Valorant Gauntlet: Glitched – new mode explained

The Draft Simulator: How the Tool Works

Up top you can play through a complete Gauntlet run in miniature. You start with 100 team HP in Stage 1, get offered three random abilities and build your Hybrid Robo Agent round by round. Every card shows the real ability icon from the Valorant API, the agent the ability originally belongs to and, for upgrades, the exact values.

1. Pick an ability: From three offers, take either a new ability for a free slot (C, Q or E) or an upgrade for an ability you already own.
2. Choose an upgrade path: When moving to level 2, you pick one of two paths. Level 3 then powers up exactly that path.
3. Hope for glitches: If the ability has a known glitch variant, it can glitch on the level 2 upgrade – complete with a screen effect.
4. Play the round: Enter whether your duo won or lost the round, or let RNG decide. Depending on the stage, losses cost 10, 20 or 30 HP.
5. Ultimate in Stage 4: In the first round of Stage 4, you’re offered an ultimate instead of a regular ability.

Note: The simulator is a simplified recreation for testing builds. For glitches, Riot only mentions a “rare, random chance” without publishing a percentage – so the simulator uses an estimated 15 percent. How many cards the game offers exactly and how crafting on another slot works in detail are also only approximated by the tool.

What Is Valorant’s New Mode Gauntlet: Glitched?

In the 13.06 patch notes, Riot calls Gauntlet: Glitched its “most ambitious mode yet”. And that’s no exaggeration: instead of a fixed agent with a fixed kit, you play a so-called Hybrid Robo Agent – a robot body reminiscent of KAY/O whose abilities you assemble from the entire agent roster over the course of the match. That means you can combine Jett’s Updraft, Sage’s Healing Orb and Killjoy’s Turret in one kit, something that’s impossible in regular Valorant.

You play in pairs. 16 players compete as eight duos, and each duo belongs to a colored team with an animal name: Blue Penguins, Cyan Sloths, Green Octopi, Orange Bears, Pink Rabbits, Purple Corgis, Red Elephants and Yellow Squirrels. Each round your duo faces another duo until only one team is left. You can queue solo or with a friend. If you get eliminated, you can search for a new match right away instead of waiting for the remaining teams to finish.

Rules: Team HP, Stages and Rounds

The heart of the mode is your team’s shared health pool. Every duo starts with 100 HP. Lose a round and your team loses health – at 0 HP you’re out. A round lasts 40 seconds, and each round sends the teams into one of four arenas.

The match is split into seven stages of three rounds each. The further the match goes, the more expensive losses become:

This leads to one key takeaway: the first two stages are your cushion. Even if you lose all six rounds of Stages 1 and 2, you still have 40 HP. From Stage 3 on things get serious, and from Stage 6 a team low on health can be knocked out after a single loss. Riot itself recommends using the early rounds to settle in before the stakes rise.

The Ability Draft Explained

After every round you make a choice: either you add a new ability to your kit or you upgrade one you already have. If an ability you already own shows up in the offer again, it’s automatically offered as an upgrade.

• Level 1: The ability goes into your slot – exactly as you know it from the original agent.
• Level 2: You choose one of two upgrade paths, for example more charges or a new cooldown.
• Level 3: A stronger version of exactly the path you picked at level 2.
• Rerolls: You get 3 rerolls per match to swap ability offers for different ones.
• Crafting: According to Riot, you can also craft on another slot to work toward a specific combo you want.

Abilities are assigned to three slots: C, Q and E. The assignment matches the key on the original agent: Jett’s Cloudburst sits on C, Updraft on Q and Tailwind on E – just like in the regular game. In the simulator you hold one ability per slot, and from Stage 4 an ultimate is added. Riot’s tip: check out which builds the other duos are running in the lobby so you don’t get caught off guard.

Glitches: When Abilities Go Haywire

The glitches are what give this mode its name. As soon as you bring an ability to level 2, there’s a rare, random chance that it “glitches” and transforms completely. Riot has revealed two examples itself: Raze’s Boom Bot, which you detonate yourself, and Gekko’s Wingman, who gets “really, really big”. The community has since documented 20 glitches – each with its own name and its own level 3 upgrade.

