Valorant Network Troubleshooter Released

Riot Games released a Valorant network troubleshooter guide on Dec. 2. This guide will help players understand what the trouble is with their game, and how to fix it. Some issues that have been noticeable by players are high average ping, low client frame rate per second (FPS), low server FPS, and network problems. Thankfully, this guide covers all of these troubles and the possible ways to troubleshoot to hopefully gain a better playing experience.

Here's a breakdown of everything in the guide, per Riot Games:

Valorant Network Troubleshooter Released

Instability Indicators

Before a player can even fix their game, they must be able to diagnose the problem by using the instability indicators.

The instability indicators are visual icons that can help the player understand the condition of their network and game.

Found in the top right corner, it can also be accessed via Settings, by going to General, then Other. In the ‘Other’ tab one can find an option for Instability Indicators.

If a player’s indicators appear, then that indicator has two thresholds: warning and critical.

Warning thresholds indicate that at some point, gameplay may start to decay, while critical thresholds represent that the game is about to become unplayable.

If these indicators persist for long periods of time, it’s time to diagnose what exactly is the problem. turn on the performance stat or graph displays for more detailed diagnostic information by going to Settings, Video, and then Stats. Under Stats, the player can see if there is an issue with the network connection or game client performance.

High Average Ping

This indicates that the round trip time for data to transfer between the client and the server has exceeded ideal conditions.

Warning: Player will start to see a more delayed view of the world, increasing the peeker's advantage and the chance that players' shots may drop upon death.

Critical: Round trip time is approaching the ‘unplayable’ range

Troubleshooting Tips:

1. Restart router and any network devices
2. Try switching to a wired connection if possible
3. Check the ping to other internet sources
4. Use Tracert to obtain network logs for diagnosing
5. Reach out to Internet Service Provider with details

Low Client FPS

This indicates that player's game frame rate is reduced.

Warning: Player will start to see occasional dropped frames.

Critical: Player will start to see a severe reduction of framerate. The game will appear disjointed and hop from frame to frame.

Troubleshooting Tips:

The cause for low client frame rate varies from machine to machine.

1. Try closing any other applications that are currently running
2. If that doesn’t help, determine if GPU-bound or CPU-bound by using Valorant's built-in performance graphs under Settings > Video > Stats to help figure this out.
3. Lower graphics quality settings
4. Additionally, try disabling: Improve Clarity, Experimental Sharpening, Bloom, Distortion, and Cast Shadows.

Low Server FPS

This indicates that the server’s game framerate is reduced, which potentially impacts all players connected in the game. Actions processed by the server may result in odd or corrected game behavior.

Warning: Player will start to see inconsistencies between the player's actions and how the server resolves them.

Critical: Player will start to see a severe level of inconsistent game behavior, such as server movement corrections.

This issue is on the fault of Riot Games, and only with time and more updates in order to support a 128-tick rate for live games.

Network Problem

This indicator appears when networking issues are beginning to impact gameplay (degrading player movement or input processing). This is most commonly triggered by consistent, high rates of packet loss or brief disconnects.

Warning: Players might move erratically, or player actions may be delayed or disregarded on the server.

Critical: Players are experiencing a long network outage. This usually indicates that a complete disconnect is impending.

Troubleshooting Tips:

1. Turn on incoming/outgoing packet loss graphs in-game. High-quality wireless and most wired connections should have near-zero packet loss at all times.
2. Try restarting the router or switching to a wired connection if possible.
3. Try enabling the network buffering setting to reduce Valorant’s demands on your network.
4. Investigate router diagnostics, and review packet loss logging if available. (ISP support can help with this)
5. Reach out to ISP with this data