Replays, massive upgrades coming for VALORANT 5th Anniversary

VALORANT is nearing its 5th anniversary, and the devs are treating fans and players to a lot of updates to make the experience better! It also has a release date for the most important feature that all VALORANT players have been clamoring for: Replays.

If you have been around VALORANT communities, then you know that Replays have been, and are, a highly requested feature. This dev update marks the end of Riot Games breadcrumbing players about the replay system. They finally announced a release date for VALORANT. Even better news: the feature is also coming to console.

VALORANT's Replay System will be live for PC players on patch 11.06 sometime in mid-September. Console players will have to wait a little bit longer as their replay system will be added later in the year.

Players will first be able to use the replay system on their recent Competitive games. Riot says they will be "looking into other modes as we go."

There's more than just the Replay System coming to the game.

First, we have an engine upgrade as the entirety of VALORANT moves to Unreal Engine 5. According to the devs, the shooter has been using Unreal Engine 4 for over a decade (including development). This change will go live on patch 11.02, which should go live around the fourth week of July 2025.

Due to the engine update, this patch will be "significantly large," says Riot. They also said that the game's overall look, feel, and physics system shouldn't change. This means lineups will still work the same, and this isn't a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to CS2 levels of upgrade.

There's a chance that the minimum system requirements for VALORANT get a little higher, though. However, the devs say that the update will actually improve frame rate and make patch downloads faster in the future.

To commemorate the upgrade, there will be a special Gun Buddy given to all players who log in during patch 11.02.

Riot Games is taking action to combat account-sharing in VALORANT. Their first step toward this is Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).

MFA will be required, in the form of app or SMS verification, "primarily for suspicious cases." They will then move on to all Competitive accounts if they deem it appropriate. This means that, in the future, they may require MFA to be enabled as a requirement before you queue up a Comp game.

The first rollout for MFA in VALORANT can be expected within the year. Devs say they want to provide more clarity on who is playing on an account. Players will also soon be able to see their own behavior standing in the game. This means that you will be able to see all active warnings or penalties that you have on your account, and the penalties that may come next if you continue your negative behavior.

Combined with the Replay System, the competitive experience in VALORANT is about to get a whole lot better, especially in the apex ranks.

VALORANT devs are also cleaning up the game to provide more clarity and a better experience. This includes keeping a close eye on oppressive abilities, like ability and debuff counterplay, and ultimates that cover a wide area.

As for clarity, this comes in the form of providing more information to the player. Some recent examples are Brimstone's molly audio, the update to Raze's explosion visuals, and damage visuals for Deadlock's Barrier Mesh. They intend on making these kinds of updates regularly to maintain VALORANT's "core balance between gunplay and abilities."

We are expecting a new map to be revealed during the upcoming VALORANT Masters Toronto. This new map will be immediately added to the Competitive rotation on the day it goes live. "We want to better support learning the map in the competitive environment right away," the VALORANT devs said.

For the first patch it goes live, patch 11.00, the RR loss on the map will be reduced by 50%. Wins still get you the full amount, though.