The latest PBE 7.09 patch in VALORANT brings a few decisive changes to a select group of agents—including some of our favorite animal companions.
In an effort to increase the effectiveness of sentinel agent Cypher’s Trapwire, both Skye’s Trailblazer and Fade’s Prowlers will now have enhanced athletic abilities in order to avoid the wires.
So how will this new trick help Cypher out? What effect will this have on Skye and Fade’s playstyle?
In order to understand why our favorite companions are receiving these changes in the first place, it’s probably good to know what changes Riot is bringing to Cypher’s Trapwire. Most of the changes in this patch revolve around this singular ability in an attempt to add to its integrity and effectiveness, according to Riot developer Jo-Ellen Aragon’s Reddit post.
Trapwire, which is a small trap device Cypher can set up between two walls to catch enemies, will now concuss those caught in its line in half the amount of time it used to, with now just a 1.5-second delay between getting tripped by the wire and being concussed.
The other biggest change is that Trapwire now recharges itself, and even if it catches an enemy, unless the anchors of the wire are broken it will just set up to trap someone else again.
The concept of destroying a Trapwire by eliminating its anchors is a key part of this change to both Skye and Fade’s dogs. Previously, both Trailblazer and Prowlers have been used as an initial way of breaking Cypher’s Trapwire by getting caught in it—sometimes on purpose.
Once a dog is sent through, even if it is slowed and concussed from being caught in the wire, no one else who passes through the chokepoint will get caught since the wire will break. But now, that wire could theoretically set itself up again even if broken by a furious furry friend beforehand.
To balance this change we have the newly trained Trailblazers and Prowlers who will now be able to avoid most Trapwires when they encounter them.
Skye’s Trailblazers will now have an adjusted hitbox when interacting with Trapwire so that they go underneath any Trapwire placed at mid-height or higher. Fade’s Prowlers can now go underneath Trapwires placed at head height and over any Trapwires placed at agents’ feet.
It’s hard to quantify if this change is a buff or a nerf for Skye and Fade. While the Trapwire changes are certainly a buff to Cypher overall, how the wire interacts with the dogs is still up for debate, but for now, we’ll call it a buff. Good boys deserve a treat for learning new tricks!
