Valorant Act 4 Season 2026 all changes sentinel buffs initiator cooldowns Summit map

Valorant Season 2026 Act 4 went live on June 23, 2026, and it brought one of the biggest single updates in recent memory. Sentinels across the board got buffed, initiator cooldowns were cut, the Bandit pistol got some love, and a brand-new map called Summit dropped straight into the competitive pool. On top of all that, there is a new 3v3 game mode, a matchmaking fix that should make ranked lobbies feel fairer, and a new client inbox.

* Turret: Automated weapon fire rate accelerated by a flat 50%.

* Nanoswarm: Active environmental damage duration extended from 4s to 5s.

* Alarmbot: Aggressive search-and-detonate movement velocity increased by 50%.

* Sage: Self-heal capability on her Healing Orb vaulted from 50 HP straight to 100 HP.

* Cypher: Trapwire deployment wind-up setup animation time reduced from 0.9s to 0.7s.

* Veto: Interceptor reclaim cooldown lowered from 30s to 20s. Crosscut teleport radius extended from 24m to 30m, while arming delays are cut to 0.75s.

* Deadlock: GravNet barrier utility cooldown shorn from 60s down to 50s.

* Signature Skills: Sova, Fade, Skye, Breach, and KAY/O signature utility timers dropped from 60s to 50s.

* Gekko: Globule pick-up cooldown lowered to 15s. Tejo retains standard base timers.

The Bandit Pistol

* Recovery Speed: Snaps back to centered crosshair accuracy quicker, shifting from 0.45s to 0.40s.

* Precision Handling: Tap efficiency values increased to 34, while maximum pitch recoil is capped down to 4.

* Traditional 3-lane, 2-site layout set in a Chinese Radiant training academy.

* Features three droppable walls across A, B, and Mid that permanently cut off sightlines for the round.

* Competitive Buff: Ranked Matchmaking losses on Summit incur a 50% RR reduction for the first 14 days.

* Entering Pools: Summit and Sunset are forcefully injected into Active Competitive and Deathmatch loops.

* Exiting Pools: Fracture and Pearl are completely rotated out of active service.

* Fast-paced tactical limited-time mode focused entirely on pre-planted Spike scenarios.

* Eliminates standard buy phases; players select escalating randomized loadout cards each round.

* Lobby Balance: Forces PC queue average ranks to settle tightly within one sub-tier of each other.

* In-Game Feed: Adds a persistent Client Inbox to track player gifts, Premier dates, and report reviews.

If you play Killjoy, Sage, Cypher, Deadlock, or any initiator, your kit got meaningfully stronger today. If you grind ranked on PC, the lobby balance change alone is worth reading. And if you have been avoiding the Bandit because it felt inconsistent, Riot just addressed that directly.

Below is every confirmed change from the official Riot patch notes, broken down by how much it actually matters in your games.

Sentinel Mains, Your Act Is Finally Here

Riot was clear about the design intent behind these changes. Attackers have been able to five-man rush sites and punish passive sentinels too easily. The new numbers are built to reward players who anchor sites and to make entry onto a held site more costly for opponents.

Killjoy Got Three Buffs at Once

Killjoy’s turret now fires 50% faster, which sounds like a quality-of-life number but translates directly into more damage dealt before enemies can destroy it or dodge out. Her Nanoswarm duration went from 4 seconds to 5 seconds, giving her one extra second to either secure a kill or burn health off anyone running through. Her Alarmbot also moves 50% faster, so players who knew the old bot speed and would casually walk past it now need to recalculate.

These three changes together bring Killjoy noticeably closer to a genuine site-denial threat instead of a stall tool. Expect her pick rate to climb fast in mid-to-high ranked lobbies.

Sage Can Now Fully Heal Herself

Sage’s self-heal was sitting at 50 HP for a very long time. In the new act, it is now 100 HP, confirmed in the official Riot notes. This is not a small quality-of-life bump. This is Sage being able to go from half health to full health mid-round on her own. In late-round 1v1 or 1v2 scenarios, that extra survivability can decide the round entirely.

The self-heal has a cast time and makes noise, so opponents who know the cooldown can counter-time it. But the net effect is that Sage anchoring a site now has a second life she did not have before.

Cypher Is Faster at Locking Down Sites

Cypher’s Trapwire wind-up time dropped from 0.9 seconds to 0.7 seconds. On paper that seems minor. In practice, that 0.2-second reduction matters most in post-plant and retake scenarios where Cypher has very little time to re-place wires. He now punishes fast rotators and late-entry attackers a little more reliably.

Veto Got a Range Increase and a Faster Teleport

Veto’s Interceptor reclaim cooldown dropped from 30 seconds to 20 seconds. The bigger change is his Crosscut teleport utility, which now covers 30 meters instead of 24, and the arming time after placement dropped from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds. That arming time cut means Veto can place the Crosscut and use it almost twice as quickly, opening up faster flanks and more responsive repositioning in live firefights.

Deadlock Cooldown Now Matches Initiators

Deadlock’s GravNet cooldown was 60 seconds. It is now 50 seconds, bringing her in line with the initiator signature cooldowns that were also adjusted in this act. She can now cycle her signature ability at the same pace as Sova, Fade, and Skye, which helps in drawn-out rounds where cooldown management decides duels.

