Valorant 9.02 patch notes: Icebox on console, behavior updates, bug fixes

Valorant patch 9.02 brings some much needed bug fixes and another map for console players in the form of Icebox. Here’s a complete rundown of everything coming to Valorant in the 9.02 update.

Riot Games continues to clean up their console in this patch, creating better tooltips for certain agents and allowing some abilities to be toggled.

In addition, the developer is expanding its behavioral intervention system to impose harsher penalties on players who abuse communications.

Full patch notes

Riot took one of the better parts of the console beta, the Basic Training tutorial, and made it available on the PC version of Valorant. The developer has also added The Range to its console port, meaning Xbox and PlayStation players can experiment with abilities and heat up their target in one place.

Patch 9.02 will also improve the social system and allow players to see what platform their friends are playing the game on.

Check out the full Valorant patch notes below.

All platforms

PLAYER BEHAVIOR UPDATE

• Behavioral intervention update: People who engage in abusive communication experience
  increased penalties.

ERROR CORRECTION

Agents

• Neon
  • Fixed a bug where Neon’s hitbox could be slightly offset when sliding

Gaming systems

• Fixed an issue in Premier Overtime Voting that prevented people from calling Overtime Timeout when switching sides.
• Fixed Ability HUD persistence issue in deathcam.

Maps

• Miss
  • Fixed several areas where Spike could get stuck on certain ledges off the map.
  • Fixed a bug where Omen could die by teleporting to a specific location in Mid Bottom.
  • Fixed several visual bugs.
• Sunset
  • You can no longer jump on the tall box in A Alley.

pc

GENERAL UPDATES

• We’ve made the new Basic Training (tutorial) and The Range from Console available on PC!
  • All new players will have to go through a tutorial and have the opportunity to play a training match with boots.
  • For current players, you can access basic training and range in the practice menu.

GAME SYSTEMS UPDATES

Combat report

• A visual refresher! The in-game combat message has a new look.
• Combat Report will now be visible by default during the purchase phase. You will still be able to turn it on and off during this phase.

PREMIERE UPDATE

• Playoffs in the Contender and Invite Divisions have best-of-3 finals. Rounds before the final are best of 1.
  • Map selection and banning occurs prior to agent selection for each play in a match.
  • Once a map is played, it is removed from the map pool for subsequent plays in the match.
• Added playoff qualification rules in the sidebar on the table page.

SOCIAL NEWS

• Added platform information to social panel. Now clearer when a friend playing VALORANT is on another platform

ERROR CORRECTION

Premier

• Fixed an issue where playoff results text on the table page was always displayed in English.
• Fixed an issue where the team page was displaying the wrong background.
• Fixed an issue where changing the Stage in the dropdown on the ranking page would sometimes not update the content.

KNOWN ISSUES

Gaming systems

• The headers for “Weapon/Ability”, “Damage” and “Hits” are missing from the additional battle report details window. This will be fixed in an upcoming version.

Premier

• During a tournament, sometimes the rest timer between matches may not appear.
  • If the text in the lobby says “MATCH STARTING” and the match hasn’t started after 10 seconds, try going to the Premier tab and back to the lobby to get an updated timer.
  • Even if this timer doesn’t appear, your match will still start at the appropriate time. You will still receive MATCH FOUND notifications.
  • You will always have at least 5 minutes between matches. This time may be longer if you are waiting for the match to end to determine your next opponent.

Control panel

GENERAL UPDATES

• The “Keep Player Centered” minimap setting will now be enforced for minimap zoom levels above 1.0. This prevents uncentered minimap views from becoming unusable for high zoom levels.

AGENT UPDATE

• Switchable Abilities: A selection of abilities that require a button to be pressed and held can now be set to “Switch”, allowing you to press and release the input and control the ability freely while it’s active.
  • The following abilities can be set to Switchable in Agent Profile Settings:
    • Port: Tide
    • Phoenix: Wall of Fire
    • Skye: Guiding Light

Neon

• High gear
  • The High Gear description in the Ability Info Panel has been updated to match the ability bindings.

Owl

• Hunter’s Fury
  • Hunter’s Fury applies less drag to your controls, allowing for more control over charge duration.

MAP UPDATE

• Icebox enters the Competitive, Unrated, Swift Play and Deathmatch queues.

SOCIAL NEWS

• The in-match scoreboard now has keyboard shortcuts for voice control. You can now open the leaderboard and quickly mute other people or switch voice channels with the press of a button.
• Added sound to social notifications. Now when you receive a friend request or a party invite
• you will hear a notification sound.
• Added party information to social panel. The friends list now shows the number of people in your friend’s group and the remaining free party slots.

ERROR CORRECTION

General

• Fixed an issue where you could lose input when linking to a surrender vote
• System.
• Fixed issue where unbound inputs were showing incorrect controller bindings.
• Fixed an issue where the megamap would sometimes rotate when observing other people after death.
• Credits are now correctly located in the tutorial.
• Fixed an issue where the weapon wheel was not displaying the correct inputs when changing controls in individual agent profiles.

Gaming systems

• Fixed update with overlapping timestamps and ability status text in Combat Reports.
• Fixed “Self” and “Ally” not being localized in Combat Report text.
• Fixed text overflow in Combat Reports for Indonesian localized texts.

Performance

• Fixed a performance issue when changing driver preferences.

Social

• Fixed a bug where you couldn’t remove someone as a friend during a match.
• Fixed a bug where your presence wouldn’t update sometimes after a match.
• Fixed a bug where social systems sometimes didn’t respect blocking.
• Fixed a bug where your name would sometimes show up in a match even if you set it to hidden.

Guns

• Mitigated an issue when using scoped weapons where your sensitivity would spike at the beginning of crosshair zoom in transitions.

KNOWN ISSUES

General

• When playing the Basic Training event, the “End of Game” Basic Training event banner in the progression center will display your current milestone as +1 instead of +2 after completing the second milestone. Everywhere else in the client is correct and people are still earning XP. This will be fixed in patch 9.03.