Grind through those games and level up your account in VALORANT.
Riot Games utilizes multiple metrics to measure overall player performance in VALORANT – Rank, Rank Rating, MMR, and Act Rank, just to name a few.
Unfortunately, none of these metrics will give you an idea of how long a player has played VALORANT. You’ll need to look at a player’s Account Level.
There’s more to Account Level than just random numbers denoting a player’s in-game mileage. As you’ll learn in this guide, Account Level is key in determining a player’s Ranked eligibility and plays an important role in keeping Smurf accounts to a minimum in-game.
In this quick guide, we have outlined everything you need to know about Account Level in VALORANT.
What is Account Level for?
Instead of showing a total playtime for each player in VALORANT, Riot Games uses Account Level to denote how long a player has played their first-person shooter since the game officially came out in June 2020. Players must also reach a specific Account Level before queueing in Ranked games.
Since Episode 4, players must now be at least Level 20 before they can start playing Ranked Games in VALORANT. Riot Games changed Rank Restriction to discourage players from creating Smurf accounts in VALORANT.
Account Level will show up as a unique border on your player card, and you can unlock more designs as you level up your account. Players who created and played using the accounts before Episode 3 will start at Account Level 1. In contrast, players who have played VALORANT before Episode 3 will get an adjusted Account Level that reflects the total playtime they have spent in-game.
How to Level Up your Account in VALORANT
You need to collect 5,000 AP to move up one level in VALORANT. You can level up your account in VALORANT by playing various game modes such as Competitive, Deathmatch, Swiftplay, or Spike Rush.
You will get 1 Account Point (AP) for every minute you play in any of these matches and a bonus of 1,000 AP for your first win of the day.
Read: How To See Dead Bodies in Valorant
Winning matters a lot when leveling up your Account in VALORANT, as you’ll earn as much as 50 AP for winning matches after your first win of the day and every game after that. You’ll still get AP for every match you lose, but not as much as when you manage to win your matches.
How long does it take to get a VALORANT account to Level 20?
You can get 1,000 AP for winning your first game of the day, and subsequent wins will also give you bonus AP. Of course, your mileage may vary depending on how many wins you manage to eke out daily. It can take up to around 70 hours of playtime to reach Level 20 in VALORANT.
Seventy hours doesn’t sound like much, but you’re easily looking at up to two months of grinding VALORANT daily before you can get to Level 20 on your new account.
Will Account Level Reset?
Account Level will never reset in VALORANT – your badge of honor displays how much time you’ve spent and how many games you’ve won in VALORANT.
Unlike Act Rank, which resets every Act, Account Level in VALORANT is permanent, and you’ll even get the appropriate Player Card Border to show off your current Account Level in-game.
Anti-Smurf Mechanics
Other than being a requirement for Ranked Queue and a way to determine a player’s total playtime, there is no other practical use for Account Level in VALORANT. Nevertheless, it can be a valuable metric in VALORANT that can give you a good idea about how good your teammates or enemies will be relative to their rank.
