There’s been quite a bit of chatter about Valorant’s anti-cheat system, Vanguard, since the upcoming FPS game’s launch in closed beta. Developer Riot Games has previously posted information about why it runs at system boot, and now the studio’s let the community know about another upcoming update which is designed to “give you, the player, more visibility and control over it”.
Senior software engineer in game security, Nemanja ‘0xNemi’ Mulasmajic, has posted about upcoming Vanguard changes on the multiplayer game’s subreddit, announcing: “While we normally don’t plan on documenting changes to Vanguard […] this new update to Vanguard adds a new visual component that will give you, the player, more visibility and control over it.” This update adds a new system tray icon which displays while Vanguard’s running, starting from today (following a reboot).
You can take a look at what this’ll look like at Imgur here. Using this icon, the dev explains, “you’ll be able to turn off Vanguard at any time.” However, switching the anti-cheat off puts your PC into “an untrusted mode”, which means you won’t be able to load up Valorant until you’ve rebooted.
Plus, Mulasmajic adds, “If you want to keep Vanguard off indefinitely until you play Valorant (for example, persisting across multiple reboot sessions), you’ll be able to do so more easily now by uninstalling it from the handy dandy system tray” – as demonstrated in an image here. Vangaurd will then get reinstalled when you next fire up Valorant on your system.
You can also disable the new tray icon via your Windows Notification Area if you’d prefer not to have it there, he says.
Following this, the dev answers some FAQs about the anti-cheat software, explaining: “The purpose of Vanguard is to make it difficult for all but the most determined to cheat, while also giving us the best chance to detect the cheats that do work. We’re not going to be able to prevent all cheating completely, but our intention is to raise the barrier to entry so that cheating isn’t a common occurrence in Valorant”.
You can expect the update to go live from today (April 28) – hopefully it’ll make keeping track of when Vanguard is and isn’t running easier for players.
If you’re getting stuck into the Valorant closed beta, we have a whole bunch of guides you might find handy, on the best Valorant weapons, Valorant spray patterns, as well as agents in Valorant, Sage, Jett, and Sova. Be sure to go take a look ahead of your next match.