VALORANT as a whole sadly offers very little in terms of ranked rewards, at least when compared to other prominent multiplayer titles. Other games such as Call of Duty and League of Legends offer considerably more to players who brave ranked, while VALORANT’s trove of rewards significantly lags behind.
But, players still love gun buddies, and one of the highly sought-after rewards from ranked VALORANT is the ranked gun buddy players receive at the end of any given episode. The ranked gun buddy is free to players who put the time into earning it, but players have had trouble at the start of a new episode. Back in Jan. 2023, players were missing their Episode Five ranked buddies when Episode Six started, and now that Episode Seven has started, players are now missing their Episode Six buddies.
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Looking to secure a ranked gun buddy yourself, or missing yours? Here’s how to earn one during and after a VALORANT act has concluded.
How to get a ranked gun buddy after each VALORANT act
Players will need to complete their placement matches in a respective VALORANT act to get a ranked gun buddy at the end. You don’t have to stress over dropping ranks throughout the season as well since the reward system will consider your highest achievement throughout an act.
To complete placements and earn a rank, follow these steps:
- Win 10 unrated matches and reach account level 20 to unlock competitive mode (if you haven’t already).
- Play five placement matches after unlocking competitive (you only have to do this once on an account).
- Each act, play one placement act to receive a rank (after playing your five placement games the first time you start playing competitive). If it’s an all new episode, you may have to play five placement matches at the start of the episode’s first act.
How to claim the latest rank gun buddy in VALORANT
Your ranked gun buddy from the last act will automatically be added to your account once the new one starts. After logging in for the first time in a new act, navigate to your collection and choose a weapon.
While inspecting a weapon, check the gun buddies tab and the latest rank gun buddy should be available there. Once you deck your weapon out with a ranked gun buddy, everyone in your match who’s spectating you will be able to see your rank from the last act.
Related: VALORANT rank distribution explained
If you’re looking to go on a dedicated ranked climb, equipping your ranked gun buddy from the last season can be a nice reminder of your roots and how much you’ve improved in the process.
As mentioned above, ranked rewards tend to not end up in your inventory right at the very start of the new act or episode.
In the past, this was caused by an unknown bug that would eventually be fixed by Riot Games in a follow-up patch. If this situation occurs in future acts, players will need to wait for Riot to roll out a fix so their gun buddies with their corresponding ranks can appear in their inventories automatically once again.
