VALORANT Patch Notes 1.14 Reveals New Snowball Fight Mode
Stop what you're doing right now, VALORANT fans, because the latest patch notes have been announced, and a whole host of fixes have been made to improve not just your overall gameplay, but the experience as a whole.
In Patch 1.14, players will discover the new Snowball Fight LTM and Sage appears to be the only Agent who has got a bit of work done in this latest update. So without further ado, what are the updates coming to VALORANT?
Sage
Barrier Orb.
Barrier Orb can’t be placed during Buy Phase.
Once fortified, Barrier no longer loses health over time—Barrier only starts to deteriorate a few seconds before it expires.
Overall, we’ve been happy with how the fortified barrier has been playing but wanted to make some changes to prevent the mitigation of the fortifying counterplay while rewarding Sage players that successfully fortify their walls."
Icebox Map
Reduced the height of the A Belt area and connected it via a ramp to the platform below
This puts the upper A Belt area more in line with the rest of the verticality in the site
Acquiring targets up top also requires less vertical movement of the crosshair
Added a see-through gate here that can’t be passed from the ground level
Pathing should hopefully be more predictable from attackers approaching the site and defenders retaking the site
Sloped the wall (first image) and replaced the double stack of Radianite crates in the site with a smaller object (second image)
This should allow attackers to approach the site more safely, and a quicker retake of the site for defenders
Sloped the wall (first image) and replaced the double stack of Radianite crates in the site with a smaller object (second image)
This should allow attackers to approach the site more safely, and a quicker retake of the site for defenders
Modes
Ready to have a Snowball Fight with your friends (and likely your foes)? The limited mode goes live on Dec.15 and will last for two weeks, on Dec. 29. Play a match of Snowball Fight and you’ll also nab a themed Gun Buddy, delivered at a later date.
5v5: Team Deathmatch
The first team to 50 kills wins
Respawns are enabled, so get back in there
The snowball launcher is your weapon of choice
Killjoy has rigged a custom version of Brimstone’s Molotov launcher
Projectile based snowballs have travel time and an arc (make sure to lead that shot!)
Infinite snowballs—don’t stop shooting!
The gift that keeps on giving: Power-ups!
Gifts spawn around the map, sometimes a portal appears and gifts come pouring out
Each gift contains a power-up when opened (shoot to open)
You can only have one of each power up at a time, so make sure to share with your teammates
If you die, you drop your power ups and someone else can snag them
Gift types
Rapid Fire: fire even faster
Growball: grows over time while traveling in the air
Ricochet: for all those snowball trick shots off the ground and walls
Skates: skate around quickly and in style. Jump higher!
Maps
Week 1: Check out the festivities on the newly updated holiday version of Icebox (Snowball Fight only!)
Week 2: Snowball Fight can be played on all current maps
Progression
Get 750 XP for each game completed, and 150 bonus XP for a win
Snowball mode does not progress missions.
Competitive Updates
Act Rank Badge display has been re-enabled on in-game player cards.
Performance issues, such as hitches, have been fixed along with on death performance optimizations
Career page: Match History and Act Ranks have been split out into their own specific sections.
You can still view both your friends Match History and Act Rank progress
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where Killjoy’s turret could be placed underneath the ground in some maps
Fixed an issue where Omen could teleport past the Buy phase barrier
Fixed a bug where pressing a push-to-talk key while typing in chat would trigger voice chat
Fixed a bug where queue restrictions would keep resetting for some players
There are also store updates, game system updates galore and more on the full announcement, which you can read on the VALORANT website by clicking here.
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Images via Riot Games
