VALORANT Patch 13.09 Agent Tier List: Hush, Clove, and Warden

Riot shipped Patch 13.09 on October 27, 2026 at 13:00 UTC, and it's a quieter patch than most season launches: one new agent, two targeted balance changes, and a stack of terminology and bug fixes. If you're building a loadout or deciding who to lock in this week, here's what actually moved and where we'd rank the field because of it.

The headline is Hush, VALORANT's newest Duelist and the ninth agent in that role. Riot first showed her off on October 18, 2026, in a cinematic trailer ahead of the VCT Champions 2026 grand final, and she went live with 13.09 itself. Her kit leans on telekinesis — pulling, flashing, and levitating anyone caught in range — and we break it down in full below.

Away from the new agent, the patch makes two specific changes. Clove loses some of the mobility that made Pick-me-up frustrating to punish, and killing Clove right after she casts Not Dead Yet now actively rewards the killer. The Warden, the 2,900-credit rifle, gets a straightforward accuracy buff. Riot also pulled Jett's passive off the pre-round Buy Menu entirely, and renamed several movement buffs to one shared term, "Haste" — a UI change with no numbers behind it.

01What Changed in Patch 13.09

The full list of balance-relevant changes, as written in Riot's own patch notes:

• Clove, Pick-me-up: bonus movement speed reduced from 15% to 10%.
• Clove, Not Dead Yet: killing Clove after she casts it now grants the killer an ultimate point and a signature ability refresh point.
• Jett: passive removed from the Buy Menu. Riot's notes describe this strictly as a removal from purchase, not a numeric change.
• Warden: pitch recoil smoothed out across the first few bullets; second-bullet error reduced from 0.25 to 0.2; third-bullet error reduced from 0.6 to 0.5.
• Brimstone, Miks, Neon, Waylay, Clove: buff naming unified under the term "Haste" — cosmetic only, no values changed.
• Competitive: the First Blood Accolade threshold was raised, and Act Best Match now has a larger impact on Map Rating.

No maps changed in 13.09, and Riot flagged that Performance Score may read as unstable on Hush for a while as her sample size builds up. The patch also enabled in-client Radianite Point purchases in Korea and fixed controller vibration on console for Miks' M-Pulse and Bassquake — neither affects ranked balance, but both are worth knowing if either applies to you.

02S-Tier: The Safest Locks on 13.09

Nothing in this patch touches the agents that have anchored comps for months, which is exactly why they're still the safest picks. This ranking is the desk's opinion, built from what each kit actually does and how this patch's changes ripple outward — not from any leaked win-rate chart, because Riot hasn't published one.

• Omen — still the cheapest, most flexible way to contest a smoke duel or reposition for an info play, and nothing in 13.09 touches controller tools.
• Sova — recon information scales with every patch that doesn't nerf his drone or Recon Bolt, and this one didn't.
• Killjoy — site-lockdown utility is untouched, and her kit doesn't interact with the Haste renaming at all since none of her tools grant a movement buff.
• Jett — the passive's removal from the Buy Menu reads as a presentation change rather than a power change (more on that below), and her dash-and-peek fundamentals are exactly as strong as they were in 13.08.

03A-Tier: Still Excellent, Slightly Behind

These picks remain genuinely strong; they just sit a notch below the agents above because their power is more map- or comp-dependent.

• Viper — map-dependent but close to unbeatable when her smoke and wall line up with a site's chokepoints.
• Raze — explosive space-creation that didn't need a buff to stay relevant, though she loses a little shine next to Jett's unchanged mobility.
• Cypher — information and trip control are as strong as ever, and the Act Best Match weighting change rewards consistent, low-variance agents like him in ranked play.
• Gekko — flexible initiator utility that reuses between rounds, which matters more now that 13.09 nudges Competitive toward rewarding your single best match.

04B-Tier: Clove Lands Here After the Nerf

Clove was a S-tier-adjacent pick largely because Pick-me-up let her escape fights she had no business surviving — down 15% of your max HP, then sprinting away at a 15% speed bonus while the enemy team second-guessed finishing the kill. That 15% has been trimmed to 10% in Patch 13.09, which sounds minor on paper but changes the math on every close-range duel she loses. Riot backed it up with a second change: get the finishing blow on a Clove who's already cast Not Dead Yet, and you now personally bank an ultimate point and a signature ability refresh. That's a direct incentive to chase the kill instead of letting Clove reset the engagement for free.

