Riot Games has made some huge changes in ‘Valorant‘ with the release of Valorant Patch 12.00. Devs added many features that players have been requesting for some time. There’s now a new sidearm, agent balancing is across the board, Breeze has received a complete makeover, and there is a new limited-time mode that will shake up matches.
Simply put, Riot Games is making it clear that they want to create a unique player experience in ‘Valorant‘ and that they are committed to maintaining competitive integrity and providing opportunities for experimentation during Season 2026.
Agent Balance Changes In Valorant Patch 12.00
In Patch 12.00, many agents received significant changes. This is to help agents that have been underperforming within the last few patches, while simultaneously refining utility interactions between agents and how they work together.
Breach And Harbor Becomes More Dangerous
Breach has not been as successful in higher levels of the game, so Riot has made some changes to his kit. With the introduction of these changes, Riot is focusing on rewarding precise and well-coordinated play.
Flashpoint fires at a rate of 20% faster, allowing for a more difficult reaction from opponents, and Fault Line now has a larger area of effect. These improvements will allow for greater effectiveness for Breach when executing attacks and retaking sites, especially when coordinated with other agents.
Additionally, the improvement of Harbor’s Aggressive Abilities is finally reflected in their effectiveness. Storm Surge No Longer requires a line of sight to activate nearsight and slow effects. Its windup time has shortened, and the length of time affected by the slow has greatly increased. Additionally, Reckoning’s slow duration has increased substantially, allowing Harbor to control more effectively during site takes or after planting.
Sage Healing Feels More Reliable
Sage’s Healing Orb now provides improved targeting of Agents, allowing for much more reliable healing on her team. With this change, as long as the portion of the character that the player is healing is visible from the agent’s perspective, it can heal. This reduces the frustration caused by miscasts in tight areas due to limited visibility.
Tejo Adjustments For Better Team Play
Tejo’s kit was modified and the improvements to Guided Salvos were incorporated into the updated kit. Special Delivery deals damage as well as provides a concuss effect; however, the concuss duration has been shortened from previous versions.
Stealth Drone reveals enemies properly, just like Sova Drones or Cypher Trips, but only for a shorter period of time, in comparison to previous versions. However, Stealth Drone has a smaller overall detection area. These updates to Tejo’s information and utility should make it easier to provide support to teammates, thereby increasing the overall effectiveness of the agent’s kit.
Vyse Regains Control Space
After making adjustments to Vyse’s kit in the previous patch, Riot has decided to make minor changes to Steel Garden. The increase in the radius of Steel Garden will allow players to be more consistent when holding sites and denying spaces when pushing their opponents’ bases.
Brimstone Quality of Life Improvements
Riot did not provide any major kit improvements to Brimstone. However, they have made improvements to the Tactical Map of Sky Smoke and Orbital Strike, allowing for better viewing and easier decisions depending on the circumstances. This means that Brimstone can place smokes and use Ult with better visibility and speed under pressure.
Breeze Returns With A Massive Rework
It is no secret that the majority of the ‘Valorant’ community hated the Breeze map. So, Riot reworked every quarter of this map. They eliminated most of the extreme angles that have plagued it since its inception. In addition, Riot has tightened many of the map’s more open areas and improved the timing of rotation for Defenders to help reduce the number of times they get to an opposite site before their defenders arrive.
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To encourage players to learn the new Breeze, Riot is reducing RR losses by 50 percent for the first two weeks of Competitive play on the map. Players earning wins on Breeze will still receive a full RR award. If you are a new/beginning player or want to give this new version a test drive, now would be the perfect time for you to start testing it out. The Map Breeze has returned to both your Competitive and Deathmatch Pools.
Haven And Corrode Wall Penetration Fixes
Haven and Corrode each received targeted wall penetration changes to allow the insertion of new walls in common areas of the maps. For Haven, the Mid Window has now added a breakable portion. This will prevent players from attempting to wallbang opponents during the early rounds of play without any real risk.
For Corrode, the materials used for the walls on the key portions of A and B have been altered, making it so that a player would have to be much more committed to holding space to wallbang someone through them.
New Limited-Time Mode: All Random One Site
New limited-time mode titled “All Random One Site” has been added to Valorant’ in Patch 12.00. In this mode, each round assigns players a random agent without duplicates in their team. Only one of the two bomb sites will be active for each round. However, the loadouts will be completely free, and players’ ability recharges will occur while the round is in progress. Players will also have a very fast ultimate charge rate for each round.
In addition to providing players with the ability to carry an ultimate orb, players who kill an opponent will receive an additional 50% ultimate charge, and players who are eliminated will drop all of the ultimate charges that they had gained during the round.
As such, this mode will result in very fast-paced and chaotic games with a plethora of ultimates and utility abilities being used all the time. Snowball Fight has been removed from the game in favour of this mode.
New Weapon: The Bandit Sidearm
Valorant Patch 12.00 introduces a new weapon named Bandit, which is priced at 600 credits and is positioned between Ghost and Sheriff. Bandit has an 8-round magazine, a medium wall penetration, and can kill players with full armor with just one headshot if you shoot close enough to the target.
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The Bandit is meant to be used during eco and light-buy rounds. Since the Bandit has good recoil, you will need to be very precise about your shots; however, once you get the Bandit in the right hands, it will quickly turn the tide of games in the early stages of a match.
