Riot's maintenance notices point to the start of Valorant's Season 2026 Act 6 (V26 Act 6) on October 13 to 14, but Riot has not published its patch notes yet. As of October 12, 2026 the newest notes on playvalorant.com are for patch 13.06, dated September 22 (VALORANT Patch Notes 13.06). Pages for 13.07 and 13.08 don't exist.
So everything you can read today about the Act 6 map pool, agent or battle pass is either a leak or a guess. This page labels every claim as Riot-confirmed or leaked, and keeps the two apart.
Checked October 12, 2026. Riot had not posted Act 6 patch notes at that point; this page will be updated when it does.
Key takeaways
- Riot posted maintenance notices for October 13 (NA, 06:00 PDT) and early October 14 (Europe, Asia-Pacific). None of them names a patch.
- Riot has not confirmed any Act 6 map, agent or battle pass details.
- The leaked map pool (Corrode and Bind in, Ascent and Split out) comes from a dataminer, not from Riot.
- Placement games and rank rules haven't changed in any Riot post you can check today.
- Search results for "Act 6" are mostly Season 2025 pages. Check the year before you trust one.
Has Riot confirmed the Act 6 start time?
Not by name. Riot has posted no Act 6 patch notes, but its status page lists a planned maintenance window per region, on October 13 in North America and on October 14 in Europe and Asia-Pacific, local time (Riot Games Service Status):
The notices say "the game will be unavailable for planned maintenance". They don't say "Act 6" or give a patch number. The timing does match the windows Dot Esports published in August for the Act change (All VALORANT season start and end dates), so it is likely the Act 6 patch. Riot has not announced it. The UTC and local columns are my conversions of Riot's times. For the exact moment on your account, check the status page for your region.
The community-run VALORANT Wiki's Act 5 page lists a single end date of October 14 with no regional split (VALORANT Wiki: Season 2026 Act 5). That is the later, EU and Asia-Pacific day. It also lists Act 5's start as August 19, while Riot's own 13.04 notes are timestamped August 18 (VALORANT Patch Notes 13.04). When the two disagree, use Riot's page.
What Riot has confirmed about Act 6 ranked
- Placement games. Riot's Act Ranks page says "To receive your rank in Act 2 and 3, or 5 and 6 you'll need to play 1 placement match" (Riot Games Support: Act Ranks and Rewards). Two newer Riot support articles mention that rule only for Acts 2 and 3, and Riot has not announced a change to the rule, but the Act 6 wording lives on the older page. Acts 1 and 4 need five. The badge is awarded at the end of the Act and needs 9 competitive wins. The full reset logic, badge borders and rewards are in what Act 6 does to your rank.
- Radiant thresholds. Riot's support page lists the current RR needed for Radiant: LATAM and Korea 200, Brazil 340, Asia-Pacific 400, North America 450 and Europe 500 (Riot Games Support: Immortal and Radiant RR). The wiki's table is lower and out of date.
- Where the highest placement lands. Riot's own pages disagree: the Act Ranks article says "with Ascendant 1 being the highest initial placement", while the Iron-through-Ascendant article says "with Ascendant 3 being the highest initial placement". If this matters for your plans, check it in your own placement game.
One planned change is dated. In the 13.06 notes Riot says "we have even more coming in the following patches: Map Rating (13.08), Competitive Flex (14.00), and some updates for the Radiant experience (14.00)" (VALORANT Patch Notes 13.06). Those are Riot's numbers for later patches, with no dates attached.
The Act 6 map pool is a leak
The map pool today is Abyss, Ascent, Haven, Lotus, Split, Sunset and Summit. Riot's deltas back that up: Summit and Sunset came in and Fracture and Pearl left with 13.00 (VALORANT Patch Notes 13.00), then Abyss came in and Breeze left with 13.04 (VALORANT Patch Notes 13.04). Riot never printed the pool in one place; this is my reading of its deltas.
The Act 6 pool is not announced. The version going around comes from a dataminer cited by EGW on October 9: Ascent and Split out, Corrode and Bind back in (EGW). Riot has not confirmed it. Don't plan around it until the patch notes are out.
The new agent and the battle pass
Riot has teased a new agent, as far as EGW's reporting shows; I could not open Riot's Weibo post itself. EGW reports a silhouette image on Riot's official Weibo account on October 10, with a pop-up café in Shanghai running October 13 to 18 during Champions 2026 (EGW). Riot has not named the agent or said it ships in Act 6.
Everything else is a leak:
- Role. A dataminer says Duelist (EGW). Unconfirmed.
- Reveal date. One leaker's schedule snippet points at a showmatch on October 17 (EGW). EGW's duelist report says October 18 instead, ahead of the Champions grand final. The two don't agree, and Riot has said neither.
- Battle pass. No Riot post names an Act 6 battle pass, its tiers or its rewards. A melee leak is circulating, but I could not trace it to an account I can name, so I'm not repeating it.
Agent Mastery is the one Act 6 system Riot has already described. Act Levels "reset at the start of each new Act" (VALORANT Patch Notes 13.06), so your agent Act progress starts again when the Act 6 patch lands.
A fast way to tell a leak from an announcement
Before you share or act on an Act 6 claim, run it through four checks:
- Is there a patch-notes page? If playvalorant.com has no page for it, it isn't confirmed.
- Is the source named? "A dataminer" with no account or date is not a source.
- Which Season is it? Many top "Act 6" results are from Season 2025, whose Act 6 started in mid-October 2025 (Dot Esports).
- Does Riot's support site say it? Rank, placement and reward rules live on support.riotgames.com, not in leaks.
If you play ranked this week, the practical part is short: finish the wins you need for your Act 5 badge before the maintenance window, and keep your account to yourself. Riot's rules make no exception for any service. No boosting or account-sharing service is safe from Riot's enforcement, ours included, and since July 14, 2026 Riot can revert rank and ranked rewards in confirmed rank-manipulation cases (VALORANT Patch Notes 13.01). The updated rules are in what Valorant patch 13.06 changed for ranked.
If wins are what you're missing, Valorant coaching works on the games you're losing, on your own account.
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Valorant Act 6 2026 questions
When does Valorant Act 6 2026 start?
Riot's maintenance notices point to October 13 in North America and early October 14 in Europe and Asia-Pacific. Riot has not published Act 6 patch notes, so the patch number and exact time are still unconfirmed.
How many placement games do I need in Act 6?
One, according to Riot's Act Ranks page. Two newer Riot support articles mention that rule only for Acts 2 and 3, and Riot has not announced a change. Acts 1 and 4 are the ones that need five.
Is the Act 6 map pool confirmed?
No. The pool with Corrode and Bind in and Ascent and Split out is a dataminer's report. Riot has not announced it.
Is there a new agent in Act 6?
EGW reports that Riot teased a new agent on its Weibo account. Riot has not named the agent or confirmed an Act 6 release.
Where do I check what is real?
The patch notes at playvalorant.com and Riot's support articles. Everything else on this page is labelled by source.
