Valorant’s Vanguard anti-cheat is moving toward on-demand mode

Riot is adding an on-demand mode for Valorant’s Vanguard anti-cheat, meaning eligible players will no longer need the driver active at all times outside gameplay. The change depends on a new system check rather than being available to every PC immediately.

To use the mode, players will need to pass Riot’s “Vanguard Pre-Check,” which includes Windows 11 25H2, Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, IOMMU, and Virtualization-Based Security. The report says Riot estimates around 35% of players already meet the requirements, though that figure should be confirmed against Riot’s own post before publication.

The technical shift is tied to Windows Runtime Driver Attestation, described as a way for Vanguard to verify whether suspicious drivers were loaded before the anti-cheat started. That matters because Vanguard’s always-on model was originally defended as a way to stop cheats from preparing the system before the game opened.

For Valorant players, the update addresses one of the longest-running complaints about Vanguard since the game’s 2020 launch: the feeling that anti-cheat protection extended too far beyond active play. The editorial question now is whether the new eligibility requirements will make this feel like a broad privacy win or a limited benefit for newer, more secure PCs.