VALORANT Patch Notes 13.00: Sentinel Buffs, Summit Map, and Retake Mode

Season 2026 Act 4 is officially here, and Riot Games came out swinging with Patch 13.00. This update brings the new Summit map, a brand new Retake mode, significant Sentinel buffs, ranked progression improvements, and a handful of quality-of-life updates.

Whether you main a lockdown Sentinel or you just want to run around a fresh map, there’s something in here for you. Let’s break down everything that changed.

If you play Sentinels, this is your patch. The biggest gameplay changes in Patch 13.00 focus squarely on the Sentinel class. Riot believes Sentinels should be better at punishing attackers who ignore strategy and just throw repeated five-player site hits, so these changes aim to improve overall Sentinel power and their kill potential when anchoring a site alone.

Full Patch Notes 13.00

ALL PLATFORMS

AGENTS UPDATES

Sentinels serve an important role in the VALORANT tactical loop by punishing attackers who ignore macro strategy and instead opt for repeated, low information 5-player site hits. We believe VALORANT is best when strategy is mixed. These changes are aimed at improving overall Sentinel power so they can better serve their purpose in keeping disrespectful attackers honest, as well as improve their kill potential when anchoring sites alone.

• Cypher
  • Trapwire
    • Reduced windup from .9s to .7s.
• Killjoy
  • Turret
    • Rate of fire increased by 50%
  • Nanoswarm
    • Duration increased from 4s to 5s.
  • Alarmbot
    • Movement speed increased by 50%.
• Veto
  • Interceptor
    • Reclaim cooldown reduced from 30s to 20s.
  • Crosscut
    • Usable area increased from 24m to 30m.
    • Arming time after placing was reduced from 1.5s to .75s.
• Sage
  • Healing Orb
    • Self Heal-Over-Time has increased from 50 to 100.
• Deadlock
  • GravNet
    • Cooldown reduced from 60s to 50s.

While we’ve appreciated that gunplay is playing a bigger role in VALORANT rounds since Patch 11.08, we feel there is room to give Initiators more strategic agency by playing around their cooldowns in late-round scenarios. These changes aim to strike a balance between the old cooldowns and the changes from Patch 11.08 late last year.

• Initiator Cooldowns
  • The signature ability cooldown of Sova, Fade, Skye, Breach, KAY/0 have been reduced from 60s to 50s.
  • Gekko’s ability cooldowns after reclaiming his buddies has been reduced from 20s to 15s.

While the gameplay and thematic elements of Omen’s Shrouded Step generally align with our design intention, cases where Omen teleports past or behind enemies during chaotic VALORANT rounds undetected because they simply could not parse the audio violates our gameplay clarity standards. This change is small, but should make Omen’s more obvious casts of this ability easier to hear.

• Omen
  • Shrouded Step
    • We’ve updated enemy Omen Shrouded Step audio with the goal of improving clarity in situations where you are within range of the ability but are unable to hear it. 
• Agent VO Updates
  • We’re making small updates to various Agents voice lines and critical gameplay audio tells in order to reduce audio clutter and standardize Agent ability VO across our roster.
  • New Sage and Viper voice lines interactions for the new map, Summit.
  • New conversation lines between Miks & Gekko, and Jett & Phoenix.
  • We’re also using this opportunity to remove a handful of lines that no longer meet our quality standards as they relate to agent behavior. The affected Agents are Killjoy, Jett, Reyna, Skye, Astra, Clove, Chamber, Neon, Deadlock, Vyse, Breach, Viper, Omen, Sova, Yoru, Fade, Iso, Tejo and Harbor.

CLIENT UPDATES

• Inbox is now live in the VALORANT client, giving you one place to revisit curated, non-urgent notifications. You can see which messages are new or read, delete individual items to keep things tidy, and expect more notifications over time as we continue expanding Inbox.
  • At launch, the Inbox includes the following message types:
    • Gifting updates, so you’ll know when a gift you sent was accepted or rejected.
    • Premier updates for promotion, being up for promotion, and qualifying for playoffs.
    • RR refund notifications.
    • Reporter feedback notifications, including “thank you for the report” messages.
    • And Act Introduction messages, so you can revisit the current Act’s high-level info in-client.

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

• RR/MMR Adjustments
  • Now that the MMR changes we made earlier this year have had some time to settle, we’re adjusting our Ranked Rating (RR) calculations so you feel a little less stuck if you are consistently winning matches.
    • Let us know if the climb is feeling better, especially for our Immortal+ players!

MAP UPDATES

• NEW MAP: SUMMIT
  • A 5v5 Spike mode map set in a Radiant training academy nestled in the mountains of China. Battle through training halls and meditation gardens where droppable walls reshape the battlefield mid-round.
  • Summit features three lanes and two sites.
     
