VALORANT Patch 13.06: Is the New Warden Rifle Better Than the Vandal?

Riot called this one the biggest patch in years, and for once the marketing line holds up. VALORANT patch 13.06 went live on September 22, 2026. It brings a brand new 2,900-credit rifle, a scoring system that retires ACS, a 16-player limited-time mode and a full progression rework built around your Agents.

That is a lot to take in. So instead of reading every line of the official notes, here is what actually changes when you load in, and what matters most if you play ranked.

What’s new in VALORANT patch 13.06?

• The Warden: a new automatic rifle in the Vandal and Phantom price tier, with a 2x scope and flat 50 body damage.
• Performance Score: ACS is gone. A new 0 to 500 rating now decides MVP and scoreboard order.
• Range in queue: you can finally warm up while matchmaking runs.
• Accolades and Rank Legacy: personal bests and a lifetime rank “trophy case” in a rebuilt Career page.
• Agent Mastery: per-Agent levels, portrait upgrades and reward tracks, starting from zero for everyone.
• Gauntlet: Glitched: a 2v2 limited-time mode for eight duos with drafted, upgradable abilities.
• Client rework: Home and Lobby merge into one hub, plus a new End of Game screen.

Warden stats: how does the new rifle compare to the Vandal and Phantom?

The Warden first showed up in leaks earlier this month. Now it’s official, so let’s start with the numbers.

	Warden	Vandal	Phantom
Price	2,900	2,900	2,900
Magazine	18 (36 reserve)	25	30
Fire rate	6.5	9.75	11
Head damage	200	160	156 / 140 / 124
Body damage	50	40	39 / 35 / 31
Leg damage	42	34	33 / 29 / 26
Scope	2x	1.25x	1.25x
Wall penetration	Medium	Medium	Medium

Phantom damage drops at 15m and 30m. Warden and Vandal deal the same damage at all ranges.

Here is the interesting part. Against a full 150 HP target, the Warden needs three body shots. The Vandal needs four. Because the Warden fires slower, both guns land that kill in almost exactly the same time, roughly 0.31 seconds.

The Phantom is faster up close (about 0.27 seconds with four body shots). Past 30 meters, however, it needs five body shots and slows to around 0.36 seconds. At long range, then, the Warden out-trades the Phantom on body shots and matches the Vandal. It also hits harder on legs (four leg shots to kill, compared to five for the Vandal).

A headshot is a one-tap kill at any range, just like with the Vandal. So where’s the catch?

• Every miss hurts more. With 18 bullets and a slow fire rate, a whiffed shot costs you a big chunk of your kill window.
• Spraying is off the table. Only 54 bullets in total means the Warden punishes panic sprays and multi-kill fights in close quarters.
• Recoil is unknown. Riot did not publish recoil or movement accuracy, and that will decide whether the gun is a meta pick or a novelty.

Our early read: the Warden sits somewhere between the Guardian and the Vandal. Expect it on long sightlines and on players who prefer tapping to spraying. Retake-heavy close fights still belong to the Phantom.

Performance Score replaces ACS: what does it measure?

Average Combat Score is gone. In its place, VALORANT patch 13.06 introduces Performance Score, a number between 0 and 500 that tracks more than damage and kills.

• Where it applies: Competitive, Unrated, Swiftplay and Premier.
• What it decides: your MVP and your scoreboard position in those modes.
• Where to see it: the End of Game screen breaks down what moved your score and how close you came to a “Masterful” performance.

Riot has not shared the formula yet. Still, the direction is clear. ACS rewarded players who farmed damage, which usually meant duelists. If Performance Score weighs utility and round impact properly, controllers and sentinels might finally see their name at the top of the board.

One bug to know about: the threshold shown for the Masterful Accolade is wrong. It’s visual only and does not affect earning it, and Riot says the fix comes next patch.

Can you warm up in the Range while in queue?

Yes, and it’s probably the quality-of-life change most players will appreciate. You can start matchmaking and then jump into the Range, or queue up from inside the Range itself.

• Short queues: if Riot expects a quick match, the Range may not be available right away. It unlocks again if the wait drags on.
• Unsupported modes: Premier, Deathmatch and other modes without Agent Select can’t queue from the Range.
• Console bug: there is a known issue with mode selection when using Range in queue on console.

Accolades, Rank Legacy and the new Career page

Three new competitive features land together in VALORANT patch 13.06.

Accolades track standout stats, such as how many MVPs you earned this Act or your highest kill count in a Competitive game. Each one records your personal best for the current Act and for your lifetime. They only count in Competitive and Premier, and tracking starts now. Old match data does not count, so everyone begins fresh.

