Riot Games released Valorant's Patch 12.02 on February 3, 2026, bringing widespread buffs to Harbor and targeted nerfs to Reyna. The update also adds a new concussion interaction for certain agent deployables, UI improvements, player behavior tweaks, and bug fixes across PC and console.
It's the latest in a year of constant change for Valorant. Riot has added three new agents (Tejo, Waylay, and Veto), introduced new weapons, launched fresh maps, and pushed class-wide updates that touched every pre-existing agent's abilities, cooldowns, and prices. Patch 12.02 keeps that momentum going with direct attention to two of the most talked-about agents in the game right now.
Harbor Gets Buffed Across Every Ability
Harbor's been a problem child for a while. Riot reworked the Controller back in Patch 11.10, even giving him a brand-new ability, but the changes didn't stick the way the devs hoped. He's continued to fall behind other Controllers, and players have been vocal about it.
Riot acknowledged the gap in the 12.02 patch notes: "Harbor could use a little bit more power compared to other Controllers." The stated goal is to "increase the baseline power of his abilities as well as increase the amount of options Harbor has whether that is in Cove uptime, High Tide coverage, or Reckoning placement." They want players to "feel confident about the strategies Harbor can offer through his abilities."
Every single one of Harbor's abilities got touched in this patch. This isn't a light tune-up. It's a full pass designed to raise his floor and give him more tactical options across the board.
Cove
Cove got the most attention, with changes to its cooldown, duration, durability, and weapon handling:
- Cooldown decreased from 40s to 30s
- Smoke duration increased from 15s to 19.25s
- Shield health increased from 500 to 680
- Harbor now re-equips his gun faster after activating Cove
A shorter cooldown paired with a longer duration means Harbor can keep Cove active more often throughout a round. The health jump from 500 to 680 (a 36% increase) makes the shield much harder to break through with chip damage or coordinated fire.
The faster gun re-equip is a practical fix too. Harbor players can now defend themselves more quickly after deploying the ability, removing a frustration that made activating Cove feel punishing in close-range situations.
Storm Surge
- Storm Surge now plays audio in the world if enemies are hit
A simple quality-of-life change, but a useful one. Harbor and his teammates now get audio confirmation when Storm Surge connects with an opponent, making it easier to act on that information during fast-paced fights where visual cues alone might get lost.
High Tide
- Wall height increased from 6m to 8m
- Max wall length increased from 50m to 60m
The height bump (a 33% increase) closes off elevated angles that enemies could previously peek or shoot over. That was a real limitation of the ability before. The extra length from 50 to 60 meters lets Harbor cover wider areas of the map with a single cast, giving him more flexibility when cutting sightlines across open spaces or wrapping the wall around corners to isolate parts of a site.
Reckoning (Ultimate)
- Wave speed increased by 25%
- Harbor can now re-use the ultimate to stop it in place for 7 seconds
The Reckoning changes might be the biggest deal in this entire patch. A 25% speed increase makes the waves harder for enemies to outrun, which has been one of the go-to counterplays that limited the ultimate's effectiveness.
The new reactivation mechanic is the real game-changer, though. Harbor can now halt Reckoning at a specific position, locking it down for seven seconds of area denial. Before this, the ultimate just moved forward once activated, and Harbor had no say in where it stopped. Now he can choose when and where to park it, opening up plays like freezing the waves on a plant site during an execute or holding them in a chokepoint to block a retake. That kind of flexibility is a significant upgrade for an ultimate that often felt too committal.
Reyna Takes Hits Across Her Kit
Reyna sits at the opposite end of the balance conversation. Where Harbor needed help, Reyna's been too strong for too long.
Riot didn't sugarcoat it: "Reyna has been ever present and dominating pickrates in ranked for a long time." The changes are designed to "increase proactive requirements on Reyna after she gets a kill to encourage continued aggression." In short, Riot wants Reyna players pushing forward after kills instead of passively cashing in on her post-kill tools.
Soul Orbs (Passive)
- Duration in world decreased from 4s to 3s
Reyna now has a tighter window to activate Devour or Dismiss after a kill. One less second doesn't sound like much, but it cuts down on the time she has to wait for the perfect moment, forcing faster decisions.
Riot added a note here: the ability description had actually been listing the duration at 3 seconds while Soul Orbs were lasting 4 seconds in-game. So the behavior now matches the tooltip. Regardless of how you categorize it, the practical result is Reyna players have less time to work with after every elimination.
Devour
- Overheal from Devour is now temporary and lasts 10 seconds
- Healing during Empress remains permanent
This changes how Reyna carries advantages between fights. Before, overheal from Devour stuck around indefinitely. A Reyna who won her first duel could walk into the second with extra health that never decayed, which made her snowball potential especially strong.
Now that overheal fades after 10 seconds. She still heals to full, and the bonus health is still there for immediate follow-up fights, but sitting on it is no longer an option. During Empress, healing stays permanent, so Reyna's ultimate still feels like the power spike it's supposed to be. Outside of it, though, she can't bank overheal for later.
