As a dedicated VALORANT player, I'm always eager to see how each new patch shapes the competitive landscape. Today, in 2026, looking back at the foundational updates like Patch 4.01, it's clear how Riot Games' commitment to player-driven social systems and precise weapon tuning has been a consistent philosophy. While the agents and maps have evolved dramatically, the core principles of giving players control over their experience and refining the "feel" of combat remain paramount. This early 2022 update was a prime example, focusing not on flashy new content, but on crucial quality-of-life improvements and balance adjustments that directly responded to community feedback.

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🛡️ Social Updates: Empowering Players Against Toxicity

The headline feature of Patch 4.01 was undoubtedly the introduction of the Muted Words List. This tool was added directly to the game's settings, allowing us, the players, to take a more active role in curating our chat experience. We could type in specific words or phrases—and creative variations of them—that we personally did not want to see appear in-game.

Riot was candid about the motivation: some players were cleverer than the automated detection systems, constantly finding new ways to bypass filters. The Muted Words List was a clever crowdsourcing solution. The idea was that by collecting the lists players created across different regions, Riot could analyze the data to identify new toxic patterns and significantly improve their own automated detection algorithms. It was a collaborative effort, summed up by their message: "Help us, help you. Let’s make VALORANT a better place for everyone!"

Key points about the system:

  • Player Control: You decided what you didn't want to see, personalizing your chat filter.

  • Variations Covered: It was designed to catch creative misspellings (e.g., R!ot, Ri0t) that standard filters might miss.

  • No Overreach: They humorously assured players that typing "League of Legends" would not get you banned. 😄

  • Data for Good: The aggregated, anonymized data was intended to make the global chat ecosystem healthier for everyone.

🔫 Weapon Updates: Sharpening the Arsenal

This patch delivered significant changes to two ends of the combat spectrum: the Ares machine gun and the humble melee knife.

Ares (Nerfed)

The Ares, often a potent force in eco or save rounds, received a noticeable nerf to bring it more in line with other options:

  • Price Increase: 1550 >>> 1600 credits.

  • Recoil: Pitch recoil was increased, making sustained fire less controllable.

  • Spread Adjustments: The spread pattern was altered. It now reached its maximum spread (1.0 to 0.7) after 13 bullets instead of 10, but the crouching benefit for spread and recoil was reduced from 40% to 25%. This made the weapon less reliable for long-range spam and reduced the effectiveness of crouch-spraying.

Melee (Buffed - "For real this time!")

The melee attack had long been notoriously finicky. Patch 4.01 aimed to make it a more reliable, albeit still risky, option.

  • Hitbox Expansion: Right-click (quick knife) hitboxes became 1.5x larger. Left-click (primary knife) hitboxes were made even larger than the new right-click and were given a slightly longer range.

  • Precision Maintained: Crucially, targets closer to the center of your attack would still be hit first. This meant you could still go for precise flicks if needed, but the margin for error was much more forgiving for general use.

  • Visual Feedback: A nice bonus: knifing walls now provided instant visual feedback on the client-side, making it feel more responsive and satisfying.

🐛 Bug Fixes & Performance

While less glamorous, these fixes are always critical for a smooth competitive experience.

  • Performance Charts: Fixed an issue where performance charts requiring NVIDIA Reflex were incorrectly displayed and could not be hidden. (Shout-out to TowerofShadow for the report!)

  • Esports Features: The patch notes indicated updates in this category, though specific details were often tailored for the competitive broadcast environment.

💭 My Take: A Foundation for the Future

Reflecting on Patch 4.01 from 2026, its impact is evident. The Muted Words List was a pioneering step in player-moderation collaboration, a concept that has only expanded in today's VALORANT with more advanced, AI-assisted comms monitoring and reward systems for positive play. The Ares nerf successfully shifted its role in the meta, preventing it from being a default buy, while the melee changes made those clutch knife rounds slightly less heart-attack-inducing. This patch wasn't about changing the game's face, but about improving its heart and reflexes—proving that sometimes, the most important updates are the ones that listen to the community and refine the fundamentals we interact with every single round.