Valorant 4.03 update lands today. You’ll find a complete list of all the changes and fixes heading to Riot Games’ 5vs5 character-based shooter on this page. This latest Valorant update is chunkier than last week’s 4.02 update, covering agent tweaks, Deathmatch updates, and bug fixes.

In Valorant 4.03, Riot’s tweaked Brimstone’s ultimate to conceal visibility properly. Alongside, Valorant 4.03 rejigs the Deathmatch spawning system by moving locations, improving logic, and reducing the respawn timer from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds.

Additionally, Valorant 4.03 aims to improve performance with a UI feature called Global Invalidation, which reduces the number of UI elements for an estimated 15% improvement. Changes to cosmetics, game systems, and eSports features, along with several Agent bug fixes, round-off Valorant 4.03.

Read on for the full Valorant 4.03 patch notes and update fixes.

Valorant 4.03 Update Patch Notes

AGENT UPDATES

Brimstone

  • Brimstone’s ultimate now properly blocks gameplay visibility while active
  • You’ll no longer see enemies on the minimap through the ultimate.
  • Abilities that require line of sight (flashes, Sova recon pulses) will no longer apply through the ultimate

MODES UPDATES

Deathmatch

We’ve been collecting player feedback on DM these past few months and are introducing a few changes to address some of the main points of frustration around the spawning system:

  • You’ll no longer see enemies on the minimap through the ultimate.

  • Abilities that require line of sight (flashes, Sova recon pulses) will no longer apply through the ultimate

  • Removed and in some cases relocated “dangerous” spawn locations

  • Improved spawn logic and spawn placement to increase the likelihood that you will be facing each other players in an encounter

  • Spawning logic will now favor respawn locations farther away from where you are defeated

  • Fixed an issue where the Warm-Up Phase was not using spawn logic properly

  • Respawn Time Reduced: 3s »> 1.5s

SOCIAL UPDATES

  • Updated AFK detection in game to deter players from exploiting game modes to farm EXP

PERFORMANCE UPDATES

Global Invalidation

Global Invalidation is a UI feature that improves performance for all UI in the game. It accomplishes this by significantly reducing the number of UI elements that need to update every frame. The Performance team will continue to monitor the impact of Global Invalidation, and we’ll have more details to share about the feature, our process, and the work needed to accomplish this in an upcoming article! —Aaron Cheney, software engineer

  • Global Invalidation provides up to 15% improvement to baseline performance for CPU-bound players
  • CPU-bound players are generally mid-to-high spec machines.
  • These numbers are based on data gathered from PBE over two weekends (Jan. 22–23 and Feb. 5–6).
  • Although we expect a large portion of the player base to benefit from these gains, your machine’s performance may vary.

COSMETIC UPDATES

  • Updates to the color of the tile used to display sprays in your Collections
  • Some sprays were too close to the color of the original tile and were hard to see properly before actually using them in-game.

GAME SYSTEMS UPDATES

  • Added option to return to strongest weapon
  • You can now return to the strongest weapon when pressing the “Equip Last Used Item” key or when auto-equipping a weapon.
  • To toggle ON, go to Settings » Controls » Equipment under “Prioritize Strongest Weapon.”
  • This was released in 4.02 but did not make it into the patch notes. My bad!

ESPORTS FEATURES

  • Projectile follow is now fixed for observer followers
  • Added observer settings toggle to turn Agent portrait on/off

Valorant 4.03 Update – BUGS

Agents

  • Fixed a bug where Chamber’s Headhunter and Tour de Force could float away
  • Fixed an exploit where, using specific line-ups, it was possible to see inside Viper’s ultimate without being affected by the nearsighted debuff
  • Fixed a bug where Viper’s ultimate would sometimes fail to expand through doorways

Social

  • Fixed a bug where pressing enter in pre-game wouldn’t focus chat
  • Fixed a bug where right clicking a player portrait would not bring up a context menu

Performance

  • Fixed a bug where performance stats would be hidden while spectating the Spike

Valorant 4.03 Update – KNOWN ISSUES

Esports Features

  • There is a brief flash when swapping into free-cam mode as an observer follower

Valorant is out now for Windows PC. For more details on the latest Valorant update, head to the official page here.

  • CPU-bound players are generally mid-to-high spec machines.

  • These numbers are based on data gathered from PBE over two weekends (Jan. 22–23 and Feb. 5–6).

  • Although we expect a large portion of the player base to benefit from these gains, your machine’s performance may vary.

  • Some sprays were too close to the color of the original tile and were hard to see properly before actually using them in-game.

  • You can now return to the strongest weapon when pressing the “Equip Last Used Item” key or when auto-equipping a weapon.

  • To toggle ON, go to Settings » Controls » Equipment under “Prioritize Strongest Weapon.”

  • This was released in 4.02 but did not make it into the patch notes. My bad!