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Valorant Patch 12.09 Reins In Neon and Run-and-Gun Shotguns

The update targets the speed-heavy meta to restore counterplay.

Overview

  • The balance update, released Tuesday, strips Neon's jump speed boost in High Gear and makes fuel only refill on kills during her ultimate.
  • All shotguns now lose much more accuracy while moving, with standardized penalties across running, walking, crouch-walking, and jumping, and a 15% crouch accuracy bonus that rewards holding angles.
  • Weapon-specific tuning hits close-range staples as Bucky damage drops at 0–8 meters and spreads widen, Judge gains wider minimum spread and harsher movement inaccuracy, and Shorty fires more slowly with bigger jump spread.
  • Riot fixed a PC-only Neon exploit tied to NVIDIA settings in her Fast Lane wall and returned the agent to play, and it added AMD Anti-Lag 2 support to cut input delay on compatible hardware with March 9, 2026 or newer drivers.
  • Riot’s V26 roadmap follows with replay sharing in Patch 12.10 on May 27 and Sentinel buffs, anti-cheat upgrades, and Bandit pistol tuning in Patch 13.00 on June 23, while MMR tests in non-competitive modes aim to produce fairer matches.