When the Outlaw first joined the arsenal in Valorant, most fans read it as a one-off addition with developer Riot Games bending its own rules for a single weapon, but leaks around the new Warden rifle suggest that what was once an exception might soon be turning into a pattern.
On September 13, Riot Games posted a teaser previewing what’s coming to Valorant through the remainder of this year. The clip hinted at a handful of changes, including a possible new UI, a new training system, even a TDM map, and one detail that was more noticeable than others.
Players spotted a weapon in the footage that’s never appeared in Valorant before. Within hours, a wave of leaks followed, from accounts with a track record of calling these things correctly.
According to the latest leaks, the weapon in the teaser is the Warden, essentially a rifle that will be added to the game soon. This would be the first time Riot would update Valorant’s arsenal since the addition of Outlaw in January 2024.
All we know about leaked weapon Warden in Valorant
Leaks suggest Warden will join the Phantom and Vandal in Valorant’s rifle category, but with a slower fire rate than both of those popular weapons. Its rumored 2X scope also sets it apart, suggesting it may play more like the Vandal at range.
According to leaks, the Warden will retail at 2,900 credits and have an 18-round magazine. If the leaked numbers hold up, Warden doesn’t quite fit alongside Valorant’s other two rifles. It’s priced the same as the Vandal and Phantom, and it reloads just as fast, but everything else about it points to a slower and steadier gun.
Its magazine holds just 18 rounds, well short of the Phantom’s 30 and the Vandal’s 25. Though Warden makes up for it with a 90-round reserve, more total ammo than either rifle carries.
The bigger difference shows up in fire rate. It fires 6.55 rounds per second from the hip, dropping to 6 while scoped, which is noticeably slower than the Phantom’s 11 and the Vandal’s 9.75.
When you combine all of that with a 2X scope, and you have a weapon that gives up speed for improved range and precision, something we don’t yet really have in the rifle category in Valorant. That does justify its existence, but it’s difficult to tell how optimal it will be on field compared to Vandal.
One thing still missing from the leaks are damage numbers. Without those, it’s impossible to say whether Warden directly competes with the Vandal’s one-shot headshot potential, with the Phantom’s close-range spray ability, or whether it’s aimed more at part-time snipers.
On paper, Warden looks more like a marksman rifle, not an assault rifle. But the game already has one of those in the Guardian, a semi-automatic rifle with a 1.5X scope that Riot itself describes as a designated marksman weapon.
If Warden’s leaked numbers hold up, it wouldn’t be filling a new role so much as splitting the difference between the Guardian’s precision and the Vandal and Phantom’s full-auto pace.
