Valorant patch 7.08 official notes (October 17): Smoke visual update, Premier queue changes, bug fixes, and more

Patch 7.08 of Valorant is planned to arrive on October 17, 2023, with a set of interesting upgrades, which include map and Agent changes, visual updates, and bug fixes, among others. Although Valorant developers are known to bring forward occasional Agent changes, be it for their design or mechanics, patch 7.08 is set to witness an ability update unlike any other. Smoke utilities, a key component in Valorant, will receive a game-changing update that will enhance its visibility in its final moments before expiring.

Commenting on the upcoming smoke updates, the developers said the following:

"Some of the key smokes can manipulate the play space for a good chunk of time and we feel it is important to be able to make the right decisions in the moment. We’ve added audio and visual cues at the end of our longer lasting smokes to give you a bit of a heads up for when the smoke will disappear."

Players can visit Riot Games' official website for the official patch 7.08 patch notes. However, a short summary of the official patch notes can be seen below for interested readers.

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Valorant patch 7.08 official notes (October 17, 2023)

Valorant patch 7.08 highlights (Image via Valorant)

1) General updates

• We made a slight adjustment to the rows of Agents you can select from at the bottom of the screen in order to make room for future Agents.

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2) Agent updates

Smoke visual update

Smokes play an audio and visual cue 1.5 seconds before they are about to fade. The following Agents’ smokes have been affected:

• Astra
• Brimstone
• Omen

Ability-equipping sounds are no longer audible to your Allies

Developer notes: Previously, the sound of you equipping abilities as certain Agents could be heard by allies that were very close to you. Hearing this audio was inconsistent with equipping guns, which are silent to allies, and resulted in confusion around if enemies were able to hear these sounds. We hope this change will make the rules around equipping gun and ability audio more consistent and make what can be heard by enemies easier to learn and understand.

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3) Premier updates

Premier Playoffs Tournament queue changes

• The Playoffs Tournament Queue is now only 15 minutes instead of 1 hour. If you don’t queue up and stay queued within the 15-minute window, your team will not be able to play in the Tournament.
• At the end of the waiting period, all teams that are still in the queue will be matched at one time into evenly distributed brackets seeded by Premier Score.
• This change ensures that having a better regular season record gives you a higher seeding in your tournament.

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4) Store updates

• Your Level Borders and Player Card collection UI is getting an upgrade! You’ll now be able to search, navigate, and equip your Level Borders and Player Cards using our grid UI.

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5) Bug fixes

Deadlock

• Annihilation (X) can no longer open Bind’s automatic doors from outside the teleporter rooms.
• Annihilation (X) can no longer open Breeze’s Mid Chute trapdoor from below.

Neon

• Fast Lane (C) now more reliably fully extends through Fracture’s A Door when cast from the outside, behaving the same as when used from inside A Hall.

General

• Fixed a bug where the music would hitch/skip while loading into a map or the Range.
• Fixed a bug where shooting range bots would not reset their hitbox position properly when respawning.

Player behavior

• Fixed a bug so that you’ll receive the correct Ranked Rating penalties for disruptive behavior.

Weapons

• Fixed a bug where killbanner audio was playing too quietly.