Rank Legacy works like a trophy case. It counts how many times you have reached each rank across your career. Each rank can raise its counter once every three Acts, and demoting into a rank does not count.

The Career page also got a redesign. It now shows your top Agents, match history and rank on one page, with a new Competitive Hub behind it for Accolades and Rank Legacy. Friends can still see your Career and the Hub overview. The dedicated Hub pages, on the other hand, are private to you.

How does Agent Mastery work in VALORANT?

Agent Mastery replaces the old Agent Gear system with per-Agent progression. When you play Clove, you level Clove. When you play Sova, you level Sova.

• Mastery Points (MP): you earn MP by playing matches on an Agent. Wins and strong games give bonus MP.
• Act Levels: each Agent has 10 Act Levels that reset every Act. Levels 4, 7 and 10 unlock Portrait Accents, and you can keep overleveling past 10.
• Lifetime Levels: these never reset. One Act Level equals one Lifetime Level, and Lifetime progress unlocks each Agent’s Reward Track.
• Rewards: you spend Kingdom Credits on what you want. Anything you already unlocked through Agent Gear stays yours.
• Agent IDs: a new customizable card you build from Reward Track components.

The controversial bit: everyone starts at zero. Your 2,000 hours on Jett don’t carry over. One-tricks will grumble, but it’s the fair call for a system meant to track investment going forward. For the details that surfaced before launch, see our first look at Agent Mastery.

Gauntlet: Glitched explained

Riot calls this its most ambitious mode yet, and the format backs that up. Sixteen players enter as eight duos. Every round, your duo faces another in a 2v2.

• Health system: losing a round costs your team health. Hit zero and you’re out, but you can requeue straight away instead of waiting for the match to end.
• Stages: weapons change as the match goes on, and losses cost more health in later stages.
• Ability Draft: between rounds you pick from random abilities across different Agents. You can add new ones or upgrade one you own from Level 1 to Level 3, and rerolls help you chase a combo.
• Glitches: at Level 2, abilities have a small random chance to go haywire. Riot teased a Raze Boom Bot you detonate yourself and a giant Gekko Wingman.
• Arenas: four new arenas stitch together pieces of familiar maps.
• Winner’s Circle: win your matchup and you wait above the arenas, where you can watch the other fights and shoot targets.

You can queue solo or with a friend. Meanwhile, Retake leaves the limited-time mode rotation.

Is VALORANT anti-boosting actually working?

The numbers say yes. Riot’s new boosting detection bans around 1,600 accounts per day, which has added up to more than 90,000 accounts since July 20. Last week, Riot also confirmed it had banned almost 300,000 accounts for boosting across League of Legends and VALORANT.

Riot’s own chart backs that up. It tracks the share of daily active ranked accounts flagged as secondary accounts, which are the smurfs and boosted accounts the system targets. In VALORANT’s one-to-three-player ranked queues, that share peaked at around 11% late in 2025. It has since fallen to roughly 8.5%, the lowest point on the chart. Five-stacks follow the same trend, dropping from a peak near 12% to about 9%.

On top of that, Riot Voice Evaluation now covers Spanish, Portuguese and Korean. We broke down what that means for trash talk and reporting in our Riot Voice Evaluation article.

Client changes: new Home, navigation and End of Game screen

The client looks different in VALORANT patch 13.06. Home and Lobby are now one hub, where your party stays front and center next to events, missions, the map pool and leaderboards. Global navigation also got a cleaner layout with more consistent back behavior.

In addition, new item indicators flag content in your Collection you haven’t seen yet. They vanish once you check your Collection or close the game.

Finally, the End of Game screen now shows performance, rewards, Mastery progress and Accolades in one place. It plays automatically, but you can skip ahead, dig into details or requeue at any point.

Console, bug fixes and known issues

• Console launch: VALORANT Console is now live in Australia and New Zealand.
• Ultimate voice lines: they no longer cut off when you cast another ability right after.
• Flashes: Agents exiting possessable abilities (Tejo, Sova, Gekko, Cypher, Skye) now get flashed correctly when an enemy flash lands at the same moment.
• Cypher Trapwire: traps no longer look active after Cypher dies or gets suppressed mid-reactivation.
• Flex peeking: the jiggle-peek-with-Flex bug is fixed. Riot actually fixed it in 13.02 and forgot to mention it.
• Known issue: after leaving the queue, you might not be able to enter the Range for a moment. A fix is coming.

What’s coming in patch 13.08 and 14.00?

Riot already confirmed the next steps. Patch 13.08 brings Map Rating and an update to the Mode Select screen. Patch 14.00 will add Competitive Flex and changes to the Radiant experience.

For the full list of changes, read the official VALORANT patch 13.06 notes from Riot.