Valorant is a steadily growing 5v5 team-based competitive FPS that requires skills, practice and tactics to bag a winning reward. You would need at least a decent grade of hardware to be able to play the game with the least possible disadvantage. Having a system that can deliver a steady and stutter-free 60 FPS in Valorant and some decent peripherals will easily give you a proper backing in your gameplay.
One of such things that are necessary to play Valorant is a stable internet connection. A stable broadband internet connection that delivers you a consistent ping below 50-60 in your region is one of the basic minimum requirements. But can you properly play Valorant or any other competitive Esports title with a ping below 60 but with constant packet loss? I should let you know that it wouldn’t be a pretty situation in any way.
What is packet loss in Valorant?
Packet loss is a networking issue that can be seen in many online games, mainly competitive ones. Packet loss occurs when one or multiple data travelling from the computer to the destination hub fails and makes the game feel unplayable. A 0% Packet loss is ideal but something below 10% can really be an annoying disadvantage. More than that will make your game unplayable with a huge disadvantage.
How to fix packet loss
There are many factors that could be causing packet loss in your game and it is hard to tell which one might be causing yours. Here are some fixes that should work for you, so try them one by one and check for the issue.
- Internet Issue- This is one of the main reasons that can cause you the Packet Loss problem. An unstable broadband internet connection or issue in their end can cause packet loss in your game. Make sure you contact your ISP and talk to them about this. They should be quick to fix the problem if it is on their end.
- Reduce Internet Usage- Various background apps and features that keep running on your computer may use up your data while Valorant is running. Make sure to navigate through them and close the ones that are not necessary from the Task Manager.
- Play on LAN- If you are using WIFI to play the game, you will definitely face ping spikes and packet loss in the game. WIFI is not as stable as a direct LAN connection so you should avoid that. If you are already playing on LAN and facing this issue, check for the other mentioned solutions.
- Restarting the game- Sometimes packet loss can be easily fixed by just restating Valorant or even your PC. This works as the problem seems to be at your end (your PC) that gets resolved with the restart.
- Use a VPN- If none of the above-mentioned fixes worked for you, then the possibility is that your internet connection is not optimal for the game. And as changing your ISP is pretty unrealistic as often the availability is thin, using a VPN might do the job. For example, at the early stages of Valorant, when we didn’t have any local regional servers for the game, we had to play on 130+ ping with occasional packet loss spiking up to more than 60%. We used ExitLag to play the game then and achieved at least a playable experience on those far situated servers. The ping would stay near 80 and the packet loss issue was very negligible to none for the most part. However, Exitlag and other VPN services are mostly a paid service so keep that in mind.
Sometimes this ping issues and packet loss problem in Valorant or other games can be caused by an issue on the game’s end. So waiting for a couple of days and checking if it gets fixed is also a viable option.
These are some of the fixes and solutions that worked for us and many. Whatever happens, the first thing to check is with your ISP so make sure to do that at the beginning. We hope your issues get resolved and have a beautiful gaming experience. Be sure to follow us for a similar article along with guides and tips & tricks for other games.
