Gauntlet: Glitched is an experimental Valorant mode that swaps the usual 40-minute match for short bursts of 2v2 combat. Instead of picking a set agent, you build a hybrid Robo-Agent from randomized abilities, upgrade those powers between rounds, and fight until one duo is left standing. It arrives with Patch 13.06.
Quick answer: Eight teams of two draft and upgrade abilities each round, then fight 2v2. Losing a round drains your health bar, and hitting zero eliminates your duo. A full game runs about 8 to 15 minutes and the mode goes live on September 22, 2026.
How a Gauntlet: Glitched match plays out
The mode is a 16-player format built around eight duos. You can queue solo and get matched with a partner, or bring a friend. Each round pairs your team against another duo in a 2v2 duel, tournament-style, until a single team remains.
Health is the currency that keeps you in the running. Win a round and your duo stays healthy. Lose one and your shared life bar drops. Once it reaches zero, your run is over. That elimination-on-empty structure is closer to an auto-battler than a standard Valorant match.
The core loop is a roguelike rhythm of draft, fight, then draft again. Weapons are still part of the fight, but progression is staged the way it works in Team Deathmatch, moving you from pistols up to heavier options such as the new Warden rifle as the field narrows.
Between rounds, you can step onto a practice platform with floating targets that overlooks the arenas, so downtime can go toward warming up your aim rather than waiting idle.
The ability draft and upgrade system
Every round opens with a randomized draft screen that works like a slot pull. You are handed a set of options and pick one, either adding a new ability to your kit or upgrading one you already own. Abilities scale from Level 1 to Level 3, and each level adds power and new effects to the selected ability.
Because the draft is randomized, no two runs look the same. You can spread your picks across several abilities to cover more situations, or double down on one power to push it to the game-breaking effects that appear at Level 3. The glitched element also lets familiar abilities behave in ways that would never work in a normal match.
Upgrade examples
| Ability | Base effect | Upgraded effect |
|---|---|---|
| Yoru’s Fakeout | A decoy that flashes enemies who destroy it | The decoy shoots bullets on its own |
| Skye’s Trailblazer | A wolf that scouts ahead and concusses enemies | A giant animal that can kill in one bite |
| Gekko’s Wingman | A small helper that concusses the first enemy it finds | A much larger version that concusses the first enemy it finds |
Other abilities pulled from the standard roster have been spotted in the pool, though their exact upgrade paths are not confirmed. One clip showed a player spawning three Yoru Fakeouts at once, each heading a separate direction.
- Tejo’s Guided Salvo
- Deadlock’s Gravnet
- Fade’s Haunt
- Raze’s Blast Pack
- Jett’s Cloudburst
- Omen’s Shrouded Step
- Astra’s Nebula
- Gekko’s Dizzy
Robo-Agents instead of standard agents
You do not play a named Valorant agent in this mode. Instead you control a hybrid robot resembling KAY/O that can strip abilities from the existing roster and combine them in glitched ways. That is what makes the wildest kits possible, since you can pair powers that never share an agent in a normal game.
The four Stitched Simulation arenas
Gauntlet: Glitched runs on four purpose-built arenas that take cues from existing Valorant maps, including Breeze, Icebox, and Corrode. They read as distorted versions of familiar bomb sites, fused together at visible glitching seams to create compact spaces tuned for fast 2v2 fights. The result feels recognizable but noticeably off, which is the point.
Why the mode favors duos of any rank
The whole design leans on what Riot calls controlled variance. The randomness of the draft acts as an equalizer, so a Diamond and a Bronze player can queue together and both feel impactful without one carrying or feeling carried. Purpose-built arenas and staged weapon progression add to that balance.
Plan your builds together. Because you and your partner draft separately each round, coordinating which abilities you diversify and which you push to Level 3 gives your duo the most combined impact.
Release date
Gauntlet: Glitched launches on September 22, 2026 as part of Patch 13.06, the same update that brings the Warden rifle and the new Agent Mastery progression system. The timing lands just before Champions in Shanghai, and the Warden is being kept out of that event.
