Valorant 13.09 update brings Hush as new Agent and buff ability changes

Valorant’s 13.09 patch notes have dropped, marking the arrival of Hush as the newest Agent. However, there are also changes to how buffs work, as well as an update for the Warden.

Back on October 18, in the middle of Valorant Champions, Riot Games unveiled Hush as the newest Agent arriving in the game. The telekinetic duelist hails from Guangdong, China, and is the ninth duelist in the agent pool. 

Naturally, Hush’s abilities were revealed then too, but access to the character was limited, seeing as she wouldn’t be released until the 13.09 patch. 

Well, after some early access - which Dexerto took part in, testing Hush early - the powerful new agent is available for everyone. However, that’s not all that's coming in the 13.09 update. 

https://twitter.com/ValorINTEL/status/2111823679927505158

Buff abilities changed

Alongside the new Agent, Riot has also noted that the 13.09 update will bring a change to how buff abilities work in-game.

Now, they are split into two camps - Haste and Snapshot. Haste refers to the increased movement speed buff you receive from abilities, while Snapshot is for abilities like Cypher’s Spycam. 

“This should add clarity to when you receive or refresh a Combat Stim buff, a Haste buff, or both,” Riot said. 

Brimstone, Clove, Miks, Neon, and Waylay all fall under this with new changes.

Clove and Jett changes

Additionally, there are other changes for Clove and Jett. Her passive has been removed from the Buy Menu to be consistent with other non-purchaseable passives. 

Clove’s Pick-me-up has had it’s bonus movement speed decreased from 15% to 10%, while her Not Dead Yet now grants an ultimate point and signature refresh point to the player who killed them. 

Warden buffed

The recoil of the Warden has also been adjusted too, with Riot saying things have been “smoothed out” for the first few bullets. 

There is also a reduced spread on bullets in the shots that follow, too. 

The Warden comes equipped with a scope.

The full patch notes for the 13.09 update can be found below.

Valorant 13.09 update patch notes

ALL PLATFORMS

AGENTS UPDATES

New Agent Hush is now in game!

Hailing from Guangdong province, Hush uses her telekinesis to close the most classified cases. Fighting with precision and finesse, she redirects her combat utility in midair to disrupt and displace the enemy team before suspending them helplessly for the killing blow.

Abilities:

Telekinesis (Passive)

Hush can pick up weapons, the Spike (when on attacker side), and INTERACT with switches from an increased range.

Displacement

EQUIP Displacement. FIRE to throw. ALT FIRE to prepare it instead. REACTIVATE to direct it towards your crosshair. Explodes on any surface or after a delay, pulling all players towards the center and concussing them if they collide with any surface or another player. Resets every two kills.

Flashbulb

EQUIP Flashbulb. FIRE to throw. ALT FIRE to prepare it instead. REACTIVATE to direct it towards your crosshair. Explodes on any surface or after a delay, flashing all players looking at it.

Flow

INSTANTLY create an anchor. If Hush is in the air, briefly levitate in place. After a delay, propel towards it.

Suspension

INSTANTLY prepare Suspension. FIRE to send it forward, steering with your crosshair. REACTIVATE or press FIRE again to detonate, levitating all players.

Updated ability descriptions and tooltips

All ability descriptions have been updated for improved clarity and consistency

Passive descriptions have been added to more Agents across relevant areas, including Agent Select, the Agent Hub, and Ability Tooltips. This includes passives that were not previously described in-game or explicitly categorized, like Neon's Battery

The Ability Description Tooltip has been redesigned to improve readability at a glance by including baseline details such as Agent, role, and keybinds. Tooltips now appear during relevant moments, such as testing a new Agent in the Range

Updated Buffs

We’ve added Haste and Snapshot as official buff terms!

Haste refers to the increased movement speed buff you receive, as opposed to a Combat Stim buff, which increases your fire rate, equip speed, reload speed, and recovery speed

This should add clarity to when you receive or refresh a Combat Stim buff, a Haste buff, or both.

Snapshot refers to the still image silhouette reveal debuff (Cypher’s Neural Theft/Spycam)

Brimstone

Stim Beacon will show an applied Haste buff to affected players

Clove

Pick-me-up will show an applied Haste buff

With the newly named Haste buff adding a timer bar to the UI, we’ve removed the previous timer bar to reduce unnecessary clutter

Miks

Harmonize will show an applied Haste buff to affected players

Neon

Our fastest Agent will see an applied Haste buff while using High Gear or Overdrive

Waylay

Since they have identical effects, Waylay’s Convergent Paths buff has been renamed to the new Haste buff

Clove

While auditing our buffs we spotted some inconsistencies with Clove and are standardizing them to some of the roster values and rules. Clove had a higher movement speed bonus value compared to similar movement speed bonus abilities and different kill rewards after casting Not Dead Yet.

