Unrated (also known as Standard or Normals) is the base game mode in VALORANT. It is a Plant/Defuse mode for two teams of five players where each team plays as either Attacker or Defender.
Agent Select[]
Players must select their agents before going into game in Agent Select, which lasts for 90 seconds. Players may select any agent that they own to view them and brief descriptions about the agent and their abilities. Doing this will also display the agent's icon next to their name in the lobby as a way of expressing to the rest of their team that they are considering selecting that agent. The player's choice is only confirmed when they "Lock In" their agent choice, which will be audibly confirmed with the selected agent speaking their agent select voiceline. Each player within a team must select a unique agent. Once locked in, a player cannot change their chosen agent.
If a player has not locked in their agent choice by the time agent select ends, the game will automatically lock in the last agent that the player had selected. If the player had not selected any agent for the duration of Agent Select, the match will be cancelled instead.
Gameplay[]
Once agent select is complete, players will compete in multiple rounds each consisting of three phases; the Buy Phase, the Round Phase, and the Post-Round Phase. Each team will start as either Attacker or Defender and play in these positions for the duration of the half, which lasts for twelve rounds. Once the half completes, the teams will switch sides and will play up to another twelve rounds until someone reaches the thirteenth round win required to win the match overall.
When attacking in a round, the objective is to plant the spike or kill all living Defenders. When defending in a round, the objective is to prevent the Attackers from planting the spike (either by killing all living Attackers or preventing the Attackers from planting within the round time limit), or defuse the spike if it has already been planted (killing all living Attackers is not enough to win the round in this case).
Agents move across the map by running, which will make their footsteps audible to any other agent in range (this audio range is displayed on the minimap as a circle around the player's icon). They will run at 6.75 m/s whilst having their knife, any abilities, or the spike equipped, but this will be reduced whilst having a gun equipped (exact reduction varies between guns). Players can move silently by holding L Shift (by default) to walk instead, reducing their movement speed by 33% to 4.5 m/s. Players can also crouch by holding L Ctrl, which further reduces movement speed, and jump by pressing SPACE.
If one or more players are disconnected at the beginning of the first buy phase through the entire first round, their team has the option to call for a remake by typing /remake in chat. The remake vote will last for the duration of the buy phase it was called in and must be unanimous to pass. A successful remake will end the game, with all players not receiving any XP or MMR adjustments from the match. The match will also not show up in match history. All disconnected players will take full MMR loss and receive a leaver penalty equivalent to disconnecting from a full match.
Rounds[]
Buy Phases[]
The Buy Phase lasts for 30 seconds with the exceptions of the first Buy Phases of a half or Endgame, which last for 45 seconds instead. At the start of every Buy Phase, players will spawn in the spawn areas for their team's side of the map, usually located at opposite edges of the map to the other team's spawn. The spike will also spawn in front of where the Attackers spawn.
Barriers of energy will be placed in some passageways and windows that prevent agents from moving into the central parts of the map and beyond into the other team's territory as well as preventing any abilities from being placed or thrown into these restricted areas. Spike sites will always be available for Defenders to access during the Buy Phase.
The Armory will be accessible to agents for the duration of the Buy Phase. In the armory, players will be able to use their creds to buy weapons, charges for their abilities, and shields. Players can also request for a teammate to use their own creds to buy a weapon for them.
Of the three types of interactive elements that can be found on maps, only door switches are unable to be used during the Buy Phase. Agents will still be able to view any lore elements and use any ascenders/ziplines if there are any within Buy Phase territories.
Several abilities cannot be cast during the Buy Phase as they do not achieve anything if they were to be cast at this time, however others can be as they specifically help agents to set up utility or positioning before the Round Phase begins. These abilities are:
- Astra's Astral Form
- All Chamber abilities
- Cypher's
Trapwire, Cyber Cage (placement only), and Spycam - Jett's Updraft
- Killjoy's Nanoswarm (placement only), Alarmbot, and Turret
- Neon's High Gear (Energy and Slide charge not consumed)
- Omen's Shrouded Step
- Raze's Blast Pack
- Sage's Healing Orb (if any agent received fall damage during buy phase; cooldown timer will not start during buy phase)
- Viper's Poison Cloud (placement only) and Toxic Screen (placement only)
- Yoru's Fakeout (stationary placement only) and Gatecrash (placement only)
Round Phases[]
The Round Phase lasts for up to 100 seconds, which will be reset to 45 seconds if the spike is planted. At the start of a Round Phase, the Buy Phase barriers will go down, allowing all agents to freely travel to all parts of the map. Any door switches on a map will become available to use and any interactive lore elements will be deactivated until the next Buy Phase. The map's ultimate orbs will also spawn at this point.
