What’s the best thing about Valorant? It’s certainly not your screaming teammates in Ranked, nor is it the e-daters clogging up every Spike Rush. No, the best thing in Valorant is clearly the skins. We’ll take our hats off to the devs here; they’ve cooked up loads of amazing Vandal skins since the game’s launch. Some purists only love the original ones, but we think plenty of the newer additions are right up there.
So, we decided to take the 10 best Valorant Vandal skins in the game right now and rank them from 10 down to 1. We’re certain this will be universally approved and none of you will leave comments questioning our picks or wondering why we left out your favourite skin!
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10. Glitchpop
The Glitchpop Vandal was released way back in February 2021 yet remains one of the best skins in the game. It features funky designs, has awesome sounds and produces an excellent finisher. It’s one of those skins that makes your gun feel better. We don’t know how to explain it, but the combination of the shape and sound makes it feel like the Vandal shoots more accurately.
This skin was made popular by FNATIC superstar Derke during their run to win two VCT trophies in 2023. The season is just around the corner again, so we’re excited to see if he’s sticking with this skin or has chosen a new one. Tune into FNATICs matches via any sportsbooks that take credit cards to see if this is the case, and you can place a couple of cheeky wagers on the games while you’re there.
9. Valiant Hero
As we mentioned, Valorant has released some banger skins in the last twelve months, and the Valiant Hero soared up our list when it came out. This skin launched in October 2023 as a homage to China officially releasing Valorant. If we were making a list of the best melee skins, this one would be in the top five for sure. It gives you a cool staff to twirl around and whack your enemies with – but the Vandal is equally impressive.
It sounds wicked, and has an intricate design that’s almost reminiscent of Avatar: The Last Airbender. We’ll be honest, a big reason for it being in our top 10 is the finisher. When you get the final kill, you’re treated to a wonderful scene as a warrior appears on a flying cloud and numerous other warrior figures appear and batter the person you killed. The warrior on the cloud then slams a staff into the ground and twirls around on it.
Cmon, you don’t find many finishers as detailed or as cool as that!
8. Overdrive
The Overdrive skin collection was another new one to drop as it came out right at the end of last year. We’ve ranked this higher than a lot of people purely because it’s a colourful skin. We love it when Riot produces new colours and the pinky-purple variant is gorgeous.
It also has some excellent kill sounds and effects that make you feel like you’re in a car racing arcade game. Some of the gun animations are very cool too; you see sparks of lightning when you’re reloading or inspecting.
Many fans see this as a cross between the Glitchpop and the Radiant Entertainment System skins. Side note: we’d 100% have the RES here if it churned out a Vandal skin as well as a Phantom!
7. Gaia’s Vengeance
Gaia’s Vengeance is one of those skins that splits opinions. Some people find it boring, but we think it’s comfortably a top 10 Vandal skin. Full disclosure, we weren’t fans of Gaia’s Vengeance 2.0 when it launched, but that’s because the skin doesn’t work well as a Vandal and the new melee sucked.
We’ll give you three reasons why Gaia’s Vengeance is a top Vandal skin:
- It’s got a truly unique design
- The wood sound effects are AMAZING
- It has one of the best finishers in the game
If you look at some of the skins on this list, many look fairly similar or look like other skins in the game. Gaia’s Vengeance stands out as a one-of-a-kind and that’s why we love it. Plus, it’s another gun that gives you an aim buff. The tones when you fire your gun weirdly make it easier to control. Riot will claim it does nothing, but we’re not convinced!
6. Araxys
We remember when the Araxys came out and it was used by 90% of pros in the VCT. You could barely watch a game without seeing an Araxys Vandal or two – and hey, we weren’t complaining.
It’s a beautiful skin that looks futuristic and moves as though there’s nanotech in it. The lore behind it (by this we mean the reveal trailer) makes it seem like the guns are used by an alien invasion, and the design perfectly encapsulates this theme.
Every variant is worth using and it has a brilliant deep purple coloured one that stands out from the crowd. Again, it ticks all the boxes you want from a Vandal skin: it sounds awesome, the animations are epic, the finisher is great and it’s easy to use.
5. Chronovoid
Remember that weird Origin Vandal from back in 2021? It had so much potential with a unique inspect animation, some deep sounds and a fairly fantastic finisher. One thing held it back; the overall design.
It looked like a normal Vandal, only metal and clunky.
