Valorant PBE 5.10 patch notes: Cypher buff, Fade nerf, and more

Riot Games has just activated a new Valorant PBE for eligible players in North America, and it comes with some influential Agent and quality of life changes.

PBE 5.10 brings about massive changes in Cypher and Fade's utility kits, some UI tweaks, bug fixes, and more.

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What does Valorant PBE 5.10 bring to the table? Everything you need to know about the ongoing test phase and upcoming global update

Riot Games has been known to pay close attention to community requests and feedback surrounding Valorant.

The free-to-play tactical shooter receives regular updates and content to keep the meta and experience interesting.

Fans have been requesting the developers to buff Cypher for the longest time. With a weak Ultimate ability and traps that can be countered easily, his utility kit fell out of the Valorant meta a long time back, thus affecting his pick rate.

PBE 5.10 is set to introduce massive changes to Cypher's kit. It will reduce the predictability of his traps and increase the rewards associated with his Ultimate ability, Neural Theft.

Fade, the latest Initiator Agent on Valorant's character roster, has remained overpowered since her introduction. One of her basic abilities, Prowler, has been her most influential power, letting her clear corners and secure frags easily.

The upcoming changes will reduce the versatility of Fade's Prowler and force her to be more conscious about using it. Moreover, her Ultimate, Nightfall, will now feature an increased cost: eight points instead of seven.

In addition to the Agent buffs and nerfs, Riot Games also deployed an update for the menu in Valorant. Earlier, Patch 5.08 introduced a new user interface that removed one-click access to most menu options in the game, causing the community to resist the changes.

The developers have taken the complaints into consideration and have returned the one-click access functionality in the form of icon buttons. These changes will be subject to further tweaks as per community feedback.

Lastly, the developers have deployed some much-needed agent bug fixes related to Astra and Harbor in Valorant. They also stated a couple of known issues related to the user interface that are presently under scrutiny.

PBE 5.10 will close at 11:00 am PDT on Monday, November 7, 2022, paving the way for a global patch to bring the update to Valorant's public version.

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Valorant PBE 5.10: Patch notes

GENERAL

• Menus Update: Having heard the pain caused by removing one-click access to most of our menus, we’ve returned that functionality in the form of icon buttons in the universal navigation at the top of the screen. You’ll now be able to jump from Home, Battlepass, Agents, Career, Collection, and Store with one click from anywhere. Not sure what icon is what? Give them a hover - we’ve added tool tips to help you familiarize yourself.

AGENT UPDATES

Cypher

Trapwire

• Maximum Trapwire length increased 1000 >>> 1500.

Neural Theft

• Neural Theft now reveals enemies two times. There is a four-second delay between the reveals.
• Time restriction to cast on enemy corpses has been removed.
• Maximum cast distance increased 1200 >>> 1800.

Quality of Life

• Updated the yellow silhouette used for Cypher’s reveal on Spycam and Neural Theft.
• Yellow silhouette now disappears if the revealed enemy becomes visible to you to help reduce confusion of seeing two representations of the enemy in different places.
• Yellow silhouette now starts dimmer and fades faster to make it more distinguishable from an actual enemy.
• Cypher’s placed utility is no longer destroyed by allies’ AOE damage.

Fade

Prowlers

• Duration reduced from 3 >>> 2.5 seconds. (Time the prowler is alive without a trail).
• Delay on bite after reaching target increased .4 >>> .6 seconds.
• Hitbox improvements.
• Nearsight duration on hit reduced 3.5 >>> 2.75 seconds.
• Prowlers now fizzle out and no longer debuff instead of debuffing their target if they teleported away before it finishes its animation.

Nightfall

• Cost increased 7 >>> 8.

BUGS

Harbor

• Fixed a bug where Harbor’s Cascade would sometimes spawn under the map.
• Fixed a bug where Harbor’s Cascade targeter on the minimap would shorten when aiming up or down even though the Cascade would travel the same distance.
• Fixed a bug where Harbor’s Cascade targeter on the minimap was slightly shorter than the actual distance it would travel.

Astra

• Fixed a bug where Astra could cast a fake Nebula right at the start of a round before her Star charged up.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Button highlight/coloring state inconsistencies on the new universal navigation buttons for Home, Battlepass, Agents, Career, Collection, and Store.
• Selected universal navigation icons do not navigate to the selected menu when used from any sub-nav menu.

All these changes are expected to appear in the global version of Valorant through a patch update (5.10) right after the PBE ends.

Patch 5.10 is anticipated to arrive in the game's public version on November 8, 2022, a day after the PBE ends.