Riot Games is rolling out Valorant patch 12.09, bringing Neon back into the playable roster after she was disabled on May 7, 2026. The disabling followed an exploit tied to specific Nvidia graphics settings that allowed players to see through her Fast Lane ability, undermining competitive integrity. Alongside her return, the patch delivers a significant overhaul to shotgun accuracy while moving and a slate of agent bugfixes and quality-of-life improvements.

Neon Returns with Significant Changes

Riot has used the downtime to adjust what it calls Neon's "over-tuned kit," which it believes broke intended combat pacing. The most notable change affects High Gear: jumping with the ability active will no longer grant any speed bonus while airborne. Neon’s air speed while sprinting will instead match melee speed. Fuel regeneration on kills now only occurs while her ultimate is active, though passive fuel regeneration remains. Additionally, the visual effects for her slide have been improved to more clearly communicate its direction and origin, giving opponents better counterplay opportunities.

Shotgun Mobility Nerfs

Shotgun accuracy while moving has been standardized across all models to reinforce their intended role as defensive close-range tools. Run, walk, crouch-walk, and jump accuracy values are now uniform, and crouching provides a 15% accuracy multiplier—matching rifles. The update, originally planned for patch 13.00 in late June, was moved up to 12.09 to address balance concerns sooner.

Individual shotgun tweaks include reduced Bucky pellet damage at close range (head from 40 to 34, body from 20 to 17) and increased minimum spread for both Bucky and Judge. The Shorty’s fire rate drops from 3.33 to 3.0. All three shotguns now suffer significantly reduced accuracy while using ropes, with spread increasing dramatically when moving on a zipline.

Agent Bugfixes and Quality-of-Life Updates

Several agent-specific bugs have been addressed. Chamber’s Headhunter ADS animation no longer obscures the screen, Jett’s Tailwind first-person animations now work correctly with left-handed mode and Drift performance drops are fixed, and Sage can no longer waste Healing Orb while decayed at full health. Miks, Tejo, Viper, Vyse, and Phoenix also received targeted fixes for tooltips, audio, and ability interactions. The remaining agent fixes follow a similar pattern.

Beyond agents, Riot is testing MMR adjustments for non-Competitive, Unrated, and Swiftplay modes to improve match consistency. AMD Anti-Lag 2 support has been added to reduce input latency on compatible hardware. The Riot Text Evaluation system now better detects comms abuse across 12 languages. Minor bugfixes for Skirmish modes and progression display round out the patch.

What is Valorant and Valorant Points?

Valorant Points serve as the premium currency in Valorant, enabling players to purchase exclusive cosmetic upgrades such as weapon skins and agent gear.
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How to top Valorant on LootBar Step-by-Step Guide

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