Some glitches are pure upgrades, like Cloudburst, which as CoveBurst also blocks bullets. Others turn the ability upside down: Healing Orb becomes Emphasis on Shield and no longer heals, but instead grants a shield against one source of damage. And some are simply absurd: Skye’s Trailblazer becomes Greatest Dane, a giant wolf that kills with a single bite.

Glitch Lexicon: All 20 Known Glitches

As of Sep 25, 2026. Riot has deliberately not published the full list of glitches – this list is based on the documentation in the official VALORANT Wiki and will be updated as soon as new glitches show up.

All 33 Abilities with Upgrade Paths

The pool contains 33 base abilities, eleven per slot. Each has two level 2 paths with a matching level 3 tier. The path names come straight from the game and use the official English wording.

C-Slot

Q-Slot

E-Slot

Ultimates from Stage 4

In the first round of Stage 4, you’re offered an ultimate instead of a regular ability. This offer can’t be rerolled. The ultimate costs 4 points and is ready to use immediately in that first round of Stage 4. These 15 ultimates can appear in Gauntlet:

Weapons in Every Stage

After every round you’re also offered a weapon. The offers stay the same within a stage and can change when a new stage begins. Each slot has fixed options:

Worth noting: the new Warden – the rifle with a 2x scope from the same patch – is playable in Gauntlet from Stage 3. If you want to try it out first, you’ll find all its stats on our Warden page.

Arenas and the Winner’s Circle

Fights take place in four new arenas that remix familiar areas from Valorant maps into 2v2 duels. Visible “glitch seams” connect the areas – the scenery will look familiar, but the routes won’t. Once you’ve won your duel, you head to the Winner’s Circle above the four arenas: from there you can watch the remaining fights, shoot at targets or just jump around while the others are still playing.

Rewards and Availability

With Gauntlet: Glitched, the Retake mode has left the rotation – Riot retired it with 13.06. Riot hasn’t announced how long Gauntlet: Glitched will stick around.

Tips for Stronger Builds

The following tips are our own take based on the rule set – not official Riot recommendations. Still, they’ll help you draft more deliberately.

• Go wide early, deep later: In Stages 1 and 2, losses only cost 10 HP. Use this phase to fill all three slots, then invest in upgrades.
• Level 2 is your glitch chance: If you’re hoping for glitches, bring as many abilities with a known glitch variant as possible to level 2 instead of pushing just one to level 3.
• Don’t burn rerolls too early: Three rerolls per match isn’t much. Save them for the moment you’re missing one specific upgrade for your dream combo.
• Mobility wins 2v2 duels: Updraft, Tailwind, Lightspeed or Shrouded Step give you angles the enemy doesn’t expect – in small arenas often more valuable than a smoke.
• Coordinate kits with your duo: One player builds info and control (Recon Bolt, Haunt, Trapwire), the other damage and mobility. That way you cover more ground together.
• Keep Stage 4 in mind: The ultimate is ready immediately in the first round of Stage 4. Plan to play aggressively that round.
• Watch the weapon stage: From Stage 3, rifles and snipers become available. Abilities that block sightlines or reveal enemies gain value at that point.

Gauntlet Compared to Other Modes

Many players are reminded of auto battlers or roguelikes: between rounds you build your kit from random offers and adapt to the lobby. Unlike Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch, it’s not just your aim that counts, but also how well you draft. And unlike Unrated or Competitive, there’s no economy and no Spike – just short 40-second duels that build up over seven stages. If you want to practice the regular kits, our agent overview has all the original abilities, and the full patch breakdown is in our Patch Notes 13.06.

HP Maths: How Many Losses Can You Afford?

If you want to take Gauntlet seriously, don’t just know the HP table – do the maths with it. The mode doesn’t reward the duo with the most wins, it rewards the duo that still has health left at the end. A quick look at the numbers shows how much room you really have in each phase. The scenarios below are pure calculations based on the official HP loss per stage.

The key takeaway: just one single loss per stage is enough to arrive at Stage 6 with only 20 HP. There, every loss costs 30 HP – so the next round you drop means you’re out. Flip that around and every round you win in Stages 3 to 5 is worth twice as much as a win in the first two stages, because it saves you 20 HP instead of 10.

