Valorant: How to use Rank Shields

With Competitive being the beating heart of Valorant, the developers continue to make various updates to improve the mode. Predominantly, this includes adding new content, releasing updates to combat a multitude of problems, and occasionally balancing the various agents involved in the fight. Valorant patch notes 10.01 are now live and Rank Shields have made their debut and are granted to almost every rank in the game.

The aim of Rank Shields is to give players a leg up when trying to climb the ranked ladder. They’ll be especially useful for those that are in a lower rank, or struggling to get over the fine line between promotion and demotion.

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What are Rank Shields in Valorant?

Rank Shields act as a new demotion protection system in Valorant’s Competitive mode. While in the first tier of any rank (excluding Radiant,) you will receive two Rank Shields. The first tier refers to Silver 1, Gold 1, and Platinum 1, for example.

When you lose a ranked game at 0 RR, a shield is used to prevent you being demoted back to the previous rank. If you lose again at 0 RR, the second shield will be consumed and you will have no shields remaining. As a result, a third loss while at 0 RR will then demote you to the lower rank. Remember, shields only apply when you are in the first tier of a rank, there are no shields when you take a loss at 0 RR in Platinum 2, for instance.

The only way to replenish lost shields is to move into tier 1 through promotion or demotion, where you will get back the two shields for that tier.

Valorant isn’t the first game with a ranked mode to get a protection system and it certainly won’t be the last. The more forgiving nature of Rank Shields will be a welcome implementation among ranked players.

Although the addition of Rank Shields is the main feature of the latest update, Riot Games has also deployed a range of bug fixes. The majority of fixes relate to Tejo, the newest member of the Valorant roster. Repairs have been made to Tejo’s abilities, removing a range of glitches involving the Guided Salvo, Stealth Drone, Artillery Missile, and more. This applies to all platforms, but there are further platform specific fixes relating to Premier and Competitive systems.

The full patch notes can be viewed here.