Weapon Tier Lists
Valorant Weapon Tier List: Best Guns Ranked
Community tier lists underrate Vandals. The damage-per-mag and mid-range TTK numbers say otherwise.
Why the Vandal belongs in S-tier
Creator tier lists are entertainment, not science. They rank flashy Operator clips while the Vandal quietly prints mid-range eliminations because damage-per-second consistency beats higher-ceiling guns average players cannot control.
S-tier means best expected value across 100 ranked fights. Vandal wins at mid-range site fights — the distances where Competitive and post-plants actually happen. Shotguns own close sites. Operators own long lanes. Everything between is rifle country.
Confirm live values after patches on Valorant.com. Hierarchy logic stays useful even when decimals nudge.
Damage, TTK, and peek theory
Working Vandal numbers shift with patches, but the real metric is damage before disengage — magazine pressure forgives a whiffed first burst. Phantom trades spray control for slightly softer one-taps.
First-shot accuracy is the hidden S-tier stat. Cadence: peek → 3–4 bullets → jiggle back → re-peek. Do not stand still for ego sprays unless the enemy is healing.
Pair this mid-range plan with buy discipline from our Valorant buy routes guide.
Loadout pairings, mistakes, and practice
Core: Vandal or Phantom + Spectre or Sheriff flex + utility. In Competitive, this supports the laddering strategies in our aggression guide.
Common mistakes: full-spraying from long A lanes, re-peeking the same pixel, swapping to SMG at rifle range out of habit, never practicing crouch-spray in the Range.
Players who also use aim-assist tooling can review Valorant Aimbot profiles after they lock a sens — mechanics first, tools second.