VALORANT Patch 13.09 is out, and this one is all about a new face. Riot's latest Duelist, Hush, is now in the game. She is a telekinetic agent from Guangdong province in China, and her whole kit is about moving things around: grabbing weapons and the Spike from a distance, bending her grenades through the air after she throws them, pulling enemies into each other and finally lifting a whole team off the ground for an easy cleanup.
The patch also carries a set of quieter changes that will matter to anyone who plays ranked. The Warden finally gets the handling buff people have been asking for since it landed in September, Clove loses some movement speed, two new buff terms show up on your HUD, and every ability description in the game has been rewritten. Below is everything in the official notes, what we know about how Hush plays, how to unlock her without spending a cent, and what to practice before you queue.
Everything here comes from Riot's official VALORANT Patch Notes 13.09, the official Hush agent page and Riot's Progression Update FAQ for the unlock rules. Where something is not in Riot's notes, such as exact cooldowns or credit costs, we say so instead of guessing.
When Patch 13.09 Went Live
Riot published the 13.09 notes on Tuesday, October 27 at 8:00 AM CT (13:00 UTC), which matches the usual Tuesday morning slot. The notes were written in a very casual tone this time, opening with "Get ready to meet our latest Agent, Hush, as she changes the game."
Riot followed up with an official Hush gameplay reveal on the VALORANT news page at 10:00 AM CT, and a Hush cosplay guide at noon CT the same day. The cinematic trailer, titled RISE AND FALL, had already gone up on October 18, when Riot revealed Hush during the Champions Shanghai broadcast. Her teaser, FINAL WORD, went out on October 15.
A few practical notes on timing:
- Rollout is regional. Riot does not flip every shard at once, so it is normal for one region to have Hush a few hours before another. If you see 13.08 in your client, restart the Riot Client and give it time.
- Act 6 is still running. Patch 13.09 is the second patch of Season 2026 Act 6, which opened with Patch 13.08 on October 13. Map pool changes from 13.08, including Corrode and Bind returning, stay as they are.
- Daylight saving time in the US ends on November 1, so any Tuesday patch after that will land an hour earlier on the clock in CT.
Who Is Hush?
Riot's official description reads: "Hailing from Guangdong province, Hush uses her telekinesis to close the most classified cases. Fighting with precision and finesse, she redirects her combat utility in midair to disrupt and displace the enemy team before suspending them helplessly for the killing blow."
She is a Duelist. What makes her different from most of the Duelist roster is that her utility is not just a self buff or an escape. Two of her four abilities are throwables that you can steer after release, and her ultimate is a team wide crowd control tool. On paper she sits somewhere between an entry Duelist and an Initiator, which is exactly the kind of agent that tends to look messy for the first week and then suddenly shows up everywhere once people figure out the lineups.
Hush's Abilities Explained
Here is her full kit as written in the 13.09 notes, with what each piece actually does in a round.
Riot's patch notes do not list credit costs, charges, cooldowns or the ultimate point cost for Hush. Those numbers are visible in the in-game Agent tab and the new tooltips, so check them in the Range before you rely on anything you read on social media this week.
Telekinesis: small passive, real value
Picking up a gun from further away sounds minor until you play a few rounds with it. On attack, Hush can grab a dropped Spike without walking her whole body onto a contested spot. After a won duel she can loot the dead player's rifle from a safer angle. And on maps with interactable switches, she can trigger them from further back. Riot's notes specify the Spike pickup only applies when she is on the attacking side, so do not expect to defuse from range.
Displacement: the signature that makes her a Duelist
Displacement is the ability most people will build around. It is a grenade that pulls every player in its radius toward the center. If a pulled player slams into a wall, a box or another player, they get concussed. That last part matters: two defenders stacked on a site corner are the dream target, because pulling them together means they collide and both get concussed.
