How to save a replay in VALORANT

Winning more matches in VALORANT requires a lot of practice, dedication, and focus. From improving your aim to getting familiar with all the callouts in VALORANT, there are many ways to improve and reach the higher ranks of Riot Games’ FPS.

Though practice often makes it perfect, watching yourself play VALORANT is often considered one of the most productive exercises for any VALORANT player. Going through your gameplay will allow you to spot misplays and mistakes. Once you find out what you lack, you can focus more on improving in those areas.

Related: One VALORANT player went from hardstuck Silver to Platinum thanks to an elite YouTube coach

Despite Riot’s talents in producing thrilling competitive games, the developer seems to have a habit of skipping out on the replay feature. Riot announced replays for League of Legends seven years after the game’s release.

Does VALORANT have a native replay system?

At time of writing, VALORANT doesn’t have a native replay feature. This means there’s no way for players to download replays of recent matches in VALORANT.

The replay feature, however, is currently being developed, according to VALORANT’s dev lead Anna Donlon. “[I] wanted to share that we have much more in development than we talked about in the kick-off video,” Donlon said on Jan. 25, 2023. “Lots of things! Things like replays, new server locations, and mode updates.”

It’s unclear, though, when Riot will introduce a replay feature for VALORANT since Donlon herself admitted she couldn’t share details or reveal a date.

This doesn’t mean that players are out of options. In fact, there are a few substitute methods that players can use to save their replays, and here are the best of them.

Nvidia Instant Replay

Nvidia Shadowplay is a decent recording tool that allows players with Nvidia graphics cards to record their gameplay. Instant Replay is a sub-function of Shadowplay, and both can be found inside the Nvidia Experience app.

If you have Nvidia Experience set up on your PC, you’ll just need to launch VALORANT and press Alt + Z to bring up the Nvidia overlay. On the overlay, find the Instant Replay setting and set a recording length. An average VALORANT match usually lasts around 30-to-40 minutes, but Instant Replay caps at 20 minutes.

When you press Alt+F10, you’ll be able to get the replay of the last 20 minutes or the duration of your choice.

Use other recording methods

You don’t need to have an Nvidia GPU on your system to be able to record your VALORANT gameplay. The best game-recording software alternatives include OBS, RECentral 4, and Radeon ReLive. All these tools feature sufficient resources that will be enough to record your gameplay in VALORANT.

Are there any downsides to recording your gameplay in VALORANT?

Recording programs use system resources to complete their functions. Having a recording program running in the background can decrease your PC’s performance and reduce your frames per second (FPS). This reduction will heavily depend on your PC’s internals, and the difference will be negligible in the best gaming PCs that are decked with the latest hardware.

Related: The best VALORANT PC settings

If you have a budget or a lower-end PC, you may want to put away your recording tools in important matches to ensure your PC delivers the best gaming experience.