Tungsten (W) is a transition metal with atomic number 74. In its neutral state, tungsten has the electronic configuration [Xe] 4f^14 5d^4 6s^2. To determine the number of valence electrons, we focus on the outermost electron shell, which in this case is the 6s and 5d orbitals. The 6s orbital contains 2 electrons, and the 5d orbital contains 4 electrons. Adding these two together, we find that tungsten has a total of 6 valence electrons.