Riot Games has developed and published VALORANT, a 5vs5 Character-based First-Person Shooter. VALORANT takes elements from numerous FPS games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rainbow Six: Siege, and Overwatch, and melds them into a tense, pertinent and devastating shooter experience. Within a near-future dystopian world, players assume the role of “agents,” each of whom possesses unique abilities to complement their lethal arsenal of 17 different weapons each. The game’s competitive mode is a 5v5 match with one team taking the role of attackers and another team taking the role of defenders. The first team to reach 13 rounds wins the match. Both attackers and defenders must detonate an item called “the spike” at one of two (or three) points on the battlefield, while the attacker is aiming to plant and detonate “the spike,” while the defender is attempting to prevent “the spike” from detonating. Both teams can win on elimination if they eliminate the enemy in the round. The total time of each round is 2:10 minutes, with 30 seconds dedicated to the preparation period, and 1:40 minutes for each team to accomplish their objective. Round 13 sees the teams switching sides.
As of now, Valorant is PC-only, making it the hottest competitive shooter available today. However, you’re likely aware that personal computers run on several operating systems. In this light, the next question is probably obvious: Is Valorant compatible with Linux?
Is Valorant available on Linux OS?
There is no Linux version of Valorant. At the moment, the game does not support Linux at all. Although it’s technically possible to play it on non-Windows operating systems, Valorant’s anti-cheat system is currently unusable on anything but Windows 10 machines. Most likely, if you are reading this, you or someone you know is considering running Valorant under Linux. You might think it’s technically possible to run Valorant with certain distributions since compatibility layer software like Wine can usually run Windows programs.
The game’s (often controversial) anti-cheat system, Riot Vanguard, is not well supported by Wine. As a result, Riot Vanguard has been designed to run at the ring 0 level or kernel level of Windows PCs. The application was not designed for any other platform – not for macOS, nor video game consoles using current-generation operating systems. Despite being possible to get the game running, it will be impossible to connect with official matchmaking servers without Vanguard being fully operational. The fact that Valorant cannot be played on Linux makes it unplayable for a competitive online shooter.
There are, however, some users who are determined enough to try to run Valorant anyway. In an attempt to get the game working on Linux machines, many have turned to Lutris, the open-source gaming platform. However, it does not seem to be working yet. This forum post and others show that the game’s installation program crashes on a wide variety of distributions, including Lutris itself, Ubuntu, Manjaro, Linux Mint, and more.
The question has been raised as to whether Valorant can be played on Linux through streaming services such as GeForce Now. Unfortunately, this cannot be done.
All cloud gaming services are based on virtual machines, but Valorant doesn’t play well with them. Although cloud-based services work, their inherent latency would cause serious disadvantages to players who play online.
Simply put, Valorant isn’t compatible with Linux. Games are not supported, Riot Vanguard anti-cheating isn’t supported, and the installation itself crashes across most major distributions. Install the game on a Windows PC if you want to play Valorant properly.
