Valorant has spawned enough surrounding work that the ordering question comes up constantly.

Short answer

Treat it as supplementary. Enjoyable on its own, and richer if you have played first.

Assets circulated online are often ripped rather than released, which affects what you can legally do with them. Official art books contain material that never appears in the game itself. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first.

What exists officially

Fan work is frequently better than official work and is not the same thing. Adaptations take liberties, and the interesting ones take them deliberately. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. Canon status is decided by the developers rather than by the adaptation's writers.

Release order and chronological order are different, and both have their advocates. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. Licensed soundtracks are the most likely part to be missing from a re-release.

Whether it is worth your time

Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

  • Buy from the publisher's own store where one exists.
  • Play first if you mind spoilers — adaptations rarely respect them.
  • Check the version you are actually running before assuming anything is broken.
  • Expect licensed music to be missing from re-releases.
  • Check whether something is official before treating it as canon.
  • Stop and reassess after two failed attempts rather than repeating the third.

Where it fits with the game

It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see.

Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional.

What is fan-made

Valorant is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. Everything below is framed around the current state of Valorant rather than a launch-week impression.

Where to find it legitimately

A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration.

Where people go wrong

  • Skipping the prerequisite because it looked optional in someone else's summary.
  • Changing five things at once and then not knowing which one helped.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.

Valorant FAQ

Does this work the same on console and PC?

The logic is identical. Menu paths and button prompts differ, and any real difference is flagged above.

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

Where can I get it legally?

Publisher stores and licensed platforms carry all of it. Anything circulating as a free file is a rip.

Is it any good?

The reception is mixed and depends heavily on what you wanted from it. The section above sets that expectation honestly.

If you only take one thing from this: the answer near the top is the part that matters, the rest is context.