VALORANT unveils Breeze rework and new pistol in Patch 12.00

VALORANT has revealed a large Breeze rework in addition to the brand new Bandit pistol as a part of the sport’s newest Patch 12.00.

Kicking off the VALORANT Season 2026, the brand new patch additionally options important agent adjustments, changes to Corrode and Haven and a brand new 5v5 sport mode.

As introduced firstly of 2026, Breeze has returned to VALORANT’s aggressive map pool to exchange Sundown, following a year-and-a-half hiatus. 

To make one of many sport’s least standard maps obtain a hotter welcome from the group, Riot Video games has performed its largest map rework thus far. This consists of changes to nearly each a part of the map, corresponding to A/B most important, A/B web site, mid, the wood doorways and halls.

Up to now, Breeze had been closely criticised for its massive map measurement and open areas, which made the map closely attack-sided and restricted the pool of viable brokers. Similar to in a later revoked Breeze change, halls was closed solely to cut back the scope of the map. 

Equally, each plant websites in addition to the map’s center part have been reworked to ‘scale back angle complexity [and] tighten up areas’. These adjustments will hopefully make the gameplay expertise much less irritating for each side whereas facilitating on-site defence methods and mid-round rotations for defenders.

Through the first two weeks of the patch, RR losses on Breeze shall be diminished by 50%.

With heavy penetration weapons, notably the Odin, changing into more and more standard among the many VALORANT participant base, Riot additionally strengthened among the most-spammed partitions throughout Haven and Corrode.

Patch 12.00 provides a breakable aspect to Haven’s mid window wall to stop gamers from fishing for early-round kills by wall penetration. 

Corrode obtained reinforcements to one among its A-site partitions and the primary wall on the B-site, which now deny any type of wall penetration by these surfaces. Nevertheless, this nonetheless leaves loads of spammable partitions on the map.

One 12 months after the introduction of the Outlaw sniper rifle, VALORANT has obtained its second gun addition. The brand new Bandit sidearm weapon gives one-tap headshot energy at a barely decrease value than the Sheriff.

In response to Riot’s Patch 12.00 announcement, ‘the Bandit lands proper between the Ghost and Sheriff, providing extra variety in mild rounds whether or not selecting to deal with Agent skills or deal with gunplay.’

Listed below are the Bandit’s stats:

Recognising Breach’s weak spot within the present meta, Riot has buffed his flashes and stun:

His fellow initiator, Tejo, obtained slight reworks to his concuss and drone skills:

Regardless of the latest Harbor rework, the controller has now been given extra buffs to enhance his viability additional:

The identical applies to Vyse, who had suffered closely from the sentinel nerfs launched in Patch 11.08:

Lastly, Riot up to date the Therapeutic Orb focusing on for Sage in order that she will heal allies if the mid and decrease sections of their fashions are blocked by geometry.

With the VCT 2026 season commencing later this month, lots of the adjustments from Patch 12.00 will probably be energetic in the course of the VCT Kickoff occasions.

Though the Breeze rework would possibly make the map much less attacker-sided, followers can nonetheless anticipate comparable agent compositions as seen throughout Breeze’s earlier time within the aggressive map pool. 

These embody Viper because the predominant controller and Yoru as a well-liked solo/duo duelist possibility. Nevertheless, the latest sentinel nerfs would possibly have an effect on whether or not VCT groups will gravitate in direction of no-sentinel comps on Breeze. Furthermore, contemplating that Harbor was used as an alternative choice to Viper on Breeze prior to now, he would possibly see elevated utilization in professional play now.

Breach’s flashes have lengthy been thought-about the simplest flashes to dodge. Nonetheless, it’s unsure if the most recent buffs can offset the nerfs of the previous, in addition to the unpopular place of flash-initiators in comparison with different brokers with flashes, corresponding to Yoru.

In an identical vein, the buffs to Vyse’s final potential are unlikely to beat the heavy nerfs to her flash and wall from earlier patches.

The Tejo adjustments are tougher to interpret on paper alone. Following his deserved rework final 12 months, the beforehand overpowered agent was thought-about pretty balanced. Regardless of the huge energy discount, Tejo would nonetheless be performed on particular maps, together with Bind. Reworked Tejo’s largest energy was his drone, which has now been nerfed. This would possibly flip him into much more of a distinct segment decide all through the 2026 VCT season.

For the beginning of VALORANT Season 2026, a brand new 5v5 limited-time mode has been launched. 

‘All Random One Website’ sees you and your crew struggle for a single web site. Along with free loadouts and talents recharging throughout every spherical, your agent additionally switches after each spherical.

Different updates featured in Patch 12.00 embody multi-factor authentication for all Ascendant+ gamers in Europe, making Replays out there for Customized video games and hidden MMR adjustments.