VALORANT patch 13.09 adds Hush, updates buff labels and buffs the Warden

Riot Games released VALORANT Patch Notes 13.09 on Tuesday, October 27, adding the new Agent Hush, changing how several buffs are labeled and shown in-game, and making balance updates to the Warden and Clove.

The patch also brings Performance Score changes, a Korea-only option to buy Radianite Points in-game, and a long list of fixes for agents, UI, spectator view, and general ability behavior.

Hush enters VALORANT with telekinesis and midair control

Hush is now in the game as VALORANT’s latest Agent. Riot says she comes from Guangdong province and uses telekinesis to close classified cases, with a kit built around redirecting utility, displacing opponents, and creating openings for a finishing blow.

Her passive, Telekinesis, lets her pick up weapons, the Spike when she is on the attacker side, and interact with switches from increased range. The rest of her kit is centered on crowd control and repositioning:

• Displacement can be equipped, thrown, and then redirected toward Hush’s crosshair before it explodes on any surface or after a delay. It pulls players toward the center and concusses them if they collide with a surface or another player, and it resets every two kills.
• Flashbulb is a throwable flash that can also be redirected toward the crosshair before it detonates and flashes players looking at it.
• Flow creates an anchor instantly, briefly levitates Hush if she is in the air, and then propels her toward it after a delay.
• Suspension sends a projectile forward, lets her steer it with the crosshair, and then detonates it to levitate all players caught in the area.

Riot says Hush is the first new Agent to arrive since Performance Score launched, so early scores on her may shift while the system learns what effective utility use looks like.

New buff terms and a clearer tooltip system

Patch 13.09 adds two official buff terms: Haste and Snapshot. Riot says the split is meant to separate movement-speed buffs from Combat Stim effects, while Snapshot labels the still-image silhouette reveal debuff from Cypher’s Neural Theft and Spycam.

In Riot’s terminology, Haste is the movement-speed buff. Combat Stim remains the effect that increases fire rate, equip speed, reload speed, and recovery speed. The studio says the new naming should make it easier to tell when players receive or refresh a Combat Stim buff, a Haste buff, or both.

The update touches several agents and abilities:

• Brimstone: Stim Beacon now shows an applied Haste buff to affected players.
• Clove: Pick-me-up now shows Haste.
• Miks: Harmonize now shows Haste.
• Neon: High Gear and Overdrive now show Haste.
• Waylay: Convergent Paths has been renamed to Haste because the effect is identical.

Riot also updated ability descriptions for clarity and consistency. Passive descriptions have been added across more areas, including Agent Select, the Agent Hub, and ability tooltips, including passives that were not previously described in-game or explicitly categorized, such as Neon’s Battery. The tooltip layout has been redesigned to show baseline details like Agent, role, and keybinds, and those tooltips now appear at relevant moments, including while testing a new Agent in the Range.

Warden gets a handling pass, while Clove is standardized

The main weapon change in the patch is a buff to the Warden. Riot says it has been monitoring player feedback and wants to improve the gun’s base versatility and handling to better fit its current 2900 price.

The changes are aimed at making the weapon easier to control and learn. Riot says pitch recoil has been smoothed for the first few bullets, spread on follow-up shots has been reduced, and the second and third bullet error values have been lowered from .25 to .2 and .6 to .5.

Clove is also being adjusted after Riot spotted inconsistencies during its buff audit. The studio says Pick-me-up had a higher movement-speed bonus than similar abilities, and that Not Dead Yet used different kill-reward rules.

• Pick-me-up movement speed bonus reduced from 15% to 10%.
• Killing Clove after they cast Not Dead Yet now grants an ultimate point and a signature refresh point to the player who lands the kill.

Jett also received a small UI change: her passive has been removed from the Buy Menu so it matches other non-purchaseable passives.

Performance Score, map rating and accolade changes

Patch 13.09 brings a set of competitive-system updates as well. Riot says Hush arriving after Performance Score launched means ratings on her may be uneven for a few days while the game tunes what good utility use looks like.

On PC, the end-of-game pages now include hover text for trades on the scoreboard and a new learn more screen with more information about Performance Score. Map Rating also changes, with Riot saying your Act Best Match will now have a bigger impact on your Map Rating each Act, so consistency and peak performances carry more weight.

Accolades are changing too. Riot says First Blood was appearing too often, so the threshold has been raised to make it harder to earn. Historic accolade counts will not change.

Bug fixes touch agents, maps, spectators and the UI

Riot’s bug-fix list is wide-ranging. Clove’s Ruse map no longer becomes visible to enemies below Clove, and Pick-Me-Up’s timer will no longer stay on the HUD after use. Cypher’s Cyber Cage no longer changes orientation on angled surfaces, and Deadlock’s Annihilation capture voice line now plays for the captured enemy.

Other agent fixes include Gekko’s Mosh Pit no longer damaging destructible objects outside its intended area of effect, Omen’s Shrouded Step arrival visuals no longer ending early, Raze’s Boom Bot no longer tracking a target after a teleport, Sova’s Hunter’s Fury no longer affecting players behind him, and Yoru’s Gatecrash sound effects no longer looping when the ability is used while suppressed.

Riot also fixed several cross-agent issues. Vulnerable visual effects had been incorrectly positioned on Gekko’s Wingman, Killjoy’s Turret, and Raze’s Boom Bot. Tejo’s Guided Salvo and Brimstone’s Orbital Strike placement indicators could appear offset from the player, Chamber’s and Omen’s locations could briefly be revealed on the minimap after teleporting, and some abilities from Cypher, Vyse, Viper, and Killjoy could be seen through barriers during the Buy Phase.

Other general fixes include ability maps no longer consuming multiple charges or placing abilities in unintended locations, cursor and placement indicators no longer disappearing while equipping or using certain abilities, enemies outside the affected vision range no longer appearing on the minimap while a player is Nearsighted, and ability maps no longer staying visible when they should be obscured by consecutive flashes. Riot also fixed missing or incorrect ability descriptions while controlling certain Agent abilities.

On the presentation side, spectators watching the Spike will now see Neon’s Fast Lane visual effects correctly, and new Player Cards now have the yellow notification icon in the right position.

Platform-specific changes for PC, console and Korea

Patch 13.09 also includes platform-specific adjustments. In Korea, players can now buy Radianite Points in-game. On PC, Riot fixed an issue where the mouse cursor could briefly disappear when moved outside certain ability maps. On console, Miks’ M-Pulse and Bassquake now provide controller vibration feedback when equipped or cast.

The patch follows Riot’s broader effort to keep VALORANT’s utility system readable while it adds new Agents and adjusts older ones. Hush’s arrival is the headline change, but the update also changes how buffs are named, how several abilities are described, and how a long list of edge cases behave across the game.