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VALORANT 13.00: the patch that kicks off Act 4
Released on June 23, 2026, Patch 13.00 opens V26 Act 4 and it's a big one: buffs to every Sentinel, shorter Initiator cooldowns, the Summit map in Competitive, the Retake mode, Bandit tuning and RR adjustments. Here's the full coverage, value by value. Source: the official Riot 13.00 release notes.
Agents: every change
Sentinels: all five buffed
Riot wants Sentinels to punish low-info 5-player site hits and be viable solo anchors again. All the values:
- Cypher — Trapwire: windup reduced from 0.9s to 0.7s
- Killjoy — Turret: rate of fire +50%; Nanoswarm: duration 4s → 5s; Alarmbot: movement speed +50%
- Veto — Interceptor: reclaim cooldown 30s → 20s; Crosscut: usable area 24m → 30m, arming time after placing 1.5s → 0.75s
- Sage — Healing Orb: self heal-over-time doubled, 50 → 100
- Deadlock — GravNet: cooldown 60s → 50s
Initiators: shorter cooldowns
- Sova, Fade, Skye, Breach and KAY/O: signature ability cooldown 60s → 50s
- Gekko: cooldown after reclaiming his buddies 20s → 15s
Omen and voice line updates
Enemy audio for Omen's Shrouded Step has been reworked: a teleport within your hearing range should now be clearly audible. Riot also adds Sage and Viper lines on Summit, Miks & Gekko and Jett & Phoenix conversations, and removes a batch of outdated lines across 19 agents (Killjoy, Jett, Reyna, Skye, Astra, Clove, Chamber, Neon, Deadlock, Vyse, Breach, Viper, Omen, Sova, Yoru, Fade, Iso, Tejo and Harbor).
Summit in Competitive and the new map pool
Summit, the thirteenth standard map, goes straight into the competitive rotation: a Radiant training academy nestled in the mountains of China, three lanes / two sites, with droppable walls that reshape the map mid-round. Launch event: for the first two weeks, RR losses on Summit are reduced by 50% while wins still pay out 100%. The perfect window to learn it risk-free.
- Summit and Sunset are IN the Competitive and Deathmatch queues
- Fracture and Pearl are OUT
- A Summit Only queue (Swiftplay format) is available for 7 days
Retake: the new 3v3 mode
Retake is the patch's limited-time mode: non-stop post-plant action, exactly the phase of the game that costs the most rounds in ranked.
- 3v3 on single sites, sides swap every round, first to 5 rounds wins
- The Spike auto-plants a few seconds into each round at a visible location, randomized from a curated pool of spots per site
- Rounds end on elimination, defuse or Spike detonation
- No economy: pick from two cards each round (weapons and armor, ability charges) with two randomized options that escalate round over round
- Sites from Ascent, Bind, Haven, Summit and Sunset — one random site per match
Ranked: RR and matchmaking adjustments
Riot is adjusting Ranked Rating calculations so you feel less stuck when you're consistently winning — and they're explicitly asking Immortal+ players for feedback. On PC, matchmaking now ensures the average rank of each team stays within one sub-tier: if your team averages Gold 2, the enemy team will too, far more often.
Weapons: Bandit tuning
- Recovery: 0.45 → 0.4
- Tap efficiency: 3 → 4
- Pitch recoil at max: 4 → 3
Client: the Inbox arrives
The client gets an Inbox that gathers non-urgent notifications: gift accepted/rejected updates, Premier promotions and playoff qualifications, RR refunds, reporter feedback and Act introduction messages. Known issue: the double RR refund notification (Inbox + popup) does not mean a double refund.
Premier: Stage V26A4
Stage V26A4 matches start on July 1. A Premier Score of at least 600 qualifies for Playoffs, played across two days: first round on August 15, finals on August 16. For Contender and Invite Division teams, qualification is still based on placement.
Notable bug fixes
- Two different VOs could play when winning the round and the game at the same time
- The pre-round commend VO could become directional for spectators after an ally's Ace or Clutch
- Incorrect bottom HUD color for Signature and Ultimate abilities after Side Swap or Overtime
- Harbor: the Reckoning debuff could linger briefly after the ability's VFX disappeared
- Killjoy: the Nanoswarm cast VO line would not play
- Viper: a batch of Viper's Pit fixes — crouching outside the Pit on Abyss without losing Smoke Integrity, spreading through Sage's Barrier Orb and Vyse's Shear, missing VFX in Replays, and smoke artifacts on Ascent, Abyss, Haven, Icebox and Split
How to turn this patch into elo
A big patch is a window: the meta shifts and whoever masters the changes first gets ahead. Pick up a buffed Sentinel, learn Summit during the two weeks of reduced RR losses, and use Retake to drill your post-plants. Want to speed things up? The ElevateBoost team offers VALORANT boosting and coaching to get you out of elo hell without grinding all night.