• Summit Launch Event
  • Summit will be available to play in Competitive queue starting today.
  • RR losses on Summit will be 50% reduced for the first two weeks. You will still receive 100% of the RR for any wins on Summit.
     
• Map Pool Updates
  • SUMMIT and SUNSET are IN the COMPETITIVE and DEATHMATCH queues.
  • FRACTURE and PEARL are OUT of the COMPETITIVE and DEATHMATCH queues.

MODES UPDATES

• New Limited Time Mode
  • Introducing RETAKE, a fast 3v3 Spike mode built around constant post-plant action. The Spike is already planted when the round begins; one team holds, the other coordinates the retake under a ticking timer. Hold the site, push the retake, and race to 5 rounds.
    • Mode Details
      • Round Structure
        • 3v3 on single sites
        • Sides swap every round. Planters defend the planted Spike, Retakers push to defuse
        • Rounds end on team elimination, defuse, or Spike detonation
        • First team to 5 rounds wins
      • Pre-Planted Spike
        • Auto-plants a few seconds into each round at a visible location on site
        • Plant positions are randomized from a curated pool of spots per site
      • Loadouts
        • No economy. Pick from two cards each round: weapons and armor, and ability charges
        • Each card offers two randomized options that escalate round over round
      • Maps
        • Available at launch: sites from Ascent, Bind, Haven, Summit, and Sunset
        • Each match is played on a single site selected at random
           
• NEW MAP QUEUE: SUMMIT
  • Summit Only queue will be available for 7 days.
  • Summit Only games will use the Swiftplay mode format.

WEAPONS UPDATES

Now that the Bandit has been out for a few months, we’re fairly happy with where it’s landed, but we see an opportunity to make the gun more reliable while still maintaining its position as a precision weapon to master. We want to keep the Bandit’s pricing and mechanical mastery in check relative to the Ghost and Sheriff and we think these changes put it in a more competitive spot.

• Bandit Tuning
  • Recovery from .45 >>> .4
  • Tap efficiency from 3 >>> 4
  • Pitch recoil at max down from 4 >>> 3

BUG FIXES

• General
  • Fixed a bug where two different VOs could play when a player wins the round and game.
  • Fixed a bug where if a player was spectating an ally who got an Ace or Clutch in the previous round, the pre-round commend VO could become directional for the spectator.
  • Fixed a bug where the bottom HUD color for Signature and Ultimate abilities would be an incorrect color after Side Swap or Overtime.
• Agents
  • Harbor
    • Fixed a bug where Harbor’s Reckoning debuff could linger briefly after the ability’s VFX disappeared.
  • Killjoy
    • Fixed a bug where Killjoy’s Nanoswarm cast VO line would not play.
  • Viper
    • Fixed a bug where Viper could crouch outside of Viper’s Pit on Abyss without losing Smoke Integrity.
    • Fixed a bug where Viper’s Pit could incorrectly spread through certain placements of Sage’s Barrier Orb and Vyse’s Shear, creating a divider inside the pit.
    • Fixed a bug where Viper’s Pit VFX could fail to appear in Replays after scrubbing the timeline and switching to Free Cam.
    • Fixed a bug where Viper’s Pit smoke could appear with artifacts or form incorrectly on Ascent, Abyss, Haven, Icebox, and Split.

KNOWN ISSUES

• General
  • In certain scenarios, it’s possible that players will be notified twice about RR refunds via Inbox and the Modal popup. Please note that this does not mean you are getting a double refund. 

PC ONLY

COMPETITIVE UPDATES

• We’ve made changes to our matchmaking to ensure the average rank of each team is within 1 sub-tier.
  • Basically, if your team’s average rank is Gold 2, the other team’s average rank will also be within Gold more often.

PREMIER UPDATES

• Welcome to Stage V26A4! Matches start on July 1.
  • Teams with a Premier Score of at least 600 qualify for Playoffs on August 16.
    • Make sure to check the schedule in client for match start times for your zone!
• For Contender and Invite Division teams:
  • Qualification is still based on your placement – check out the standings page for more info.
  • Playoffs will be played across two days! The first round of Playoffs will be on August 15. Teams that advance from the first round return on August 16 for the finals.

VALORANT Patch 13.00 Release Date

Patch 13.00 went live on June 23, 2026, kicking off Season 2026 Act 4. For Premier players, Stage V26A4 matches begin July 1, with teams needing a Premier Score of at least 600 to qualify for Playoffs, which run across August 15 and 16.

This is a content-heavy update that does a lot at once. The Sentinel buffs should shake up a meta that has leaned aggressive for a while, the Initiator cooldown changes give those agents room to breathe, and Summit plus Retake give everyone something new to sink their teeth into. If you’ve been waiting for a reason to jump back in, Act 4 is a strong place to start.

The post VALORANT Patch Notes 13.00: Sentinel Buffs, Summit Map, and Retake Mode appeared first on GameRiv.

View the full article