Valorant Act 4 2026 Recap: Summit, Retake and Patch 13.00

What the finished act left behind

Act 4 of 2026 began with patch 13.00. Riot published the notes on June 23, and most outlets list June 24 as the launch date because the update reached regions with a small delay. The act is over now: Act 5 has been running since mid-August (patch 13.04), so this is a look back at a finished season. Data is current as of October 17, 2026.

What remains from the act: the Summit map, the Retake mode, broad Sentinel and Initiator changes, a reshuffled ranked map pool and two cosmetic sets. Below, each piece in order, plus what still helps you in matches today.

Summit: the map with droppable walls

Summit is a 5v5 Spike map set in a Radiant training academy high in the mountains of China, with two sites and three lanes, so the basic logic feels familiar.

The big hook is the walls you can drop. There are three: on A Site, on B Site and in Mid. A dropped wall stays down for the rest of the round, so it permanently changes sightlines, rotations and post-plant defense. A good drop gives your team a positional edge, a bad one leaves it exposed.

A practical tip for the early days on the map: agree in advance who drops which wall and when, and do not trigger one just to see what happens. A wall dropped at the wrong moment cannot be undone that round.

A wall is most useful in three situations. Attackers can rework their push and buy seconds for the plant. Defenders can break up the enemy plan and gain rotation time. After the plant, a drop changes the set of angles from which the Spike is defended and defused. Call the drop in voice chat first, because there is no taking it back.

If you have no time to learn timings in ranked, win boosting gets you the results without the long study.

Ranked on a brand-new map

Summit went straight into Competitive at launch, alongside Sunset. Fracture and Pearl were removed from Competitive and Deathmatch at the same time, so ranked players faced a noticeably changed map pool on day one.

To soften the first games, Riot cut RR losses on Summit by 50% for two weeks, while wins still gave full RR. A Summit-only queue in Swiftplay format also ran for seven days, a low-pressure way to learn routes and positions.

For a regular player this was simple math: the first two weeks were the cheapest time to learn. A mistake in an unfamiliar layout cost half the usual RR, and once the protection ended the calculation returned to normal, so Summit errors cost the same as on any other map.

If you were coming back after a long break, placement matches were the natural restart, since a changed map pool gave a fairer read of your form. Players who wanted to climb without a long losing streak could use rank boosting, and unranked games let you practice with no MMR at stake.

Retake: rounds built around the post-plant

Riot labeled Retake a limited-time mode. It is 3v3 with the Spike already planted and sides swapping every round: one team defends the plant, the other tries to defuse. A match goes to five round wins.

There is no economy and nothing to buy. Before each round a player picks one of two cards: weapons and armor, or ability charges. Each card offers two randomized options, and the offers get stronger as the match goes on.

Sites came from Ascent, Bind, Haven, Summit and Sunset, with one random site per match. The format drills what regular matches rarely do: fast decisions, utility usage and clutch situations against several enemies.

You can structure practice by round. In the early rounds the offers are weaker, so lean on positioning and a shared plan: one player opens the lane, two cover. In later rounds weapons and abilities are stronger, which allows more aggressive play and trades.

Getting used to teamwork is easier with a partner, and duo queue games fit that: a reliable teammate makes retakes and trades much cleaner.

What patch 13.00 changed

The patch that opened the act brought sweeping agent changes, mostly Sentinel buffs and shorter Initiator cooldowns. The key ones:

The patch also revised the RR calculation, tuned the Bandit and added an in-client Inbox. Sentinels held sites with more confidence, while Initiators had utility available more often. Your agent picks were worth rethinking in light of these changes.

By role it looked like this. Cypher got a faster Trapwire, and Killjoy's turret and abilities became more dangerous. Sage got more healing for herself. Initiators whose abilities came back sooner could use utility and scout sites before entering more often. If you played an affected agent, it was worth rechecking your usual timings.

The Battle Pass and the Blackspyre set

The Act 4 Battle Pass cost 1,000 VP, had 50 tiers plus 5 Epilogue tiers and ran from June 24 to August 19, 2026. It has expired. Free rewards included the Sky Reaper Ghost, the Heal Up Squad Card, the Binding Thread Buddy and the On Your Feet Spray. The paid track offered, among other items, the Sky Reaper Sword, the Tacti-Guild Phantom and the Intertwine Guardian.

The Blackspyre Collection released on June 24 with skins for the Phantom, Sheriff, Spectre and Ares, plus The Divide melee weapon. The full bundle cost 8,700 VP and each gun 2,175 VP. It sat in the Exclusive tier, left the Featured Store by July 30 and never appeared in the Night Market. If you want this set, you will have to wait for a possible return.

To keep up with weekly and seasonal tasks in future passes, you can order challenges.

What to take from this today

Summit joined the pool alongside Sunset, and knowing the walls, rotations and post-plant setups paid off throughout the act. By Act 5 Abyss returned to Competitive and Deathmatch, so the map pool shifted again.

In practice: if Retake is still available, run it before ranked, otherwise use similar retake drills, learn the three walls on Summit, and check the 13.00 patch notes if you play an agent that got changes. The Battle Pass and Blackspyre are no longer available, so plan purchases around upcoming store rotations.

If you plan to return to ranked, make a short list: which walls you know on Summit, which agents you pick for the new cooldowns and which mode you use to warm up. It takes five minutes and shows where the gaps in your preparation are. The same list works at every act change, when the queue maps shift again.