Subscribe
Follow Us
Amongst all of the Sentinel Agents in VALORANT, Cypher has always felt like the most underpowered of the bunch. The Moroccan intel agent is arguably the biggest victim of power creep in game. With more and more agents added to the game, Cypher's kit has felt underpowered and outdated for quite some time now. There's a reason why many people have been calling for the Agent to be buffed.
After months of teasing, the long-awaited Cypher buffs are finally set to roll out in the PBE. The latest VALORANT PBE patch saw big buffs to Cypher, as well as adjustments to a newcomer and some changes to the UI. Let's take a look at these changes, starting first with the big Cypher buffs.
Game data taken from the r/ValorantPBE subreddit.
Cypher gets love from VALORANT devs
C – Trapwire
- Maximum Trapwire length increased 1000 >>> 1500.
The two biggest issues regarding Cypher's kit are his Trapwires and his Ultimate ability, Neural Theft. The supposed draw of Cypher's trips are that they were hidden from view until they were triggered. However, due to the short range of his tripwires, Cypher's options on where to place his tripwires are limited. As a result, astute players can often break his wires without putting themselves in any real danger.
This made Cypher a less than viable option on certain VALORANT maps. Riot's solution to this problem is to buff the range of Cypher's Trapwires. This would allow more options for players to change up their setups before the round, adding a layer of unpredictability that Cypher desperately needed.
X – Neural Theft
- Neural Theft now reveals enemies two times. There is a four second delay between the reveals.
- Time restriction to cast on enemy corpses has been removed.
- Maximum cast distance increased 1200 >>> 1800.
Cypher's Ultimate ability, on the other hand, was generally considered as one of the worst ults in VALORANT, for a myriad of reasons. For one, it's usage is extremely limited: you are only able to use it on corpses that were just recently killed, and you had to be close enough to the corpse. This made it a pain to use, as you often had to overextend in order to get the benefits of his ultimate.
The worst part, though, is that the reward for using his ultimate was almost non-existent. The old Cypher ultimate, when used, pinged the locations of enemies just once… and that's it. No continued trail, just one mark on the map. Compared to other recon abilities like Sova's drone (which tagged enemies twice), it was extremely underwhelming. Many VALORANT players used to joke that the biggest benefit of Cypher's ult was that his hat-less model after using the ability would throw off enemies.
The buffs to Cypher's ultimate in the latest VALORANT PBE patch hopes to alleviate these issues. The fact that they removed the time requirement for his ultimate, in particular, opens up so many avenues of play for Cypher. This could be useful during clutch situations, where Cypher can use any enemy body he sees to gain crucial information. The extended range is also helpful for players to immediately follow up on kills with his ult.
Quality of Life Changes
- Updated the yellow silhouette used for Cypher’s reveal on Spycam and Neural Theft.
- Yellow silhouette now disappears if the revealed enemy becomes visible to you to help reduce confusion of seeing two representations of the enemy in different places.
- Yellow silhouette now starts dimmer and fades faster to make it more distinguishable from an actual enemy.
- Cypher’s placed utility is no longer destroyed by allies’ AOE damage.
The other buffs are all changes that fix most issues Cypher mains have encountered since time immemorial. Cypher's utility will now be indestructible to all ally utility. This change was something that frankly should've been done before, as other VALORANT agents don't have this same problem as Cypher.
Fade gets knocked down a peg
Since her addition to the VALORANT roster, Fade has been one of the most oppressive Agents in the game. Her ability to sweep the opposing team with ease made her a nightmare to play against. In response, Riot has fine-tuned her prowlers to allow for better counter-play, while also adding another point for her Ultimate.
C – Prowlers
- Duration reduced from 3 >>> 2.5 seconds. (Time the prowler is alive without a trail).
- Delay on bite after reaching target increased .4 >>> .6 seconds.
- Hitbox improvements.
- Nearsight duration on hit reduced 3.5 >>> 2.75 seconds.
- Prowlers now fizzle out and no longer debuff instead of debuffing its target if they teleported away before it finished its animation.
X – Nightfall
- Cost increased 7 >>> 8.
VALORANT tweaks UI in response to fan backlash
With a VALORANT mobile port on the horizon, Riot has made the first steps in making the game more accessible to a mobile audience. That first started with a massive overhaul of the UI. While it was a good idea in theory, their execution was completely off. Players complained about how clunky it felt, especially compared to the old UI. Before, all of the menus were easily accessible from any other menu.
Credit to the VALORANT dev team, though, for listening to their player base and adjusting the UI according to their criticisms. In 5.10, they have added back the ability to access the other menus from a single screen. (via @ValorLeaks on Twitter)
5.10 Navigation Bar Changes | #VALORANT
> Buttons added for easier accessibility instead of going back to the home page each time. pic.twitter.com/umqTDfk594
— Mike | Valorant Leaks & News (@ValorLeaks) November 4, 2022
The new icons will certainly take some time getting used to. This new UI, though, is way better than the first iteration they've released. We'll see what other changes they make as they continue to listen to fan feedback,
