New ‘Valorant’ patch tweaks sudden death, revamps Guardian rifle

Spike Rush mode has also received a new orb

Riot Games has released patch 1.03 for Valorant, which revamps the Guardian rifle and changes how sudden death for ranked games works.

Sudden death for ranked games (also known as Competitive mode) has been updated to make things even for both teams. Instead of playing a single sudden death round, teams will now alternate between attackers and defenders until “a team claims victory by being up by 2 rounds”.

Credits and ultimate points will also be reset every round, with all players receiving 5000 credits for purchases and being four points short of a fully charged ultimate skill. Games can now also end in a draw, voted in-game after every two rounds of sudden death.

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Patch 1.03 has also reworked the mid-tier rifle, Guardian. The price of the weapon has been reduced from 2700 to 2500 credits, with a slower rate of fire of 4.75 from 6.5. On the other hand, the gun’s penetration power has been upped from medium to heavy, alongside a slightly higher input queue.

“The Guardian has lived in a strange position in the arsenal,” Riot explained of the gun’s revamp, adding that it was “too pricey as an alternate economic option, but not powerful enough to be considered as a premiere weapon choice”.

“We hope these changes will sharpen the Guardian’s identity as a long-range, versatile weapon, with its heavy penetration values and lower price providing some more nuanced choice competition to the rifle category of the arsenal,” it added.

Riot Games has also added a new orb into Spike Rush mode. The Twin Hunters orb will spawn two hunting wolves to track down the two nearest enemies, and will slow and near-sight enemies upon impact. Much like Raze’s Boom Bot, the hunting wolves and can be damaged and will time out if it doesn’t reach its target after 15 seconds.

Other changes in the patch include bug fixed across all maps, an updated Surrender option and a slew of quality of life changes. Check out the full patch notes for 1.03 here.

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Earlier this month, Riot Games confirmed that it was working on a deathmatch mode for Valorant. “Deathmatch is absolutely a mode that is coming to Valorant in the future,” lead game modes producer Jared Berbach said. The developer also has plans to release six new agents a year for Valorant.

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