Valorant Patch 13.00: Summit Map, Blackspyre Bundle, and Retake Mode

Patch 13.00: Act 4 Starts Now

V26 Act 4 is live — and Patch 13.00 is a stacked opener. Summit enters competitive immediately, Sentinels and Initiators get targeted buffs, Retake joins the queue, and the map pool rotates. Here is what actually changes your ranked games.

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Summit — New Competitive Map

Summit is a two-site, three-lane map set in a Radiant training academy in the mountains of China. Training halls, meditation gardens, and Sage lore tie into the broader Valorant story — but ranked players care about one thing: droppable walls.

Three walls sit on A site, B site, and Mid. Shoot them to trigger a drop that permanently blocks that pathway for the rest of the round. No reset. The map you are fighting on in round 13 may look nothing like round 1.

Ranked launch perks

• Summit is in Competitive queue from day one
• 50% reduced RR losses on Summit for the first two weeks (wins still grant 100% RR)
• Summit-only Swiftplay queue runs for the first 7 days — the fastest way to learn callouts

Map pool rotation

This is easy to miss in the hype:

• IN: Summit, Sunset
• OUT: Fracture, Pearl

If you one-tricked Fracture or Pearl executes, your agent pool and default strats need a refresh. Sunset returns to the pool alongside Summit.

For post-plant win rates and peek K/D by Summit callout, see our Summit map benchmarks.

What to prioritise on Summit

• Pre-round wall reads — attackers decide whether to drop before the execute or save for post-plant; defenders who drop mid walls cut off their own rotates if the hit goes elsewhere
• Info before commits — Sova, Fade, and Skye (now on a shorter signature cooldown — see below) reward learning two lineups per site before you queue comp
• Sentinel anchors — Killjoy and Cypher buffs land the same patch as a map that rewards disciplined site holds

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Sentinel Buffs — Full Breakdown

Riot's stated goal: Sentinels should punish low-information five-stacks and hold sites alone more reliably.

Agent	Change
Cypher	Trapwire windup reduced from 0.9s → 0.7s
Killjoy	Turret fire rate +50%; Nanoswarm duration 4s → 5s; Alarmbot move speed +50%
Veto	Interceptor reclaim cooldown 30s → 20s; Crosscut usable area 24m → 30m; arming time 1.5s → 0.75s
Sage	Self-heal over time increased from 50 → 100
Deadlock	GravNet cooldown 60s → 50s

If you dropped Sentinels during the duelist-heavy meta, Act 4 is the patch to revisit them — especially on Summit where post-plant structure matters.

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Initiator Cooldown Reductions

Signature ability cooldowns for Sova, Fade, Skye, Breach, and KAY/O reduced from 60s → 50s.

Gekko reclaim cooldown after picking up buddies reduced from 20s → 15s.

Riot's framing: give Initiators more agency in late-round scenarios without fully reverting the 11.08 gunplay shift. In practice, you get one extra flash or recon window per long round — enough to change execute timing on a new map where info before wall commits is critical.

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Retake — New Limited-Time Mode

Retake is a fast 3v3 Spike mode built around post-plant action:

• Spike is pre-planted a few seconds into each round at a visible site location
• Planters defend; retakers push to defuse
• Sides swap every round
• First to 5 rounds wins
• No economy — pick from two loadout cards per round (weapons, armor, and ability charges escalate round over round)
• Maps at launch: single sites from Ascent, Bind, Haven, Summit, and Sunset

Excellent Summit warm-up before ranked — you learn which walls matter for post-plant holds without full 5v5 chaos.

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Blackspyre Skin Bundle

Act 4's premium collection is Blackspyre — sci-fi meets arcane, spanning Phantom, Sheriff, Spectre, Ares, and a dual-wield melee. Cosmetic only, but expect the Phantom everywhere for the first fortnight.

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Bandit Tuning

Riot wants the Bandit more viable outside pistol rounds without overtaking Ghost/Sheriff mastery:

• Recovery: 0.45 → 0.4
• Tap efficiency: 3 → 4
• Max pitch recoil: 4 → 3

Precision pistol players get a slightly more forgiving tap cadence — relevant on Summit where opening duels off wall drops are common.

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Ranked & Matchmaking Changes

RR/MMR: Ranked Rating calculations adjusted so consistent winners feel less stuck — Riot is especially watching Immortal+ feedback after earlier-year MMR changes settled.

PC matchmaking: Average team rank now stays within 1 sub-tier more often (e.g. if your team averages Gold 2, the enemy team should also land in Gold).

Omen: Enemy Shrouded Step audio updated for clarity when Omen teleports past or behind you in chaotic rounds.

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UpForge Support for Summit

Summit is fully supported in UpForge Desktop from day one:

• Map splash art and minimap overlays
• 24 callout zones with spatial replay
• Riot timeline sync resolves Riot's internal codename (Plummet) → Summit automatically

Record your Summit games, sync your timeline, and jump to the rounds where you died on an angle you did not know existed. If you want a personalised read on positioning and utility on the new map, run a coaching report — UpForge analyses Summit footage with callout context built in.

Browse Summit map benchmarks for plant win rates and peek K/D, or see the full Act 4 map pool.

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The Bottom Line

Patch 13.00 is Act 4's big swing: new map, map pool shuffle, Sentinel and Initiator buffs, Retake, and ranked feel adjustments. Queue the Summit-only playlist this week, relearn your Sunset defaults, and review at least one game before you write off the droppable walls as chaos.

Full official notes: VALORANT Patch Notes 13.00