How Does Performance Score Work in VALORANT?

Performance Score is VALORANT’s 0-500 rating for evaluating a player’s contribution beyond kills and damage. Introduced in Patch 13.06 on September 22, it replaces ACS for scoreboard placement and MVP selection in Competitive, Unrated, Swiftplay, and Premier.

For Valorant Performance Score explained in practical terms, we need to examine both combat output and the support provided throughout a round. The post-match breakdown helps us identify those contributions without relying exclusively on KDA.

What Is a Performance Score?

Performance Score is a 0-500 rating of our contribution in an individual match. It combines combat, support, and objective statistics, helping us assess both direct impact in fights and the actions that support teammates.

In Competitive, the rating compares our match statistics with those from other Competitive matches, giving the result context beyond the current lobby. A rare score of zero can therefore appear even when we have secured kills: it reflects a very weak overall statistical performance on this scale, not an absence of activity. Effective utility that provides information or support for teammates still offers ways to contribute during a difficult game.

What Changed from Average Combat Score?

The central difference in Valorant Performance Score vs ACS is the range of contributions being assessed. ACS emphasized damage and kills, including multikills, although it also recognized non-damaging assists following an update in Patch 1.11.

Performance Score gives us additional visibility into trades, agent utility, and Spike interactions. Combat remains important: damage and adjusted kills occupy the first two positions in Riot’s published order of impact.

Which Metrics Determine the Score?

The answer to “how is Performance score calculated Valorant” starts with eight metrics, listed in descending order of impact: damage, adjusted kills, adjusted deaths, trades, assists, utility use, Spike plants, and Spike defuses. Their values are displayed per round.

Adjusted kills and deaths account for contextual value. Trades include both securing a trade and being traded, while utility use is normalized per agent. As of September 26, 2026, Riot’s explanation does not disclose numerical weights or a complete formula, so these values cannot be added together to reproduce the final score.

How Does the Trades Metric Work?

Trades counts both trade kills and traded deaths. If an enemy kills a teammate and we eliminate that enemy in the follow-up, we secure a trade kill. If we die and a teammate answers by eliminating our killer, our traded death is also counted.

The metric encourages fighting together and discourages baiting teammates. For a duelist entering a site, this means an entry death can contribute to Trades when a teammate follows up with the elimination, even if the duelist did not secure a kill. Staying close enough to support one another makes these exchanges possible, and the Performance breakdown displays the resulting trade activity per round.

How to Earn Match MVP with Performance Score

To pursue a Valorant Performance Score MVP, we should build rounds around productive fights, coordinated utility, and objective involvement. These are practical ways to apply the published metrics, rather than a guaranteed scoring formula.

Under ACS, improving damage output and converting fights into kills or multikills were central to climbing the scoreboard. Those contributions still matter, but the broader breakdown now gives us reasons to review what happens before, between, and after engagements.

• Take fights with a follow-up available. We should use information and teammate support to create favorable engagements. Staying within trading distance gives us an opportunity to answer a teammate’s death and allows teammates to respond if we fall.
• Time utility around the engagement. We should flash before a teammate swings, reveal contested positions before entry, or block a defender’s sightline during an execute. The aim is to make abilities useful to the fight; repeatedly casting them is not a verified scoring shortcut.
• Convert space into objective progress. After securing a site, we should coordinate the plant and cover the planter. During a retake, we should clear threats and coordinate the defuse rather than abandon the objective to chase another kill.
• Review the result across several matches. We can compare the breakdown with our replays to identify missed trades, ineffective utility, and avoidable deaths. Changing one recurring mistake provides a clearer improvement target than focusing solely on the MVP badge.

A player who shoots well while supporting these actions has more areas of contribution to examine than someone relying exclusively on kills. However, Performance Score does not affect RR gains or losses, so earning MVP is separate from the ranked progression calculation.

Why Fewer Kills Can Still Mean a Higher Score

In the 15:13 Ascent match, Miks earned 484 Performance Score with 28/17/19, ahead of Reyna’s 479 and 40/19/4. Miks contributed 10 trades and six plants, while Reyna recorded three trades and no plants, despite securing 11 first bloods.

In the 13:6 Abyss victory, Jett led with 398 and 20/12/4. Sova’s 300 and 14/14/4 also placed above Cypher’s 294 and 17/12/3, with Sova recording seven trades, four plants, and one defuse.

These results show why kill totals alone do not determine scoreboard placement. The exact weight of each contribution cannot be established from these scoreboards.

