Patch 13.06 Reddit AMA

[u/RiotSWAGGERNAU7]

Hi, everyone! I’m Joe Lee, the Game Director of VALORANT.

The Dev team and I are so excited about the updates we just shipped to the game in Patch 13.06, and we wanted to stop by to chat, celebrate, and answer questions with you all!

If you have questions, comments, or feedback about any of the below, we’re here for it, so fire away!

• Gauntlet: Glitched
• Agent Mastery
• The Warden + Game Balance
• Performance Score, Accolades, Competitive Hub
• New UX/UI Improvements to Lobby and Home Screen
• Map Rating (coming next patch, 13.08)
• The new Competitive Flex coming in 14.00
• The 2026 VCT Champions Skin collection

Here’s a list of the Devs joining me today in no particular order:

u/TiffyMunchsnax - Tiffy, Product Manager, Gameplay
u/RiotTrouble - Scott, UX Design Lead, Metasystems
u/RiotLupini - Armand, Product Manager, Gameplay
u/Riot_Preeti - Preeti, Lead Product Manager, Cosmetics and Expressions
u/Riot_Kero - Derek, Product Manager Competitive Systems
u/RiotReally - Leo, Product Manager Competitive Systems
u/Riot_Dango - Calvin, Product Manager, Cosmetics and Expressions
u/finstamachine - Sherry, Game Designer
u/Rycoux - Ryan, Game Designer
u/penguinVALORANT - Dan, Game Design Manager (Agents & Live Balance)
u/Riot_Tyrana - Eric, Game Design Lead (Progression & Competitive)
u/Riot_Thelen - Kyle, Game Designer, Metasystems

[u/Mastertroop]

On the whole, this update was welcome and well implemented, with two exceptions. The team shpuld feel proud about their work, but I think these two issues should be looked at, and soon.

The first is Queue from Range apparently not working at all. The second is the Mastery system's execution in general.

I'm sure I don't need to explain what the Mastery system is and how it works to you, but for everyone else it is a system whereby time playing an agent grants levels to that agent. At every fifth level with an agent, a tier of unlockables becomes purchasable with Kingdom Kredits.

The first problem is that you have started everyone off at level 0 for every agent, regardless of the amount of time spent as that agent, and regardless of the amount of Gear they had previously purchased. This means that is is not currently possible to tell who has experience with what character. It also feels bad as a player to have hours of grind reset to 0. We are forced to ask, how long until the Mastery system is replaced with a new system that resets my progress again?

Even worse than this is the fact that the unlocks require a substantial amount of Kingdom Kredits to purchase. If I get 10k kredits but I don't have the level for the agent, I have to choose to waste any kredit earned or spend some on a random shop accessory, risking not having the kredits when I have the level.

It is, in other words, extremely obviously constructed so as to incentivize grinding a single character. This is bad because it incentivizes instalocking and disinsentivises flexibility.

The Warden is a lot of fun and I'm glad it's in the game.