We understand that you have probably never attempted to hack in a game…
If you’re worried about others gaining an unfair advantage, Riot has put various safeguards in place to ensure that everyone plays fairly.
Riot’s Valorant beta will be released alongside Vanguard, a controversial anti-cheat tool. Nobody knew how to get it at first; today, it’s included with beta access, but it’s causing issues for many users.
Before you join the Valorant beta, here’s all you need know about Riot’s Vanguard.
How to Download Vanguard’s Anti-Cheat
Vanguard will be installed separately on your PC if you install Valorant right now. Vanguard is an anti-cheat tool designed to detect and prevent attempts at hacking or exploiting Valorant in order to maintain a feeling of competitive integrity, to use Riot’s terminology.
With Valorant, Riot has taken a proactive approach to security and cheating, including a crackdown on beta vendors. You can still install the Valorant client and attach it to your Twitch account if you haven’t been whitelisted for the Vanguard beta, but it won’t come with the game.
Reboot your PC after you’ve gained access to the beta, and Vanguard should be installed immediately. As of this writing, you can’t get it anyplace else; it’s only available to players who have their accounts marked for Valorant beta access.
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However, because this is still a beta, there will be bugs in the system, such as the dreaded Error Codes 51, 29, and 43, which we have guides for. Another error that can prevent you from joining a Valorant match is “Vanguard not initialised,” which means the game will not start because of a Vanguard malfunction.
If you’re getting this issue, consider stopping and relaunching the Valorant client to give Vanguard a chance to work properly again.
Remove Vanguard from your computer if that doesn’t work. Vanguard must be uninstalled individually after uninstalling Valorant. Vanguard should be automatically downloaded and reinstalled the next time you run the Valorant client.
After that, reboot your computer and you should be good to go. If not, you’ll need to open a support ticket with Riot.
If Vanguard is operating flawlessly, though, this could lead to more issues.
For the past several weeks, a debate has erupted regarding Vanguard’s level of access and control over the systems on which it is installed, including a Reddit thread highlighting how intrusive it is.
Vanguard is supposed to be on your computer to safeguard Valorant’s processes against exploits, and if it detects cheating, it will automatically end the match.
Nobody’s rank will be lowered or their record will be ruined; the entire battle will be wiped clean, complete with a large red error screen that looks suspiciously like a self-destruct message.
However, Vanguard has been built to gain a level of access to your system that is generally reserved for extremely aggressive anti-virus software in order to do so.
Stopping a cheater in a video game with a tool like this is like bringing in the entire Marine Corps to stop a purse thief.
This is in addition to the usual issues that a security suite might cause, such as conflicting with other programmes or even interrupting critical system activities.
As of this writing, the Valorant subreddit is full with horror stories of Vanguard producing Blue Screens of Death, shutting down the system’s mouse and keyboard drivers, or recognising common apps as vulnerabilities and blocking them without informing the user.
This also means that if Vanguard were to be hacked, the hacker would have direct access to all of the million-plus PCs running the Valorant beta client. Riot is more concerned about data security than many other video game businesses, and takes intrusive tactics such as paying people to try to hack into Riot’s servers from the outside in order to test its systems, but nothing is impossible.
Riot has already addressed a few of Vanguard’s issues, which is to its credit. Earlier versions of Vanguard, for example, would start up with the system.
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Paul “Arkem” Chamberlain wrote a blog post on Valorant’s website on May 6th, discussing why Riot is being so proactive about anti-cheat measures, and what it’s doing to keep Valorant’s gameplay as honest as possible, but he didn’t specifically mention the issues caused by Vanguard in its current state.
In the meanwhile, participants in the beta must continue to submit support tickets and report any issues they encounter. Hopefully, by the time Valorant is ready for public release, Vanguard will have been reduced to a manageable size while still preventing cheating.
While you’re enjoying the Valorant beta, keep an eye on Vanguard.
Here at Prima, we’ve been playing a lot of Valorant beta and have daily news, tips, and tutorials to help you conquer the game. Visit our Valorous gaming portal to see some of our other content:
