VAN 59: Vanguard tripped while starting or talking to the Riot Client

Vanguard Error: VAN 59. An unexpected error with Vanguard has occurred and the client will now close.

VAN 59 in plain terms

Something went wrong between Vanguard and the Riot Client, either while Vanguard was starting or once the two were talking. That's as far as Riot's explanation goes. The message on screen is the generic Vanguard sentence, identical to VAN 57's apart from the number, so go by the code rather than the wording.

A short list with a gentle start

Riot gives VAN 59 three steps, and none of them touch the BIOS, Windows security settings or your network. The first is the cheapest thing you can do: a full restart of the Riot Client, before reinstalling anything. Only one other VAN article asks for a client restart at all (VAN 185, where it comes third).

Test each step in the Practice Tool or a custom game. Riot recommends this on the VAN 59 article itself, and the reason is practical: if the error returns partway through a matchmade game, you've left that game and can be penalized for it.

VAN 59 isn't VAL 59

Riot's Vanguard hub flags this exact mix-up. A code that starts with VAL is a VALORANT error with its own separate list on Riot's support site, and nothing on this page applies to it.

Riot's fix, in Riot's order

1. Restart the Riot Client

   Close the game, then right-click the Riot Client icon in the system tray (bottom right, next to the clock) and pick Exit. Closing the window alone leaves it running. Open it again and launch.

2. Uninstall Vanguard, restart, and let the game reinstall it

   1. Close the game and exit the Riot Client from the system tray.
   2. Right-click the red Vanguard icon in the tray, choose Advanced, then Uninstall Vanguard. If the icon isn't there, search Windows for Add or remove programs and uninstall Riot Vanguard from the list.
   3. Restart the PC. Vanguard is gone if its tray icon doesn't come back.
   4. Open the Riot Client and launch the game. It reinstalls Vanguard and will ask for one more restart before Play unlocks.

   Riot's guide: Uninstall Vanguard, restart, and let the game reinstall it

3. Reinstall the game

   Uninstall from Windows' Installed apps list with the Riot Client closed. For a clean reinstall of League, Riot also has you delete the Riot Client folder under C:\Riot Games, the Riot Games folders under %localappdata% and %programdata%, and the League of Legends folder in Documents. That last one holds your replays, so copy them out first if you want them.

   Riot's guide: Reinstall the game

What players found

The detailed VAN 59 reports from July and August 2026 share a finding Riot's article doesn't mention: the Vanguard tray icon can be showing while the kernel driver isn't loaded at all. Players checked with sc query vgk and sc query vgc in an admin Command Prompt and found vgk stopped (exit code 31) or missing entirely, and vgc stopped with service exit code 59.

• One player's fix was the pair of bcdedit commands that switch test signing and integrity checks back to normal, the same ones in Riot's fix for VAN 128. They suspected a hypervisor install had changed those settings. When Windows answers that the value is locked by Secure Boot policy, that setting isn't the problem.
• Another had Windows Update failing for months. An in-place Windows repair install that kept files and apps fixed Vanguard where reinstalling it hadn't.
• For the player with the stopped driver, antivirus exclusions and a clean boot changed nothing.

There's a blunter cause too. One player got VAN 59 whenever Cheat Engine was installed, running or not, and others pointed out that memory-editing tools are exactly what Vanguard blocks.

Player reports paraphrased from various Reddit threads, read September 25, 2026.

Related errors

• VAN 193
• VAN 57
• VAN 185
• VAN 216

Source: Riot Games Player Support, Error VAN 59, updated July 16, 2026. Riot's steps are paraphrased here, not copied; checked September 25, 2026.