This sits outside the game itself, which is exactly why it is hard to find a straight answer about it.

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. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.

What is fan-made

Fan work is frequently better than official work and is not the same thing. Licensed soundtracks are the most likely part to be missing from a re-release. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. Adaptations take liberties, and the interesting ones take them deliberately.

Release order and chronological order are different, and both have their advocates. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. Canon status is decided by the developers rather than by the adaptation's writers.

What exists officially

What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

  • Credit fan artists if you reuse their work.
  • Check whether something is official before treating it as canon.
  • If a menu path does not exist for you, your build is older or newer than the one described.
  • Expect licensed music to be missing from re-releases.
  • Buy from the publisher's own store where one exists.
  • Prefer the in-game option over an external tool when both exist.

Where it fits with the game

Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice.

The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. Valorant is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of.

Whether it is worth your time

There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. 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. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional.

Where to find it legitimately

Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. Everything below is framed around the current state of Valorant rather than a launch-week impression.

Where people go wrong

  • Changing five things at once and then not knowing which one helped.
  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
  • Trusting a video thumbnail that promises a result the video never actually shows.
  • Rushing the last step, which is usually the one with the actual requirement in it.

Valorant FAQ

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

How long does this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

Why do other guides describe this differently?

Most were written for an earlier version and never revisited. Compare the steps against what your build actually shows.

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.

Work through it in the order above and jersey stops being a question you have to look up again.