Yoru rework in Valorant revealed: Ability changes, release date

The Yoru rework is finally on its way in Valorant Episode 4. With Riot revealing key details on the Japanese duelist’s new abilities in the lead-up to the latest launch, it’s not long until its release date is here.

The initial plan for a Yoru rework was shelved back in August 2021, with the developers citing that the need for new art would mean taking longer to execute any potential upgrades to the character.

However, the wheels have been turning on the Japanese duelist’s rework heading in Valorant Episode 4. Now, we have a change list and an estimated release for all the Yoru changes coming soon in 2022.

Here’s what you need to know about Yoru’s rework in Valorant.

Yoru rework changes Gatecrash, Fakeout abilities entirely

Developers John Goscicki and Ryan ‘rycoux’ Cousart opened up on the intention behind Yoru’s rework in a December 2021 blog post.

“It’s fair to say that when Yoru launched there was a TON of excitement around this boyo, but as y’all experimented with him, many of you hit the conclusion that his outputs were not on par with the rest of the roster,” the developers admitted.

“Yoru’s payoff ‘dream plays’ seem to only happen after rounds of conditioning the enemy, which can leave him ineffective for longer than we’d like.”

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To fix the problems in Yoru’s kit, Riot is tweaking the abilities in his rework rather than scrapping them entirely. The focus is on two of his regular abilities — his Gatecrash teleport, and his Fakeout footsteps.

Gatecrash will be harder for enemies to detect with reduced audio, and will travel faster across the map. They’ve also added the ability to trigger a “fake teleport” to keep the mind games going.

As for his Fakeout ability, the footsteps will be replaced with a carbon copy of Yoru (think Mirage from Apex Legends) that runs forward in a straight line. Once shot, it’ll explode and debuff nearby enemies. It will also face the direction of the person shooting and flash towards their position.

However, the decoy will be easily distinguishable — at least for teammates — from Yoru himself. The Fakeout clone will appear as a hologram for allies, while enemies will see just a regular model.

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Riot are also shipping a number of changes to Yoru’s Dimensional Drift ultimate. These include being able to cast while in Dimensional Drift and removing the nearsight, but making his footsteps audible to enemies and adding a cast delay to block the invulnerability frame.

“When looking at updating Yoru’s ultimate, we wanted to fix some of the unintended play patterns that have shown up in-game, and instead give Yoru the tools to gain ground on enemies using stealth and initiate the rest of his team to follow,” the two developers added in a February 8 dev blog.

Yoru rework release date in Valorant

The dev team was insistent that these versions are not final and that there’s still time for things to change before the rework arrives in Valorant Episode 4.

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However, the rework won’t be launching alongside new Agent Neon in Act 1 — the Yoru rework is being pushed back again to Valorant patch 4.04 to kick off Episode 4 Act 2.

You can find the full list of planned Yoru changes below.

Yoru rework changelist in Valorant

Abilities

Fakeout

• Footsteps replaced with new visual: A carbon copy of Yoru that runs forward, and upon getting shot, will wind up and explode, debuffing enemies.

Gatecrash

• Lowered the range at which enemies can see and hear the tether on the map while it travels.
• Increased tether travel speed by 20%
• Yoru can now activate the tether from a distance to trigger a fake teleport, playing the same audio and visuals as if he were teleporting.

Dimensional Drift

• 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 is removed
• Unequip delay time is increased slightly
• Cast delay added when casting Dimensional Drift, preventing the invulnerability frame on cast