Valorant’s latest patch nerfs the popular jumping shotgun tactic

The first patch for Valorant Act 2 is here, and it isn’t shaking things up too much. Instead, this patch is taking aim a few small bugs, and one move that’s proven particularly annoying for most players: shotgun jumping.

Most weapons in Valorant aren’t accurate if they’re fired when a player is jumping. However, shotguns were an exception to this rule, which made firing them while jumping an occasionally useful choice. Since only one type of weapon works well in midair, most players won’t expect their opponent to jump during a fight.

However, it seems that Riot wants to cut back on the viability of the move a little bit. This patch increases the spread on shotguns when they’re fired in midair. This shouldn’t hit shotguns too hard, but you’ll want to fire them from a stationary position from now on.

The only other major change in this patch comes to blinding effects like Phoenix’s Curveball and Breach’s Flashpoint abilities, which should now be a little easier to turn away from.

For a look at all the changes that came with Valorant patch 1.06, including all of the small bug fixes, you can take a look at the full patch notes.

Valorant patch 1.06 notes

Agent Updates

• The audio and visuals for blinding effects (Phoenix Curveball and Breach Flashpoint) should better indicate when to turn away, and when it’s safe to look again

Weapon Updates

All shotguns — updated to be less accurate when fired while in the air

• Spread penalty when in air increased .5 >>> 1.25

While shotguns are doing well in situations they are supposed to,, there’s been overly frustrating moments where people are accurate with these weapons while in the air. We hope to curb some of those encounters while still making them possible if you catch an opponent at a short distance. We’ll also be investigating more potential changes to shotguns now that we’re rested.

Quality of Life

In Collection menu screens, the “Show Owned Only” toggle now persists between screens and client restarts.

Bug Fixes

• Potential fix for the bug where the player’s HUD sometimes disappears.
• Fixed a bug in deathmatch match history & match details where ties between 3 or more players were not displaying as a tie, instead showing the lowest rank as if they were not tied (so a 3 way tie for 2nd would show 4TH PLACE instead of 2ND PLACE (TIED)).
• Fixed a bug that allowed progress towards competitive matchmaking for new players by forfeiting unrated games.
• Forfeited games will not count towards the Competitive requirement for the team who forfeited.
• Fixed a bug where ‘<Missing String Table>’ would appear in the chat log.
• Fixed a bug where strange player names could appear in chat when managing party invites
• Fixed a bug where some players were missing rewards after reaching the end of Agent Contracts or the Act Battlepass. Playing a game should grant the missing rewards, including missing rewards from Act 1.