Valorant dev explains upcoming Viper Snakebite and Toxic Screen buffs

Valorant’s Lead Character Designer Ryan ‘Morello’ Scott gave us a brief preview of some upcoming buffs during a recent stream that will definitely be a big upgrade for all of the loyal Viper mains out there.

Viper is a Controller Agent, which means that she can control the battlefield with her array of chemical devices, allowing her to distribute her toxins all over the map in a variety of ways to get in the way of the enemy team.

But there’s obviously something missing from her poisonous set of abilities – or at least Riot feels that way – because during a Q&A session with viewers, Morello revealed both her Snakebite and Toxic Screen abilities would be seeing significant buffs “coming soon.”

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Snakebite, Viper’s Molotov-like ability, will soon be giving players that dare to tread through it an extra debuff called “fragile” that will increase the amount of damage agents take when affected.

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“[Snakebite] will apply a fragile effect that will last a very short time after you push out of it as well. Being shot during that time will make you take additional damage,” Morello explained. “Total damage for the Molotov itself will not be changed. But we’ll add this new debuff, which makes it very risky to push through.”

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Her Toxic Screen wall ability will also get a significant upgrade, after which it will be able to completely pass through any wall or obstacle in its path.

“We’re going to allow her wall to be shot through walls, so she can pierce it through the map and leave valves along the way,” the developer revealed. “Going to allow her a ton of new wall placements options, because that wall is crazy strong.”

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“There may need to be more after it but part of our ‘easing into balance’, we think this is a very critical buff and when that happens, we need to see how she lands afterwards because it’s a very substantial change,” Morello added, without revealing when these changes would be taking place, of course. “Between that and the snakebite buff providing fragile, I think she’ll be a lot more potent.”

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As we mentioned before, Morello obviously didn’t give any exact dates to when we might see these Viper buffs take effect, but if he’s already talking about them on stream then we probably don’t have too long to wait.

While we might not know exactly when this update will drop, it’s worth keeping an eye on because even if you don’t play a lot of Viper, chances are you’ll get someone in your games who does, especially after these buffs.