Valorant 12.05 patch notes add Miks as new agent with massive Yoru, Skye, & Clove changes

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Valorant has received a new update, patch 12.05! It introduces a new agent named Miks, a brand-new game mode called Knockout, and a variety of adjustments to existing characters and abilities. Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to know about the changes.

Valorant had a major year, celebrating its fifth anniversary with significant updates. Riot Games upgraded the game’s engine and redesigned many of its playable characters, known as agents.

As 2026 begins and we approach the sixth anniversary of the game, Riot Games has released several updates. These include a new pistol called the Bandit, as well as adjustments – both improvements and reductions in power – to various agents.

Alright gamers, get hyped! The new 12.05 update just dropped, kicking off Season 2026 Act 2. We’re getting a brand new Agent – Miks, Agent 30 – and they’re tweaking a few things. Yoru’s getting hit with a nerf, and they’ve made some changes to Clove and Skye too. But the biggest news for me? A totally new game mode called Knockout! I can’t wait to jump in and check it out.

Miks joins Valorant in 12.05

Patch 12.05’s biggest update is the introduction of Miks, a completely new Controller character.

Miks, a new character, was revealed at the Valorant Masters Santiago championship event. His abilities – Harmonize, M-Pulse, Waveform, and Bassquake – all tie into a musical theme that’s central to his backstory and personality.

Harmonize (Q) 

  • EQUIP Harmonize. Target an ally and FIRE to activate a Combat Stim on yourself and the ally that refreshes with each kill. ALT-FIRE to grant Combat Stim to yourself.

M-pulse (C)

  • EQUIP M-pulse. ALT-FIRE to toggle between Concuss and Healing outputs. FIRE to throw the device. Upon landing, M-pulse sends out sound waves, either Concussing or Healing players.

Waveform (E)

  • PC: EQUIP a Map Targeter. FIRE to set locations. ALT-FIRE to spawn Smokes at selected locations.
  • Console: EQUIP a Map Targeter. ALT-FIRE to set locations. FIRE to spawn Smokes at selected locations.

Bassquake (X)

  • EQUIP Bassquake. FIRE to build up and unleash Sonic Radiance forward, knocking back, Deafening, and Slowing players.

Yoru, Skye & Clove buffs and nerfs

So, they’ve tweaked a few Agents in this update, and I’ve been testing them out. Yoru’s definitely different – his Gatecrash now lasts only 15 seconds, and his flashbang only recharges once per round. It feels like they’re trying to balance him a bit, making sure his aggressive plays aren’t too overwhelming.

Skye’s blinding flashes are now powered by a rechargeable system. After using a flash, there’s a 60-second wait before you can use it again, but you can potentially get several uses out of it during a longer round.

Clove’s abilities are being adjusted for balance. Her smoke screen will now last only six seconds, a reduction from its previous duration of fourteen seconds. Additionally, the area of effect for her Meddle ability is being reduced to four meters.

New Knockout limted-time game mode

Another major update in version 12.05 is the addition of Knockout. Similar to Miks, this new game mode first appeared during Valorant Masters in Santiago, and focuses on keeping up the pace with continuous action.

The map has a central dividing line, and the goal is to advance your team’s position by winning engagements. You can only bring teammates back to life if your team is winning the current fight. Think of it like a fast-paced game of Dodgeball, but with the added complexity of abilities and power-ups from Valorant.

The full patch notes for the 12.05 update can be found below.

Valorant 12.05 patch notes

ALL PLATFORMS

GENERAL UPDATES

With the 12.05 update, we’re prioritizing teamwork and making more Agents viable. We believe strong individual skills are important, especially in aiming and how you play, but the best strategies come from working as a team and combining Agent abilities.

These Agent updates aim to balance the game by slightly reducing the strength of a couple of overly powerful, self-sufficient Agents, specifically Clove and Yoru. We’re also introducing Miks, a new Agent designed to be the perfect teammate and support player – beyond just being a good ‘wingman’.

We’re improving the killfeed to clearly show who helped with kills and which Agents were involved. We’re also adding banners to let you know when you get an assist, and making it easier to target your allies with abilities like Sage’s Healing Orb and Skye’s Guiding Light. These changes are all about rewarding and encouraging teamwork.

