Valorant players finally got the news they were waiting for on May 7, 2026. After Riot Games disabled Neon because of a bug that let some players see through her Fast Lane wall, the devs promised she would come back in patch 12.09 with changes to her over-tuned kit. Now those changes are out in the open, and they come with a long-awaited shotgun rework that was originally planned for late June and update 13.00. Instead, both hit the live game in 12.09, and the message from Riot is clear: combat should feel more tactical, more intentional, and less like a speed-and-shotgun snowball.
Neon Gets a Reality Check
Neon was pulled from play on May 7, 2026, after players, typically those using Nvidia graphics, found a way to see through her Fast Lane ability while the wall still appeared for enemies. Riot promised a quick return, but the studio also used the opportunity to address a bigger problem. According to the devs, Neon has been breaking their dev philosophy on what combat should be and how intentionally Agents have to play. Their goal is to make Neon suffer when she is not properly supported by teammates, instead of letting her run and jump her way out of every bad situation.
Here is what changed for Neon in 12.09:
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High Gear jump speed removed – Jumping with High Gear active no longer provides any speed bonus while Neon is airborne. Her air speed while sprinting now matches melee speed.
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Fuel economy tightened – Fuel only regenerates with a kill when Neon's ultimate is active, though it still regenerates passively.
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Slide VFX improved – A new visual effect more clearly communicates the direction and origin of her slide, giving opponents a fairer read.
The devs explained that Neon's current role in breaking timings and creating pressure is correct, but her movement and evasiveness were pushing too far into combat space. They want Neon players to make more meaningful decisions, and they want opponents to have more opportunities for counterplay. In other words, the speedy Duelist is still fast, but she is no longer a free ticket out of danger.
Shotguns Finally Get Their Tactical Tune-Up
Riot also took a long look at shotguns, and the results are significant. The devs said shotgun gameplay has not felt as tactical or masterful as they would like for the long-term vision of the game. Part of the problem is that players have gotten extremely good at abusing the generous parts of shotguns, especially when those guns are paired with Agent mobility tools. The fix is simple on paper: make shotguns less accurate when moving, so they work best when used deliberately and defensively.
All shotguns are now less accurate when moving. Run, walk, crouch-walk, and jump accuracy values have been standardized across the category, and crouching now provides a 15% accuracy multiplier, matching rifles. Riot also hit rope accuracy hard, because shotguns were far too effective while swinging around on ropes.
| Shotgun | Key changes in 12.09 |
|---|---|
| Bucky | Pellet damage reduced in the 0–8m range: head 40 → 34, body 20 → 17, legs 17 → 14. Minimum spread increased from 2.6 → 3.0. Walking spread increased from 0.075 → 1, running spread from 0.1 → 2, crouch-walk spread from 0.05 → 0.5, and jump spread from 1.25 → 4. |
| Judge | Minimum spread increased from 2.25 → 2.5 on PC for now, with the console spread change arriving in Patch 12.11. Walking spread increased from 0.075 → 1, running spread from 0.75 → 2, crouch-walk spread from 0.05 → 0.5, and jump spread from 2.25 → 4. |
| Shorty | Fire rate decreased from 3.33 → 3.0. Walking spread increased from 0.075 → 1, running spread from 0.1 → 2, crouch-walk spread from 0.05 → 0.5, and jump spread from 1.25 → 4. |
Rope accuracy is now much worse for shotguns across the board. Standing still on a rope increased spread from 0.075 → 0.75, walking from 0.09 → 1.5, and running from 0.1 → 3.0. That means players who try to swing into a site with a shotgun should expect a lot more randomness than before. The Bucky and Judge crouch modifiers were also adjusted, with Bucky going from 10% to 15% and Judge and Shorty going from 25% down to 15%. The goal is not to kill shotguns, but to push them back toward holding tight angles and clearing close-range spaces.
Smaller Fixes and Quality-of-Life Changes
Patch 12.09 is not just about Neon and shotguns. Riot also shipped a batch of bug fixes and system updates. Chamber's Headhunter no longer creates an animation that covers too much of the screen when ADS-ing while firing. Jett's Tailwind first-person animations now play correctly for left-handed settings, and her Drift no longer causes performance drops. Miks received a tooltip update for Harmonize and a fix for his ultimate preview cone. Sage can no longer waste her Healing Orb on herself while affected by Decay when she is at full health. Tejo's Guided Salvo equip idle sound no longer keeps playing after cast. Viper's Pit now correctly applies nearsightedness to Sova's Recon Bolt and Chamber's Trademark, and Vyse's wall no longer triggers its arming audio when possessable drones come near.
Riot also improved its text evaluation system to better detect and penalize text comms abuse in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, and Chinese. On the technical side, the patch adds support for AMD Anti-Lag 2, which reduces input latency in certain GPU-bound scenarios as long as players have compatible hardware and drivers from March 9, 2026, or later. MMR changes are being tested for modes outside Competitive, Unrated, and Swiftplay, with the hope of better and more consistent matches in the future.
There are still a few known issues, including Skirmish 2v2: Ascension and Skirmish 1v1: Ascension timers getting stuck at 00:50 during Overtime, and Agent abilities not showing up on the Combat Report in the round after affecting enemies. But for most players, the headline is simple: Neon is back, shotguns are less forgiving on the move, and Valorant's combat is taking another step toward the tactical feel Riot wants. 🎯