The redirect is the real skill check. You can throw it normally, or use alt fire to prepare it, and then reactivate to send it toward wherever your crosshair is pointing. That lets you throw it high over a wall and then bend it into a corner the enemy thought was safe. Since it resets every two kills, a Hush who wins her entry fight will often get a second Displacement in the same round, which is a strong incentive to actually take the first duel.
Flashbulb: a flash you can steer
Flashbulb uses the same throw, prepare and redirect pattern. It explodes on contact with a surface or after a delay and flashes everyone looking at it. The steering means you can throw it in one direction and bend it toward a different angle, which makes it much harder to read than a standard pop flash. Remember the wording in the notes: it flashes all players looking at it. Your teammates are not safe, so call it before you send it.
Flow: an anchor dash with a delay
Flow drops an anchor instantly at your position. After a delay, Hush is propelled back toward it. If she uses it while airborne, she briefly levitates in place first. The obvious use is the peek and return: set the anchor behind cover, swing wide to take a fight, and get yanked back to safety. The delay is the catch. If the fight goes long, you get pulled back whether you like it or not, so timing it with your peek matters more than raw aim.
Suspension: a steerable team lift
Her ultimate is sent forward and steered with your crosshair, then detonated by reactivating or pressing fire again. Every player in the blast is levitated. Floating players are easy targets, which is why Riot's description talks about "suspending them helplessly for the killing blow." The steering means you can guide it around corners into a site anchor or a stacked retake. On paper this is a retake and post plant monster, much like other area denial ultimates, but we will need a week of ranked data to see how long the levitation lasts and how easy it is to dodge.
How to Unlock Hush for Free
Riot's Progression Update FAQ and Kingdom Credits FAQ lay out the rules for new agents:
- New Agent Recruitment Event: it starts automatically when the agent launches. You do not need to activate anything.
- The target: earn 200,000 XP within 28 days by playing VALORANT. Daily Rewards and weekly progress count toward it.
- Kingdom Credits: you keep earning KC while you play, but you cannot spend KC or Agent Unlock Tokens on the new agent during the event.
- VP: you can still unlock her instantly with VALORANT Points. New agents have been priced at 1,000 VP, but check the store price shown in your client.
- If you miss the XP goal: Hush moves to the Agent Store afterward, where you can unlock her with KC, VP or an Agent Unlock Token.
Hush is also the first new agent since Agent Mastery replaced Agent Gear with Patch 13.06, so she launches with her own Act Levels, Lifetime Levels and reward track from day one. If you need a refresher on how that system works, our Patch 13.06 guide breaks it down.
Updated Tooltips, Haste and Snapshot
The second biggest change in 13.09 is not a buff or a nerf. Riot has rewritten every ability description in the game "for improved clarity and consistency." Passives have been added to more agents across Agent Select, the Agent Hub and ability tooltips, including passives that were never described in game before, such as Neon's Battery.
The tooltip itself has been redesigned to show baseline details like the agent, role and keybinds at a glance. Riot says tooltips now pop up at relevant moments, such as when you test a new agent in the Range. That is clearly aimed at Hush week, but it helps anyone trying a new agent.
Riot also added two official buff terms:
- Haste: the movement speed buff. This is separate from Combat Stim, which boosts fire rate, equip speed, reload speed and recovery speed. Separating them makes it clear when you get one, the other, or both.
- Snapshot: the still image silhouette reveal debuff from Cypher's Neural Theft and Spycam.
- Brimstone: Stim Beacon shows an applied Haste buff on affected players.
- Clove: Pick-me-up shows an applied Haste buff. The old timer bar was removed because the new Haste buff adds its own.
- Miks: Harmonize shows an applied Haste buff on affected players.
- Neon: shows Haste while using High Gear or Overdrive.
- Waylay: Convergent Paths has been renamed to Haste, since the effects were identical.
- Jett: her passive was removed from the Buy Menu to match other passives that cannot be bought.
Clove Changes
While auditing buffs, Riot says it found that Clove was out of line with similar abilities. Two changes:
- Pick-me-up: bonus movement speed reduced from 15% to 10%.