AGENT UPDATES

Hailing from Croatia, Miks is a brand new Controller character who brings incredible energy to the game. He inspires his team to work together and control the pace of battle. Miks will be available in all regions starting at 10:00 AM PST on March 18th.

  • Abilities:

Harmonize

  • EQUIP Harmonize. Target an ally and FIRE to activate a Combat Stim on yourself and the ally that refreshes with each kill. ALT-FIRE to grant Combat Stim to yourself.

M-pulse

  • EQUIP M-pulse. ALT-FIRE to toggle between Concuss and Healing outputs. FIRE to throw the device. Upon landing, M-pulse sends out sound waves, either Concussing or Healing players.

Waveform

  • EQUIP a Map Targeter. FIRE to set locations. ALT-FIRE to spawn Smokes at selected locations.

Bassquake

  • EQUIP Bassquake. FIRE to build up and unleash Sonic Radiance forward, knocking back, Deafening, and Slowing players.
  • You can also learn more about Miks on his Agent page, as well as his gameplay trailer and Dev Diary on our YouTube channel.

Sage

Healing Orb – Ally Targeting

  • With the release of Miks, we have updated our Ally Targeting UI/UX and brought those updates to Sage. You’ll see a new widget above the targeted allies head, and an additional highlight around the agent’s model.

Crystal Model Update

  • We’ve added crystal growths to Sage’s model and key art to show the price she is paying for repeatedly pushing the limits of her power.

After adjusting how often initiators can use their abilities late last year, we began reconsidering Guiding Light’s recharge time. When it recharged every 45 seconds, players often used it at the start of each round simply to get a quick look at enemy positions, and we wanted the agent to use her abilities more thoughtfully. Increasing the recharge to 60 seconds made players think more carefully about when and how to use it.

Skye

Guiding Light

  • Added 60s Cooldown

Yoru is currently too powerful, limiting the usefulness of other Initiators and even some Sentinels, particularly in competitive play. His ability to quickly move around the map, aggressively claim space, and his strong flash make him stand out. We believe he’s becoming too dominant, reducing team composition variety. To address this, we’re making adjustments to his key abilities, Gatecrash and Blindside, so that using them requires more strategic decision-making and involves greater risk.

Yoru

Gatecrash

  • Duration beacon is active reduced 30s >> 15s

Blindside

  • Charges reduced from 2 >> 1.

Since its release, Clove has consistently been a popular choice in ranked matches and boasts a higher win rate than other agents. We’re hoping that by slightly adjusting Clove’s strength and introducing Miks, players will have more variety when choosing a Controller agent.

These changes specifically target Clove’s outsized ability to help their team win even after death.

Clove

Ruse

  • Smoke duration 14s >> 6s (when casted while dead)

Meddle

  • Area of effect reduced 6m >> 4m

Breach

  • Added new voice lines.

GAMEPLAY SYSTEMS UPDATES

Assist Banners

  • Assists have always been a huge part of winning rounds, but they’ve never gotten the recognition they deserve. Now they do!
  • When your utility or damage contributes to a teammate’s kill, you’ll see an assist banner on the bottom of your screen
  • The banner shows your specific contribution to the elimination and is accompanied by an audio cue

Killfeed Updates

  • Your team’s killfeed now displays the assisting player’s agent icon and the ability or damage that set up the kill
  • This info is visible to your team only

Status Effect Tags

As a player, I’m really liking the new update to status effects! It’s so much easier to keep track of everything now. They’ve made it way clearer to see what buffs and debuffs are active, and how long they’ll last. Plus, they’ve put all the buffs on the left side of the screen and debuffs on the right, which makes a huge difference when you’re in the middle of a fight. It’s just a much cleaner and more organized way to see what’s going on.

You can now see where players are aiming abilities like Clove’s Ruse, Brim’s Sky Smoke, and Tejo’s Guided Salvo during live matches. This information will also be visible when watching replays.

MAP UPDATES

Map Pool Updates

  • LOTUS and FRACTURE are IN the Competitive and Deathmatch queues.
  • ABYSS and CORRODE are OUT of Competitive and Deathmatch queues.

