Major Valorant Patch 13.06 Is Here: Competitive System Overhaul, New Weapon Warden, and Gauntlet: Glitched Mode

On September 22, Riot Games released the official Valorant patch notes for the upcoming Valorant 13.06 update. This Valorant new update will be one of the biggest in recent memory, bringing a wave of changes to the game, including a new mode, a new weapon, an ongoing fight against account boosting, and a wide range of bug fixes.

Cracking Down on Boosting

According to Riot, the recently rolled-out boosting detection system is already showing results against smurf accounts and boosters. The company is currently banning around 1,600 accounts per day, with the total number of banned accounts since July 20 reaching roughly 90,000. The Anticheat team also published a retrospective on how the new Antiboosting technology, powered by Vanguard, has been performing so far.

Home Screen and UI Redesign

Riot representatives also stated that with patch 13.06, the Home and Lobby screens in Valorant will be merged into a single hub, making it easier for players to pick a mode, assemble a squad, and queue up for matches.

Alongside this, the company revamped Global Navigation to make it easier to move between the game's major hubs and understand where you currently are, with active pages, secondary navigation, and back-button behavior now consistent across the entire game.

The game has also gained a new item indicator. Now, if you've earned new rewards in recent matches but haven't checked them out yet, your Collection will display indicators reminding you. These will disappear as soon as you view the content you've received.

Major Overhaul of the Competitive System

Most of this patch's changes are focused on the Valorant ranked experience.

One of the headline features of this patch is the long-requested ability to enter the training Range while already sitting in queue for a match. The developers shared a few important details about how this feature works:

• You can enter the Range from the lobby after starting matchmaking, or start matchmaking directly from inside the Range;
• If the system expects a short queue, the Range may not be available right away, but as soon as the wait stretches out, the option will become available again;
• In Premier, Deathmatch, and other modes without Agent Select, queueing from the Range is not supported.

The second major change is that Riot is finally retiring the familiar Average Combat Score (ACS) and replacing it with a new metric — Performance Score. This is a number from 0 to 500 that accounts for more than just damage and kills, offering a fuller picture of a player's contribution to a match. A detailed breakdown of what influenced the result, where you can improve, and how close you came to the top rating can be viewed on the End of Game screen.

Performance Score will be active in Competitive, Unrated, Swiftplay, and Premier modes, and it will now determine who earns MVP and how positions on the scoreboard are ranked. The company adds that it will be closely monitoring community feedback as it plans further adjustments to the system.

Another new addition in 13.06 is Accolades. These track a player's personal bests for the current Act and across their lifetime including things like MVP count or the highest number of kills in a Competitive match and cover a much wider set of stats than just what Performance Score measures.

Earned Accolades can be viewed on the End of Game screen or in more detail in the Competitive Hub. They're available only in Competitive and Premier modes, and tracking starts fresh with the launch of 13.06, meaning historical match data won't count.

This patch also introduces Rank Legacy, a sort of "trophy case" showing how many times a player has reached each rank over their entire competitive career. You can view it in the Competitive Hub under the Career tab. A given rank's counter can only increase once every three Acts (separately for Acts I–III and IV–VI), while demoting into a rank doesn't affect it.

On top of that, Riot has redesigned the Career page itself, adding several new sections: the Career tab with top Agents, match history, and rank; the Competitive Hub with a summary of the current Act plus dedicated pages for Accolades and Rank Legacy; and individual pages for each of those systems. Friends will still be able to see the general Career and Competitive Hub overview, while the detailed pages will remain private.

The developers also announced this isn't the end of the changes: upcoming patches will bring Map Rating (13.08), Competitive Flex (14.00), and updates to the Radiant rank experience (14.00).

New Mode: Gauntlet: Glitched

Another major addition in patch 13.06 is the limited-time mode Gauntlet: Glitched, which Riot calls its most ambitious mode to date. Sixteen players form eight duos and face off against one another in rotating 2v2 battles. Losing a round costs your team health, and hitting zero means elimination — though eliminated teams don't have to wait for the rest to finish and can immediately queue for a new match. As the match progresses through stages, the weapons change and the cost of losing a round increases.

The mode's key feature is ability drafting. Between rounds, players pick from randomized ability options tied to different Agents, building their own unique loadout. You can add a new ability to your kit or invest in one you already have, upgrading it from Level 1 to Level 3, with rerolls and the option to craft into another slot available for chasing the combo you want.

