2026 is underway, and to kick things off, Season 2026 Act 1 is about to start for Valorant players. The act will bring several additions to the title, from a brand-new pistol to changes in several maps and new skins across the board.
While we wait for the act to go live, we have gathered all the information about the new content so you can get in the loop before you jump into the action.
When Does Valorant Season 2026 Act 1 Start?
As listed on the in-game battle pass page, Season 2026 Act 1 of Valorant is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, January 7.
The new season will go live once patch 12.00 rolls out across all regions. The update is expected to drop on Tuesday, January 6, or Wednesday, January 7, depending on the region you play.
Regardless of the date, the patch rollout will start on Tuesday at 6:00 AM PT for North America, LATAM, and Brazil servers. On the other hand, the patch will roll out on Wednesday at 4:00 AM GMT for European servers.
Cinematic
To start promoting the new content, Riot released the following cinematic music video titled Why We Fight Back, which focuses on Viper:
Breeze Changes
On top of getting added back into the competitive map pool, Breeze is getting a rework in this act. The following video, posted on the game's official account on X (formerly Twitter), goes over all the changes:
As you can see, almost all areas have received major changes, with some structures moved, new objects added, and even entire sections getting revamped. The only areas that will stay relatively the same are probably the spawns.
The following post shows how the new Breeze minimap looks in-game:
New Weapon: Bandit
A new weapon called Bandit is getting introduced and will join the sidearm/pistols category.
Here are all the stats for the new pistol at launch:
- Price: 600 credits
- Attachments: None
- Bullets per Magazine: 8
- Ammo Reserve: 24
- Reload Timing: 1.5s
- Equip Timing: .75s
- Wall Penetration: Medium
Other Details
Here are other minor details about the new act so you don't miss out on anything:
- A new bundle called Ayakashi will arrive at the start of the Act.
- The cinematic shows a coordinate in Mexico, pointing to the location of the next map. If true, the map could arrive sometime soon, but maybe in a future act.
- The 2026 VCT Team Capsules will go live on January 13th, and you can take a look at all the new Classic skins below:
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