Arcane Gauntlets skin disabled in VALORANT, explained

Since you’re here, chances are you’ve just tried to equip and show off your Arcane Gauntlets in a VALORANT match—but either couldn’t find it or automatically ended up swinging the default knife instead. If you’re wondering what’s up with your favorite crossover melee, you’ve come to the right place for an answer.

The Arcane Gauntlets is part of the limited-edition Arcane Collection’s second iteration, released in VALORANT’s Episode Nine. The bundle also contained a Vandal skin and accessories, none of which could be purchased individually. So it’s no surprise that players unable to flaunt their exclusive gauntlets freely are frustrated and confused at the moment.

Don’t worry, though—this is temporary. Here’s everything you need to know about the Arcane Gauntlets bug in VALORANT.

Why your Arcane Gauntlets are missing in VALORANT

On Sept. 10, Riot put up a platform status message in VALORANT, announcing that the following content has been disabled:

• Arcane Gauntlets
• Arcane Gauntlets, Level two

You can view this notification by hitting the yellow exclamation mark icon beside the Mission tab in the top horizontal bar of the client. Riot didn’t share this update in its social pages, nor did it disclose the reason why it disabled the Arcane Gauntlets. Well, we already know why—it’s due to the bug affecting the Trophy Flex included in the VALORANT Champions 2025 collection.

Apparently, before Riot removed it, if you had the Arcane Gauntlets equipped, then pulled out and inspected the Trophy Flex at the same time, the trophy would blow up in size. While it was hilarious to watch players run around with a massive trophy in a match, it blocked the vision cones of those affected and persisted throughout the game, so they couldn’t “unequip” the bug at will either. It definitely wasn’t a minor bug—if not game-breaking—hence Riot’s decision to remove the trigger before working to fix it. 

So, if you own the Arcane Gauntlets, you may not see them in your inventory right now. If you had them equipped before Riot’s intervention, the game has probably defaulted to the black knife: Switch to another melee skin until the gauntlets return. 

Riot hasn’t shared a time frame on when the melee skin can be expected to return, but rest assured—it likely won’t be gone for long. The Champions Trophy Flex, on the other hand, is still available in VALORANT, so you can equip and flaunt it as much as you like, just in the size it was intended to be.