VALORANT 10.08 Patch Notes: Act 3, Yoru Nerfs, Gifting
VALORANT Patch 10.08 is here, and it's celebrating the title's fifth anniversary. In true birthday-party spirit, players can experience nostalgic Episode 1 music and themes. Plus, users can now gift their in-game friends items through a new mechanic. Plenty of competitive changes are also arriving, with Astra, Brimstone and Yoru all receiving nerfs. Let's explore all the vital facts about VALORANT Patch 10.08, including how it will affect the game's Ranked meta.
How Will VALORANT Patch 10.08 Affect the Meta?
VALORANT Patch 10.08 focuses mainly on providing nerfs to high-performing Agents. While Sentinels and Initiators escape the dev team's wrath in this Patch, Controller mains are not as lucky since Astra and Brimstone will receive minor nerfs. Astra's changes will slightly reduce her Stun time, which in turn will weaken her aggressive capabilities.
Yoru is the main target of Patch 10.08's changes. While his win rate is only 48% according to the stat-tracking website tracker.gg, he has become a favorite among the VALORANT community for his kit's creative potential since VALORANT Masters Bangkok, which occurred throughout February 2025 and ended in an intense Yoru-vs-Yoru showdown between G2 Esports and T1. The two teams' performances diverged from Yoru's intended role as a space-taking duelist, instead using his abilities to gain information and quickly roam across maps, causing distraction.
Cooldown reductions and point requirement increases will affect Yoru's Dimensional Drift Ultimate, his most important ability for gathering information. This will push Yoru back in line with the traditional Duelist playstyle and limit his potential to distract entire enemy teams.
Related Article: VALORANT Season 2025 Act 3 Map Pool, Ranked Reset, Release Date
VALORANT Patch 10.08: Biggest Winners and Losers
Let's explore a quick summary of which Agents are the biggest winners (receiving buffs) and losers (receiving nerfs) of this Patch.
Winners
- None
Losers
- Astra
- Yoru
- Brimstone
VALORANT Patch 10.08: Key Features
A Blast to the Past: VALORANT's Fifth Anniversary
2025 marks VALORANT's fifth anniversary, so the team is returning nostalgic tunes for the next two patches. Players will notice the menu, character select and victory/defeat music schemes are a bit different to commemorate the occasion.
VALORANT Patch 10.08 Agent Changes
Astra, Brimstone and Yoru are all receiving changes in Patch 10.08, though Astra and Yoru's are the most significant. Developers are changing Astra's Nova Pulse stun duration while leaving her smokes unaffected to "reduce ability power creep." Her shorter stun duration will weaken her potential to clear angles and hold post-plant scenarios, but it will align with most other Agents' concussion durations.
Meanwhile, the VALORANT team is significantly nerfing Yoru's Dimensional Drift Ultimate, stating:
"Yoru’s Dimensional Drift is a powerful ultimate that requires a lot of opponent
attention, so we’re standardizing its duration to similar ultimates and raising its
point cost."
Brimstone's nerf is very slight, and mostly relates to audio quality. Players will have clearer sound cues relating to his molotov's location, which makes the ability easier to dodge.
Astra
- Nova Pulse: stun duration 4s > 3.5s
Brimstone
- Incendiary: "Brim’s molotov audio has been updated to be easier to hear,
especially when placed underneath smokes."
Yoru
- Dimensional Drift: duration 12s > 10s, Ultimate point requirement 7 > 8
New VALORANT Skin Gifting Feature
VALORANT Patch 10.08 is adding a long-awaited community request: Players can now give each other gifts in-game. While this will obviously mostly apply to skins, users can gift any item type, including flex, player cards, titles and sprays.
Players can gift bundles directly from the VALORANT Store tab. Participating users can choose to gift full bundled sets or individual items. Once sent to the recipient, they can choose to accept or decline them. For now, only Featured Store bundles will be available as potential gifts.
Related Article: VALORANT Mobile is Real and Coming Soon, But Not for You
Premier Mode Changes
With every new VALORANT Act, Premier Mode refreshes. Patch 10.08 will usher in Stage V25A3. In addition, Premier Mode will have harsher behavior restrictions. Previously, players were banned for only thirty days flat due to disruptive behavior. Now, Premier Mode ban durations will occur on an individual basis, taking the severity of player offenses into account.
Big Bug Fixes
This Patch contains a long list of bug fixes. Since most of them won't affect everyday play, here's a quick recap of the most important issues and most affected Agents. For a full, detailed list of bug fixes, check the official Riot Games Patch Notes here.
- Minor Waylay and Harbor fixes.
- Deadlock's Barrier Mesh can no longer boost players.
- Many Vyse fixes, impacting Arc Rose's cooldown, Shear's wall and ability warnings.
- Skye and Gekko's leaps are now always slowed by Waylay's Saturate buff.
- Many Tejo fixes, mostly impacting his ability visual cues and indicators.
