Riot Games released Valorant Patch 13.10 on November 10, 2026, introducing a series of balance adjustments designed to facilitate a “tactical reset.” The update primarily targets the Sentinel role, providing significant buffs to utility recovery times to counter the high-tempo, aggressive meta.
The headline change in 13.10 is the standardization of destroyed utility cooldowns for Cypher, Killjoy, and Vyse. Previously, if an enemy destroyed a Sentinel’s signature utility, the cooldown was a punishing 60 seconds, often rendering the agent a non-factor for the remainder of a round. This update reduces that window to 45 seconds, allowing defenders a better chance to redeploy mid-round.
The Sentinel Strategic Reset
The move to a 45-second cooldown is a deliberate design choice by Riot to place Sentinel recovery just below the 50-second benchmark for Initiator signature abilities. By allowing Sentinels to get their utility back faster than Initiators can recharge their intel-gathering tools, Riot is attempting to curb the dominance of aggressive 2026 compositions.
The specific utility changes include:
- Cypher: Spycam cooldown when destroyed is reduced from 60 seconds to 45 seconds. However, to balance his passive play, the cooldown for reclaiming a camera that hasn’t been destroyed has been increased from 15 seconds to 20 seconds.
- Killjoy: Turret cooldown when destroyed is reduced from 60 seconds to 45 seconds.
- Vyse: Arc Rose cooldown when destroyed is reduced from 60 seconds to 45 seconds.
Sage also received attention in this patch, though her changes focus on quality-of-life rather than cooldowns. Her Healing Orb now features increased targeting accuracy when aiming at allies, and players will now see their crosshair while the ability is active to ensure more reliable heals in chaotic firefights.
Refined Assist Rules and the 3-Second Window
Patch 13.10 officially documents a major overhaul to the assist system. The goal is to provide a more accurate reflection of a player’s contribution to a kill.
Damage assists are now governed by a “3-second rule.” To earn an assist, a player must deal at least 10 damage to an enemy within three seconds of that enemy being eliminated by a teammate. This narrows the window significantly from previous iterations, ensuring assists are awarded for active participation in a duel.
Healing assists have also been tightened. A player will now only receive an assist for healing a teammate if that teammate secures a kill within 10 seconds of the heal ending. This change prevents “accidental” assists from heals that occurred much earlier in the round and had no direct impact on the final engagement.
Replay Bookmarking and Gauntlet Updates
Beyond agent balancing, Patch 13.10 introduces a highly requested utility for the Replay System. A new Replay Bookmarking feature is now available for both PC and Console players. This allows players to save specific match moments for later review. Notably, these bookmarks are for personal visibility only and will not be seen by other players if a replay file is shared.
The limited-time mode “Gauntlet: Glitched” has also seen significant updates. The mode now supports full 5-player party queues and has introduced “glitched” ability variants, adding further unpredictability to the experimental format. These changes come alongside general stability fixes for the Warden rifle, which has seen heavy use since its introduction earlier this year.