- Not Dead Yet: killing Clove after they cast Not Dead Yet now grants an ultimate point and a signature refresh point to the player who kills them.
Warden Buffs
The Warden, the 2,900 credit rifle added in Patch 13.06, gets its first real tuning pass. Riot says it wants to improve the Warden's "base versatility and handling to better fit its current 2900 pricing" and make it "more controllable and comfortable to learn." The changes:
- Pitch recoil smoothed out for the first few bullets.
- 2nd bullet error reduced from 0.25 to 0.2.
- 3rd bullet error reduced from 0.6 to 0.5.
Competitive Updates: Performance Score, Map Rating, Accolades
Patch 13.09 adds a few ranked quality of life changes:
- Performance Score and Hush: Riot says Hush is the first new agent since Performance Score launched, and "your scores on Hush may be a bit bumpy in the first few days" while Riot tunes what good utility use looks like. If your score looks oddly low after a good game on her, that is why.
- End of game screens: small improvements give more information about Performance Score. On PC only, hovering trades on the scoreboard now shows detail, and a new "learn more" screen explains what Performance Score is.
- Map Rating: your Act Best Match now has a bigger impact on your Map Rating each Act, to better highlight consistency and peaks.
- Accolades: the First Blood Accolade was showing up too often, so Riot raised the threshold. This does not change your historic count.
Bug Fixes Worth Knowing
The bug fix list is long. These are the ones most likely to affect your matches:
- Clove: Ruse ability map could be visible to enemies positioned below Clove. Fixed. Pick-me-up timer could stay on the HUD after use. Fixed.
- Cypher: Cyber Cage could change orientation on angled surfaces. Fixed.
- Gekko: Mosh Pit could damage destructible objects outside its area. Fixed.
- Raze: Boom Bot could keep tracking an enemy after they teleported. Fixed.
- Sova: Hunter's Fury could hit players positioned behind him. Fixed.
- Tejo: Special Delivery could persist into the next round and damage or concuss players after the round transition. Fixed. Guided Salvo could target the wrong spot or fail when a target moved out of range. Fixed.
- Information leaks: Chamber and Omen could briefly show up on the enemy minimap after teleporting. Abilities from Cypher, Vyse, Viper and Killjoy could be visible through barriers in the Buy Phase. Both fixed.
- Nearsighted: enemies outside the affected vision range could appear on the minimap while you were Nearsighted. Fixed.
- Ability maps: placing an ability with the ability map could consume multiple charges or place it in the wrong spot. Fixed.
How to Practice Hush Before You Queue
New agents are always chaotic in ranked for the first week, and Riot's own warning about Performance Score makes that more likely. A simple plan:
- Learn the redirect in the Range first. Throw Displacement and Flashbulb, then reactivate while looking at different angles. Get a feel for how far the throw travels before you bend it.
- Practice the prepare option. Alt fire to prepare lets you hold the throwable before release. Test how this changes the arc compared to a normal throw.
- Set Flow anchors before peeks. Drop the anchor behind cover, swing, and get used to the delay. Count it in your head until it becomes muscle memory.
- Play a few unrated games first. Unrated matches still earn XP toward the recruitment goal, and you will not tank your rank while learning ultimate timing.
- Call your flashes. Flashbulb hits anyone looking at it, including your team. A quick "flash left" saves a lot of tilt.
- Hunt stacked defenders with Displacement. The concuss triggers when pulled players hit a surface or each other, so corners with two defenders are the best targets.
Some players would rather skip the recruitment grind entirely and start Act 6 on an account that already has the full roster and a rank to match. If that is you, our VALORANT account value guide explains what actually drives a fair price, from rank to skins to unlocked agents.
