Valorant Vanguard and Bans Explained
A direct look at Riot Vanguard, the types of bans in Valorant, and why no cheat can honestly promise you will never be flagged.
If you are thinking about using a cheat in Valorant, the first thing to understand is the anti-cheat. Riot Vanguard is not a basic scanner, and it is the main reason people ask whether Valorant bans cheaters at all.
What Riot Vanguard is
Vanguard is Riot Games’ anti-cheat for Valorant. It runs deep in the system, with a component that loads when Windows starts, so it can watch for tampering at a low level. That is why Valorant asks you to restart your PC after installing it and why some other software conflicts with it.
Types of bans you can run into
- Account bans. The account is restricted or permanently closed. You lose access to ranks, skins and progress on that account.
- Hardware bans. Riot can also tie a ban to the identifiers of your computer, so creating a new account does not automatically fix it. We cover this in our HWID ban explainer.
- Report based action. Other players can report suspicious behavior, and reports can lead to review even when there is nothing obvious flagged in software.
Why nobody can promise you will not be banned
Anti-cheat systems get updated, and cheat developers update in response. A product can work well for a while and then need an update. Any seller who says a cheat is guaranteed safe forever is promising something outside their control. The sellers worth considering are the ones who are open about updates and give you a support channel for questions.
How players think about the risk
Players who go ahead anyway usually do a few things: they keep settings modest, they avoid drawing attention in game, and they treat their account as something that could be lost. Some keep a separate account for this reason. If you plan to do that, see the UGC page for what is available.
If a hardware ban is part of your history, a HWID spoofer is the tool people look at, but it has limits, which we explain in the next guide.
The bottom line
Valorant has one of the stronger anti-cheat systems in competitive gaming. Using a cheat means accepting that your account, and possibly your hardware identity, can be actioned. If you decide to move forward, read our Valorant cheat buyer’s guide so you choose a seller with clear information and support.