VALORANT Patch 13.09 Explained: Hush Arrives, Clove Nerfed, Warden Buffed
VALORANT's Patch 13.09 is live, headlined by Hush — the game's 31st Agent, a telekinetic Duelist from Guangdong, China. The update also nerfs Clove, buffs the Warden rifle, and reworks Jett's Buy Menu listing. Here's everything confirmed in Riot's official notes.
VALORANT's Patch 13.09 went live on October 27, 2026 (October 28 for regions outside the Americas), and it is the biggest update since Champions Shanghai wrapped up. The headline act is Hush, the game's 31st Agent and a telekinetic Duelist from Guangdong, China, but Riot also used the patch to nerf Clove, buff the Warden marksman rifle, and quietly pull Jett's passive out of the Buy Menu. Here's everything confirmed in the official patch notes, broken down section by section.
1. What's New in Patch 13.09
Riot published the 13.09 notes on October 27 at 13:00 UTC, confirming the patch alongside an official post from the @VALORANT account on X. At a glance, the update includes:
- Hush, a new telekinetic Duelist, added to the roster
- A movement-speed nerf to Clove's Pick-me-up
- Recoil and accuracy tuning for the Warden rifle
- Jett's passive removed from the Buy Menu
- Rewritten ability tooltips and expanded Performance Score detail
- A raised threshold for the First Blood Accolade
Shhhhhh Hush is here, here's everything you need to know coming with Patch 13.09 https://t.co/onK4V84arS
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) October 27, 2026
Riot had already teased Hush at the Champions 2026 Grand Finals in Shanghai on October 18 (a reveal we covered in our earlier look at what we knew before her launch), but 13.09 is the first time her full five-piece kit, Agent number, and exact release window were confirmed.
2. Meet Hush: Full Kit Breakdown
Hush is Agent 31, a Duelist built around telekinesis rather than raw speed or stealth. Riot's official notes and the "RISE AND FALL" reveal trailer lay out five distinct pieces to her kit.
"RISE AND FALL // Hush Agent Trailer" — official VALORANT YouTube channel.
Telekinesis (Passive)
Hush can pick up weapons, the Spike on attacker side, and interact with switches from a longer range than other Agents.
Displacement
A throwable that pulls every player caught in its explosion toward its center, concussing anyone who collides with a surface or another player. It resets every two kills, so Hush can chain it more than once in a strong round.
Flashbulb
A throwable that explodes and flashes anyone looking at it when it goes off — her entry tool for taking space.
Flow
Hush instantly creates an anchor point. If she's airborne when she uses it, she briefly levitates before being propelled toward that anchor after a short delay — effectively a repositioning and traversal tool.
Suspension (Ultimate)
Hush sends out a steerable projectile that can be guided toward the crosshair. On detonation, it levitates every player caught inside the blast, leaving them exposed in the air.
Riot's notes are clear that Hush's exact numbers (recharge timers, radius, flash duration) weren't published in the 13.09 patch post itself, so treat anything beyond the ability descriptions above as unconfirmed until Riot's full Agent page or a verified tracker site publishes the tooltip data.
3. How to Unlock Hush
As with every new Agent launch, Hush is immediately available to players who purchase her, and free-to-play accounts can unlock her by earning XP during her Agent Recruitment Event window. Riot has used a 200,000 XP threshold for recent Agent launches, though the official 13.09 notes themselves focus on her kit and balance rather than restating the recruitment-event mechanic, so check the in-client Agent Recruitment panel for the exact XP total tied to this specific event before assuming last patch's numbers carried over unchanged.
4. Balance Changes: Clove Nerfed, Jett's Passive Reworked
Hush wasn't the only name in the notes. Riot used 13.09 to trim one of the cycle's stronger Controllers and quietly adjust one of the game's oldest Duelists.
Clove
Pick-me-up's bonus movement speed drops from 15% to 10%. On the upside for Clove players, killing Clove after she's used Not Dead Yet now grants the killer both an ultimate point and a signature-ability refresh point, closing a window where Clove could linger risk-free.
Jett
Jett's passive was removed from the in-game Buy Menu listing. The ability itself hasn't been cut — this is a UI change to how it's displayed, not a kit change — but it's worth knowing if you're used to checking her loadout there.
5. Warden Rifle Gets Smoother Recoil
The Warden, VALORANT's 2900-credit marksman rifle, received two specific accuracy tweaks in 13.09: Riot smoothed its recoil pattern over the first few bullets, reduced second-bullet error from 0.25 to 0.2, and reduced third-bullet error from 0.6 to 0.5. Riot's stated goal is to bring its control more in line with its price tag. This follows the bigger systems work the rifle got back in Patch 13.06's Agent Mastery and Warden overhaul, so 13.09 reads as a follow-up tuning pass rather than a new feature.
6. Performance Score and Competitive Updates
Hush is the first new Agent to launch since Riot's Performance Score system went live, and the patch notes flag that early scores for her may be uneven while the game tunes utility-use baselines around her kit. Alongside that:
- End-of-game screens now show more Performance Score detail, including a "learn more" screen and, on PC, hover text explaining trade kills
- Act Best Match now carries more weight on overall Map Rating each Act
- The threshold to earn the First Blood Accolade was raised (historic Accolade counts are unaffected)
7. Smaller Changes Worth Knowing
A few terminology and quality-of-life changes rounded out the notes. Riot standardized "Haste" as the name for the movement-speed buff (separate from Combat Stim) — it's now applied by Brimstone's Stim Beacon, Clove's Pick-me-up, Miks' Harmonize, and Neon's High Gear/Overdrive, and Waylay's Convergent Paths was renamed to Haste for consistency. "Snapshot" is now the official term for the silhouette-reveal debuff applied by Cypher's Neural Theft and his Spycam.
Ability tooltips were also rewritten across the board for clarity, with more Agents now showing passive descriptions and every tooltip displaying Agent, role, and keybind information up front.
Riot also shipped a long list of bug fixes touching Clove, Cypher, Deadlock, Gekko, Omen, Raze, Sova, Tejo, and Yoru, plus several cross-Agent fixes for minimap visibility and buy-phase line-of-sight through barriers. On console, Miks' M-Pulse and Bassquake now trigger controller vibration, and on PC a bug that briefly hid the mouse cursor near certain ability maps was fixed. No map pool changes shipped in this patch.
Quick Tips Recap
- Hush launched worldwide with Patch 13.09 — October 27 in the Americas, October 28 elsewhere
- Her kit: Telekinesis (passive), Displacement, Flashbulb, Flow, and Suspension (ultimate)
- Clove's Pick-me-up speed bonus dropped from 15% to 10%, but killing Clove after Not Dead Yet now rewards the killer
- The Warden got smoothed recoil and tighter second/third-bullet accuracy
- Jett's passive is still in her kit — it was only removed from the Buy Menu display
- No competitive map pool changes shipped in this patch
For broader context on the current map rotation, see our rundown of every competitive map's signature mechanics, and if you want to catch up on the esports side of the game, check out how LOUD closed out Champions 2026 with a second straight world title. For more guides like this one, browse the full walkthroughs archive.