What Patch 13.09 Means for the Meta
It is too early to call Hush overpowered or weak, and Riot has not shown her cooldowns in the notes. What we can say is where she will likely fit:
- Entry fragger with control. Most Duelists bring a flash or a self buff. Hush brings a flash plus a grouping concuss, which is closer to what an Initiator offers. Teams may run her as a second initiator in a Duelist slot.
- Anti stack tool. Displacement punishes defenders who stand close together. Expect Bind and Corrode sites, which came back into rotation with 13.08, to see a lot of double stacks get broken.
- Retake ultimate. Suspension levitates everyone in the blast and can be steered around cover. On retakes against a planted Spike, that could be decisive.
- Clove gets weaker in two ways. The speed cut plus the Not Dead Yet refund for the killer make Clove a little less slippery and a little more rewarding to finish off.
- Warden gets a second look. With better follow up accuracy, more players will try it again on long angle maps.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did VALORANT Patch 13.09 come out?
Riot published the Patch 13.09 notes on Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 8:00 AM CT (13:00 UTC). Riot rolls patches out region by region, so the exact time the update hits your client can be a few hours later depending on where you play.
Who is Hush in VALORANT?
Hush is a new Duelist from Guangdong province in China. She uses telekinesis to pick up weapons and the Spike from range, steer her Displacement and Flashbulb grenades with her crosshair after throwing them, dash back to an anchor with Flow, and levitate enemies with her Suspension ultimate.
What are Hush's abilities?
Her passive is Telekinesis, which extends her pickup and interact range. Displacement is her signature, a steerable grenade that pulls players to its center and concusses anyone who hits a surface or another player, and it resets every two kills. Flashbulb is a steerable flash. Flow sets an anchor and propels her back to it after a delay. Suspension is her ultimate, a steerable blast that levitates everyone it catches.
How do I unlock Hush for free?
The New Agent Recruitment Event starts automatically. Earn 200,000 XP within 28 days by playing VALORANT, with Daily Rewards and weekly progress counting toward the goal. If you finish, Hush unlocks for free. You can also unlock her instantly with VALORANT Points.
Can I use Kingdom Credits to unlock Hush?
Not during the recruitment event. Riot's FAQ says you cannot spend Kingdom Credits or Agent Unlock Tokens on a new agent while the event runs. If you miss the XP goal, Hush moves to the Agent Store and can then be unlocked with Kingdom Credits, VP or an Agent Unlock Token.
What changed for the Warden in Patch 13.09?
Riot smoothed out the pitch recoil on the first few bullets and reduced bullet error on follow up shots. Second bullet error went from 0.25 to 0.2, and third bullet error went from 0.6 to 0.5. The price stays at 2,900 credits.
Was Clove nerfed in Patch 13.09?
Yes. Pick-me-up bonus movement speed dropped from 15% to 10%. In addition, killing Clove after they cast Not Dead Yet now gives the killer an ultimate point and a signature refresh point.
What are Haste and Snapshot in VALORANT?
They are new official buff terms added in 13.09. Haste is the movement speed buff, separate from Combat Stim, which boosts fire rate, equip, reload and recovery speed. Snapshot is the still image silhouette reveal debuff from Cypher's Neural Theft and Spycam.
Why is my Performance Score low on Hush?
Riot says Hush is the first new agent since Performance Score launched, and scores on her may be a bit bumpy for the first few days while Riot tunes what good utility use looks like on her kit.
Final Thoughts
Patch 13.09 is a new agent patch first and a cleanup patch second. Hush brings something VALORANT has not had before: grenades you steer after they leave your hand, a concuss that rewards pulling enemies into each other, and an ultimate that lifts a whole site off the ground. Around her, Riot fixed the Warden's worst handling issue, toned down Clove, and made the game easier to read with clearer tooltips and buff names.
Start the recruitment grind today, spend twenty minutes in the Range learning the redirect, and call your flashes. The first week of a new Duelist is always messy, which is exactly when a little practice pays off the most.
Buy or sell Valorant accounts?
Browse available Valorant accounts from screened sellers.
