Valorant is a team-based
first-person tactical hero shooter set in the near future. There are
automatic and
semi-automatic weapons that each have a unique shooting pattern that has to be controlled by the player to be able to shoot accurately. , the game offers 28 agents to choose from. Five agents are unlocked at account creation, with the rest unlocked using an in-game currency called Kingdom Credits. Kingdom Credits can be acquired by playing games or completing daily and weekly tasks, and can be spent on unlocking new agents or cosmetic items. However, within the first 28 days of release, new Agents can only be unlocked with Valorant Points (VP), Agent Recruitment Events, or by having a linked and active
Xbox Game Pass subscription. VP is an in-game currency that can only obtained by purchasing it with real money, and it can be spent on cosmetic items or new agents.
Unrated In the standard non-ranked mode, the match is played as best of 25, with the first team to win 13 rounds winning the match. The attacking team has a bomb-type device called the Spike. They must deliver and activate the Spike on one of the multiple specified locations (bomb sites). If the attacking team successfully protects the activated Spike for 45 seconds it detonates, destroying everything in a specific area, and they receive a point. A team gets only three chances to surrender: once in the first half, once in the pistol round of the second half, and once more in the second half.
Spike Rush In the Spike Rush mode, the match is played as best of 7 rounds, with the first team to win 4 rounds winning the match. Players begin the round with all abilities fully charged except their ultimate, which charges twice as fast as in standard games. All players on the attacking team carry a spike, but only one spike may be activated per round. Guns are randomized in every round and every player begins with the same gun. Ultimate point orbs in the standard game are present, as well as multiple different power-up orbs.
Swiftplay Swiftplay matches are simply a shortened version of the Unrated game mode. 10 players are split into 2 teams, attackers and defenders. Attackers must plant the spike while the Defenders must stop them. What differs Swiftplay to Unrated is that it is best of 9 rounds - the first team to win 5 rounds wins the match. On round 4, the team's players switch, as they would do in round 13 in the Unrated game mode. The game's currency system is different than Unrated, with players earning more credits earlier, allowing for more parity across the two teams. Swiftplay is meant as a quick game mode, averaging around 15 minutes per game, as opposed to around 40 minutes for Unrated.
Competitive Competitive matches are the same as unranked matches with the addition of a win-based ranking system that assigns a rank to each player after 5 games are played. Players are required to reach level 20 before playing this mode. In July 2020, Riot introduced a "win by two" condition for competitive matches, where instead of playing a single sudden death round at 12-12, teams will alternate playing rounds on attack and defense in overtime until a team claims victory by securing a two-match lead. Each overtime round gives players the same amount of money to purchase guns and abilities, as well as approximately half of their ultimate ability charge. After each group of two rounds, players may vote to end the game in a draw, requiring 6 players after the first set, 3 after the second, and thereafter only 1 player to agree to a draw. The competitive ranking system ranges from Iron to Radiant. Every rank except for Radiant has 3 tiers. Radiant is reserved for the top 500 players of a region, and both Immortal and Radiant have a number associated to their rank allowing players to have a metric in which they can compare how they rank up to others at their level.
Premier Premier is a 5v5 gamemode that allows players a path-to-pro competitive game mode that is aimed towards players that wish to be a professional player. Premier was first introduced in alpha testing in Brazil before being rolled out worldwide by 2024. Players will need to create a team of five to compete against other teams in divisions. Each season will last a few weeks and the top teams will be invited to compete in the Division Championship, with winning teams able to be promoted to their region's Challengers league and therefore be part of the VCT ecosystem. This gamemode includes a pick-and-ban system for maps unlike all the other gamemodes where the players have to play the map selected by the system.
Deathmatch The Deathmatch mode was introduced on August 5, 2020. 14 players enter a 9-minute
free-for-all match and the first person to reach 40 kills or the player who has the most kills when time is up wins the match. The players will spawn with a random agent, equipped with a max shield and an infinite supply of credits to buy any weapons from the buy menu. All abilities are disabled during the match, which indulges pure gunplay. Green health packs drop on every kill, which reset the player to maximum health, armor, and replenish the ammunition in each of their guns.
