12.09|May 12, 2026
View on Valorant↗Valorant Patch 12.09: Neon and Shotgun Nerfs
3/5 Moderate
Neon's airborne speed and High Gear fuel regeneration are nerfed, while all shotguns lose moving accuracy and Bucky's close-range damage falls.
Key Changes
- 1Neon's High Gear no longer grants an airborne speed bonus, and kills regenerate its fuel only while her ultimate is active.
- 2All shotguns are less accurate while moving, with movement accuracy standardized across them.
- 3Bucky's pellet damage decreased at 0-8m, from 40 to 34 for headshots, 20 to 17 for body shots, and 17 to 14 for leg shots.
- 4Shotgun spread on ropes increased to 0.75 while standing still, 1.5 while walking, and 3.0 while running.
- 5On PC, Neon has returned after a Fast Lane exploit involving NVIDIA graphics settings was fixed.
- 6MMR changes are being tested in modes other than Competitive, Unrated and Swiftplay.
- 7PC players with compatible hardware and current drivers can use AMD Anti-Lag 2 in certain GPU-bound scenarios.
All Changes
⚡Agents(3)
- nerfNeon: Neon's High Gear no longer grants a speed bonus while airborne; her sprinting air speed now matches melee speed.
- nerfNeon: Neon's High Gear fuel now regenerates on kills only while her ultimate is active, though it still regenerates passively.
- changeNeon: Neon's High Gear slide VFX more clearly communicates its direction and origin.
🔫Weapons(11)
- nerfAll shotguns are less accurate while moving, with run, walk, crouch-walk and jump accuracy standardized across them.
- buffBucky: Shotgun crouch accuracy modifiers now match rifles at 15%: Bucky's increased from 10% to 15%.
- nerfJudge: Shotgun crouch accuracy modifiers now match rifles at 15%: Judge's decreased from 25% to 15%.
- nerfShorty: Shotgun crouch accuracy modifiers now match rifles at 15%: Shorty's decreased from 25% to 15%.
- nerfShotgun spread on ropes increased from 0.075 to 0.75 while standing still, 0.09 to 1.5 while walking, and 0.1 to 3.0 while running.
- nerfBucky: Bucky pellet damage at 0-8m decreased from 40 to 34 for headshots, 20 to 17 for body shots, and 17 to 14 for leg shots.
- nerfBucky: Bucky's minimum spread increased from 2.6 to 3.0, walking spread from 0.075 to 1, running spread from .1 to 2, crouch-walk spread from .05 to .5, and jump spread from 1.25 to 4.
- nerfJudge: Judge's minimum spread increased from 2.25 to 2.5 on PC only.
- nerfJudge: Judge's walking spread increased from .075 to 1, running spread from 0.75 to 2, crouch-walk spread from .05 to .5, and jump spread from 2.25 to 4.
- nerfShorty: Shorty's fire rate decreased from 3.33 to 3.0.
- nerfShorty: Shorty's walking spread increased from .075 to 1, running spread from 0.1 to 2, crouch-walk spread from .05 to .5, and jump spread from 1.25 to 4.
🏆Competitive(1)
- changeMMR changes are being tested in modes other than Competitive, Unrated and Swiftplay.
💬Player Behavior(1)
- changeRiot Text Evaluation was improved to better detect and penalize text communications abuse in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish and Chinese.
🖥️Performance(1)
- newAMD Anti-Lag 2: PC support was added for AMD Anti-Lag 2, which reduces input latency in certain GPU-bound scenarios and requires compatible hardware and drivers from March 9th, 2026 or later.
🐛Bug Fixes(12)
- fixChamber: Fixed a Headhunter animation that covered too much of the screen when aiming down sights while firing as Chamber.
- fixJett: Fixed Jett's Tailwind first-person animations not playing as intended with the left-handed setting enabled.
- fixJett: Fixed performance drops caused by Jett's Drift.
- fixMiks: Updated the tooltip description of Miks's Harmonize.
- fixMiks: Fixed Miks's ultimate preview cone not appearing unless the ability was fully equipped.
- fixSage: Fixed full-health Sage being able to needlessly use Healing Orb on herself while affected by Decay.
- fixTejo: Fixed Guided Salvo's equip idle sound continuing long after Tejo cast it.
- fixViper: Fixed Sova's Recon Bolt and Chamber's Trademark not being affected by nearsightedness in Viper's Pit.
- fixVyse: Fixed Sova's Owl Drone, Skye's Trailblazer and Tejo's Stealth Drone triggering the arming audio of Vyse's wall.
- fixNeon: On PC, fixed a Fast Lane exploit involving specific NVIDIA graphics settings, and Neon has returned to the game.
- fixOn PC, fixed dailies shown when hovering over the icon not matching those on the End of Game screen.
- fixPhoenix: On console, updated the tooltip description of Phoenix's Curveball.
📅Coming Soon(1)
- nerfJudge: Judge's minimum spread increase from 2.25 to 2.5 will apply to console in Patch 12.11.
Summary
Agent and weapon balance
Neon's High Gear loses its airborne speed bonus, and kill-based fuel regeneration now requires her ultimate. Shotguns have standardized movement accuracy and more spread on ropes; Bucky also loses close-range damage, while Shorty's fire rate decreases. Judge's minimum spread increase applies on PC now and is planned for console in Patch 12.11.
Systems and fixes
MMR changes are being tested outside Competitive, Unrated and Swiftplay. Text abuse detection has improved across listed languages, and PC gains AMD Anti-Lag 2 support for compatible hardware. Agent fixes include Neon's PC Fast Lane exploit and performance drops from Jett's Drift.
On console, the Ascension Skirmish modes have known overtime timer and Combat Report issues.