Here’s the crux of the article in video form
New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….
Original story (published on Jan. 11, 2023) follows:
In the hero-shooter segment, Valorant is one of the most well-known names. The free-to-play game offers a wide catalog of heroes with their own abilities for players to master.
In the recent past we have already covered some issues reported by Valorant gamers. For instance, the missing weekly missions, occasional outages, among others.
Now, Valorant players are facing an issue where they are not getting the correct gun buddies (or are not getting any gun buddy at all) according to their rank.
Valorant players not getting Ranked gun buddy or getting wrong buddies
Valorant is currently giving out gun buddies (a type of cosmetic) to players. The cosmetic received by Valorant players is directly related to the rank they have achieved in ranked mode.
However, multiple reports indicate that several players are experiencing issues while claiming their rewards. First, some Valorant gamers are getting a wrong gun buddy that doesn’t match their account rank.

Can anyone explain why I got plat ep 5 gun buddy when I peaked in ascendant?
Source
Episode 5 wrong gun buddy
I just got my episode 5 gun buddy, and it’s silver.
In act 1, I was silver, yes. But in act 2, I hit ascendant 1, and had 61 wins that act (more than enough to get a buddy). Why could I have been given a silver buddy instead of an ascendant buddy? Did anyone else get the wrong buddy?
Source
On the other hand, there are Valorant players who are not getting any gun buddy at all.

Never received a buddy for episode three
As the title says, during episode three i got placed into iron. it was right at the end of the episode, but it was still iron no less. i never received a buddy for that act, why?
Source
Ranked Buddy
So I am in my collections and I am trying to find my ranked gun buddy from last episode, but it isn’t showing up. Does it take a while or do I have to play a ranked match? Last episode was my first one, so I’m kind of ignorant on it.
Source
Issue acknowledged
A member of the Valorant team revealed that they are already aware of the issue and working on a fix, but there is no ETA yet.
YO! We’ve seen some reports of Act Rank buddies not working correctly and are working on a solve. I’m the meantime, If anyone who reached ascendant last Episode actually did get their Ascendant gun buddy PLS DM me your Riot ID 🙏🏼
Source
We will update this story as events unfold.
Update 1 (January 12, 2023)
02:26 pm (IST): A gamer has suggested a possible reason for this issue. As per them, the rank of players gets reset at the start of a new season and they are ranked lower than their current rank.
So, players could be getting a gun buddy according to their new rank after the reset. However, they should receive it based on the rank they achieved in their last season.
Luckily, Valorant support has acknowledged the issue with incorrect gun buddy and they are currently investigating it.
Heads up that we’re aware of and investigating a bug that is rewarding the incorrect Episode 5 Ranked Gun Buddy in some cases. We’ll follow up when a fix is out. (Source)
02:40 pm (IST): Riot Games has confirmed that those who didn’t get a gun buddy at all should get it in about a week or two.
Hi there, sadly there is an issue with the buddies, but the team is working on a fix and they’ll try to correct this as soon as possible.
For those that didn’t get a buddy at all, then the process might take about a week or two. (Source)
Update 2 (June 28, 2023)
09:12 am (IST): A section of players are again reporting (1, 2, 3, 4) that they are not getting ranked buddies.
Featured image: Valorant on Twitter
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