Empress (Ultimate)
- Ult points increased from 6 to 7
One extra orb to charge Empress doesn't sound dramatic, but it adds up over a full match. Fewer Empress rounds means fewer chances for Reyna to hit her peak state, where kills refresh abilities and healing becomes permanent. Combined with the Devour and Soul Orb changes, the overall direction is clear: Reyna has to earn her advantages more actively and can't rely on them lasting as long.
Deployables Can Now Be Concussed
A smaller change in 12.02 adds a new interaction for certain agent deployables. Three abilities can now be concussed:
- Gekko's Wingman
- Skye's Seekers
- Raze's Boom Bot
This gives players another option for dealing with incoming deployables beyond just shooting them down. The patch notes don't specify which concussion sources work or what the exact effects look like, so the full impact of this change will shake out as players test it in live games.
General and System Updates
Social Panel
Riot adjusted the appearance of the Social Panel. No specific details were given about what changed visually, so this is likely a cosmetic or layout refinement.
UI Damage Indicators
Damage indicators now show up for player-controlled objects that take hits. Riot listed Skye's Trailblazer and Tejo's Stealth Drone as examples. This gives players better feedback about when their controlled abilities are under fire, which helps with decisions about when to detonate, pull back, or commit.
Behavior Standing
Riot tweaked the Behavior Standing system to clean up what information shows and when. The specific callout: players won't see an XP/AP Denial under Active Interventions when leaving a Deathmatch anymore. The previous display was either misleading or unnecessarily alarming for players exiting a casual mode, and this adjustment makes the system's feedback more accurate.
Bug Fixes
Patch 12.02 ships with a long bug fix list covering cosmetics, gameplay systems, game modes, agent abilities, and spectator tools. Fixes are split across all platforms, PC-only, and console-only.
All Platforms
Cosmetics:
- Fixed a visual bug with the gold VFX trail on the Champions 2021 Karambit.
Gameplay Systems:
- Fixed misaligned player names in the Combat Report.
All Random One Site:
- Hot fixed a loadout reset bug that occurred during certain disconnect scenarios.
- Fixed certain Agents incorrectly dropping Ult Orbs.
- Fixed glass breaking audio playing in an out-of-bounds area on Ascent.
- Fixed text overrunning on the Next Random Agent UI in certain localizations.
PC Only
Agent Fixes:
- Ability HUDs were missing in replays for Brimstone, Clove, Omen, and Tejo. Fixed.
- Vyse's Shear was sometimes destroying Gekko's Thrash, Skye's Trailblazer, Sova's Owl Drone, and Tejo's Stealth Drone instead of pushing them aside. This was a notable gameplay bug, since Shear is supposed to displace these abilities, not destroy them. Fixed.
- Cypher's Spycam dart could hit players in unexpected locations when passing through the Bind teleporters. Fixed.
- Harbor's Reckoning VFX indicator lines weren't aligned with the actual hit box. Especially relevant given the Reckoning buffs in this same patch. Fixed.
- Harbor's Reckoning SFX would persist between rounds. Fixed.
- In Team Deathmatch, Clove's Pick-Me-Up overheal sometimes wouldn't give health when Clove had previously died with the buff active. Fixed.
- Tejo's Stealth Drone could ride on various projectiles, an unintended interaction that let the drone hitch rides on other abilities. Fixed.
Coach and Observer Fixes:
The spectator experience got four separate fixes, all related to the ability map UI:
- Tejo's Armageddon targeting cursor could escape the ability map UI boundaries. Fixed.
- Brimstone's Sky Smoke and Orbital Strike map UI wouldn't render when swapping to his perspective. Fixed.
- Equipping Omen's From The Shadows caused the ability map UI to linger into the next round. Fixed.
- Agents with an ability map UI would repeatedly play their equip animation when observers switched to their POV. Fixed.
All four fixes are relevant for competitive play and broadcast production, where clean spectator tools matter.
Console Only
- The ascender highlights on Split could become permanently visible if a player tried to use both ascenders at once. Fixed.
Looking Ahead
Patch 12.02 is another step in Riot's ongoing effort to keep Valorant's meta moving. Harbor's second round of buffs after his 11.10 rework shows Riot is willing to iterate until the Controller lands in a genuinely competitive spot. The scope of the changes (every ability touched, a new reactivation mechanic on his ultimate) points to a real commitment to making him work.
Reyna's nerfs, meanwhile, target her ranked dominance without gutting her identity as a kill-hungry Duelist. The changes tighten the windows she operates in: less time to grab Soul Orbs, temporary overheal instead of permanent, and a pricier ultimate. All of it pushes her toward a faster, more aggressive playstyle where coasting on passive advantages isn't as easy.
How much these changes actually shift pick rates and win rates is something only live play will answer. But Riot's direction is clear on both fronts.