Every Initiator That Got a Cooldown Cut

Riot reduced signature ability cooldowns for Sova, Fade, Skye, Breach, and KAY/O, all going from 60 seconds to 50 seconds. The goal is to give those players more strategic options in late rounds when cooldowns are typically the deciding factor. A 10-second reduction sounds small, but across a 90-second round with one ability cycle available, getting that recon dart or flash back 10 seconds earlier can swing a duel.

Gekko got a separate adjustment. The cooldown after reclaiming his buddies (Mosh, Wingman, and Dizzy) dropped from 20 seconds to 15 seconds. Gekko players who lean into the reclaim mechanic will feel this immediately.

Tejo is the one initiator who did not get a cooldown change on his Salvo. He stays as-is for now.

Omen’s Teleport Sound Got Reworked

This one is not a buff or a nerf, but it matters in close quarters. Riot reworked the audio on Omen’s Shrouded Step specifically to fix situations where enemies are within range of the teleport but cannot parse the sound clearly when a lot of other audio is happening at the same time. Short-range Omen teleports should now be easier to hear, especially in chaotic multi-ability rounds. If you play Omen, opponents near you will have an easier time hearing your close blinks. Plan around that.

The Bandit Pistol Is Actually Worth Using Now

The Bandit received three stat improvements in this act, all designed to make it feel more consistent without removing its identity as a precision pistol.

The recovery drop means the gun snaps back to center faster between shots. The tap efficiency increase means tapping fire is more rewarding. The reduced pitch recoil makes vertical kick at max easier to manage. Riot said the goal is to push the Bandit into a more competitive spot against the Ghost and Sheriff. For pistol-round economy, this could shift which pistol players are buying.

Summit Is in Competitive Right Now (and Losses Are Discounted)

Summit is Valorant’s 13th map. It is set inside a Radiant training academy in the mountains of China, with training halls and meditation gardens as the backdrop. The layout follows the standard three-lane, two-site structure, but with one mechanic that changes how rounds play out: three droppable walls spread across the map. Once a wall is triggered, it stays down for the rest of that round, permanently changing the sightlines and rotations available to both teams.

The map is available in Competitive right now, with one player-friendly caveat. For the first two weeks, RR losses on Summit are 50% reduced. Wins still pay out full RR. If you want to use that window to learn the map without bleeding rank, now is the time. A Summit-only Swiftplay queue is also running for the first seven days.

What Happened to the Old Map Pool

Fracture and Pearl are both out. Sunset and Summit are both in. The full active competitive pool now includes Summit, Sunset, Ascent, Bind, Haven, Split, and Lotus.

Retake: The New 3v3 Mode That Drops You Straight Into Post-Plant

Retake is the new limited-time mode shipping with Act 4. It is 3v3, and every round starts with the spike already planted. One team holds the defuse, the other team tries to retake and defuse before it detonates. First to five rounds wins, and teams swap roles every round.

There is no shop in Retake. Instead, at the start of each round, both teams pick from two randomized cards that determine their weapons, armor, and ability charges. The card options escalate as the match progresses, so earlier rounds tend to play out with lighter loadouts.

Maps available at launch: Ascent, Bind, Haven, Summit, and Sunset. Each match picks one site at random. If you want fast-paced, post-plant focused practice without committing to a full match, this is a genuinely good mode for that.

Ranked Matchmaking Got Fairer on PC

Two matchmaking changes landed in this act, and the PC one is the more tangible of the two.

On PC, matchmaking now actively tries to ensure both teams’ average ranks fall within one sub-tier of each other. In practical terms: if your team averages Gold 2, the opposing team should also average somewhere in Gold most of the time. This should reduce the frequency of lobbies where one team runs higher-average ranks against a clearly lower-average team.

The RR and MMR system also got an adjustment aimed at players who consistently win but feel stuck. Win streaks should now accelerate rank progression, particularly at Immortal rank and above. The specific algorithm is not spelled out in detail, but the intent is to let consistent winners rise faster.

New Client Inbox: Notifications You Will Actually See

A new Inbox tab has been added to the Valorant client. It is a dedicated feed for non-urgent notifications that previously disappeared after being shown once. The inbox at launch handles:

• Gifting updates (when a sent gift is accepted or rejected)

• Premier match and playoff updates

• Radianite Point refund notifications

• Reporter feedback confirmations

• Act introduction messages

Riot confirmed the inbox will expand over future acts. Not the most exciting change in this update, but if you have missed gifting confirmations or refund alerts before, this solves that.

Voice Lines Added and Removed

New conversation voice lines were added between Miks and Gekko, and between Jett and Phoenix. Sage and Viper also received new interaction lines tied to the Summit map specifically.

On the removal side, Riot pulled voice lines from 19 agents: Killjoy, Jett, Reyna, Skye, Astra, Clove, Chamber, Neon, Deadlock, Vyse, Breach, Viper, Omen, Sova, Yoru, Fade, Iso, Tejo, and Harbor. The stated reason is that those lines no longer meet Riot’s quality standards for agent behavior.