Lower ping in Valorant
In Valorant a few milliseconds decide who wins a duel. Riot places you on one of its game servers automatically, so your ping depends on two things: which server you play on, and the route your internet provider takes to reach it. This page covers both, using Riot's own documentation.
Where Valorant's servers are
Riot's Server Select page lists Valorant's game servers by region: six in North America, three in Latin America, one in Brazil, eight in the Europe region (which also covers Istanbul and Bahrain), one in Korea and six in Asia-Pacific. Your account belongs to one region, and that does not change.
The game puts you on the best server for you automatically. With Server Select, a solo player or a party leader can also choose among the servers available in their region, which helps when the automatic pick lands you on a city with a worse route than its neighbour.
- US West (Oregon)
- US West (N. California)
- US East (N. Virginia)
- US Central (Texas)
- US Central (Illinois)
- US Central (Georgia)
- Santiago
- Mexico City
- Miami
- Sao Paulo
- Frankfurt
- Paris
- Stockholm
- Istanbul
- London
- Warsaw
- Madrid
- Bahrain
- Seoul
- Hong Kong
- Tokyo
- Singapore
- Sydney
- Mumbai
- Manila
How to see your ping in Valorant
Valorant has a built-in network display, and Riot's network guide uses it to find out whether packet loss is behind a match that feels wrong while the ping looks normal.
- Open Settings, then Video, then Stats.
- Turn on the network round-trip time (your ping) and the incoming and outgoing packet loss displays. Text shows the number; a graph shows spikes over time.
- Under Settings, General, Other, keep the Instability Indicators on. During a match they show icons such as High Average Ping and Network Problem.
- Play a few rounds and watch for spikes, not only the average: a ping that holds steady plays better than a lower one that keeps jumping.
What makes Valorant lag
Packet loss is what Riot's own guide focuses on: it says that on high-quality wireless and most wired connections, packet loss should stay close to zero at all times. When the Network Problem indicator appears, networking issues are beginning to affect your game.
Spikes matter even when the average looks fine. Riot's patch 4.10 notes explain that a ping spike builds up a queue of moves, and the patch made that queue shrink back faster, now in under a second. When the Network Problem indicator shows, Riot's guide suggests turning on the network buffering setting to reduce what the game asks of your connection.
A long route can add ping even to a nearby server: your provider may carry the traffic through another city or country before it reaches Riot's network. That is the part a relay can change. The distance itself cannot change.
Riot's guide also points at the home end: restart your router and network devices, switch to a wired connection if you can, check the router's diagnostics and packet loss logs, and take that data to your provider.
Fixes worth trying first
- Play on a cable instead of Wi-Fi if you can. Wi-Fi adds delay and drops packets when the signal is busy or weak.
- Pause downloads, game updates, streams and cloud backups on your network while you play.
- Restart your router if your ping was fine before and suddenly is not.
Changing your DNS server does not lower your in-game ping: DNS only looks up addresses before the game connects.
How NitroPing helps
Your ping depends on the path your internet provider sends Valorant's traffic along, not only on the distance. NitroPing sends only Valorant's traffic through one of our relay servers over an encrypted tunnel, which can be a shorter, steadier path than your provider's default route. Everything else on your PC stays on your normal connection.
Pick Auto and NitroPing measures the relays from your PC and uses the one with the lowest latency, or pick a city and it stays there.
What it cannot do: shorten the physical distance to Valorant's servers, or fix Wi-Fi trouble or a connection that is already full. If your provider's route to the game is already good, the difference will be small.
Valorant ping questions
What is a good ping in Valorant?
Lower is better, and steady matters as much as low: a ping that jumps around causes more trouble than a slightly higher one that holds still. Valorant's High Average Ping indicator tells you when it is high enough to affect play.
Can I choose my Valorant server?
You cannot move your account to another region, but a solo player or party leader can choose among the servers in their region with Server Select. If you do not choose, Riot picks a server for you.
Why do I get packet loss in Valorant with fast internet?
Speed and packet loss are different things. Loss usually comes from Wi-Fi, a router that needs a restart, a congested route, or a fault on the provider's side. Riot suggests turning on the packet loss graphs, trying a cable, and taking the router's loss data to your provider if it continues.
Does NitroPing work with Valorant?
Valorant is in NitroPing's game list: the app knows Valorant's game program and routes only its traffic through the relay, while everything else stays on your normal connection.