Team Deathmatch The Team Deathmatch gamemode was announced on June 15, 2023, and went live on June 27 with patch 7.0. This gamemode combines and borrows elements from the standard unrated mode as well as the regular deathmatch mode. It is a free-for-all gamemode where players are split into two teams with five players each. Each match lasts for 9 minutes and 30 seconds, and the first team that reaches 100 kills win. If neither team has reached 100 kills at the end of the 9.5 minutes, then the team with the most kills wins. Each match is split into four stages, with the weapon selection becoming progressively more powerful as players advance through the stages. Players are respawned in a spawn room after being killed. where they will be able to select and adjust their weapons loadout if needed. Unlike the regular deathmatch mode, players need to select their agents before the match begins, as agent abilities are allowed in this gamemode. Players can charge their agents' ultimate abilities either by acquiring Ultimate Orbs spawned randomly throughout the map, or by getting kills. Their ultimate abilities will be available for use after their ult percentages reach 100%. Agents can also use their normal abilities multiple times, but they will have a cooldown between uses. Unlike all other gamemodes, this mode is not played on the standard maps, but rather on its own set of five maps that are specifically designed for team deathmatch: Piazza, District, Kasbah, Drift, and Glitch.
Escalation The Escalation gamemode was introduced on February 17, 2021 and is similar to the "gungame" concept found in
Counter-Strike and
Call of Duty: Black Ops, though it is team-based rather than free-for-all with 5 players on each team. The game will pick a random selection of 12 weapons to move through. As with other gungame versions, a team needs to get a certain number of kills to advance to the next weapon and the weapons get progressively worse as the team moves through them. There are two winning conditions, if one team successfully goes through all 12 levels, or if one team is on a higher level than the opposing team within 10 minutes. Just like Deathmatch, players spawn in as a random agent, unable to use abilities, as the gamemode is set for pure gun fights. Though, abilities like Sova's shock darts, Raze's boom bot, and rocket launcher, are abilities that everyone gets to use as a weapon. After a kill, green health packs drop, which replenishes the player's health, armor, and ammo to its maximum. The gamemode also has auto respawns on, respawning players in random locations around the map.
Replication The Replication gamemode went live on May 11, 2021. During the agent select, players vote on which agent they would want to play as. At the end of the time, or after everyone has voted, the game randomly selects one of the player's votes. The entire team will then play as that agent, even if one of the players has not unlocked that agent. It is a best of nine, with the players switching sides after the fourth round. Players can buy guns and shields with a pre-set number of credits. Abilities are pre-bought. Weapons and shields are reset every round. This gamemode was removed in patch 7.0.
Skirmish Skirmish was introduced on October 3, 2025, and is only available in custom mode.Players are placed in a choice of 3 small enclosed arenas with the options of 1v1 to 5v5. Abilities are automatically disabled but hosts have the option to enable. No economy system exists and players are able to set any loadout and change them between rounds. Round timers are unlimited and players are forced to eliminate the enemy team until no players on the opposing side are alive to win a round. The default score to win are 10 rounds.
Snowball Fight Snowball Fight was a limited-time gamemode that was released on December 15, 2020, and is only available during the Christmas season. It is a Team Deathmatch game mode, with 50 kills to win. The gamemode is played exclusively on the map Icebox. Abilities are not allowed to be used, and players spawn in as a random agent. The only weapon available is the snowball launcher, which is an instant kill, but slow, and uses a projectile-based arc. There is infinite ammo. Throughout the game a "portal" will spawn, delivering gifts, which each contain a random power up.
All Random, One Site All Random, One Site was introduced on January 6, 2026. It is a limited-time gamemode that involves a fast-paced 5v5 on a random choice of a small map pool, with barriers blocking off all bomb sites but one. The sole open bomb site is randomly chosen every round and are announced to players before the round begins. Players control a random agent every round. All players start off with 0% ultimate charge, with ultimate orbs placed around the map and granting 50% ultimate charge when captured. Kills grant 50% ultimate charge and killed players drop Ground Orbs containing their accumulated charge. No economy exists and players are free to set any loadout every round, though offerings are limited and escalate as the match progresses. ==Agents==