Valorant Patch 4.03 Adds Buffs to an Ultimate & Updates AFK Detection

A new update has been released for Riot Game’s competitive shooter Valorant. The implemented changes in the latest patch affect Deathmatch and CPU-bound performance. The second should be a welcome improvement for anyone looking to get more out of their rig.

Patch 4.03 is now available and has brought a change to one of Valorant‘s several agents: Brimstone. The update is tweaking Brimstone’s ultimate to be more effective, and his Orbital Strike ability calls down three large lasers from the sky that should now function better at denying information. The patch notes state,

• Brimstone’s ultimate now properly blocks gameplay visibility while active.
• You’ll no longer see enemies on the minimap through the ultimate.
• Abilities that require line of sight (flashes, Sova recon pulses) will no longer apply through the ultimate.

The Deathmatch mode has also been tweaked. Spawn locations have been updated to remove and relocate “dangerous” spawns. Other improvements have also been made to generate points to ensure that players appear farther away from their death location. The respawn time has also been halved from three seconds to one and a half seconds.

Valorant‘s AFK detection has also been improved. Riot has now given details of the changes made that would prevent players from creating workarounds. The patch notes state the goal is to “deter players from exploiting game modes to farm EXP.”

Riot Games had previously announced that they would be making improvements to the game’s AFK detection system, saying,

sharing both the process and results of our work to improve Valorant’s community is an outlook to which we are committed. It’s something that you’ve told us you want. It’s one of the reasons we wanted to write these articles in the first place.

Riot Games

Lastly, the update is also bringing improvements for users on CPU-bound PCs. The patch should add up to a 15% increase in performance. The company has stated that most users should notice an improvement from the update, but the degree will depend on individual set-ups.

You can read the full patch notes for 4.03 here.

About Valorant

Valorant is a free-to-play first-person tactical shooter developed and published by Riot Games. The game has a competitive player base and currently runs on Unreal Engine 4.

The game is set on a near-future Earth and features a cast of characters known as Agents, each of which have their own unique set of abilities to create tactical opportunities. Ten players are divided into two teams, Attackers and Defenders, with the goal of winning the most rounds. Players have access to a number of in-game weapons, shields and abilities which they can purchase before the start of every game.