Valorant Act 5 vs Act 4: Battle Pass & Malaysia Time (2026)
Published: 2026-08-28
Valorant Season 2026 Act 5 is live in Malaysia. The Act opened on 19 August 2026 at 07:00 MYT and closes around 14 October 2026, giving KL, Petaling Jaya, Johor Bahru and Kuching squads roughly 8 weeks of ranked play, one 5-week Premier stage, and a full Battle Pass grind. Patch 13.04 dropped 24 hours earlier, on 18 August MYT. Riot pulled Breeze out of Competitive and put Abyss back in. Meanwhile the 1,000 VP battle pass costs about RM 39 through REDX Game, versus roughly RM 45.90 through the App Store, and the Verdant Cafe Chef's Knife sits at Tier 50 of the free track. All times in this guide are MYT (GMT+8).
Act 5 vs Act 4 at a glance
Act 4 was the "Summit map + Retake mode" experiment. This one is quieter on modes but noisier on map anxiety, since the Abyss/Breeze swap alone will reshape agent picks in ranked, shift the balance between duelists and sentinels, and reset the map-specific muscle memory a lot of Malaysian mains built through the last two months. Here is the side-by-side that matters for a Malaysian queue.
ItemAct 4 (Jun–Aug 2026)Act 5 (19 Aug – 14 Oct 2026)
Patch launcher13.0013.04 (18 Aug MYT)
Battle Pass price1,000 VP1,000 VP
Deluxe skinlineBlackspyreVerdant Cafe (Tier 50 Chef's Knife melee)
Other skinlinesSky Reaper, Tacti-Guild, IntertwineGourmand, Last Stop
Map addedSummit (new)Abyss (returning)
Map removed—Breeze
New modeRetakeNone
Premier stageV26A4 (7 weeks)V26A5 (5 weeks, playoffs 19–20 Sept)
The compressed Premier calendar is the sleeper story: five weeks instead of seven means one fewer weekend to grind, so a KL five-stack chasing Contender needed to hit the ground on 19 August or accept that Playoffs on 19–20 September would be an uphill fight. Riot summed the release up as "a small patch focused on fixing minor issues and introducing the new map pool", per the official 13.04 notes.
How Abyss changes the meta for Paper Rex fans
Losing Breeze hurts long-range Operator specialists. Abyss rewards Sova recon, Cypher tripwires and Killjoy lockdowns — three utility profiles that suit the aggressive-info style Paper Rex leaned on through VCT Pacific, and the same style Malaysian pro Khalish "d4v41" Rusyaidee is known for on their roster. If your KL trio was one-tricking Jett on Breeze, expect a rougher first week. Ranked queues will bottleneck around sentinel and initiator picks before the pool settles.
The patch also cleans up four agent bugs that quietly warped competitive play: Cypher's Spycam minimap icon now rotates correctly, Viper's Snake Bite equip animation is fixed from the enemy side, Deadlock's GravNet no longer glitches its visual effect, and Clove's utility no longer freezes or disconnects players when they swap between Meddle and Ruse. See the full list on the Valorant Wiki patch page. None of these are balance changes. But the Clove disconnect fix alone will make ranked in Cheras and Bangsar noticeably less rage-quit-inducing.
Act 5 dates and stage schedule in Malaysia Time
Everything below is converted from Pacific time. MYT is 15 hours ahead of PDT.
- 18 Aug 2026, ~15:00 MYT: Patch 13.04 servers up; Abyss/Breeze swap goes live.
- 19 Aug 2026, 07:00 MYT: Act 5 officially begins; Battle Pass goes live and the Aeris store rotation drops.
- Ongoing: Verdant Cafe Chef's Knife melee available on the free track at Tier 50.
- 19–20 Sept 2026: Premier V26A5 Playoffs weekend for Contender and Invite tiers.
- 24 Sept – 18 Oct 2026: Valorant Champions Shanghai overlaps the tail of Act 5; MYT match times sit in the 17:00–01:00 window.
- 14 Oct 2026, ~14:00 MYT: Act 5 closes; battle pass expires with it, so plan your final grind for the weekend of 11 October.
