VAN 216: too many launch attempts, wait 30 minutes

Vanguard Error: VAN 216. An unexpected error with Vanguard has occurred and the client will now close.

VAN 216 is a cooldown

Launch the game too many times in a short period and Vanguard stops you with VAN 216. Riot's article has a single instruction, which is to leave Play alone for a full 30 minutes. Press it early and the half hour starts again from zero.

That makes this the one Vanguard error where trying harder makes it worse. If you've been clicking Play again and again because some other error kept closing the game, VAN 216 is what those attempts earn you, and the first problem is still there underneath. Once the wait is over and an earlier code comes back, look that one up instead. One League player described exactly that sort of run in a thread about VAN 57: a failed update, then VAN 216, then VAN 57, which the fix on our VAN 57 page finally cleared.

A few oddities in Riot's article

The message is the stock Vanguard sentence, word for word the same as VAN 57's and VAN 59's except for the number, so it's easy to take for one of those. Riot's article also tells you to try launching VALORANT once the wait is over; on League, just launch League.

You won't find VAN 216 on Riot's Vanguard error hub, the page that's meant to list every VAN code. Riot does list it on League support's Performance and Riot category pages, and the article itself was last updated on July 17, 2026.

Riot's fix, in Riot's order

1. Wait 30 minutes without pressing Play

   Every press of Play inside the window restarts the 30 minutes, so close the client and leave it.

Related errors

• VAN 57
• VAN 59
• VAN 185
• VAN 193

Source: Riot Games Player Support, Error VAN 216, updated July 17, 2026. Riot's steps are paraphrased here, not copied; checked September 25, 2026.