The Latest VALORANT Patch: Changes to Cypher’s Trapwire and Animal Companions
The newest PBE 7.09 patch in VALORANT introduces significant changes to select agents, including our beloved animal companions.
To enhance the effectiveness of Cypher’s Trapwire, the athletic abilities of Skye’s Trailblazer and Fade’s Prowlers have been upgraded to evade the wires.
So, how will this new trick benefit Cypher? And how will it affect Skye and Fade’s gameplay?
To understand the reason behind these changes for our beloved companions, it’s important to know the alterations Riot is making to Cypher’s Trapwire. Most of the changes in this patch revolve around enhancing the integrity and effectiveness of this ability, as stated in Riot developer Jo-Ellen Aragon’s Reddit post.
Trapwire, a trap device set up by Cypher to catch enemies between two walls, will now concuss caught targets in half the previous time, with just a 1.5-second delay between tripping the wire and becoming concussed.
The biggest change is that Trapwire now recharges itself. Even if it catches an enemy, unless the anchors of the wire are broken, it will reset to trap someone else.
The concept of breaking Cypher’s Trapwire by eliminating its anchors is crucial to understand the changes for both Skye and Fade’s dogs. Previously, Trailblazer and Prowlers were used to break Cypher’s Trapwire by intentionally getting caught in it.
When a dog is sent through the wire now, even if it is slowed and concussed, the wire will break, and subsequent passages won’t be caught. However, the wire can theoretically set up again if it was previously broken by a furry friend.
To balance this change, Trailblazers and Prowlers have been trained to avoid most Trapwires they encounter.
Skye’s Trailblazers now have an adjusted hitbox to go underneath mid-height or higher Trapwires. Fade’s Prowlers can go underneath head-height Trapwires and jump over Trapwires at agents’ feet.
It’s difficult to determine if this change is a buff or a nerf for Skye and Fade. While the Trapwire changes benefit Cypher, how the wire affects the dogs’ gameplay is debatable. For now, let’s call it a buff. Good boys deserve treats for learning new tricks!
VALORANT, patch 7.09, Cypher, Skye, Fade, Trapwire, animal companions, gameplay, changes, buffs, nerfs