If an agent dies, they will remain dead until either the next Buy Phase or being resurrected by Sage's Resurrection ultimate.
Agents will receive an ultimate point for any of the following occurrences:
- They kill an enemy agent
- They are killed by an enemy agent
- They complete an ultimate orb pickup
- They complete a spike plant
- They complete a spike defuse
The Round Phase will end when an outcome for the round is decided:
| Team | Winning condition |
|---|---|
| Attackers |
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| Defenders |
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Post-Round Phases[]
The Post-Round Phase lasts for 7 seconds. Any surviving agents will still be able to do anything that they were able to do in the Round Phase during the Post-Round Phase but will no longer be able to affect the outcome of the round. This is mostly of interest for the following scenarios:
- If the Attackers only completes the spike plant in the Post-Round Phase, they will receive the creds and ultimate points that come with completing this action but it will no longer win them the round
- Killing the last surviving Defenders will not win Attackers the round if the round outcome was decided by timeout or spike defuse
Endgame[]
If the result of both halves being played to completion is a tied score of 12-12, a 25th round of Endgame, also known as Sudden Death, will begin to decide the match outcome. Teams will remain on the same sides they were on during the second half and all players will receive 
5,000 each. The team that wins the Endgame round will win the match.
Communication Commands[]
Communication commands are used to broadcast specific voicelines from an agent to the rest of their team both by speaking them globally and automatically being alerted in team text chat.
Ping/Ping Wheel[]
Ping Wheel
Pressing Z (by default) will ping whatever the player's crosshair is on and place temporary HUD markers on the map's geometry and its corresponding position on the minimap, visible to the player and all their allies. The map marker will also display the real-time distance between the viewer and its location for its duration. Pinging any part of the map will usually result in a basic position ping, though certain things will result in different pings:
- Pinging a weapon will announce where the weapon is
- Pinging a dropped spike will announce where the spike is
- Pinging any part of a spike site where the spike can be planted will request for allies to plant the spike at the pinged position
- Pinging a planted spike counting down to detonation will request for allies to defuse the spike
If the player holds down their ping key, a ping wheel will open up instead allowing the player to direct the following commands at the pinged location:
- Caution
- Watching Area
- Need Support
- On My Mark
- The marker displayed on the map geometry will also begin a countdown from 3 seconds
Radio Menu Commands[]
Radio Menu Commands (located at the bottom right)
The default key to open the Radio Menu is ..
| Combat 1 | Tactics 2 | Social 3 | Strategy 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
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Radio Wheel Commands[]
Radio Wheel Commands
The default button to open the Radio Wheel is ,.
| Social (Upper wheel) | Combat (Default) | Strategy (Lower wheel) |
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Fall damage[]
Players will take fall damage if they fall a large distance, which directly affects a player's health and ignores shields. This starts at about 8 meters, inflicting 15 damage, and increases until a distance of about 17 meters, inflicting the fatal maximum of 100 damage.
The following agents can reduce or negate fall damage by using specific abilities:
- Iso will not take any fall damage from any distance while protected by a Double Tap shield and such a fall will not cause the shield to break either.
- Jett will not take any fall damage from any distance if she lands while using Drift.
- The minimum distance at which fall damage begins to be applied to Raze is slightly increased when she is boosted by a Blast Pack.
Missing Players[]
If a player disconnects from the game, the affected team will receive the following compensation:
- An ult orb for every missing player that will spawn in every Buy Phase.
- Light Shields on the first round of attack or defense.
- Extra creds. The amount of credits received is based on win or loss, loss streak, round, and the number of missing players. The Credits listed below are the number of credits that are given for one missing player. Credits received may be lower in early rounds due to shopping restrictions.
- 800 for round win.
- 500 for round loss.
- 600 for round loss with 2x loss streak.
- 700 for round loss with a loss streak greater than 2x.
| In rotation | ||||
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| Unavailable | ||||
| Others | Custom Game • New Map • Practice Game Modes | |||