The Chronovoid is kind of like the Origin Vandal, only done way better. It features a more slimline design and way better colour variants, plus the sounds are more refined, which makes the whole gone much easier to use. It’s another option that seemingly makes you aim like prime Aspas purely thanks to how it sounds and feels.
Also, we love the reload animation.
Whenever a gun does something different with the reload, we’re all for it. Here, it almost looks like you use the force to pull an orb from the gun, spin it around a bit and force-push it back in. What can we say; it’s funky and more skins should do fun reload animations!
4. Prime
If you’re surprised to see the Prime Vandal on this list then we can tell you’ve only played VALORANT for a year or so. It was one of the first skins ever released in 2020 – and the first Valorant skin (in the official game) to include effects and a finisher.
It. Is. Iconic.
Whenever you’re sick of a Vandal skin, you can switch back to the Prime and immediately fall back in love with it. It’s your old faithful buddy who never lets you down. Riot was in danger of peaking too early here as it has some of the best gunshot sounds and kill-effect noises of any gun in the game, period.
Sure, the finisher isn’t that great, but you use this gun because of everything else. The reload effect is cool – you reload what looks like a bar of energy instead of bullets – and it feels incredible to use.
Seriously, shoot a normal Vandal, then equip the Prime skin and tell us you don’t instantly aim better. We’ve said it time and time again but some skins feel like they give you a buff. It’s probably all in your head, but we’ll take it!
3. RGX
The RGX Vandal was the first skin in the game to truly take over the pro and ranked scenes. Everyone and their dog had this when it first came out. It was simply the most coveted Vandal skin in the game – and we think it’s still very much up there.
To us, people have forgotten the joys of the RGX. Inspecting your gun to change the lights, firing the cool pellets into the walls and hearing the exceptional sound effects when you shoot are all part of the RGX joy.
It has a brilliant finisher as well – and we love all of the colour variants. Our only slight gripe is that you can’t preset the light colours on each variant. We’d love to immediately load into a game with the yellow variant and the yellow lights.
2. Champions 2021
Rewind to the first year of VCT and Riot introduced the Champions 2021 bundle. Pros and fans loved it to bits – and despite two other bundles released in subsequent years, the Champions 2021 remains the best of the bunch.
We won’t lie, we almost forgot about this skin because it was such a rare release. However, it recently got re-released in China and this reminded us how genuinely phenomenal the skin is. It’s one of the only Vandal skins to play music when you inspect it and it gets an epic gold outline when you top the leaderboard.
But let’s talk about the finisher. Lightning strikes the enemy and a big black orb appears as the Champions 2021 theme song plays out for all to hear. As you walk over your enemy’s ashes, the sky turns red and a massive Brimstone appears looking down menacingly at you.
Few finishers from any skin-line in the game come close to this.
Honourable Mentions
Before we reveal the number one Vandal skin in Valorant, let’s look at some honourable mentions:
Kuronami
A very new skin that’s hugely popular, though mostly for the melee. To us, the Vandal skin itself is too similar to the Rever and other skins of a similar style. If this was a top 10 melee skins list, it might be number one.
Oni
We rate the Oni Phantom comfortably in the top 5 Phantom skins, but the Vandal doesn’t quite hit as hard. Maybe it’s because we’re so used to the Phantom so it feels weird as a Vandal?
Elderflame
Who can forget the Elderflame? This big thick dragon skin has some exceptional animations and sounds amazing. The only things holding it back are the poor choice of colours and the fact it looks a bit too chunky when you’re in-game.
Xerofang
The Xerofang is the latest Vandal skin released by Riot and it hits a lot of good notes. The sound effects are “chef’s kiss” and the overall style is very striking. Our only problem is that it’s too similar to the Araxys, but not as good-looking.
Reaver
We had to mention the Reaver as loads of players still rate it as the best skin. This might be controversial, but we think it’s highly overrated. The Forsaken is basically a better version of this, as is the Kuronami. Be honest, you only rate it because TenZ popularised it back in 2021!
1. Prelude To Chaos
Finally, we can reveal the best Valorant Vandal skin is the Prelude To Chaos!
It ticks every box for everything we want in a Valorant skin:
- Amazing overall design
- Special reload animations
- Incredible kill effects
- Beautiful bullet sounds
- A truly epic finisher
- Every variant looks stunning
Genuinely, what more could you ask for? It’s our top Vandal skin, but feel free to tell us yours. We’re sure you have some differences of opinions and that’s okay. If you’re interested in reading more Valorant content, check out this Tier List Guide we wrote for all the agents. It covers everything you need to know about the agents, who to pick and how to improve your game!