Valorant Couldn't Start - How to fix

Valorant's an absolute blast - when it works. Unfortunately - since it's closed beta - this is a rarity for many of us at the moment. It's an extremely error prone game, so much so, you're rolling a dice every time you press play in the client. Simpy, wonderful stuff.

You’ve likely encountered “Error 43” (a classic) and “Vanguard not initialized” (another favourite), but to catch them all, “Valorant couldn’t start” should be in your collection.

To help you out, we've broken down how to fix it quickly.

How to fix 'Vanguard couldn’t start'

'Valorant couldn't start' doesn't offer much in the way of help, and judging by community reactions to this error, there really isn't a solution which'll work for everyone no matter what. This means it can be a nightmare to find a fix that'll solve your problem, but don't fear, for we've put together a number of options which should get the game working again.

First, try quitting the game client and relaunching it. This'll give the game another chance to boot up properly, and it might be all that’s needed. Valorant works in mysterious ways.

Annoyingly, this doesn’t always work out and you’ll have to prepare yourself for a more taxing affair. If the error message persists, attempt the following:

• Check your graphics card drivers are up to date. If you needed to update them, restart your PC to finalise the process.
• If you’ve already got updated drivers, try rebooting your PC anyway. This often works for us whenever we’ve encountered an error.

If either of these options don’t work out, it’s best to start afresh by uninstalling Valorant and its anti cheat software Riot Vanguard.

First you’ll want to go ahead and Uninstall Riot Vanguard. This involves heading into the "Add or Remove Programs" menu, selecting Riot Vanguard, and uninstalling it. Of course, if you're struggling or have an older version of Windows then make sure you head over to the official support page which we've linked above.

Next up, uninstall Valorant by heading into the same “Add or Remove Programs” menu. Once this is all done, reboot your PC, download the latest Valorant client and reinstall the game. Don’t worry about manually installing Riot Vanguard, it’ll do this automatically for you.

Hopefully, once you’ve done all this, it should work for you.

If you're still having issues after this process, we'd recommend scrolling to the bottom of this support page and clicking on the "Submit a Ticket" button. This will let the Riot devs know what your problem is and either help you out, or at least find a future fix in time for the game's summer launch.

Now you're in the game, how about you check out some of our Valorant guides? We've got our picks for the best Valorant guns, as well as all the advice you need for getting through your Valorant Battle Pass ranks.