“Broken” Viper trick gives Valorant agent a leg-up on new Pearl map

Valorant’s brand new map Pearl has just been released and players have already noticed some massive omissions in the map’s design. In particular, the way Viper’s utility can stick to some barriers on the map.

Valorant players have just started to bite their teeth into Pearl, the latest card to be introduced to the game. And although it’s only been out for a few days, players have already started to find issues with the card that can severely affect the fairness of games.

On Reddit, a user posted in-game footage of the new map and revealed a huge flaw with some of the buy phase barriers.

When thrown onto the barrier, Viper’s Poison Cloud will stick to the surface. If the barrier falls down at the start of a round, it will get stuck there even if no ledge is visible.

This allows players to throw the orb, retreat to a safe distance, and use it as a very refracted one-way smoke.

Players who noticed the bug have started revealing how much it helps them get kills. One Reddit user even stated that he “got so many free kills today as a one-way street.”

With the map itself joining the competing map pool next month, it’s only a matter of time before the devs fix it – especially now that this issue is overt and revealed by players.

The new Pearl map offers a brand new experience for Valorant players.

How are players reacting to Pearl?

When it was announced that Pearl would be brought in, Valorant players were divided. This is in large part due to Split being removed from the map pool due to its inclusion.

“I think it was a bad decision to remove Split,” said Ghost Gaming’s Marc-Andre “NiSMO” Tayar when asked about Riot’s decision.

“I actually think Split is one of those maps where you could play a lot of different agents and I think that makes the game more fun to watch.”

However, since launch, players have already begun to express more positive opinions about Pearl and look forward to seeing how the map fares ahead of its esports debut later in the year.

Pearl went live during Valorant Patch 5.0 and is currently queued playable only for Pearl. This gives players a chance to familiarize themselves with it over the next two weeks before then being thrown into the competitive map pool on July 12th – hopefully without that Viper cast.