Ipoh and Penang players on unstable fibre should expect a short reboot window on the Singapore server whenever Riot pushes a mid-Act patch, given that the Abyss/Breeze swap on 18 August briefly disconnected active queues and end-of-Act maintenance in mid-October will follow the same pattern.
What Act 5 actually costs in ringgit
The battle pass is 1,000 VP. To get exactly 1,000 VP you buy a 1,000 VP pack, which lands around RM 39 through REDX Game versus roughly RM 45.90 on the App Store, a small per-pack gap that stops being small once you add the Verdant Cafe Vandal (2,175 VP) or the Neo Frontier 2.0 bundle (6,700 VP) on top and top up twice in the same Act.
Most Malaysian mains actually buy the 5,350 VP tier, sitting around RM 165 versus RM 199 on the App Store and leaving a RM 34 ringgit gap kept in your pocket. That pack is also perfectly sized: 1,000 VP goes to the Battle Pass, 2,175 VP to the Verdant Cafe Vandal, and 2,175 VP is left for a spray, a buddy, or a mid-Act night market pull whenever it lands in your storefront. If you top up twice in Act 5, once at launch and once mid-Act around the Champions kickoff, that gap compounds to RM 68 for a Shah Alam or Johor Bahru regular. Boleh tahan.
Do not chase the 6,700 VP Neo Frontier standard bundle without knowing you like all three weapons in it. Individually the Lasso melee alone is 4,350 VP, which is why the bundle only saves you when you would have grabbed the Vandal (2,175 VP) and Shorty (2,175 VP) anyway. Reference the wiki's Act 5 page for the tier-by-tier progression before you commit.
Frequently asked questions
What time did Valorant Act 5 start in Malaysia?
Act 5 opened at 07:00 MYT on 19 August 2026 (16:00 PDT on 18 August). The battle pass, Aeris store rotation, and Verdant Cafe reward track all went live at that moment.
When does Act 5 end in Malaysia Time?
Act 5 closes around 14:00 MYT on 14 October 2026. Riot typically slots the end-of-Act maintenance in the early Malaysian afternoon. Finish your battle pass grind by the weekend of 11 October to be safe.
Is Breeze coming back to Competitive?
Not this Act. Patch 13.04 pulled Breeze from Competitive and Deathmatch on 18 August MYT and put Abyss in its place. Breeze remains available in Unrated and Swiftplay. Riot rotates one map roughly every Act, so the earliest realistic Breeze return is Act 6 in mid-October.
How much does the 1,000 VP battle pass cost in ringgit?
A 1,000 VP pack costs around RM 39 through REDX Game versus about RM 45.90 on the App Store. That is a small saving per pack, and it grows if you top up twice in an Act.
What is the cheapest way to get the Verdant Cafe Vandal?
The 5,350 VP pack is the cleanest single-purchase route. Prices sit around RM 165 at REDX Game versus RM 199 on the App Store. You get 1,000 VP for the battle pass, 2,175 VP for the Verdant Cafe Vandal, and 2,175 VP left over. Split-topping-up two smaller packs works out about RM 15 more expensive.
Local tips for Malaysian players
Petaling Jaya and Kuching squads should schedule the map-pool relearn for a weekday morning. The Singapore-region Abyss servers are quieter before 18:00 MYT, when Indonesian and Thai ranked queues start filling. Klang Valley players on DuitNow can top up through REDX Game at the Valorant Malaysia storefront and have VP land in the account in 1–3 minutes. That is the difference between grabbing the Verdant Cafe Vandal before your friends notice and paying App Store prices out of impatience. Murah giler compared to buying on iOS.
One last note for the pro-adjacent crowd. With VCT Champions Shanghai kicking off 24 September, Act 5 is the last window to farm competitive placements before your ranked schedule collides with match-night viewing parties in Bangsar and Bukit Bintang. Senang gila to plan around if you top up once at Act launch and once at Champions kickoff. Order through the REDX Game Valorant page, or browse the full Valorant top-up range for the pack that matches your Act 5 shopping list.
