Initiator · Agent
Sova
Born from the eternal winter of Russia's tundra, Sova tracks, finds, and eliminates enemies with ruthless efficiency and precision. His custom bow and incredible scouting abilities ensure that even if you run, you cannot hide.
Sova is a Initiator. Sova's signature ability is Recon Bolt, and their ultimate is Hunter's Fury.
- Role
- Initiator
- Signature (E)
- Recon Bolt
- Ultimate (X)
- Hunter's Fury
- Released
- Closed beta, patch 0.50 (May 12, 2020)
What are Sova's abilities?
C 
Owl Drone
Basic abilityEQUIP a destructible Owl Drone. FIRE to take control. FIRE again to shoot a dart that repeatedly reveals enemies.
Q 
Shock Bolt
Basic abilityEQUIP a Shock Bolt. FIRE to shoot a bolt that explodes on any surface, dealing damage to all players. HOLD FIRE to increase the bolt’s velocity. ALT FIRE to add up to two bounces.
E 
Recon Bolt
Signature abilityEQUIP a destructible Recon Bolt. FIRE to shoot a bolt that repeatedly reveals nearby enemies in range and line of sight. HOLD FIRE to increase the bolt’s velocity. ALT FIRE to add up to two bounces.
X 
Hunter's Fury
Ultimate abilityEQUIP Hunter’s Fury. FIRE to shoot a zone that deals damage. Can be fired up to two more times. Enemies hit are revealed to Sova.
How has Sova changed in every patch?
All patch notes →Sova has been changed in 31 patches, from patch 0.50 to patch 12.05: 21 buffs, 22 nerfs and 24 bug fixes. Newest changes first.
- Bugfix Owl Drone: Fixed a bug where a floating gun may briefly appear when a suppression effect interrupts it
- Shock Bolt and Recon Bolt
- Fixed a bug where switching to melee after fully charging caused the lightning VFX to disappear for the rest of the game.
- Shock Bolt and Recon Bolt
- Nerf Recon Bolt: Cooldown increased from 40s → 60s
- BugfixNerf Owl Drone: Fixed audio issue where the “being watched” sonic feedback wouldn't trigger if the drone had line-of-sight to the player when the drone spawned.
- Adjustment Hunter's Fury: Visual effects around Hunter's Fury have been adjusted to resolve more quickly and take up less gameplay space
- Adjustment Recon Bolt: Increased volume of Recon Bolt’s projectile loop and improved how the arrow’s sound travels through the air to make it easier to track
- Adjustment Recon Bolt: Audio priority and attenuation adjusted so that you can more reliably hear the arrow when multiple audio cues are present
- Adjustment Recon Bolt: Audio tech updated to make it easier understand the trajectory of the arrow, point of impact, and reveal radius
- Added Owl Drone: Enemies now hear a light warning audio loop when they are spotted by Sova’s drone
- Added Owl Drone: Audio hit confirm feedback has been added when shooting the drone successfully
- Bugfix Fixed an issue where Sova’s arm and Drone overlapped each other in Agent Select.
- Bugfix Owl Drone: Fixed an issue where Sova would go into an incorrect idle animation pose in third person after exiting Owl Drone.
- Adjustment Gameplay logic around ability effects themed as explosions has been updated. Explosions should behave more consistently in how they deal damage.
- BugfixBuff Owl Drone: Fixed an issue causing kills with Shock Bolt to not be awarded while using Owl Drone
- Nerf Recon Bolt: Total number of scans reduced 3 → 2
- Adjustment Sova's cape dynamics were redone and smoothed out, while still maintaining a silhouette close to his body to not give away enemy position.
- Buff Hunter's Fury: Now damages map objects
- Adjustment Recon Bolt: Now correctly appears when playing with Bloom turned off.
- Adjustment Recon Bolt: Scanning VFX updated to be more visible as it travels through the world.
- Adjustment Recon Bolt: Model size increased to more accurately represent its hitbox.