1. Stages 1 and 2: This is where you’re allowed to experiment. Even a completely lost opening phase leaves you with 40 HP.
2. Stages 3 to 5: This is the decisive middle phase. Your kit should be in place and your duo should be in sync.
3. Stages 6 and 7: At 30 HP per loss, single rounds decide the match. If you arrive here with plenty of health, you can still afford mistakes.

Build Archetypes: Four Core Ideas for Your Kit

With 33 base abilities, the number of possible combinations is huge. To avoid clicking aimlessly through the draft, it helps to aim for a rough build type. The four archetypes below are our own classification, not official categories. Each example uses exactly one real ability from the Gauntlet pool per slot.

1. Mobility: Faster Than Your Opponent

Mobility builds thrive on surprising angles and quick escapes. In small arenas with 40-second rounds, an unexpected jump onto a box or a dash behind cover can decide a duel.

• C: Shrouded Step (Omen) – a short teleport that the “Shrouded Leap” path extends to a longer range.
• Q: Updraft (Jett) or Lightspeed (Waylay).
• E: Tailwind (Jett) or Rendezvous (Chamber).

2. Info and Control: Know Where the Enemy Is

In a 2v2, information is especially valuable because there are only two opponents. If you reveal one of them, you often have a good idea where the second one is too.

• C: Trapwire (Cypher) – with “Broadband” for more range or with “Data Network” for more charges.
• Q: FLASH/drive (KAY/O) or Slow Orb (Sage).
• E: Recon Bolt (Sova) or Haunt (Fade).

3. Defensive Bots: Let the Machines Do the Work

This build relies on abilities that enter the arena or open fire as their own unit – bots, creatures and turrets. That takes work off your hands in hectic rounds and ties up the enemy duo’s attention.

• C: Boom Bot (Raze) or Prowler (Fade).
• Q: Wingman (Gekko) or Trailblazer (Skye).
• E: Turret (Killjoy) – with “Mecha Legion” for multiple turrets or with “Turret go BRRR” for full-auto fire.

4. Sustain: Stay in the Fight Longer

Sustain builds win rounds in which both duos have already taken damage. They’re less flashy, but they pair well with a partner who plays aggressively up front.

• C: Barrier Orb (Sage) as cover you place yourself.
• Q: Slow Orb (Sage) to stall pushes.
• E: Healing Orb (Sage) – with “Spare Bandages” for more charges or with “Intensive Care” for longer healing.

Tip: Slot assignment follows the original key. That’s why you can rebuild some original kits completely: Jett with Cloudburst, Updraft and Tailwind, Sage with Barrier Orb, Slow Orb and Healing Orb, or Raze with Boom Bot, Blast Pack and Paint Shells. The mixes that don’t exist in the regular game are usually more exciting, though.

Synergies: Abilities That Boost Each Other

A strong kit is more than three good individual abilities. The combinations below are our take on which abilities work especially well together. Keep the C, Q and E slots in mind – a good combo ideally spreads across different slots or across both players in the duo.

• Reveal and damage: Recon Bolt (E) shows you where the enemy is, and Shock Bolt (Q) hits them right there. This classic Sova combo works in a hybrid kit too.
• Hold and area damage: GravNet (E) or Slow Orb (Q) slow the enemy down, while Paint Shells (E) or Guided Salvo (E) punish them for standing still. Since several of these sit on E, it pays to split them within your duo.
• Flash and go: FLASH/drive (Q) blinds, and Tailwind (E) puts you straight into the fight. Ideal for aggressive players.
• Tripwire and headshot: Trapwire (C) catches and reveals the enemy, while Headhunter (Q) gives you a precise pistol for the clean hit.
• Block and heal: Barrier Orb (C) creates cover behind which you can heal in peace with Healing Orb (E).
• Double bot pressure: Boom Bot (C) and Turret (E) force the enemy to deal with two threats at once while you do the shooting.

Using Rerolls and Upgrade Paths Wisely

Three rerolls sound like a lot, but they’re gone quickly if you want fresh offers after every round. As a rough rule of thumb, we recommend: only use a reroll when the current offers contain neither a useful new ability nor a fitting upgrade – in other words, when nothing fits your plan at all. An average upgrade is often better than a burned reroll.

