How to Unlock Agents in Valorant Before Patch 13.06 Hits

Riot Games published the 13.05 patch notes for Valorant on Tuesday, September 1, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC, i.e. 3:00 PM Paris time — the timestamp comes from the JSON-LD of the official page, the conversion is our own. Riot concedes as much regarding the content: "we've got a small patch for you, mostly composed of bug fixes". But it sets a deadline that deserves a game plan: the Agent Gear system is being overhauled on Tuesday, September 22, 2026.

Between Friday, September 4, 2026 and that date, there are 18 days left. And the publisher isn't just announcing the switch, it's asking players to make the most of it beforehand: "level up now to get all the items!", it sums up at the top of the notes.

What changes on September 22, word for word

The passage runs three sentences long, signed "Hi, it's Ash" in the English version of the notes:

With the release of patch 13.06 on September 22, we're going to rework the Agent Gear system and how you unlock items on that progression track. You'll always keep the gear you've already earned, and you'll continue to use Kingdom Credits to unlock future gear. But after patch 13.06, each piece of gear will be tied directly to how much you play the associated Agent.

We checked both localizations: the French version writes that each item will be "directement lié au temps que vous passez à jouer l'agent associé". No divergence, the translation is faithful.

The call to action explicitly targets a specific group of players: "if you're grinding for Agent Gear on Agents you don't normally play, now's a great time to push through and unlock them." The publisher is warning you that it's closing a door.

Why the current system doesn't care which Agent you play

To measure what's being lost, we need to go back to the only official English description of the system: the article "Progression Update Explainer + FAQ", published on June 15, 2023 with Episode 7. Riot has never updated it since. It's a three-year-old document that's still the reference point, and we're flagging that rather than presenting it as a fresh page.

It lays out three rules. The track has ten tiers: "There are 10 Agent Gear tiers, just as there were 10 levels in Agent Contracts." You must own the character: "in order to unlock an Agent's gear, you must first own the corresponding Agent." And the currency drops everywhere, with no link to the targeted Agent: Kingdom Credits are earned in any mode, with a bonus per round won.

It's this third point that's disappearing. In the current system, you can unlock all ten tiers for an Agent you've never once loaded into a match, because you were playing something else. Afterward, the counter that will matter is the one tied to the Agent itself.

The 10,000 Kingdom Credits cap is driving the timeline

Two figures dictate the strategy. The first is in the FAQ text: "You cannot hold more than 10,000 credits at once, so spend them!" The second appears nowhere in the French copy: it exists only on an English-language screenshot embedded in the French infographic above, which gives 1,000 XP and 150 credits per completed milestone, up to a limit of four milestones per day. We're citing it because it's the only official source, while noting that it's in English and three years old.

The conclusion is mechanical: over a full 18 days, the daily milestones alone yield more than the account can hold. It's therefore impossible to hoard and then spend it all on the evening of the 21st: you have to spend as you go. This is our deduction from the published cap; Riot never states at any point that excess credits are lost.

What remains a black hole: the price of a tier is not published on any official French page. We won't invent it. The amount displays in the client before you confirm the purchase.

The steps to follow, in order

1. List the agents you own but don't play. They're the target: their gear becomes costly in time after September 22.
2. Check that you actually own the agent. The track stays locked as long as the character doesn't belong to you, and unlocking it costs credits, which changes the trade-off.
3. If you're an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, make use of it. Riot writes that "your agents are therefore counted as owned for obtaining their associated gear, as long as your subscription is active." It's the most cost-effective lever of these 18 days.
4. Spend before you hit the cap. There's no going back: "No purchase made with Kingdom Credits is refundable."
5. Weigh it against the accessory store. Credits also go toward player cards, sprays, titles, and charms from past battle passes. No known deadline weighs on those.
6. Play the modes that advance the milestones. Deathmatch is the only mode explicitly excluded by Riot.

This grid dates back to June 2023 and has never been republished, even as the mode catalog has moved on: Skirmish and Retake, since featured by Riot in its own articles, don't appear in it. With four charges per milestone and four milestones per day, completing a full day requires sixteen won rounds in long formats, or eight matches in short formats. That's our calculation based on Riot's figures.

What Riot Didn't Say

The unknowns are serious. The publisher announces no numerical threshold: no hours played, no number of matches, no visible counter. It doesn't indicate whether time already played on an agent will count at the moment of the switch, nor what happens to a stockpile of credits made useless on abandoned agents. And the phrase "the way you unlock items" leaves open the question of whether credits will remain a cost or become a simple add-on.

A note on method: as of Friday, September 4, 2026, the patch notes page for 13.06 does not yet exist in French on playvalorant.com, it returns an HTTP 404. Everything circulating beyond the three quoted sentences therefore does not come from Riot, which only promises "a particularly substantial upcoming update for 13.06."

Two other dated deadlines appear in the same patch: the Champions Shanghai Pick'Ems open "starting September 10" and must be validated "before the start of the group stage on September 24"; and Riot now penalizes "the use of stream sniping or insta-lock tools" with temporary suspensions, which can become permanent.

In Practice

Eighteen days, a currency capped at 10,000 units, and a rule that disappears on Tuesday, September 22, 2026. Priority goes to the agents you already own, whose loadout you like, and whom you never play: these are the only ones whose real cost will increase, since you'll now have to spend time on them.

For your usual mains, there's no rush: their progression will follow your playtime, that's exactly the announced principle. And if you're only after cosmetics from old battle passes, hold on to your credits, no deadline weighs on that shop. The window closing is the one for agent gear, and that one alone.