How to Fix Valorant VAN 1067 (Vanguard Connection Error)

By FixMyError · Updated October 13, 2026 · 8 min read

What VAN 1067 means

VAN 1067 is Vanguard telling you it lost its line to Riot. Vanguard is Riot's kernel-level anti-cheat, and it has to stay in contact with Riot's servers for Valorant to run — when that handshake fails, the game refuses to launch and shows you VAN 1067, usually with a message like "Vanguard has encountered a connection error. Please relaunch the client to reconnect."

This is a connectivity problem, not a hardware problem. Don't confuse it with VAN 9001, which means Vanguard can't even start because TPM 2.0 or Secure Boot is disabled on your PC. With VAN 1067, Vanguard itself is fine — something between your PC and Riot's servers is broken. In practice, the culprits are almost always one of three things: the background service Vanguard relies on (called vgc) stopped or failed to start, a firewall or antivirus silently blocked Vanguard's traffic, or your network dropped or changed at the worst possible moment — VPNs and aggressive "gaming" firewalls are repeat offenders.

Common causes

• The vgc service stopped: Vanguard's background service crashed or never started after a Windows update, so the anti-cheat has no engine behind it.
• Firewall or antivirus block: Windows Firewall or a third-party security suite is blocking Riot Client or Vanguard traffic, silently killing the connection.
• VPN interference: an active VPN reroutes or filters Vanguard's traffic in ways Riot's servers reject, causing the handshake to fail.
• DNS or network hiccup: stale DNS entries or a flaky connection dropped Vanguard mid-handshake, and it never retried.
• Corrupted Vanguard files: a botched update or a file quarantined by antivirus left Vanguard partially installed, so it launches broken.
• Riot server issues: occasionally the problem is on Riot's end — a server outage shows up on your screen as a connection error too.

How to fix VAN 1067 — step by step

Work through these in order, and check whether Valorant launches after each one. Most players are back in the game by step 2.

1. Restart the Riot Client and your PC. Close the Riot Client completely (right-click its tray icon and exit — don't just close the window), then restart your PC. Vanguard only initializes at boot, so a full restart clears stuck sessions and re-establishes the connection. This single step fixes the majority of VAN 1067 cases.
2. Check that the vgc service is running. Press Win + R, type services.msc, and press Enter. Scroll down to vgc (Riot Vanguard's service). Double-click it: set Startup type to Automatic, then click Start if the service status shows Stopped. Click OK, restart your PC, and try Valorant again. If vgc keeps stopping on its own, something — usually antivirus — is killing it; move on to step 4.
3. Restart Riot Vanguard from the system tray. Find the Riot Vanguard icon in the Windows system tray (click the up-arrow near the clock if you don't see it), right-click it, and choose Exit Vanguard. Then launch Valorant from the Riot Client. Vanguard will start fresh and attempt a clean connection instead of resuming a dead one.
4. Allow Vanguard through the Windows Firewall. Open Windows Security, go to Firewall & network protection, and click "Allow an app through firewall." Find Riot Client and Riot Vanguard in the list and tick both Private and Public for each. If you use a third-party firewall or antivirus (Norton, McAfee, Bitdefender, etc.), add Riot's executables as exceptions there too — these tools quarantine or block Vanguard far more often than players expect.
5. Flush DNS and reset your connection. Open Command Prompt as Administrator (search "cmd," right-click, Run as administrator), then run ipconfig /flushdns followed by ipconfig /renew. If you use a VPN, disconnect it completely and test Valorant without it — VPNs are one of the most common triggers of VAN 1067. Also try restarting your router if other devices on your network are acting up.
6. Reinstall Riot Vanguard. If the error survives everything above, Vanguard's files are likely corrupted. Open Settings, go to Apps, then Installed apps, find "Riot Vanguard," and uninstall it. Launch Valorant from the Riot Client — it will automatically download and install a clean copy of Vanguard. Accept the restart prompt when it appears, then launch the game again.

Did this fix it? Quick checklist

• The vgc service shows "Running" in services.msc with Startup type Automatic
• The Riot Vanguard tray icon appears and doesn't vanish seconds later
• Valorant launches past the loading screen without VAN 1067
• Windows Firewall shows exceptions for Riot Client and Riot Vanguard

If VAN 1067 still appears after a clean reinstall, check Riot's service status page for an outage — a server-side problem will resolve itself and no amount of troubleshooting on your PC will help. And if the error only appears when your VPN is on, switch to split-tunneling (so only your browser or specific apps use the VPN) or play without it.