Choosing your level 2 path is just as important, because level 3 powers up exactly that path. A few examples from the pool show how different the paths are:

• Updraft: “Trampoline” adds charges, “Touch The Sky” adds boost height. More charges help across many rounds, more height opens up unusual positions.
• Turret: “Mecha Legion” lets you run multiple turrets, “Turret go BRRR” turns burst fire into fully automatic fire.
• Trailblazer: “Sharp Teeth” increases bite damage, “Fast Feet” increases the wolf’s speed.
• Headhunter: “Bulk Order” gives you more ammo, while “Subscribe and Save” adds an ammo cooldown instead.

Our recommendation: at level 2, pick the path that fits your archetype, not the one that sounds strongest on paper. A mobility build benefits more from extra charges than from a single, especially strong use. You’ll find every path with its exact values in the ability overview above.

Glitch Risk: Not Every Transformation Is a Win

Glitches are the mode’s big draw, but they aren’t always an upgrade. Some of the documented variants trade damage for control or strip the ability of its actual strength. If your build relies on a specific function, you should know what can happen in the worst case.

• BE WATER (from Blaze): slows enemies, but no longer deals damage or heals you.
• Group Huddle (from Guided Salvo): pulls enemies to the center, but the pulses no longer deal damage.
• Slow and Steady (from Shock Bolt): hinders movement and fire rate, but no longer deals damage.
• Emphasis on Shield (from Healing Orb): a shield against one source of damage instead of healing.
• Greatest Dane (from Trailblazer): kills in one bite, but moves more slowly.
• They Are So Dead (from Headhunter): becomes Tour De Force, but with only one bullet.

Our take: glitches like these are very strong in a control build with a high-damage partner, but more of a risk in a pure damage build. If you want to stay predictable, go for abilities without a known glitch variant. As things stand, those are Prowler, Shrouded Step, Stim Beacon, Trapwire, Lightspeed, Slow Orb, Updraft, GravNet, Paint Shells, Recon Bolt, Refract, Rendezvous and Turret.

Duo Communication: Every Word Counts in 40 Seconds

40 seconds is short. There’s hardly time for long discussions mid-round, so you should sort out the important things beforehand. These points help:

• Agree before the draft: Who builds damage, who builds control? If you both draft the same thing, your duo will be missing something.
• Short calls: “One left, tagged” is plenty. In a 2v2 your partner knows exactly what that means.
• Act together: When one of you flashes, the other peeks right after. Two players attacking alone one after the other will lose to a coordinated duo.
• Coordinate ultimates: In the first round of Stage 4, both ultimates are ready immediately. Plan who pops theirs first.
• Watch the lobby: Once you’ve won your round, you can watch the other duos from the Winner’s Circle. Remember which builds look dangerous.

If you queue solo, the same applies – just with pings instead of voice. Even a single ping on an enemy’s position helps your random partner more than no information at all.

Matching Weapons and Abilities

Since weapon offers change with every stage, your kit should match them. In Stage 1 there are only pistols, the Shorty and the Frenzy – fights often happen at close range. Abilities that get you close to the enemy, like Tailwind, Shrouded Step or Lightspeed, fit well here. Stage 2 adds SMGs, the Bucky, the Marshal and the Ares, so the playing field opens up.

From Stage 3, rifles like the Vandal, the Phantom and the new Warden are on offer, along with the Guardian, Outlaw, Operator, Judge and Odin. The Warden has a 2x scope, an 18-round magazine and deals 50 damage per hit at any range, 200 to the head and 42 to the legs. Now abilities that block sightlines or reveal enemies gain value: Cloudburst, Cyber Cage and Recon Bolt help you start duels on your terms. If you want to train the Warden specifically, you can compare kill times in the TTK Duel.

