Valorant 4.09 Patch Notes: Chamber Nerfs and Fade Changes

Patch 4.09 has arrived for Valorant, and here’s the full list of changes and fixes added with this update. This patch makes significant changes to Chamber, one of the game’s best Sentinels and most popular Agents overall. In addition, this update also makes some minor tweaks to the game’s newest Agent, Fade, although these changes are only visual so she hasn’t been nerfed. Chamber’s nerf is the main focus of this update, and Riot Games has also shared some insight into how they view Sentinels in general and their plans for the role going forward. Here’s everything new with Valorant patch 4.09.

Valorant Patch Notes 4.09

Here’s everything new in Va rant patch 4.09 directly from Riot Games themselves.

Agent Changes

• Fade
  • Nightfall (X) – You should now see a decreased amount of flickering textures on diagonal walls when casting Fade’s ultimate. Also added VFX for additional clarity and visual impact.
  • Seize (Q) – VFX change to the orb for a more dynamic presentation in 1p and Agent select
• Chamber
  • Trademark
    • Cost increased 150>>>200
    • Charges reduced 2>>>1
    • Audio range increase
  • Right now, Chamber’s Trademark outperforms other Sentinel tools in both reliability and power, which feels inappropriate given the amount of defensive combat tools Chamber has spread across the rest of his kit.
  • We believe Chamber’s identity is defined by his unique weapons and defensive combat mobility, so we are decreasing his level of global flank protection/information and increasing counterplay on a single premium trap.
  • This means Chamber will have to make a choice based on if he wants to play selfishly around his Trademark, or place it to help his teammates instead.
• A quick note about Sentinels:
  • When we think about the Sentinel role, we think about its overall ability to keep map control and defend space. We believe that Sentinels and Sentinel players should have many options and methods to control and defend, whether it’s through the use of Sage’s reactive slow abilities, Cypher’s flank-watching gadgets, or defensively-oriented combat and guns like Chamber.
  • Like all our Agents, it’s important to carve out sharp strengths and weaknesses for Chamber in the roster.
  • If you take him for his weapon arsenal and disengage, you should feel as if you’re giving up a strength—like traps or stall—that his peers excel at. As usual, all eyes are now on Chamber changes, and we’ll adjust if we see him suffer disproportionately on defense relative to attack. —Jay Watford, Lead Agent Designer, and Dan Hardison, Game Designer

Competitive Updates

• Party Lead Transfer — You can now change the lead of your party
  • Current party leader can right click the player name they want to transfer the responsibility to, and choose “Make Leader” in the drop down menu.
• A number of small tweaks and updates made to the UI

Esports Features

• Added Observer ability to toggle Scoreboard on/off

Bugs

• Fixed a bug where Jett’s Tailwind would sometimes fail to cast when used immediately after curving a Cloudburst smoke
• Fixed a bug where Jett’s ultimate indicator would sometimes stay active after firing all kunai

Gameplay Systems

• Fixed an issue where an unintended ‘use’ input could happen after abilities such as Skye’s Trailblazer or Sova’s Owl Drone is activated while using the ‘use’ key

Valorant is available now on PC. Valorant Mobile is currently in development.