So, we’re pretty happy with how Lotus is playing overall. But we’ve been working on making all the maps a little less chaotic when the barriers drop, and that meant tweaking some walls on the A side. We noticed players were always using abilities right at the choke point leading to A-lobby when the barriers went down, and while we don’t want to eliminate that entirely, we moved the jump up to vines. Hopefully, that gives attackers a better shot at controlling the rubble area and makes for a fairer fight.

Lotus

  • Attacker lobby wall thickened to remove wall penetration off barrier drop.
  • Jump up to Vines moved to help attackers get out of Lobby and avoid utility dump.
  • Wall outside of Tree room has been reinforced to remove wall penetration.
  • Extra room added outside of A-site stairs to help hold A-site and let defenders play further back from rubble
  • A-site plant zone has changed so you canno longer plant for breakable/link

MODES UPDATES

New Limited Time Mode

Introducing

– Knockout,

  • Mode Details
  1. Resurrection System
  • Eliminating an enemy brings back a fallen teammate
  • Resurrection delay scales with round length, from near-instant early in the round to several seconds later on

2. Team Territories

  • A center-line barrier divides the map into team territories
  • Capture orbs to shift the line toward the enemy, expanding your territory and compressing theirs
  • Orbs also heal you and grant you an ultimate charge
  • Crossing into enemy territory applies a debuff, forcing the pushing team to coordinate their timing
  • “Threat Detected” notification alerts the enemy team when a player crosses into your territory
  • Crossing into enemy territory also obfuscates your minimap, reducing your ability to track enemy positions while in their territory

3. Loadouts

  • No economy – select your loadout each round
  • Weapon offerings escalate through stages as the match progresses

4. Round Structure

  • 5v5 on TDM maps
  • Rounds last 3 minutes
  • Overtime respawns and healing are disabled and damage over time forces a final fight
  • Eliminate all enemies to win the round
  • First team to 4 rounds wins the match

5. Agents & Abilities

  • Standard agent select with TDM ability recharge rates
  • Earn your ultimate with kills or orb captures
  • Ultimate charge resets on death and at the start of each round

6. Match Length

  • 8-15 minutes

Leaving Limited Time Modes

All Random One Site and Skirmish: 2v2 are heading out. Thanks for playing!

BUG FIXES

Agents

  • Fixed a bug where a floating gun may briefly appear when a suppression effect interrupts Gekko’s Thrash, Sova’s Owl Drone, or Astra’s Astral Form.
  • Fixed a bug where Veto’s Interceptor would detect a stealthed Cypher Spycam.
  • Fixed a bug where Harbor’s relic was not glowing when equipping Storm Surge in Left Handed Mode.
  • Fixed a bug where picking up a dead player’s weapon would cause you to auto-equip it when they were resurrected.
  • Fixed a bug where Brimstone’s Sky Smoke equip pose was displaying unintended VFX when viewed far away.
  • Fixed a bug where Deadlock’s Barrier Mesh could be used to float into the air by completely blocking the ziplines at Attacker spawn on Fracture

General

  • Fixed multiple localization issues on the End of Game (EOG) Scoreboard screen.
  • Fixed an issue where a friend’s most recent match was not always updating in the Career view.
  • Fixed an issue where the progression bar could overlap with the top tabs in the EOG Progression tab.
  • Fixed an issue where the focus highlight could be delayed on the EOG Timeline screen.

PC ONLY

PREMIER UPDATES

  • Welcome to Stage V26A2! Matches start on March 18.
  • This Stage will run for six weeks of matches instead of the usual seven.
  • Teams with a Premier Score of at least 500 qualify for Playoffs on April 26.
  • In Contender and Invite, qualification is still based on your placement – check out the standings page for more info
  • Your awards hub will temporarily display that you haven’t unlocked any rewards. This will be fixed in patch 12.06.

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

  • We’re adjusting the Ranked Rating thresholds to hit Immortal 2, 3 and Radiant to bring parity to leaderboard requirements across all of our regions.
  • We’re not adjusting any of the underlying MMR systems, so we expect the same players to show up on the leaderboard.
  • We made a QoL update to the new Rank summary screen that we implemented in patch 12.04.
  • You can now access the Social Panel and select Play Now directly from that screen.

BUG FIXES

  • Battlepass
  • Fixed a bug that caused the scroll wheel to not work when navigating between the tiers on the battlepass and/or event pass.

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2026-03-17 21:10