Beginner Checklist for Your First Match

1. Start calm: Stages 1 and 2 only cost 10 HP per loss. Get to know the arenas and fill all three slots.
2. Pick an archetype: After two or three rounds, decide whether you’re playing mobility, info, bots or sustain.
3. Sync with your duo: Agree on who takes which role.
4. Plan upgrades: Bring your most important ability to level 2 and choose the path deliberately.
5. Save rerolls: Keep them for the middle phase, when you’re missing one specific piece.
6. Prepare for Stage 4: Remember that your ultimate is ready immediately in the first round.
7. Adapt your weapon: After every round, pick the weapon that fits your kit and the stage.
8. Requeue right away: You can search for a new match immediately – every match gets you XP and mission progress.

Common Mistakes That Cost You HP

• Playing only for glitches: According to Riot, the chance is rare. If you build your whole kit around it, you’ll usually end up with a weaker build.
• Spending all rerolls in Stage 1: Later, when 20 or 30 HP are on the line, you’ll miss them.
• Playing too passively: 40 seconds go by fast. If you just wait, you hand the initiative to the enemy.
• Copying your partner’s kit: Two pure damage builds lack control as a duo, two info builds lack damage.
• Wasting the Stage 4 round: If you don’t use your instantly ready ultimate, you’re throwing away the biggest advantage of the match.
• Ignoring the weapon stage: A short-range kit has a harder time against snipers and rifles from Stage 3 onward.

Why Gauntlet Is Good Practice for Ranked

Even though Gauntlet is a fun mode, there’s a lot you can take away for regular matches. The short 2v2 rounds train exactly the situations that often decide Ranked games: clutches, trades and reading an opponent quickly. On top of that, you try out abilities from agents you’d never play otherwise. If you notice that Killjoy’s Turret or Yoru’s Fakeout suits you, you might have found a new main – dig deeper with our agent test and the agent tier list. You’ll also get to know Tejo’s Guided Salvo or Special Delivery along the way.

For your aim between matches, our Aim Trainer and the Reflex Arena are a great fit. With the Performance Score you can rate your performance, and if you want to get to know the original maps behind the arenas better, you’ll find everything in our map overview. Craving even more chaos? The Strat Roulette and our fun tools bring some variety to your next custom game night with friends.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Gauntlet: Glitched in Valorant?

A limited-time mode from Patch 13.06: 16 players in 8 duos fight 2v2 rounds, draft abilities from different agents and level them up to level 3. The last surviving duo wins.

How much HP does a team have in Gauntlet?

Every duo starts with 100 HP. A loss costs 10 HP each in Stages 1 and 2, 20 HP each in Stages 3 to 5 and 30 HP each in Stages 6 and 7.

When does an ability glitch?

From the upgrade to level 2 onward, there’s a rare, random chance. Riot doesn’t give an exact probability. 20 glitch variants are known, for example C4 Bot for Raze’s Boom Bot or All Grown Up for Gekko’s Wingman.

How many rerolls do I get?

Three per match. Ultimate offers in Stage 4 can’t be rerolled.

When do I get an ultimate?

In the first round of Stage 4. The ultimate costs 4 points and is ready to use immediately in that round.

Can I play Gauntlet: Glitched with a friend?

Yes. You can queue solo or as a pair.

What rewards are there?

1,700 XP and 35 Kingdom Credits per match, 4 daily points per completed match and progress toward missions.

Is Retake still playable?

No. Riot removed Retake from the mode rotation with Patch 13.06.

Is the draft simulator official?

No, it’s a free fan tool by Valorant-Spind. The abilities, upgrades and glitches come from the patch notes and the official wiki; the glitch chance is an estimate.

How many losses can a duo survive in Gauntlet?

It depends on the stage. If you lose all six rounds in Stages 1 and 2, you still have 40 HP. With one loss each in Stages 1 to 5, you arrive at Stage 6 with 20 HP, where the next loss costs 30 HP.

Which abilities have no known glitch?

As things stand, no glitches are known for Prowler, Shrouded Step, Stim Beacon, Trapwire, Lightspeed, Slow Orb, Updraft, GravNet, Paint Shells, Recon Bolt, Refract, Rendezvous and Turret.

Can I rebuild the agents’ original kits?

Partly, yes. Because every ability sits on its original key, you can fully assemble Jett with Cloudburst, Updraft and Tailwind or Sage with Barrier Orb, Slow Orb and Healing Orb, for example.