Whenever a new skin collection is released in Valorant, the first thing you hear from players is that the skins include “an Aimbot”. But is that really true?

You may have heard about Valorant’s closed beta for the Prime collection, specifically the Vandal skin. The issue was also recently brought into the spotlight by the statement of players from the Sentinels team. The players believe that certain skins greatly affect the gameplay. So, let’s take a look at whether weapon skins really affect the gameplay and whether using real money will really make us all Radiant.

How do Valorant skins affect gameplay?

Skins in Valorant can affect all audiovisual aspects. The look of shooting/reloading, sounds, finisher animations, weapon model – everything. Sometimes you feel like you’re holding a new weapon when you use a skin (especially noticeable with the Elderflame collection). There’s probably no other FPS game on the market where weapon skins affect the actual look and animations so much.

Even if you feel like you’re playing with a completely different weapon, it will never remain more than a feeling! All weapon stats (damage, wall penetration, weight, etc.) and recoil patterns will remain the same and cannot be changed by anything. The stats and recoil are the most important aspects of a weapon and they also determine how it works regardless of how it looks or sounds.

Prime Vandal and the Aimbot

Since the closed beta, there has been a myth in the Valorant community that you can supposedly play better with the Prime Vandal skin. Theoretically, this was even confirmed in an experiment conducted by a YouTuber named eggwick. He showed an average performance increase of ~18% when using the Prime Vandal skin. A large part of the community also believes that the recoil is easy to control with this particular skin. In fact, the shot animation allows you to see the exact trajectory of the bullet. This skin was the catalyst for all the claims that Valorant is a pay-to-win game and skins make the game easier. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Prime Vandal is one of the most popular skins for this assault rifle.

• Valorant Weapon Guide: Odin

Are Valorant Skins Pay-To-Win?

So, do skins have a decisive impact on Valorant’s gameplay? Well, yes and no. Better players will still punish you for every stupid peak, no matter what skin you play. However, animations, design, and VFX change the way we see the weapon, which affects our movements and perhaps some in-game decisions. That being said, we believe you can gain some advantage by playing with certain skins, but that will be based more on psychological factors than “cheats for ~2000 Valorant points”. Although all the visual aspects change with some skins – recoil pattern, heaviness and all weapon stats remain the same, so technically you’re playing with the same weapon. But ask yourself, do you feel a difference just because your weapon suddenly glitters a bit?

How to get skins in Valorant

Everyone uses the same weapons in Valorant, but that doesn’t mean every weapon has to look the same. After all, you’re going to spend a lot of time looking at your weapon, so looking at it might as well be.

Fortunately, the folks at Riot have the perfect solution for players who need to look good while shooting enemies. Skins are cosmetic add-ons that can change the physical appearance of a weapon, as well as animations and audio effects.

Read on to find out where you can get these unique looks and whether you need to play or pay to unlock the customizations.

How do I get skins in Valorant?

Unlike other popular multi-shooter games, Valorant doesn’t have any special skins to change and customize the look of the agent – at least for now. What they do offer is a collection of skins that can change and improve the way weapons look and feel while playing the game.

They don’t necessarily improve your gameplay, but sometimes looking good is enough to win a match, right?

Spend real money

This is possibly the easiest way to get the weapon skin you want but don’t have the time to unlock. Valorant Points or VP is the premium currency used in the game to unlock agents, skins and more from the in-game store.

Here is an example of converting real money to VP on the North American server:

• $4.99 – 475 VP, no bonus VP, 475 VP total.
• $9.99 – 950 VP, 50 bonus VP, 1000 VP total
• $19.99 – 1900 VP, 150 bonus VP, 2050 total
• $34.99 – 3325 VP, 325 bonus VP, 3650 total
• $49.99 – 4750 VP, 600 bonus VP, 5350 total
• 99 $ – 9500 VP, 1500 bonus VP, 11000 total

As a frame of reference, Valorant Store Featured Collections are around 7,100 VP. Individual weapon skins are slightly less expensive and generally range from 1,775 VP to 4,350 VP each, with melee weapon skins at the higher end of the price scale.

Before you start searching for weapon skins, you should know that featured bundles change every few weeks and individual skin deals change every 24 hours. So what you see today may not be what you see tomorrow.

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