Pick-me-up

Bonus movement speed decreased from 15% >>> 10%

Not Dead Yet

Killing Clove after they cast Not Dead Yet will now grant an ultimate point and signature refresh point to the player who killed them

Jett

Removed Jett’s passive from the Buy Menu to be consistent with other non-purchaseable passives

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

Performance Score

Hush is our first new Agent since Performance Score launched. Your scores on Hush may be a bit bumpy in the first few days as we tune what good utility use looks like

We've made some small quality of life improvements in the end-of-game pages to provide more info about Performance Score

PC only- Hover text for trades on the scoreboard

A new “learn more” screen with more information about what Performance Score is

Map Rating

Your Act Best Match now has a bigger impact on your Map Rating each Act to better highlight consistency and peaks

Accolades

The First Blood Accolade was showing up a bit too often. We've updated the threshold to make it harder to earn

This will not impact your historic count of Accolades earned

STORE UPDATES

Korea only: Players can now purchase Radianite Points in-game.

WEAPONS UPDATES

Warden

We've been monitoring player feedback on how the Warden has been playing out in games. One thing we'd like to improve is the Warden's base versatility and handling to better fit its current 2900 pricing. We’re adding these buffs to help make the gun feel more controllable and comfortable to learn.

Pitch recoil smoothed out for the first few bullets

Reduced spread on bullets follow up shots

2nd bullet error reduced from .25 >>> .2

3rd bullet error reduced from .6 >>> .5

BUG FIXES

Clove

Fixed an issue where Clove's Ruse ability map could be visible to enemies positioned below Clove

Fixed an issue where Clove's Pick-Me-Up timer could remain visible on the HUD after the ability was used

Cypher

Fixed an issue where Cypher's Cyber Cage could change orientation when placed on angled surfaces

Deadlock

Fixed an issue where Deadlock's Annihilation capture voice line would not play for the captured enemy

Gekko

Fixed an issue where Gekko's Mosh Pit could damage destructible objects outside its intended area of effect

Omen

Fixed an issue where Omen's Shrouded Step arrival visual effects could end prematurely

Raze

Fixed an issue where Raze's Boom Bot could continue tracking an enemy's location after they teleported

Sova

Fixed an issue where Sova's Hunter's Fury could affect players positioned behind him

Tejo

Fixed an issue where Tejo's Special Delivery could persist into the next round, occasionally damaging or concussing players after the round transition

Fixed an issue where Tejo's Guided Salvo could target an unintended location or fail to cast after a selected target moved out of range

Yoru

Fixed an issue where Yoru's Gatecrash sound effects could repeatedly play when attempting to use the ability while suppressed.

Multiple Agents

Fixed an issue where Vulnerable visual effects were incorrectly positioned on Gekko's Wingman, Killjoy's Turret, and Raze's Boom Bot

Fixed an issue where Tejo's Guided Salvo and Brimstone's Orbital Strike placement indicators could initially appear offset from the player's position

Fixed an issue where Chamber's and Omen's locations could briefly be revealed to enemies on the minimap after teleporting

Fixed an issue where certain abilities belonging to Cypher, Vyse, Viper, and Killjoy could be visible to opponents through barriers during the Buy Phase

Veto and Vyse’s in-game UI have been updated from PICK UP to RECALL to be consistent with other similar retrieval methods

General

Fixed an issue where placing an ability using the ability map could unintentionally consume multiple charges or place abilities at unintended locations

Fixed an issue where ability map cursors and placement indicators could disappear while equipping or using certain abilities

Fixed an issue where enemies outside the affected vision range could appear on the minimap while a player was Nearsighted

Fixed an issue where ability maps could remain visible instead of being obscured by consecutive flashes

Fixed an issue where ability descriptions could be missing or display incorrect information while controlling certain Agent abilities

Spectator

Fixed an issue where Neon's Fast Lane visual effects could be invisible to spectators observing the Spike.

Personalisation

Corrected the position of the yellow notification icon on new Player Cards

PC ONLY

AGENTS UPDATES

Fixed an issue where the mouse cursor could briefly disappear when moved outside the boundaries of certain ability maps

CONSOLE ONLY

AGENTS UPDATES

Miks

Fixed an issue where Miks' M-Pulse and Bassquake abilities did not provide controller vibration feedback when equipped or cast