arrow)
  • Rating decreased (2 down arrows)
  • Rating greatly decreased (3 down arrows)
    • Previously we showed very little info around how much rank you lost on a loss to limit the already painful experience of a loss. However, this was leading to issues where a player may have had a really rough game (think decisively lost the game and played poorly) and then would win several games and not rank up. This should help alleviate this problem somewhat by providing more transparency on a loss and your amount of rank lost.
    • We are also looking into ways to give additional transparency around rank changes in future patches
  • Match History will now show the rank you went into the match with for that game, versus the rank you ended the game with
  • You can now view your friends career tab via the context menu in the social panel. This means you can see your friends rank, Act Rank, and Match History.
    • You can now see how awesome your friends have been doing in their matches and their rank gains...or reach out and console them if they have had some rough games.
  • Custom Games now allow the leader to select your target game pod location and see players ping to that game pod.
  • For custom games, when all players are opting into the game, we wanted to allow the leader more agency around what latency players will have. Hopefully your custom game leader will try and find the best DC for the game for all players, but if they are greedy you can always leave without penalty.

Game Modes

• Deathmatch drops! Hop in to hone your gunplay mechanics or warm-up before you hit ranked
  • 10-player free-for-all
  • First to 30 kills with a time limit of 6 minutes
  • No abilities
  • You’ll load in as a random Agent that you own
  • Buy whatever weapons you want; heavy armour is given to you automatically
  • Killing enemies drops health kits: picking one up fully restores your health/armour AND automatically reloads your weapon.
  • All enemies are periodically revealed on the minimap
• Deathmatch is in beta as we continue to evaluate game performance and stability. Availability will be limited to specific windows upon deployment of 1.05, with the first window starting Wednesday, August 5.

Quality of Life

• Players who report other disruptive players will now receive an email if the reported player has been punished
• Arriving mid-patch: Your rotating store offers will stop including things you already own!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue causing Sova’s Owl Drone to rotate slower
• Fixed issue where Reyna did not get her full heal if it began right when her overheal started to decay
• Fixed nearsight not apply properly when going through smoke parts of Viper and Phoenix’s walls
• [1.04 Hotfix] Fixed a bug where Phoenix could plant the Spike off the bomb site if he finished planting after Run it Back ended
• Fixed a bug where ping in the scoreboard would not appear for Observers
• Fixed a bug where Phoenix could in rare cases begin to auto-defuse the Spike if he was defusing the Spike when Run it Back ended
• Fixed an exploit where spamming inspect with a macro could cause server lag
• Game modifiers/cheats now notify all-chat when any player toggles them
• General fixes to moderators, tournament mode, and game modifiers
• Fixed a minimap bug, where the minimap would not correctly rotate on side swap rounds, when using fixed minimap + rotate based on side settings
• Resolved inconsistencies and cleaned up UX with options present on the Match tab in the in-game settings screen
• Resolved issue with incorrect rank briefly, and possibly persisting, to show for players in Career tab
• Resolved issue where rating adjustment indicators would show on-hover in Agent Select
• Resolved issue where account # tag wasn’t correctly showing on-hover on the Match tab in the in-game settings screen
• Resolved issue where only one team was able to vote to surrender if both queued the vote at the same time
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to interact with the character selection UI through the Shooting Range loading screen
• When equipping a gun buddy, an unassigned buddy no longer gets selected
• Fixed a visual bug where the lobby would play an unwanted animation when a match is found