Valorant patch 4.03 official notes: Massive Deathmatch changes, Brimstone updates, performance fixes, and more

Valorant patch 4.03 will be looking to bring many changes to the Deathmatch game mode by improving a lot of its “Spawn Logic”.

Brimstone will also be receiving some updates, along with performance updates hitting the social and esports aspect of the game.

Valorant fans looking for a detailed patch description can look up Riot’s official website. However, for a brief overview, here are all the major highlights.

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Valorant patch 4.03 official notes

1) Agent Updates

Brimstone

• 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.

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2) Mode Updates

Deathmatch

• Removed and in some cases relocated “dangerous” spawn locations
• Improved spawn logic and spawn placement to increase the likelihood that you will be facing each other players in an encounter
• Spawning logic will now favor respawn locations farther away from where you are defeated
• Fixed an issue where the Warm-Up Phase was not using spawn logic properly
• Respawn Time Reduced: 3s >>> 1.5s

Social Updates

• Updated AFK detection in game to deter players from exploiting game modes to farm EXP

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3) Performance Updates

Global Invalidation

• Global Invalidation provides up to 15% improvement to baseline performance for CPU-bound players
• CPU-bound players are generally mid-to-high spec machines.
• These numbers are based on data gathered from PBE over two weekends (Jan. 22–23, and Feb. 5–6).
• Although we expect a large portion of the player base to benefit from these gains, your machine’s performance may vary.

Cosmetic Updates

• Updates to the color of the tile used to display sprays in your Collections
• Some sprays were too close to the color of the original tile and were hard to see properly before actually using them in-game.

Game System Updates

• Added option to return to strongest weapon
• You can now return to the strongest weapon when pressing the “Equip Last Used Item” key or when auto-equipping a weapon.
• To toggle ON, go to Settings >> Controls >> Equipment under “Prioritize Strongest Weapon.

Esports Features

• Projectile follow is now fixed for observer followers
• Added observer settings toggle to turn Agent portrait on/off

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4) Bugs

Agents

• Fixed a bug where Valorant Chamber’s Headhunter and Tour de Force could float away
• Fixed an exploit where, using specific line-ups, it was possible to see inside Viper’s ultimate without being affected by the nearsighted debuff
• Fixed a bug where Viper’s ultimate would sometimes fail to expand through doorways

Social

• Fixed a bug where pressing enter in pre-game wouldn’t focus chat
• Fixed a bug where right clicking a player portrait would not bring up a context menu

Performance

• Fixed a bug where performance stats would be hidden while spectating the Spike

Known Issues

Esports Features

• There is a brief flash when swapping into free-cam mode as an observer follower