If you’ve ever queued for a ranked Valorant match and wondered how Riot stops wallhackers or aimbot users from ruining your climb, you’ve probably asked what anti cheat does Valorant use. You’re not alone. Thousands of players search for this answer every month, either curious about how it keeps matches fair, worried about its impact on their PC, or confused about why they got a ban they don’t deserve. I’ve played Valorant since its beta launch, and I’ve had my own run-ins with both hackers and odd Vanguard warnings, so I’m breaking down everything you need to know without the technical jargon.
What Anti Cheat Does Valorant Use, Exactly?
The anti-cheat powering all Valorant matches is called Vanguard, a custom-built tool Riot Games developed in-house instead of licensing a third-party solution like Easy Anti-Cheat or BattlEye. If you’ve asked what anti cheat does Valorant use after running into a suspicious player, you’ll be glad to know that most of those reported players get banned within 24 hours of the match ending. Unlike user-level anti-cheats that only scan active game windows, Vanguard uses a kernel-mode driver that runs at the deepest level of your operating system. That level of access lets it detect even the most well-hidden cheats that try to avoid detection by running in background system processes.
Riot designed Vanguard specifically for Valorant, so it’s tuned to catch cheats that are built exclusively for the game, instead of using a one-size-fits-all anti-cheat solution. The tool runs two separate components: the kernel driver that starts when you boot your PC, and the in-game client that activates only when you launch Valorant. Riot rolls out small, silent updates to Vanguard every few weeks to target new cheat versions as soon as they hit the market, which is why you rarely see obvious cheaters in matches above Iron rank these days.
How Vanguard Impacts Your PC Performance and Security
One of the most common complaints about Vanguard is its kernel-level access, which makes many players worry about potential security risks. It’s true that any kernel-mode driver has high-level access to all data on your system, but Riot publishes independent third-party security audits of Vanguard every year to prove it doesn’t collect or share any personal user data. I’ve dug into the audit reports myself, and there’s no evidence that Vanguard tracks any activity unrelated to Valorant cheat detection.
When it comes to performance, most players won’t notice any difference when Vanguard is running in the background. The driver uses less than 1% of CPU and RAM on most modern PCs, and you’ll never see it pop up in your task manager unless you specifically look for system processes. Older PCs with 8GB of RAM or less might notice slight lag when running multiple heavy programs alongside Vanguard, but that issue is rare.
If you notice performance drops when Valorant is closed, you can manually shut down the Vanguard driver from your system tray, but you’ll have to restart your PC to play Valorant again later. That’s a great option if you use your PC for sensitive work like video editing or software development, and you don’t want any extra background processes running when you’re not gaming. I turn off Vanguard every time I work on personal coding projects, and it only takes 30 seconds to restart my PC when I want to queue for matches later.
Common Actions That Can Trigger False Vanguard Bans
While Vanguard is 99% accurate when it comes to detecting actual cheaters, it’s not perfect, and there are a handful of innocent actions that can lead to temporary or even permanent account bans. Most false bans happen because players don’t realize what tools trigger Vanguard’s detection algorithms, and many of these mistakes are easy to avoid if you know what to look for.
- Running macro software or hardware mods in the background, even if you only use them for productivity or other single-player games. Even non-game macros can trigger a Vanguard flag if they interact with system inputs while Valorant is open.
- Modifying Valorant game files for cosmetic purposes, like changing skin textures or adjusting UI elements that aren’t accessible via the in-game settings menu.
- Playing on a shared PC that has cheat software installed from a previous user, even if you never opened or used the cheat yourself.
- Using VPNs or location spoofing tools to bypass region locks or queue for servers outside your local area, especially during ranked play.
If you do get a ban you think is false, you can submit a support ticket to Riot’s anti-cheat team, but response times usually take between 3 and 7 days. Riot rarely reverses permanent bans unless they find a clear error in their detection system, so it’s always better to avoid high-risk activities instead of fighting a ban after the fact.
You can check your Vanguard status any time from the in-game settings menu to see if there are any active warnings or flags on your account before you queue for ranked. If you see a warning about incompatible software, close that program immediately and restart your game to avoid further action.
How to Optimize Vanguard for Fair Play and Smooth Performance
You don’t have to mess with any advanced settings to make Vanguard work correctly for casual play, but there are a few small tweaks that will help you avoid crashes, false flags, and performance drops during important matches. First, always download Vanguard and Valorant directly from the official Riot Games client, never from third-party download sites. Fake Vanguard installers are a common malware vector, and they can lead to account theft or permanent bans if you install them by mistake.
Next, keep your Windows operating system updated to the latest version. Older versions of Windows 10 and 11 have compatibility gaps that can make Vanguard flag innocent processes as cheats, or cause random game crashes mid-match. You should also add Vanguard to your antivirus software’s exception list, because many third-party antivirus tools will block parts of Vanguard’s driver from running correctly, leading to launch errors or false flags. I used to have 2 or 3 Vanguard crashes a week until I added it to my antivirus exceptions, and I haven’t had a single issue in the 8 months since I made that change.
You don’t need to adjust any advanced Vanguard settings for casual play, but competitive players should make sure the driver is updated at least 24 hours before a tournament or important ranked climb to avoid unexpected restarts or errors. Riot often pushes small Vanguard updates that require a PC restart, so checking for updates the day before a big grind will save you from losing progress or getting timed out of a match.
At the end of the day, the answer to what anti cheat does Valorant use is simple: it’s Vanguard, one of the most aggressive and effective anti-cheat tools on the market for competitive FPS games. It has its fair share of drawbacks, from minor performance hits on older PCs to the rare false ban, but it’s also the reason Valorant’s ranked mode feels far fairer than most other competitive shooters out there. As long as you follow the basic best practices we outlined, you’ll never have to worry about running into issues with Vanguard, and you can focus on climbing the rank ladder without worrying about hackers ruining your matches.