- Buff Owl Drone: Now immune to all allied damage
- Buff Shock Bolt: Now deals damage to Fade's Prowler
- Buff Recon Bolt: Health increased 1 HP → 20 HP
- Buff Recon Bolt: Now immune to all allied damage
- Buff Hunter's Fury:
Now deals damage to:
- Chamber's Rendezvous
- Fade's Prowler
- Raze's Blast Pack
- Reyna's Leer
- BugfixBuff Shock Bolt: Fixed issue with the bolts not damaging enemy traps and other game objects other than players
- BugfixBuff Recon Bolt: Fixed a bug where revealed agents would sometimes briefly appear in an incorrect location on the minimap
- BugfixNerf Shock Bolt:
Fixed the trick shot VO line so that it only plays when he kills an enemy agent with 1-bounce or 2-bounce bolt
- The line will no longer play if it destroys any utility under these conditions
- BugfixNerf Shock Bolt:
Fixed the trick shot VO line so that it only plays when he kills an enemy agent with 1-bounce or 2-bounce bolt
- Nerf Owl Drone: Duration reduced 10s → 7s
- Nerf Owl Drone: Health reduced 125 → 100
- Nerf Owl Drone: Number of reveal pings reduced 3 → 2
- Nerf Owl Drone:
Initial delay before first ping reveals increased 1.2s → 1.6s
- Delay between the first and second ping remains 1.2s
- Buff Owl Drone: Changed crosshair color to green to better stand out against the white HUD
- Buff Owl Drone: Removed delay on [Target Hit] confirmation text
- Buff Owl Drone: [Target Hit] confirmation text now remains on the player HUD when transitioning out of Owl Drone
- Adjustment Owl Drone: Duration that [Target Hit] confirmation text remains on screen increased 1s → 2s
- Adjustment Owl Drone: Adjusted audio on drone dart hits for both Sova and the player hit to make confirmations more noticeable
- BugfixBuff Owl Drone: Fixed a bug where the Dart Cooldown UI element would not properly update after tagging an opponent
- Nerf Shock Bolt:
Max Damage decreased 90 → 75
- Radial damage has been scaled in accordance with new max damage
- Added Hunter's Fury: Ammo count added to HUD
- BugfixBuff Recon Bolt: Fixed issue where the bolt could be destroyed by Brimstone's Orbital Strike even if it was well out of the laser's target area
- Buff Hunter's Fury:
Now deals damage to the following:
- Killjoy's Nanoswarm
- Cypher's Trapwire
- Sage's Barrier Orb
- Recon Bolt
- KAY/O's ZERO/point
- Buff Hunter's Fury:
Now deals damage to the following:
- Bugfix Recon Bolt: Fixed the projectile from looking deployed for enemies when flying through the air
- Nerf Owl Drone: Cost increased 300 → 400
- Nerf Shock Bolt: Cost increased 100 → 150
- Nerf Recon Bolt: Cooldown time increased 35 → 40
- Nerf Hunter's Fury: Ultimate points required increased 7 → 8
- BugfixNerf Hunter's Fury: Fixed a bug where cancelling Hunter's Fury while charging a shot allowed the player to skip the unequip animation by equipping a weapon, ability, or the Spike
- BugfixBuff Owl Drone:
Fixed a rare bug that could leave players unable to move or process inputs until they died when entering or returning from Owl Drone
- "We previously addressed some causes of this bug last patch, this fix should address the remaining known causes"
- BugfixBuff Owl Drone:
Fixed a rare bug that could leave players unable to move or process inputs until they died when entering or returning from Owl Drone
- BugfixNerf Fixed issue where Sova could sometimes get the voice over for Hunter's Fury to play, even though it isn't used, by trying to equip Owl Drone at the same time
- BugfixNerf Owl Drone: Fixed issue where Owl Drone could clip through specific map geo and view the other side
- BugfixBuff Owl Drone: Fixed a couple input bugs around possessing and unpossessing Owl Drone in the same frame which lead to locking all inputs or locking view direction
- BugfixNerf Owl Drone: Fixed issue where Sova's hitbox was incorrect while using Owl Drone
- Sova Model
- Updated the physics on Sova's cape so that it should wiggle outside his hitbox less frequently
- Polish work on Sova's 1P hands to bring them up to the fidelity bar of the rest of the agents
- Nerf Recon Bolt: No longer reveals Killjoy's Turrets
- Sova Model
- BugfixBuff Owl Drone: Fixed issue causing Owl Drone to rotate slower
- Bugfix Owl Drone: Fixed jittering when reaching the max flight height
- BugfixNerf Recon Bolt: Removed more locations where Recon Bolt was able to go through walls
- Adjustment Recon Bolt: Will now behave more consistently and only reveal the portion of enemies behind a wall
- BugfixBuff Recon Bolt: The Area-of-Effect indicators now only show up on the enemy's minimap if the player or their allies are close to the affected area
- Buff Reduced collision size on Shock Bolt Recon Bolt arrows so they don't get stuck on corners when fired near them
- Adjustment Owl Drone:
Now includes a layer of sound for engine rotors.
- Audio should better reflect thematics, while maintaining how noticeable the previous version of Owl Drone audio was for allies and enemies, as heard in 3rd-person
- BugfixNerf Owl Drone: Sova will no longer float in the air if the Sage Barrier Orb Barrier Orb wall he is standing on is destroyed while using Owl Drone
- BugfixNerf Owl Drone: No longer rapid-fires darts if the prior one hits an enemy
- BugfixNerf Recon Bolt: Fixed multiple spots where Recon Bolt could over-penetrate map geometry
- Buff Hunter's Fury: Added foe coloring
Patch change data adapted from Sova's update history on the VALORANT Wiki, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.
Valorant news and guides about Sova
Sova gear skins
Unlocked by completing Sova's Gear contract with Kingdom Credits.
Initiator
