VALORANT 13.01 Patch Notes: Yoru Buffs, Outlaw Nerf, and Rank Abuse Crackdown

VALORANT Patch 13.01 is live, and Riot is dishing out a mix of agent tweaks, a weapon rebalance, and a long-awaited crackdown on rank abusers. Iso mains get a clean quality-of-life win, since equipping your weapon after unequipping Double Tap is now instant. Yoru fans have even more reason to smile as Gatecrash’s active beacon duration jumps from 15 seconds to 20, and Fakeout clones now mirror his last equipped weapon instead of defaulting to his strongest, which sells the deception fantasy way harder.

On the gunplay side, the Outlaw finally eats a nerf. Riot added recovery, spread, and recoil after the first shot, so those back-to-back sniper shots now demand a little more control to earn that power. The bigger story is Riot swinging the ban hammer at rank manipulation. Using detection tools carried over from League of Legends, VALORANT will now issue penalties for confirmed offenders, including account suspensions, rank reversions, and stripped ranked rewards.

Players will also get reporter and bystander feedback when someone in their lobby gets penalized, so the enforcement feels transparent. Round that out with a massive bug fix list touching Astra, Clove, Cypher, Jett, and more, plus a PC-only Discord integration going global on July 21, and 13.01 shapes up as a meaty mid-Act update.

VALORANT Patch Notes 13.01

ALL PLATFORMS

AGENTS UPDATES

• Iso
  • Double Tap
    • The speed of equipping your weapon after unequipping Double Tap is now instant.
• Yoru
  • Gatecrash 
    • Active Beacon Duration increased from 15s >>> 20s
  • Fakeout
    • To further satisfy his deception fantasy, clones from Fakeout will now hold Yoru’s last equipped weapon, instead of defaulting to his strongest weapon.

PLAYER BEHAVIOR UPDATES

• Rank Manipulation Penalties
  • We’ve rolled out new tools to better detect rank manipulation in VALORANT, building on systems we successfully introduced in League of Legends last year. Combined with the data we’ve gathered since adding the Rank Manipulation category in-game late last year, we will begin issuing penalties for confirmed rank manipulation. 
  • Penalties may include account suspensions, rank reversions, and ranked reward reversions.
  • As part of this, players will begin to receive reporter and bystander feedback in game when a player in their matches is penalized for rank manipulation.
  • Our goal is to protect ranked integrity and make sure competitive progress reflects fair play. For more detail on what counts as rank manipulation and how we’re approaching enforcement, check out this Play Fair article.

WEAPONS UPDATES

Outlaw has been performing strongly and we still want it to feel powerful with its back-to-back shots, but allow for some expression and some control to warrant that power.

• Outlaw
  • Recovery from 0.1 >>> 0.15 after first shot
  • Spread from 0 >>> 2.25 after first shot
  • Recoil from 0 >>> 4.0 after first shot

BUG FIXES

• Agents
  • Astra
    • Fixed an issue where Astra’s ability cooldown timer could sometimes remain visible after the ability had already been used.
  • Clove
    • Fixed an issue where Clove could gain an extra charge of Ruse during the Buy Phase by purchasing and reselling ability charges.
  • Cypher
• Fixed an issue where Cyber Cage could incorrectly block line-of-sight interactions above the ability’s visual effects.
• Fixed an issue where Cyber Cage’s trajectory indicator would not appear when throwing the ability into locations outside of Cypher’s line of sight.
• Fixed an issue where Cyber Cage would sometimes fail to play an audio cue when enemies entered through the lower portion of the cage.
• Fixed an issue where certain Spycam voice lines would not play correctly during specific actions.
• Deadlock
  • Fixed an issue where GravNet’s third-person visual effects could disappear after a player disconnected and reconnected to the match.
• Gekko
  • Fixed an issue where Nearsight visual effects on some controllable creatures could persist after they had been destroyed by an enemy.
• Iso
  • Fixed an issue where Double Tap could incorrectly prevent the first instance of fall damage.
• Jett
  • Fixed an issue where Cloudburst could be activated during Updraft and Tailwind animations when multiple abilities were bound to the same key.
  • Fixed an inconsistency where Jett could not pick up the Spike or weapons during Tailwind.
• KAY/O
  • Fixed an issue where FLASH/drive was missing part of its visual effects.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause an animation skip when equipping FLASH/drive.
• Killjoy
  • Fixed an issue on Split where Killjoy’s Alarmbot could interact with players through certain wooden covers.
• Miks
  • Fixed an issue where Miks could gain an extra charge of Waveform during the Buy Phase by purchasing and reselling ability charges.
• Neon
  • Fixed an issue where Neon could be unable to pick up the Spike while sliding over it.
• Reyna
  • Fixed an issue where Dismiss could occasionally leave Reyna unable to equip a weapon.
  • Fixed an issue on Abyss where Leer could apply its blind effect in unintended locations near A Main.
• Sage
  • Fixed an issue where players revived by Sage inside Viper’s Pit or Poison Cloud would not correctly receive the nearsighted debuff.
• Skye
  • Fixed an issue where Skye could gain an extra charge of Guiding Light during the Buy Phase by purchasing and reselling ability charges.
    • Fixed an issue where Nearsight visual effects on some controllable creatures could persist after they had been destroyed by an enemy.
• Viper
  • Fixed an issue where players using controllable abilities could briefly see through Viper’s Pit.
  • Fixed an issue where players revived by Sage inside Viper’s Pit or Poison Cloud would not correctly receive the Nearsighted debuff.
• Veto
  • Fixed an issue where the Evolution voice filter could persist on certain voice lines for the remainder of the match after activating the Ultimate.
• Yoru
  • Fixed an issue that allowed Yoru to gain unintended movement speed while in Dimensional Drift when interacting with Flex/Totems.
• Maps
  • Split
    • Fixed an issue where certain wall-based abilities could be cut off when used in the middle of B Garage.
  • Summit
    • Fixed an issue where Iso could survive the falling door crush.
    • Fixed an issue where Waylay could reach unintended locations using Refract and Lightspeed.

BUG FIXES

• General
  • Fixed a cosmetic issue where Packets Received/Sent Rate graphs showed incorrect values when the game is running at extremely high framerates

KNOWN ISSUES

• Agent
  • Omen
    • Shrouded Step’s obstructed placement indicator is missing

PC ONLY

SOCIAL UPDATES

• Discord 🤝 Riot
  • VALORANT is partnering with Discord to make getting into your next game with your friends easier. You can now link your accounts to unlock new social features!
    • Invite friends in Discord straight to your party from within VALORANT. No alt-tabbing needed.
    • Copy a lobby link and share it directly on your server or anywhere your friends are.
    • See which of your Discord friends play VALORANT and jump into parties faster.
• This rolled out as a beta in Brazil first and is launching globally wherever Discord is available on July 21.

All in all, patch 13.01 seems like a solid update.