Riot Games removes Viper's swoop peek in Valorant patch 3.07

Fariha Bhatti Published 05/10/2021

Valorant patch 3.07 is here and it brings a fix to what has unintentionally been one of Viper’s biggest strengths. 

Riot Games has patched up the smoker agent Viper a few times to make her viable in high-level play. Somewhere within these buffs and nerfs, the developer accidentally awarded Viper a secret feature dubbed the “swoop peek.” Patch 3.07 takes that tool away. 

“Updated the visuals for the dissolving effect seen while inside Viper’s smoke to match better the visuals seen from the outside, in an attempt to remove any type of peeker’s advantage when playing from within the smoke,” Jeff Landa, comms associate, said. 

Viper may have only one smoke, but it’s powerful enough to beat other controllers in the game. The agent’s smoke damages enemies and can block off an area for almost an entire round. While Viper was already viable, players discovered a trick that made the agent even better. The developer has deactivated this feature, putting her back with the rest of the regular controllers. 

What’s Swoop Peak in Valorant? 

Swoop is a term for smoke peek advantage used by players in higher ranks. Viper’s smoke works differently than other controllers. Her Poison Cloud defuses back into the device’s centre, reliably creating a situation where Viper may get a peeker’s advantage. The difference between smoke fading for enemy and Viper is 350ms, which may seem small, but is actually huge among skilled players. 

A Viper player with a quick reaction time can easily pick off an agent in a one-on-one situation, and maybe even more against multiple enemies. Viper’s smoke is reusable for as long as the round lasts, so this bug is massive. Viper is meant to be a passive agent, but this feature allows her to reliably pick and win fights in risky positions. 

The swoop peek is an old bug that has been widely used in higher-ranked games to take enemies by surprise. It seems that the developer has finally decided to nerf the agent. While it wasn’t an intentional buff, it certainly empowered Viper to take duels more effectively. 

Patch 3.07 will rid Viper of her power of swoop peek, which is an indirect buff for other controllers. Viper players may want to look for new tricks to fool enemies. 

Fariha Bhatti

About Fariha Bhatti

Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.

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