Riot confirms the rework to the least played agent in Valorant, Yoru, will be launching during Episode 4 Act 2.
Valorant developer Riot Games has confirmed that rework of Yoru, the least played Agent in the game. The rework is scheduled to launch during Episode 4 Act 2, transforming the in-game playstyle of the character.
The changes were announced back in December, promising a wide variance of tweaks to Yoru’s underutilized kit. The main change was a shift conceptually, looking to make his built-in conditioning less of a factor round-to-round. Riot character producers, Ryan “Rycoux” Cousart and John Goscicki, announced today the thought process behind new design choices for Yoru.
Fakeout Changes
First off, Fakeout is receiving an overhaul to its base mechanics. The ability will now send out a carbon copy of Yoru, which will explode when shot, debuffing enemy players with a flash. Immediately, Fakeout sounds like a valuable initiation tool for teams looking to take sites on executes, retakes, and to clear out areas.
Furthermore, Riot announced additional changes separate from the the December post, showing off some of Yoru’s fresh artwork, and a slight adjustment to Fakeout’s explosion.
“As added flavor, when the copy is shot, it faces the direction of the person that fired the shot and flashes towards their position in a conal direction.”
The copy flashing towards the player who shot the Yoru clone will make enemies reconsider shooting Yoru in the future. The introduction of deeper mind games is core to the Fakeout change, and means teams will have to directly confront Yoru rather than just be wary of his footsteps.
The last Fakeout change is stylistic, and alters how he’ll look to his teammates. In early playtests of the Yoru rework teammates were confused by the copy. It was effective in disrupting opponents, but made for incoherent moments for others.
“During playtests we found that the copy was effective at disrupting an enemies moment-to-moment gameplay—which is awesome—but not when your team gets confused. Below are some of the early explorations for how to visualize the ally Yoru copy.”
Gatecrash Changes
Gatecrash received minimal updates since the December post. The only significant update is the added art elements, giving players an idea of how the ability will look in-game. It also helps clarify for enemies how to play around the fake teleport.
"The big thing here is the “puddle” left on the ground after a fake teleport. While the goal of the fake teleport is to create confusion about Yoru’s location, you should be able to go to where the fake teleport occurred, and then understand whether the real Yoru is around, or was it a misdirection?"
Dimensional Drift Rework
Dimensional Drift received a bevy of big changes to the ability with the goal of Yoru taking more map control and initiating for his teammates. The inability of his ultimate to gain tactical value with the vision limiter and lack of utility made it virtually unviable. However, Riot is going in the opposite direction, making his base value as an information gatherer stronger and allowing for better setups with his utility.
- Yoru is no longer revealed to enemies
- Yoru is able to cast all utility while in Dimensional Drift
- Enemies can hear Yoru’s footsteps
- Nearsighted removed
- Unequip delay time increased
- Cast delay added when casting Dimensional Drift, preventing the invulnerability frame on cast.
Additionally, Yoru now has the ability to be a more effective disruptor. The increased vision alone ups his value, despite a nerf to the invincible frames upon activation, and increased unequip time. The one advantage the old ultimate had was the ability to unequip quickly and get a surprise kill. Riot decided to move away from that style of gameplay.
The changes open up a world of possibilities for the lone stealth agent in the game. The kit, on paper, is undoubtedly more impactful than the minimalist design from his initial launch. Let’s all hope this rework translate to higher pick rates for Yoru.