How to Read the Performance Breakdown

In this 1:13 loss on Lotus, the player earned 283 Performance Score while playing a duelist. We should interpret the breakdown with that role in mind, reviewing how fights, entries, and ability usage contributed to the team’s rounds.

Combat and trading were positive areas: 170 damage, 1.1 adjusted kills, and 0.29 trades per round all received green upward indicators. Adjusted kills and trades displayed double arrows. For a duelist, these figures are useful evidence of combat contribution, although they cannot show whether the player consistently created space or enabled teammates to enter a site.

The negative indicators appeared beside 0.85 adjusted deaths, zero assists, and 1.4 utility usage per round. Since utility is normalized per agent, we should examine how effectively this duelist used their own abilities to enter, isolate opponents, or secure kills. Deaths also require context: reviewing whether an entry attempt created an opportunity for a trade is more useful than treating every death as the same mistake.

Zero plants and defuses displayed neutral dashes in this match, while the absence of assists received a negative indicator despite the duelist role. The practical review priorities are therefore ability effectiveness and the circumstances of engagements, with the arrows showing areas to investigate rather than exact point values.

Agent Utility Interactions Reported in Game Files

Valohabercisi described the following interactions as findings from game files covering 24 agents. The individual conditions remain unofficial and may differ from the live implementation; the report’s references to ACS should not be mistaken for confirmed Performance Score rules.

These entries offer possible interactions to investigate, without establishing fixed point rewards. Missing agents or abilities should not be interpreted as receiving no utility credit.

• Astra: Nova Pulse concussions; personal or allied kills enabled by Gravity Well, Nebula, or Cosmic Divide.

• Breach: Flashes hitting multiple enemies; Aftershock kills; personal or allied kills following Fault Line concussions; Rolling Thunder affecting multiple opponents.

• Brimstone: Vision denial; planting after Stim Beacon; Incendiary preventing plants or defuses; Orbital Strike kills after planting.

• Chamber: Headhunter headshots; Tour De Force kills; teleporting after a kill; Trademark detecting opponents.

• Clove: Vision denial after death; kills or assists against decayed enemies; kills or assists during healing or Not Dead Yet.

• Cypher: Kills after Trapwire reveals; kills while inside Cyber Cage; enemy deaths following Neural Theft; Spycam tags.

• Fade: Personal or allied kills on Haunt- or Seize-affected enemies; Prowler hits; Nightfall affecting multiple opponents.

• Gekko: Mosh Pit kills; personal or allied kills after Thrash detains; Wingman plants or defuses while enemies remain alive. No Dizzy details were provided.

• Harbor: Damage blocked by Cove. This was the report’s only Harbor entry.

• Iso: Contingency blocking damage; kills on vulnerable enemies; kills during Kill Contract or while Double Tap is active.

• Jett: Kills after Updraft; Blade Storm kills; kills through smoke; dashing after a kill.

• KAY/O: ZERO/point detections; flashes hitting multiple enemies; personal or allied kills enabled by FRAG/ment or NULL/cmd.

• Killjoy: Kills on detained enemies; kills after Alarmbot detection or Turret damage; Nanoswarm preventing plants or defuses.

• Neon: Two Overdrive kills; vision denial; kills after entering Fast Lane or sliding; kills or assists following stuns.

• Omen: Vision denial; kills after Shrouded Step; Paranoia affecting multiple enemies; planting after From the Shadows.

• Phoenix: Self-healing; kills after flashing; kills after passing through Blaze; kills during Run It Back.

• Raze: Boom Bot damage; personal or allied kills after its pursuit; kills after Blast Pack; Paint Shells and Showstopper kills.

• Reyna: Two Empress kills; kills after Dismiss; kills against Leer-blinded enemies; kills while Devour is active.

• Sage: Healing after a kill; kills or assists following Resurrection; slowing enemies. A Barrier Orb damage condition was mentioned but remained unclear.

• Skye: Concussions within the round’s first 30 seconds; flashes hitting multiple enemies; healing injured teammates; personal or allied kills on Seekers’ targets.

• Sova: Shock Bolt damage; Hunter’s Fury kills; Recon Bolt reveals; Owl Drone tags.

• Viper: Vision denial; kills inside Viper’s Pit after planting; kills on decayed enemies; Snake Bite preventing plants or defuses.

• Vyse: Enemy deaths after Shear activates; flashes hitting multiple enemies; kills in Razorvine; personal or allied kills on disarmed opponents.

• Yoru: Kills after Fakeout is damaged; kills after using Blindside, Gatecrash, or Dimensional Drift.