Valorant is undeniably fun, considering the FPS game‘s fast-paced combat and visually stunning maps. It’s also thankfully regularly updated, with Riot Games constantly working on steadily improving balance and gameplay. The latest Valorant update, 7.05, showcases how the developers are trying to tackle competitive rank boosting with the introduction of new restrictions. Alongside these are Astra’s balancing buffs and a plethora of patch bug fixes.
Riot is cracking down on players using bots, as the dev says, “There has been a wave of competitive rank boosting with bots and real players.” The team goes on to write, “In an effort to protect against this abuse, we have introduced restrictions.” Ascendant players and higher can now only invite players that have reached a platinum rank themselves or higher in competitive play.
The dev further reassures players, “We will continue to actively monitor botting abuse and ban any accounts suspicious of this behavior.” Aside from these restrictions, another big change coming with 7.05 brings buffs to Astra. According to Riot, “Going in and out of Astral form is a complex mechanical task that leaves Astra vulnerable to attackers by denying her information about her surroundings.”
To make it a little more fair, devs have altered her Astral Form to give her “back some agency and information, allowing you to react to enemy footsteps and utility you may have missed while in Astral Form.” Joining the good news is Sunset coming to competitive mode’s map rotation. Other additions and adjustments include audio changes, queue fixes, and more.
Valorant patch notes – 7.05 update – Wednesday, September 6, 2023
If you’re interested in viewing the full Valorant patch notes straight from the source for a more detailed understanding of each change, you can do so by looking through Riot Games’ news. For the highlights, courtesy of Riot, read on below.
Competitive updates
- Ascendant players and higher can only invite players with Platinum rank and higher to their competitive party.
Agent updates
Astra
- Astra will now be able to hear everything happening around her physical body while in Astral form.
Map updates
Sunset
- Sunset will now be in the map rotation for Competitive mode with Breeze, Ascent, Haven, Bind, Split, and Lotus.
Bug fixes
General
- Fixed a bug where the SFX volume would default back to 100% volume when Alt-Tab-ing out of the game.
Agent
- Fixed a bug where there was a small audio dead zone in Astra’s Cosmic Divide (X).
- Fixed a bug where Deadlock’s Sonic Sensor (Q) would trigger when Gekko’s Wingman (Q) walked near it.
- Fixed a bug where other Agents were not animating when they moved through Omen’s Dark Cover (E) ability.
- Fixed a bug where Cypher’s Trapwire (C) would sometimes fail to activate when placed on stairs.
Player behavior
- Fixed an issue where people who were chat-restricted by Real-Time Interventions were also disconnected from the text chat instead of just muted from text chat.
- Fixed an issue where there was no warning message when you had a conflicting key bind for team or party voice chat.
- Fixed an issue where switching between Unrated and Competitive queues would cause the restriction timer for the queue delay to replace the ranked restriction timer.
- Fixed an issue where creating an Agent Profile reverted Push-to-Talk keybinds back to their defaults.
While you wait for the next Valorant update, you can check out some of our favorite Valorant skins to keep your excitement flowing and your passion for fashion growing. Alternatively, browse through our rundown of the Valorant ranks to gain a better understanding of how it all works, from the distribution to the restrictions.