“Broken” Viper trick gives Valorant agent a leg-up on new Pearl map
Riot GamesValorant’s brand new map Pearl has just been released and players have already found some massive oversights with the map’s design. In particular, the way Viper’s utility can stick to some barriers across the map.
Valorant players have just begun to sink their teeth into Pearl, the newest map to be introduced to the game. And while it’s only been out for a couple of days, gamers have already begun finding issues with the map that can greatly impact the fairness of matches.
On Reddit, a user posted in-game footage of the new map and exposed a giant flaw with some of the buy phase barriers.
When thrown at the barrier, Viper’s Poison Cloud will stick to the surface. When the barrier drops at the start of a round, it will remain stuck there even if there’s no visible ledge.
What this allows players to do is throw the orb, retreat to a safe distance, and use it as a very broken one-way smoke.
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Players who noticed the bug have begun revealing how it’s greatly helping them get kills. One Reddit user even declared how they, “got so many free kills today with this as a one-way”.
Given that the map itself will be entering the competitive map pool next month, it’ll only be a matter of time before the developers patch it up — especially now that this issue is out in the open and has been exposed by players.
Riot GamesHow are players reacting to Pearl?
When it was announced that Pearl would be brought in, Valorant players were divided. This is in large part due to its inclusion has caused Split to be removed from the map pool.
“I think it was a bad decision to remove Split,” Ghost Gaming’s Marc-Andre ‘NiSMO’ Tayar said when asked about Riot’s decision.
“I actually think Split is one of the maps where there was a lot of variety of different agents that you could play, and I think it makes the game look more fun when you’re watching.”
However, since going live, players have already begun to express a more positive take on Pearl and are looking forward to seeing how the map evolves ahead of its esports debut later on in the year.
Pearl went live during Valorant patch 5.0 and is currently playable in a Pearl-only queue. This is giving players the chance to familiarize themselves with it for the next two weeks before it is then thrown into the competitive map pool on July 12 — hopefully without this Viper line-up.