Valorant 5.06 Patch Makes Big Changes To Pearl

2020’s Valorant is undoubtedly one of the most fun games and a great addition to Esports. The developers constantly keep the game updated, and fun for new and old players. Players always look forward to new patches, mostly to see which map got reworked and which agents got butchered.

Major Takeaway:

• New changes to Pearl affect both attackers and defenders.
• Stinger receives a new rework.
• Many bugs and UI fixes.

The game demands cooperation between the player to dominate the enemy team. To get ahead of the curve and perform better in the game. But cooperation with random teammates gets difficult, especially after a new patch when players are adjusting to the brand new changes, and this patch has just that.

The Valorant 5.06 Patch focuses on the latest released map in the game, Pearl. Pearl is one of the more disliked maps in the game, and it is due to the extremely large tracks the teams need to take for moving around and how many pesky corners and hiding spots the map has.

Well, this patch aims to correct this discrepancy, and effectively kills off many corners and walls people could take cover behind. Removing a lot of the cover players used takes down a lot of ‘Rat’ options. This update aims to reduce options to defenders so that the attackers may have a better chance to access sites.

Riot had this to say about the new changes, “Pearl is getting a handful of small updates that aim to reduce some complexity and make it easier to move through a few areas for both attackers and defenders.” Maps in games like these are better left simple rather than complicated.

Some of the affected areas are Lowered waist-high wall on the left side of B Main, a new wall on Mid Top, a lot of changes to A Art, and many other sites. One that might change attacks a lot is A Main to A Site.

This spot was unnecessarily tough to smoke effectively. By tightening the choke by a margin, we hope to make smoking easier and give a small buff to defenders (i.e, a new utility spot). The cubby on the right will also shrink slightly to keep it from being too deep.”

Aside from these changes, we did get something for one of the least used weapons in the game, the Stinger.

• Primary Fire error adjusted from 1.6 error after 7 bullets >>> 1.3 error after 6 bullets. 

Our goal for the Stinger is to feel controllable and appropriately lethal at short ranges, but currently, even in close quarters, it can feel out-of-control. Lowering the top spread should make it feel more reliable at the appropriate range once you’ve overcome the learning curve of the recoil.”

• Alt-Fire first shot error adjusted from .5 >>> .35.

For an option that’s about being more accurate, it felt like the first shot had more variance than we’d like, especially at the ranges you’d want to use the burst fire mode.

And finally, a few bug fixes and Voice Chat fixes to end the patch. Overall, Riot definitely showed how well they can do balances, even if they are a little slow, but as it is with every patch, people will definitely have mixed reactions.