Valorant is currently in Season 2026 Act 6, or V26 Act 6 for short. It started on 13 October 2026 with patch 13.08 and brought Map Rating, a reworked Performance Score, a new map pool with Bind and Corrode, and a new agent, Hush, a Duelist announced for this act. Riot hasn’t announced in advance when Act 6 ends. Here’s how seasons and acts have worked since 2025 and what’s new in the current act. Status as of 20 October 2026.
How seasons and acts work
Since 2025, Valorant no longer uses Episodes, as Riot announced in the 10.00 patch notes. One year is one Season (Season 2025 is shortened to V25, Season 2026 to V26), split into six acts. The Competitive maps rotate every act, and Riot announces the next act’s pool shortly after the current one starts.
Season 2026 kicked off with patch 12.00, which Riot introduced with “Welcome to Season 2026”. How rank resets, placements and Act Rank work is covered in our Valorant ranks guide, so we won’t repeat it here.
Season 2026 acts according to patch notes
Riot announces the start of each act in the patch notes. These are the ones we know from Season 2026:
| Act | Started with patch | What it brought |
|---|---|---|
| start of Season 2026 | 12.00 | new V26 season |
| Act 4 | 13.00 | Summit map, temporary Retake mode, RR changes |
| Act 5 | 13.04 | Abyss in, Breeze out |
| Act 6 | 13.08 (13 October 2026) | Map Rating, Performance Score, Bind and Corrode in the pool, agent Hush |
The end date of Act 6 isn’t in the patch notes. We’ll add it once Riot publishes it.
What’s new in Act 6
Map Rating
Map Rating shows how your skill on a specific map changes over time. You get a number from 0 to 500 and a letter grade from C to S. It’s based on four stats: overall win rate, attacker win rate, defender win rate and Performance Score. Recent matches count more than older ones, so improving any of those stats raises your rating.
- You’ll see Map Rating in Agent Select, on the End of Game screen and in Career.
- Other players can’t see your Map Rating.
- It applies to Competitive and Premier.
- Everyone starts from zero, older matches don’t count.
If you play with a team, Map Rating is also handy in Valorant Premier, where each week is played on one map.
Performance Score changes
Performance Score replaced ACS in patch 13.06. In 13.08 Riot fine-tuned it: damage, Adjusted Kills and Adjusted Deaths now carry more weight, and those adjusted stats include First Bloods and First Deaths. Chamber got specific tweaks so his utility use is valued better.
New interface and Career
The client has a new Queue and Mode Select interface for matchmade and custom games. Career gained a navigation bar that gets you to Rank Legacy, Accolades and Map Rating faster.
The Act 6 map pool
Patch 13.08 added Bind and Corrode to the Competitive and Deathmatch queues, while Ascent and Split left. As of patch 13.08, the Competitive pool is:
- Abyss
- Bind
- Corrode
- Haven
- Lotus
- Summit
- Sunset
Map descriptions and how rotation works are covered in our Valorant maps guide.
Corrode changes
Corrode got a bigger update in 13.08:
- Defenders rotate faster to A and B thanks to adjusted paths from spawn.
- The Mid half wall is now metal and has moved by about 1 metre.
- The boxes in Lower Mid have moved closer to B and now have a jump-up.
- The plant zone on A has been adjusted.
The full breakdown is in our 13.08 patch notes article.
Hush: the new Duelist for Act 6
On 18 October 2026 Riot released the “RISE AND FALL” trailer for a new agent called Hush, which you can watch in Riot’s news. She’s a Duelist and, according to Riot, will be available in Season 26 Act 6. The exact release date and her abilities aren’t in the official sources we checked, so we’re not listing them. We’ll update this guide once she’s out.
How Duelists differ from the other roles and who to pick as a beginner is explained in our agents and roles guide. What VP costs and how the battle pass works is in our Valorant prices guide.
What the previous acts brought
Act 4 (patch 13.00) added Summit, a 5v5 Spike map set in China with falling walls. It came with the temporary Retake mode: 3v3, the spike is already planted, one team holds and the other retakes, over five rounds. Act 5 (patch 13.04) added Abyss to the pool and removed Breeze.
MFA for Competitive
Since patch 12.01, all Ascendant and higher players, plus EU accounts that Riot flags as shared, need multi-factor authentication (MFA) through the Riot Mobile app to play Competitive.
Bans in Act 5
In the 13.08 patch notes, Riot said it wants to share its penalty numbers more often and published the figures for the previous act. In Act 5’s detection period (18 August to 1 October 2026), bans of 3 days or longer went to 171,000+ cheaters, 54,000+ botters, 76,000+ players for rank manipulation, 74,000+ for toxicity, 288,000+ for repeated AFK and 14,000+ for streamsniping or instalock tools.
Join our Discord to find players to team up with in Act 6: GamersTogether Discord.
FAQ
Season 2026 Act 6 (V26 Act 6). It started on 13 October 2026 with patch 13.08.
Riot hasn’t published the end date in advance, and it isn’t in the 13.08 patch notes. We’ll add it here once it’s announced.
Abyss, Bind, Corrode, Haven, Lotus, Summit and Sunset. Bind and Corrode came in with patch 13.08, Ascent and Split went out.
Riot announced her as a new Duelist available in Season 26 Act 6. The exact release date isn’t in the official sources we checked yet.
No. Only you see it, in Agent Select, at the end of a match and in Career. It counts in Competitive and Premier.
Information verified on 20 October 2026. More guides are in our Valorant section.