A standout twist is that abilities upgraded to Level 2 have a rare, random chance to "glitch." Developers have only revealed a couple of examples so far, for instance, Raze's Boom Bot can be detonated at the player's own discretion, while Gekko's Wingman can grow significantly in size.

Battles will take place across four new arenas that reimagine familiar spaces from Valorant maps, stitched together by glitching seams meaning the scenery may look familiar, but a fresh approach will be needed. Winners of each duel head to the Winner's Circle above the arenas, where they can watch the remaining fights or simply enjoy the view until the match wraps up.

Alongside the launch of Gauntlet: Glitched, the game is saying goodbye to Retake, which is temporarily leaving the mode rotation.

Player Behavior Updates

Riot has expanded the reach of Riot Voice Evaluation (RVE), the technology responsible for evaluating in-game voice communication, which now better detects Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean. The company reminds players that if you encounter toxic behavior, you should report it through the "Voice Comms Abuse" category — these reports help identify and act on disruptive behavior while further improving the system.

New System: Agent Mastery

Riot is launching Agent Mastery, a system that gives players a new way to show their dedication to a specific Agent. If you play Clove, you level up Clove; if you play Sova, you level up Sova. Each Agent will have their own Act levels, Lifetime levels, Reward Track, and Agent ID, and all players start with zero progress across the board — the company wants everyone to begin this new journey on equal footing.

Progression here comes in two types, both powered by Mastery Points (MP):

• Act Levels track your progress with an Agent within the current Act and reset when a new Act begins;
• Lifetime Levels permanently track your progress with that Agent across all Acts.

Raising your Act Level simultaneously raises your Lifetime Level as well. You earn MP by playing matches in supported modes with a given Agent, with wins and strong performances granting bonus MP on top. That said, previous playtime and Agent progress won't carry over, meaning every player starts from zero.

Each Agent has 10 core Act levels. Reaching levels 4, 7, and 10 unlocks Portrait Accents, which upgrade the look of your Agent Portrait and showcase the time you've invested in that Agent across the current and previous Acts. Progress doesn't stop at level 10 either players can continue leveling an Agent through Overleveling for the rest of the Act.

Lifetime Levels unlock access to rewards on each Agent's individual Reward Track, where Riot is carrying over all rewards from the previous Agent Gear system and adding a number of new ones, unlockable with Kingdom Credits. Any gear players have already unlocked will remain in their possession. The game is also adding Agent ID, another way to showcase your investment in your favorite Agents, with components that are unlocked, customized, and equipped through that same Reward Track.

New Weapon: The Warden

An equally important addition in patch 13.06 is the new weapon, The Warden. This automatic rifle joins Vandal and Phantom in the 2900-credit price tier. It's the first genuine alternative to the game's two staple rifles in years, and the arrival of a third option in such a critical price bracket could have a serious impact on the meta.

Riot has stated outright that Warden was designed as a distinct tactical choice, built specifically for long-range engagements — so expect shifts in how teams approach weapon buys on more open maps.

Specifications:

• Weapon Class: Rifle
• Price: 2900 credits
• Projectile Type: Bullet
• Attachments: Scope, 2x magnification
• Magazine Size: 18 bullets
• Damage Per Bullet: 50 at all ranges, 200 headshot, 42 leg
• Fire Rate: 6.5
• Ammo Reserve: 36
• Reload Timing: 2.5
• Equip Timing: Normal - 1.0, Fast - 0.6, Instant - 0.2
• Wall Penetration: Medium

Bug Fixed

• Fixed an issue where an Agent’s Ultimate Ability Voiceover was being cutoff when casting a different ability immediately after.
• Fixed an issue where Agents with possessable abilities (Tejo, Sova, Gekko, Cypher, Skye) were not being flashed when they exited a possessable ability at the exact same time an enemy activated a flash.
• Fixed an issue with Cypher Trapwire where the trap would look active after Cypher was killed or suppressed at the exact moment the trap was reactivating.

The threshold shown for the ‘Masterful’ Accolade is incorrect and will be fixed next patch. This is purely a visual bug and doesn’t impact earning the Accolade.

Valorant Patch 13.06 Release Date

Patch 13.06 will roll out in Valorant on September 22–23. On the 22nd, the update will first become available for download in the NA, BR, and LATAM regions, followed by Europe and other regions the next day, on September 23.