Valorant has many options when it comes to the guns used in this popular shooter. Guns are arguably the most important aspect of the game, so how do you choose which gun best suits you, your play style, and the situation? This guide will break down each gun as well as their pros and cons to help make your decision easier.
When playing an FPS game, you have to keep in mind all of the different elements and aspects of the game in order to be able to play to your full potential! But at the end of the day, no one can argue that the most important aspect of any FPS game would be the guns that are included. Today we will be discussing each gun in Valorant, all of their important features, as well as some pros and cons for each one!
All guns will be organized by their type, and will include a picture with every statistic, including special features. We will briefly discuss each statistic and what they mean before continuing on to talk about all guns.
Our first category is Sidearms. These are your secondary weapons you use in conjunction with your primary gun.
Classic: Free
The Classic is just that, a classic. In Valorant, you will always automatically have a Classic at the start of every round, even if you drop it before the barriers drop. It is a semi-automatic gun with a special alternative fire. If you press right click, you will instead shoot three bullets at the same time. This has a slower fire rate and a random bullet spread. The Classic is the only free gun in the game, and is a great secondary weapon if you are low on money or want to focus on buying your utility.
It has a relatively low bullet spread on primary fire and an average fire rate. The faster you pull the trigger, the faster it will shoot. The alt fire is great for close range battle, especially when you need to reload your primary weapon and don’t have the time. Although the alt fire is a great addition, its spread is random and if you don’t wait in between firing, the spread will be bigger and more randomized.
Shorty: 150
The Shorty is the cheapest gun in the game, only coming to 150 credits total, and is one of three shotguns available. This gun can be very powerful in the right hands and is often overlooked. It only has two rounds per magazine which are composed of 15 pellets that will all fire together in a spread.
This gun is perfect for extremely short range combat, but needs to be reloaded often. If you miss a lot of shots, you’ll find yourself running out of shells to use, so make sure you use it wisely. Holding corners and hiding in smokes where your enemies may enter is a great way to use the Shorty, especially on rounds where you may not be able to buy a better gun.
Frenzy: 450
With the fastest fire rate of all the sidearms, the Frenzy is a speedy killer. Its damage is extremely close to the Classic, only being one damage short in longer range battles, and is the only automatic weapon of the sidearms. Even though it has a faster fire rate, the Frenzy has a spray that needs to be controlled in order to use it to its highest value. Being an automatic, it is arguably one of the strongest sidearms, and is even stronger if you have great tracing skills.
Ghost: 500
The Ghost is a fan favorite. It’s great at longer distances and is capable of one-tapping enemies in the first rounds of the game. It is one of three weapons in Valorant that have the feature of being silenced. This means its tracers are not visible, and it cannot be heard at distances of 40 meters or more (unless you are in the direction of its fire). The Ghost has the second highest damage of the sidearms, but the largest magazine at 15 rounds. It shares a fire rate with the Classic but has a slight faster reload speed.
This weapon is great for long distance combat and can be used just as well in closer fights. It’s extremely versatile and the faster you pull the trigger, the faster it will shoot. With the Ghost having the second most damage of the sidearms, it is also the second most expensive. This makes it impossible to buy the gun as well as shields on the first round of both halves.
Sheriff: 800
Coming in at the most expensive, as well as the most powerful of all the sidearms options, is the Sheriff. This weapon is extremely powerful, and can one-tap, no matter the armor amount, up to 30 meters. Even though it is the strongest secondary weapon, it has a slow fire rate, and strong recoil, so it can be hard to control while rapid firing. It is very expensive, and you will often find yourself sacrificing shields or abilities on save rounds in order to use this powerhouse of a weapon.
Some of the best primary guns on save rounds, SMGs are great automatic weapons that you can find yourself using to challenge those rifles and shotguns.
Stinger: 950
The Stinger is the fastest gun in Valorant, with a fire rate of 16 rounds per second. It has an extremely strong recoil that shoots upward very fast, making it hard to handle unless you can control the spray. The Stinger’s specialty is its burst fire; when using your alt fire (right click), you can shoot a 4 round burst with a slight recoil reduction. This does cause the fire rate to reduce to 52% as well as your movement speed to 76%.
Spectre: 1,600
Often compared to the Phantom is the Spectre, a great cheap option for primary weapons. The Spectre is another gun that is silenced and has a large magazine of 30 rounds. This gun is great when you don’t have quite enough for a rifle, but too much for only a sidearm. It shares its damage with the Classic, but is fully automatic, making it even stronger. When aiming down sight, the fire rate is reduced to 90%, and the movement speed to 76%.
Being automatic, the Spectre does have a recoil that needs to be controlled, but it is not as strong as some of the other weapons in the game and is an amazing gun for beginners. It works as an introduction to automatic rifles, with fewer repercussions, but also does less damage.
Great at close range, shotguns have bullets that shoot a variety of small pellets that impact the target at once, dealing damage based on how many pellets have impacted the target. The Shorty is also a shotgun, but is a sidearm, so is not listed here.
Bucky: 850
The Bucky has the slowest fire rate of all three shotguns, which can cause people to overlook this gun, even if it does more damage than its counterparts. The Bucky has a special alt fire called Air Burst, which is great when faced with opponents at a longer range than desirable while using shotguns. Air Burst will shoot your bullet farther before releasing its pellets into the target. This distance is 7.5m, with only 5 pellets compared to the 15 in its primary fire.
