Valorant's newest replace provides a brand new pistol to boost early rounds, as Riot plans to take 'a holistic look' on the shooter's arsenal by means of 2026

When Valorant launched again in 2020, it was pitched as Counter-Strike with added superpowers, a mix that proved irresistible for shooter skilled Morgan Park in PC Gamer’s Valorant evaluation. Over the previous few years, nevertheless, the emphasis has regularly shifted to the purpose the place Valorant has became superpowers with added Counter-Strike.

This downside got here to a head final 12 months, with Riot promising to chop again on supplementary utility powers to reorient Valorant again round gunplay. This initiative is about to proceed by means of 2026, with Valorant’s newest patch introducing a brand new gun as Riot guarantees extra in depth weapon reworks sooner or later.

That new gun is known as the Bandit, a semiautomatic pistol designed to fill the hole between the silenced Ghost and Valorant’s high-powered revolver, the Sheriff. The Bandit provides gamers the next charge of fireplace than the Sheriff and superior injury in comparison with the Ghost, in a position to deal immediate kills on headshots in opposition to flippantly armoured gamers. Riot believes this could add some further spice to these early, pistol-heavy rounds.

Whereas the Bandit’s addition is the one main weapon change within the replace, Riot says it is indicative of the studio’s broader plans for Valorant in 2026. “Since we began placing the emphasis on gunplay in 2025, we will use 2026 to take a holistic have a look at our arsenal and core fight loop, to make changes the place wanted,” says Riot’s product supervisor for Gameplay, Tiffy, in a video detailing the replace.

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Elsewhere, the replace brings a considerable overhaul to considered one of Valorant’s maps, Breeze. Riot says that participant suggestions indicated Breeze’s open design was a little bit too open, so the developer has sprinkled in additional cowl and closed off a few of its bigger areas to tighten up fight encounters. Two different maps, Haven and Corrode, have additionally been tweaked barely to make wall penetration extra predictable.

The replace additionally introduces a brand new, non permanent mode with the extremely inelegant title “All Random One Web site”. This seems to be designed as a fast-paced, extremely reactive mode, with gamers spawning as random characters and battling in small, closed off areas of every map.

The final main change Riot highlights is to Match Making Ranking, or MMR. Whereas Riot would not go into an excessive amount of element right here, it says the modifications are designed so MMR will extra precisely mirror participant ability, due to this fact serving to make sure that matches have higher steadiness for 2026.

I actually choose it when shooters put the taking pictures entrance and centre, relatively than counting on secondary gimmicks to energy the expertise, so these modifications sound like the best name to me. But when these tweaks are tempting you again into Valorant, be certain that your motherboard BIOS is updated first, in any other case you would possibly end up unable to play as a consequence of Riot’s newest anti-cheat measures.

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