The VALORANT development team recently hosted a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) to address the community’s burning questions regarding Patch 13.06.
The discussion focused heavily on the mechanics of the new Performance Score system, the future of Agent Mastery, and the current state of agent balance. Here is a breakdown of the most important takeaways from the dev AMA.
Breaking Down the Performance Score System
The introduction of the Performance Score—which replaced Average Combat Score (ACS)—has sparked massive debate, particularly among Sentinel and lurker players who felt the new system might not accurately reward their playstyles.
The devs provided several clarifications on how the math actually works:
- The Value of Kills vs. Trades: Getting kills remains the most impactful factor in your Performance Score. However, the new “Trade” stat counts both when you trade a teammate’s death and when your death is traded by a teammate.
- Adjusted Kills: The new stat screen features an “Adjusted Kills” metric. While the devs did not explicitly lay out the formula, it appears similar to the old ACS system where getting the first kill of a round is weighted heavier than securing the final kill.
- Agent-Specific Utility: The devs confirmed that utility scores are normalized on an agent-by-agent basis. The system recognizes that a Chamber tripwire and a Clove smoke impact a round in vastly different ways. They noted that they are actively tuning this specific metric to ensure it is as accurate as possible.
Does Performance Score Impact Ranked Rating (RR)? The short answer is no.
The devs explicitly stated that there is no direct correlation between a high Performance Score and gaining massive amounts of RR. The Performance Score exists simply to show you how much you impacted that specific game. What ultimately rewards you with MMR and RR gains is the winning outcome of the match, weighed against the MMR of the lobby you were playing in. Farming first bloods will not artificially inflate your RR gains.
Agent Mastery and Kingdom Credits
Players have been eager to know if the Agent Mastery system will expand beyond its initial rewards, and whether the Kingdom Credit cap will ever be raised.
- Future Mastery Rewards: The current Mastery system is considered an “early version.” The devs are actively monitoring what resonates with players and have a lot of internal ideas on how to expand the system beyond just basic rewards. They are currently looking into new ways for players to show off their customized Agent IDs in-game, perhaps even integrating them into the death recap screen.
- Kingdom Credit Cap: The team is discussing the Kingdom Credit cap “at length.” Before committing to raising the cap, they want to observe the overall spending trends across the game’s economy to ensure they make the right decision.
Agent Balance: Neon Nerfs Are Coming
When asked about the general state of the meta, the devs openly highlighted Neon as a current pain point.
Neon is currently sitting on the stronger end of their internal metrics (like win rate), but more importantly, the devs acknowledge that she is highly frustrating to play against. The Agents and Balance Lead stated that she is currently out of line with their tactical principles and experiential gameplay across multiple skill brackets.
What will the nerfs look like? The devs confirmed that whatever comes for Neon in the future will likely not be raw number nerfs. Instead, they are looking to adjust her core gameplay pattern. They are actively iterating and testing multiple changes, though no specific timeline was given.
The devs noted they are being extra careful with these upcoming balance changes, citing previous instances (like Yoru) where they “overswung” and nerfed an agent too harshly. Players can expect a “splattering of buffs and nerfs” in the works, likely arriving in the next Act following the Champions tournament.