She's not unplayable — her kit still trades a controller slot for genuine duelist-adjacent aggression, which no other smoker in the game offers. But the two changes together mean Clove mains need to play the back-to-the-fight angle more carefully than before, and that's enough to drop her out of the top tier in our read.

05Hush: Where the New Duelist Fits, for Now

Hush's kit centers entirely on telekinesis. Her passive extends the range at which she can pick up dropped weapons, the Spike on attack, and interact with switches. Flow, her C ability, instantly plants an anchor; used in the air, she briefly levitates in place before being propelled toward it — a mobility tool that reads closer to a teleport than a dash. Flashbulb, her Q, explodes on contact with a surface or after a delay, flashing anyone looking at it when it goes off. Her signature, Displacement, works the same way but pulls every player toward its center on detonation and concusses anyone who collides with a surface or another player in the process — and it resets every two kills, rewarding exactly the kind of aggressive duelist play her role is built for. Her ultimate, Suspension, is prepared instantly and steered with the crosshair before detonating on demand, levitating every player caught in the blast.

Riot's official "RISE AND FALL" reveal trailer for Hush, first shown October 18, 2026 ahead of the VCT Champions 2026 grand final.

Here's the honest caveat: Riot's own patch notes don't list a single cooldown, charge count, or Creds cost for any of Hush's four abilities. That's unusual even for a fresh agent reveal, and it means every "is Hush good" take floating around this week — ours included — is really a kit-shape argument rather than a numbers argument. The pull-and-flash combo in Displacement and Flashbulb clearly wants to be played as an entry duo, and Flow gives her an escape or re-engage tool most duelists don't have. That's enough to make her worth testing seriously. It's not enough to slot her into S-tier with confidence yet, so we're leaving her unranked below rather than forcing a guess.

06The Warden's Buff Changes the Economy Picture

The Warden sits at 2,900 Creds — a bolt-action rifle built for rounds where you can't afford a Vandal or Phantom but still want one-tap potential at range. Patch 13.09 smooths its pitch recoil across the first few bullets and tightens its follow-up accuracy: second-bullet error drops from 0.25 to 0.2, and third-bullet error from 0.6 to 0.5. In practice, that means your second and third shots land closer to where your crosshair actually was, which is the exact problem that made the Warden feel unreliable as anything but a one-tap gun.

That buff matters most on force-buy and eco-adjacent rounds, where the Warden was already the budget pick for anyone willing to play patient angles instead of spraying. It doesn't change which agents you should play it on — any sentinel or controller holding an angle benefits — but it does make the gun a more honest alternative to a full rifle buy than it was in 13.08. If your team is forced into a half-buy after a lost pistol round, the Warden is now a more defensible pick than it's been since it was added to the arsenal, especially for the player holding the longest sightline on the map.

07How to Adjust Your Loadout for Patch 13.09

None of these changes demand a full comp rework, but a few habits are worth updating before your next ranked session.

How to Adjust Your Loadout for Patch 13.09

1. 1Clove's post-death movement speed bonus fell from 15% to 10%, so don't count on outrunning defenders after a timed Not Dead Yet anymore — rotate earlier instead.Before your next round
2. 2Killing a Clove who's already cast Not Dead Yet now hands you an ultimate point and a signature ability refresh, so finishing her off is worth the trade even under pressure.Mid-round
3. 3Second- and third-bullet error dropped (0.25 to 0.2, and 0.6 to 0.5) and pitch recoil is smoother on the first few shots, so two- and three-tap follow-ups land tighter than before.Practice range, 10 min
4. 4Her passive is off the Buy Menu entirely in 13.09. Riot hasn't said whether it's now automatic or gone outright, so don't bank credits on it until it's confirmed.Buy phase
5. 5Displacement and Suspension run on timers Riot hasn't published, so learn the rhythm of her kit in a low-stakes mode before taking her into ranked.One full match
6. 613.09 gives Act Best Match a bigger weight in Map Rating, so a single strong Competitive match now moves your rating further than before.Ongoing