The latest Valorant patch notes are finally here and Riot Games is introducing a Valorant 7.08 smoke update everyone needs to know about – whether you play as someone like Astra, or otherwise. If you enjoy playing into lingering smokes, or against them, you’re going to find that these conflicts are much more competitive going forward into the rest of Episode 7 Act 2 and beyond – for better or worse.
In an effort to continue to cement itself as the best competitive FPS games available, Riot Games’ latest Valorant patch notes – which detail everything changing in update 7.08 – explain that a new audio-visual cue is being introduced to longer-lasting smoke abilities. The goal with this is to give Valorant players a warning when the smoke itself is going to disappear, and it sounds like it could make things very interesting going forward. If you find yourself relying on these obstructions when you’re climbing the Valorant ranks, you may just have to start rethinking your tactics.
While we don’t know exactly what this audio-visual cue will look (or sound) like just yet, Riot Games says that smokes from Astra, Brimstone, and Omen will all trigger both an audio cue and a visual cue 1.5 seconds before they’re about to vanish. From what we know, this is a universal effect – meaning both sides of the match will see and hear the same thing.
If you’re an attacker using smokes to advance, this could be a fantastic warning and something that stops you leaving yourself exposed in the middle of a site when the smoke disappears. Similarly, if you’re trying to defend against an enemy using a smoke, this is going to offer you some guidelines when it comes to timing your counter-attack. It might sound like a downside to some and could represent the removal of some skill expression through understanding smoke timings, but we think this is going to make playing smokes (if you’re Astra, Brimstone, or Omen) much more competitive – and, hopefully, more exciting.
As you can see below, though, this isn’t the only audio alteration coming to Valorant in update 7.08.
Riot Games is also introducing changes that should make ally audio more consistent, but making sure the ability equipping audio is no longer audible to allies. This should keep audio channels a little less cluttered generally speaking and means that players can only hear their enemies’ ability-equipping audio – if they’re close enough.
Couple this with the smoke audio changes and having one of the best wired gaming headsets suddenly becomes a lot more important.
Your ‘Agent Select’ screen is also going to look a little different after the update, but Riot Games is just making space for any new arrivals – all your favorites will still be there and available to pick. You’ll also notice that you’ll be able to search through the in-game store for Level Borders and Player Cards a lot easier than before. If you want to customize your experience beyond the latest Valorant skins, you should have even less trouble doing so going forward.
We don’t know how this will affect our Valorant tier list just yet, but you have to imagine that it’s going to make those final moments when a smoke is active all the more exciting. It’s also worth making sure you’re using one of the best Valorant crosshair codes ahead of your next game; it might not sound like it will make a major difference, but they really can improve your aim in the long run.
