Valorant patch 2.06 heavily buffs Viper and Yoru, nerfs Bucky

Fariha Bhatti Published 30/03/2021

Riot Games has rolled out a new update that strengthens Viper’s weak kit and beefs up Yoru.

Patch 2.06 is finally upon us and it features elaborate and significant improvements in Valorant’s most overlooked agents, Yoru and Viper. The new patch makes Viper deadly enough to compete against her counterparts Omen and Brimstone, while Yoru gets necessary improvements to his abilities.

Viper’s decay becomes lethal in Patch 2.06

Viper carries only one smoke, but the new update will make her one smoke capable of locking down an entire site. Patch 2.06 boosts up the potency of Viper’s toxins. Enemies that cross through Viper’s Poison Cloud, Toxic Screen, or Viper’s Pit are instantly inflicted with at least 50 decay.

While this high decay will keep enemies at bay, she can keep an entire site safe by reusing her smokes without a cooldown. The new update allows her smokes to be immediately redeployed when picked up but grants a temporary charge instead of a permanent charge.

Both her smoke and Toxic screen will allow Viper to be viable even after she’s died, as her abilities will linger two seconds after the agent’s death. To top it all off, the agent can now quickly equip her Snakebite. Patch 2.06 decreases equip time from 1.1 seconds to 0.8.

Yoru’s flashes get attention

Yoru was kept on a shelf by the likes of Jett, Raze, and Reyna since his release. The new patch seems promising as it makes him a strong contender for some compositions. After the update, Yoru’s flash will last longer and activate faster.

Flash activation time decreased 0.8>>> 0.6 seconds
Flash duration increased from 1.1>>>1.5

Gatecrash is no longer refreshed on kills and is instead replenished every 35 seconds. This will allow Yoru to excercise better map control throughout the game, regardless of his individual kills. Moreover, the lifetime of the Gatecrash fragment has been increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds. The developer also bolstered Yoru’s ultimate, which can now be activated upon collecting six points instead of seven. He can also pair up his Dimensional Drift with Gatecrash after patch 2.06

Patch 2.06 fixes overpowered Bucky

Bucky has been criticized as being overpowered in ranked games. The weapon comes for a low price of 900 Creds but is capable of inflicting quick death. Patch 2.06 changes the spread for both firing modes, and reduces the number of pellets fired for its alt-fire. Its effectiveness at range is also changed to have its damage decreased significantly beyond a short range. The spreads are changed to “increase reliability and smooth the damage curve.”

Other updates in Patch 2.06

Fixed a bug where comms-banned players were not receiving the explanatory message indicating that they will not be able to queue for ranked while the comms ban is in effect
You can now view a person’s career from the in-game Leaderboard
Added an audio toggle located in the Audio settings panel to enable HRTF. HRTF allows players wearing headphones to play audio in a simulated surround sound audio space
Fixed issue where Cypher’s Spycam broke Sage’s Barrier Orb when placed close to it. We see your tricks.

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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