Judge: 1850
Arguably the best shotgun in Valorant, the Judge is loved by a lot of players. It is another weapon that can be shot as fast as you can pull the trigger and can do incredible damage because of its capability to be rapidly fired. The Judge has only 12 pellets in its shells. While it does not do as much damage per shot as the Bucky, it can be fired faster, therefore it can do more damage in the same time it takes to fire the Bucky twice.
All three shotguns have different spreads with their pellets that can be hard to master if you aren’t aware. Crouching while shooting shotguns will cause the area of spread to narrow, making the weapon more accurate. Below is an example of the difference in each gun’s spread in order of appearance on the Buy Screen (Shorty, Bucky, Judge).
Some of the strongest weapons when used correctly, rifles are diverse and the most commonly used out of the rest of the guns.
Bulldog: 2,050
Unlike its burst fire SMG counterpart, the Bulldog only has a 3 round burst, but has higher damage than the Stinger. While its primary fire damage is uniform no matter the distance, its burst fire causes the fire rate to reduce to 63% of its primary fire and adds a slight recoil reduction. This weapon is great when you want to stay with a rifle, but don’t have a lot of credits to spend. The recoil reduction while aiming down sights is a great addition since its primary fire recoil is similar to the stinger and moves up very fast.
Guardian: 2,250
The Guardian is notorious for its one-tap capabilities, and is really good for long range, since its ADS zoom is 1.5x compared to the usual 1.25x. The Guardian does a whopping 195 damage to the head, no matter the distance, which is the highest out of all the guns, excluding sniper rifles. It is also one of the few guns whose fire rate does not reduce when aiming down sights. While the Guardian isn’t preferred for close combat, it’s amazing for long range fights, and can even be used to take out those using sniper rifles.
Phantom: 2,900
The Phantom is one of the two most popular guns in Valorant, and for many great reasons. It is the third of the silenced weapons and is perfect for shooting through smokes without giving away your position. The Phantom will one-tap up to 15 meters and can hold 40 rounds in its magazine. It has a faster fire rate than the Vandal, as well as a shorter first shot spread. Although the Phantom seems very powerful, it is the only rifle where its damage changes based on distance. The Phantom has an easier spray to control and can be used if you are still learning how to fight recoil.
Vandal: 2,900
One of the most used guns in the game, the Vandal is the second of the two most popular guns. The Vandal does 160 damage to the head, no matter the distance, so it’s great for one-tapping foes. It has 5 less rounds in its magazine than the Phantom, as well as having a harder recoil pattern to control. Overall, this weapon is great for any range, as long as you control your spray.
The best weapons to use for long distance combat, sniper rifles are great for holding angles and can get you an edge over the team who pushes the same spot every time, as well as gaining mid control.
Marshal: 950
The Marshal is another great cheap alternative for the beginning of games, as well as save rounds. Having the second highest damage in Valorant makes this fast sniper a great choice when picking fights. This weapon has the second highest zoom rate, at 3.5x, and has no spread while aiming down sights. The Marshal will always one-tap and does 101 damage to the body at any distance. If you have great aim, this is the gun for you, and even can prove itself useful in closer than normal fights.
Operator: 4,700
The Operator, also called the Op by players, is the strongest gun in the game with a whopping 255 damage to the head at any distance. It also has the slowest fire rate, or 0.6 rounds per second, but increases to 125%, or 0.75 rds/sec, while aiming down sight. This is the only gun in the game that will kill enemies with body shots, no matter the distance. Its zoom rate is 2.5x, and the alt fire can be used again to increase to 5.0x. The Op also has no first shot spread when aiming down sight, but does have a significant spread while hip firing, so make sure that you aim down sights when able to while shooting.
The guns with the largest magazines and some of the fastest fire rates are machine guns. These fierce weapons are both automatic and have high piercing capabilities, making them hard to combat.
Ares: 1,600
Sharing its price with the Spectre, the Ares is a good alternative to the popular SMG, even having a similar (yet slower) fire rate. The Ares fire rate doesn’t decrease when aiming down sight, and it can even make the recoil easier to control while doing so. It has a higher first shot spread than its brother, the Odin, and only has 50 rounds in its magazine, but is faster when reloading. The Ares is a great option when wanting to shoot through walls, or other items located on the maps, and is often overlooked.
Odin: 3,200
The Odin has an incredibly hard recoil to control, but when mastered, it can be one of the best weapons in the game. It has 100 rounds in its magazine, but the slowest reload speed. When aiming down sight, its fire rate is increased to 130% and has a special feature that increases its rate of fire over time. The Odin can eat through almost anything and anyone and is almost unstoppable. It comes at a hefty price of 3,200 credits, but when used in the correct hands, can turn a game around.
Valorant has many guns, with many great qualities. But they aren’t the only weapons available to the player. Every player is equipped with a knife that cannot be dropped. You will always have this knife, even when you die, and it can be used to damage enemies. While using the knife can often be difficult, as you need to understand the hitboxes of the agents, it can be very rewarding when you’re able to snag that knife kill.
When using the knife, you’ll find that it will do different damage based on where you are targeting the enemy, and if you use left click (faster) or right click. If you stand in front of your target, and use left click, you’ll do 50 damage to the whole body. If you choose to right click instead while standing in front, you’ll find yourself doing 75 damage instead. Standing behind your target is ideal and can be very powerful. With a left click, you will inflict 100 damage, and a right click will immediately kill, doing 150 damage.
Every weapon in Valorant is unique and can be very confusing at first glance. This article highlighted each weapon, and their features. We were able to distinguish many of their similarities and differences, as well as note pros and cons for each gun. With this knowledge, and some practice, you’ll be able to master the weapons and easily decide which gun to purchase, no matter the situation.
Until next time, stay safe, and happy reading!
