An unintended feature was tacked onto the Neon buff, but VALORANT devs are working to fix it as quickly as they can.
Patch 8.11 is here for VALORANT, and a large focus was on the Duelist Agents. Among them is Neon, who received some pretty impactful changes. Well, the Neon buff in VALORANT has been proven to give spot on mid-air accuracy.
Zachary "zekken" Patrone, Masters Madrid winner and star of VCT Americas' Sentinels, has proven this with a clip shared to X. The VALORANT dev team promptly responded, and of course, this is not meant to happen and will be patched out.
A look at the mid-air accuracy provided by the Neon buff in VALORANT
Per the VALORANT 8.11 patch notes, Neon received the following changes to her slide mechanic:
- Slide charges 1 >>> 2
- Neon now removes all weapon movement error when sliding
- This effectively means she’s more accurate while sliding
- Second Slide Cost: 150
- Equips out of slide: Fast >>> Instant
- Slide equip buffer >>> .2s (after sliding, there is .2 seconds before her gun comes out)
As stated, Neon players can shoot accurately once their weapon re-equips during a slide. That's the removal of movement error note. Apparently, that also means while she's in the air, as shown by pro player zekken.
The video clearly shows him testing it out, rather than it happening in a live game setting. But still, mid-air accuracy was never mentioned in the patch. The clip showcases Neon sliding from A Tower onto the site on the Haven map, successfully landing headshots on an enemy placed at the top of the ramp.
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Response from Riot Games on the issue
As fun as it probably is for Neon mains, this was definitely not an intended upgrade to her abilities. The VALORANT dev team has already commented on this unexpected Neon buff, and will be removing it soon.
Coleman Palm, Project Management Lead for VALORANT, chimed in rather quickly with a response on X:
Even quicker was Ryan Cousart, the game's Agent Design Craft Lead:
Get your mid-air headshots and Operator no-scopes in while you can. While the Neon buff will remain in VALORANT, the aerial accuracy of the character is soon heading to the vault.
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