Valorant: Act 4 ends on August 19 — the checklist to finish the battle pass and lose nothing

Season 2026 Act 4 of Valorant ends on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. On that date, the server switches over to Act 5 and the current battle pass disappears for good, along with anything you haven't unlocked: the Sky Reaper Ghost given free at tier 50, the Sky Reaper Sword melee at the same tier on the premium side, the Boom Ball flex at tier 45, and the Intertwine and Tacti-Guild collections. As of August 7, there are twelve days left.

Another deadline has already passed: the Act 4 Night Market closed its doors on July 29. The next one won't arrive until sometime during Act 5, with no date announced — no point saving your VP hoping for a miracle before the 19th. What's actually at stake right now is just the pass, your missions, and your act rank.

Here are the exact battle pass numbers, the math on what you still need to grind based on your current tier, the most efficient routine over twelve days, and the trade-offs to consider if tier 50 is out of reach.

The August 19 deadlines, explained

• End of Act 4: switchover to Act 5 on August 19, 2026, with a new battle pass. The act will have lasted 56 days (launched June 24 with patch 13.00).
• Act 4 battle pass: the final stretch to rack up XP, but also to buy the premium version (1,000 VP) — the purchase retroactively unlocks all premium rewards for tiers already reached, so waiting until the last minute to decide is a perfectly valid strategy.
• Night Market: closed since July 29. The next one is expected during Act 5; Riot usually only gives about a week's notice.
• RETAKE: the 3v3 mode introduced in patch 13.00 (and extended to Split, Corrode, and Lotus in 13.02) is officially temporary. Riot hasn't confirmed whether it will carry over into Act 5 — if you still want to play it, don't wait.
• Act rank: your Competitive rank as of August 19 is the one that will remain locked in for Act 4.

The battle pass by the numbers: what you have left to grind

The pass has 50 tiers plus 5 epilogue tiers. The cost climbs sharply: from tier 2 to tier 50, each tier costs roughly (tier number × 750) + 500 XP — that's 2,000 XP for tier 2, but 37,250 XP for tier 49. Each epilogue tier costs 36,500 XP. In total: roughly 980,000 XP to reach tier 50, and 1,162,500 XP including the epilogue, according to figures compiled by Switchblade Gaming — which we double-checked through our own calculations, and which match the costs shown in-game.

Concretely, here's what you need to produce per day between now and August 19 depending on your current tier:

Honest reading of this table: below tier 35 on August 7, aiming for tier 50 requires more than 40,000 daily XP, meaning three to four hours of efficient play every day. That's doable during a vacation, unrealistic otherwise — in that case, it's better to target a specific tier (see below). From tier 40 onward, it's achievable with serious sessions. At tier 45 and beyond, a well-run daily routine is enough. The epilogue, for its part, represents an additional 182,500 XP: reserve it for very high play volumes.

The routine that maximizes XP over twelve days

Two mechanics feed the pass. First, match XP: 100 XP per round played, plus 200 XP per round won, regardless of your individual impact in the round. Then the missions: the four daily checkpoints grant 1,000 XP each, or 4,000 XP per day for ten to fifteen minutes of natural play — over the course of an act, that's nearly a fifth of the pass's total XP. Don't skip a single day.

• Unrated, Competitive, Premier: 3,700 to 5,000 XP per 30- to 40-minute match. This is the best raw yield, especially in the event of a long victory.
• Deathmatch: 800 to 1,000 XP in about nine minutes. Perfect for rounding out a session or warming up your aim without eating up the whole evening.
• Swiftplay: short matches (first team to 5 rounds won), modest per-match yield but ideal for knocking out daily checkpoints in minimum time.
• Spike Rush: about 1,000 XP in a quarter of an hour, best reserved for missions suited to it.

The weekly missions remain the game's biggest individual XP chunks: clear them first each week, there are still two sets left before the end of the act. The most efficient daily combo, noted in particular by Dot Esports: a win in Competitive or Unrated followed by a win in Swiftplay is generally enough to complete all the dailies. Finally, the premium pass adds a 3% XP bonus on matchmaking games — marginal, but over twelve days of grinding, it's not nothing.

To put the effort into perspective: full dailies plus three Unrated matches represent about 16,000 to 19,000 XP per day, or roughly two hours. That's the pace that would have let you finish the pass by playing starting June 24 — when catching up at the end of the act, you often have to double that dose.

Which rewards to prioritize if you can't get everything

If tier 50 is out of reach, choose your target with full knowledge of the facts:

• Tier 50, free track: the Ghost Sky Reaper, with its variants. This is the most generous reward on the free track this act, and the number-one goal even without premium.
• Tier 50, premium: the Sky Reaper Sword melee weapon, the pass's centerpiece.
• Tier 45, premium: the Boom Ball flex, already a cult item on social media.
• Spread across the track: the Intertwine weapons (including the Guardian) and Tacti-Guild weapons (Phantom, Judge, Classic), player cards — including Iso's Unstoppable card —, sprays, gun buddies, and Radianite Points, always useful for upgrading your existing skins.

Two last-minute levers: the retroactive purchase of the premium pass mentioned above (only buy it once you know your final tier, you'll get everything all at once), and directly buying tiers with VP in the client, as a last resort — do the math coldly, since across several tiers the total quickly exceeds the price of a store skin you might actually prefer.

Competitive: what locks in on August 19

Your act rank locks in at the switchover: if an end-of-act milestone matters to you — locking in Ascendant, securing Immortal — you have twelve days of RR left to bank, not one more. Good news for what's coming: Season 2026 only has two big ranked resets per year, at the start of the season and at mid-season. An ordinary act change like the one on August 19 translates into a light reset: a single placement match, and a starting rank close to the one you finished on. So no multi-rank drop to fear, but also no reason to let a symbolic milestone slip away when it's within reach right now.

After August 19: what we already know about Act 5

Act 5 kicks off on August 19 with its own battle pass — you start from scratch, but this time with the daily-quest reflex from day one. The next night market will open partway through the act, on a date Riot will announce roughly a week ahead. On the roster side, no new agent has been announced: Miks, the Croatian controller teased as "Agent 30" around Masters Santiago, launched in March with Act 2, and Riot hasn't said anything since about a successor. The main thing on the horizon is esports: VCT Champions 2026 will be held in Shanghai from September 24 to October 18, with the usual batch of in-game content to expect.

Your action plan, starting tonight

Open the client and check your exact tier, then find yourself in the table above. Tier 40 or higher: the daily routine — checkpoints, weeklies, two or three real matches — gets you there. Tier 30 to 35: pick a realistic target (the free Ghost at tier 50 if you can keep the streak going, the Boom Ball at tier 45 otherwise) and focus every session on it. Below that: lock in your remaining weeklies, don't miss another daily, and hold off on the premium decision until August 18, once your final tier is known. On the morning of the 19th, Act 5 will begin — best to go into it with no regrets.