Best 7 Guns in Valorant

Valorant has 17 different guns spread across six separate categories, so there’s plenty of diversity when it comes to gunplay. However, certain weapons will give you a much better chance at landing kills than others, and this guide will help you filter out the ones that tend to fare the best out of all the guns in Valorant.

Phantom

The Phantom will be one of the guns you turn to when you’ve got enough credits for a full buy. It’s got everything you need from an assault rifle, aside from a reliable one-shot potential. The Phantom is a suppressed rifle with a decent magazine size of 30 and a slightly better fire rate than its main competitor, The Vandal. 

The suppressed aspect is what gives the Phantom most of its appeal alongside its easy-to-control spray. Each season we see more and more line-of-sight blocking abilities added to the game as new agents join the Valorant roster, and that just gives players more of a reason to pick the Phantom, as it can easily net you random kills by spraying through smokes. Plus, if your aim isn’t on point on any particular day, you can always rely on its simple recoil pattern to finish off an enemy, even when you don’t land the headshot.

Vandal

There’s really one obvious upside to picking the Vandal over the Phantom, and that’s its consistent one-shot headshot potential. The Vandal does 160 damage per headshot at any given range, meaning you’ve got the advantage against other weapons at longer ranges where their damage fall-off relinquishes their one-shot potential. 

However, the downsides to the Vandal, such as its poor recoil pattern and smaller magazine size, are also significant in ingraining good gunplay habits. The only advantage you have against the Phantom is the potential to one-shot them, so you’re pretty much forced to take precise shots. So when you do go for the Vandal, make sure you’re using it at longer ranges while properly strafing and tap-firing.

Operator

While we’re still on the topic of long-range gunfights, here’s the king of holding down long sight lines. The Operator is Valorants signature bolt action sniper rifle, which can one-shot opponents with a single body shot. The Operator can be incredibly oppressive in the right hands and equally frustrating to deal with on the other side, especially in the hands of agents like Chamber and Jett, who can quickly escape if they miss their shot. The only way to counter the Operator is by using your utility to close the distance, such as smoking off the Operator’s line of sight until you get close enough to flush them out.

But in the wild west landscape of Ranked, you’ll find it incredibly easy to farm kills with the Operator on Defense once you save up the credits for it. Most solo-queue lobbies tend to be very uncoordinated, and you’ll often find enemies peeking into your scoped crosshairs one by one as you pick them off. However, if it’s your first time handling a sniper, the Operator can take some getting used to, so make sure you warm up with a deathmatch if you plan on picking it up. 

Spectre

The Spectre is your go-to weapon when you don’t have enough credits for a full buy (Rifle + Armour), but you’d like to give yourself a fighting chance against enemies on a full buy. The Spectre doesn’t fare very well at longer ranges, so you have to pick your fights intelligently. It also has one of the fastest fire rates in the game and a silencer, making it a fantastic weapon to clear close corners and spray enemies down.

If you want to abuse the Spectre’s strengths and put your enemies on tilt, you must utilise its mobility and lenient movement inaccuracy. Your bullets still land close to your crosshair even when you’re moving and shooting with the Spectre, so even if you’re not landing headshots, you’ll be a difficult target to hit while annoyingly whittling down your opponent’s HP.

Sheriff

If there’s any weapon that can completely turn the tide of your team’s eco rounds, it’s the Sheriff. Valorant’s version of the standard revolver is one of the hardest weapons to get value out of, but it’s also one of the most rewarding weapons in the game if you master it. The Sheriff only costs 800 credits but can one-shot headshot fully-armoured opponents up to 30 metres away. 

You have to be incredibly precise with the Sheriff, though. Skilled opponents will quickly punish you for not landing headshots, as you can easily get caught in their crosshairs while your Sheriffs recoil readjusts. Just like with the Vandal, you’ll want to take gunfights where you can focus on one-taps and proper counter-strafing in order to extract value from the gun.

Odin

The Odins are a rather niche weapon compared to others on this list and, quite frankly, a rather polarising one in the Valorant community. The light machine gun has the largest ammo capacity and bullet penetration in the game. These attributes make it a fantastic weapon to grab some sneaky wall-bang kills against some of the thinner surfaces in Valorant, such as the paper-like walls on Ascent or Garage and Heaven on Haven. 

With its fire rate and manageable recoil, it’s also a great weapon to have on defence, as you can just hold down your mouse button and shower enemies with oppressive fire. If your opponents aren’t punishing you with headshots, the Odin can easily get the better of most other weapons in the game due to its great damage profile and fire rate. 

Judge

The Judge is another situational yet effective weapon that can completely wipe an entire team out. It makes up for what it lacks in range with a potent point-blank damage profile, as a single well-placed body shot can easily reward you with the kill. Most people shy away from the Judge since you can’t really find situations to use it against a rifle wielder on Attack. But on Defense rounds, if you’re able to sit close to a choke point with the Judge in your hands, you can easily hold it down all on your own unless the enemy team knows how to flush you out with utility. 

Conclusion

While there are plenty of options to pick from the Valorant weapon arsenal, some simply give you the edge over weaker weapons. Whatever you buy, make sure you play to its strengths. Your weapon choice will often be influenced by your agent picks and the map you’re playing on, so make sure you mix things up whenever you play.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is a ‘Full Buy’?

A full buy refers to when you’ve got enough credits to purchase a Vandal/Phantom and full armour + utility alongside it. These two rifles are the staple full-buy weapons in Valorant, although any loadout more expensive than the one mentioned also falls under a full-buy round. This is because the Vandal and Phantom are superior to almost all the weapons cheaper than it and will usually dominate against cheaper loadouts if appropriately used. 

What Is an Eco Round?

An Eco round is when you deliberately save credits in a particular round, meaning you buy things way under your budget to ensure you have enough credits for a full buy in the next round. Usually, you want to buy down until the ‘Min credits next round’ in the buy menu hits 3900.

Are There Any Awful Weapons in Valorant?

The weapons in Valorant are pretty balanced across the board, and most weapons are reasonably justified by their price tags. Even if certain weapons are directly inferior to their counterparts, like the Marshall against the Operator, they’re way cheaper and can reward you with unexpected kills in niche scenarios.

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