Best Vandal Skins in VALORANT

The Vandal is the most-picked high-damage rifle in VALORANT, and most players who run it end up buying skins for it. If you haven't yet, they're cheaper than you'd think, and collections rotate through the sale every three months or so.

Here's a ranking of the best Vandal skins worth buying, so you know exactly which ones to pick up.

Before the list, two things to know: what makes a skin good, and what it costs.

Three things matter in a Vandal skin: the firing sound, since you hear it on every shot. The weapon outline and iron sights, since a cluttered model makes crosshair placement harder. And the finisher and animations, since those are what you actually see in-game. Clean visuals and crisp audio hold up better over time than flashy effects.

Price tiers: Select skins cost 875 VP, Deluxe 1,275, Premium 1,775, Exclusive 2,175, Ultra 2,475, and Champions 2,675. Anything above Premium comes with a custom finisher, a unique firing sound, and full equip, reload, and inspect animations. The default Vandal has none of that, which is why a skin is worth buying in the first place.

These Vandal skins are common in the Radiant lobbies and pro streams.

The Kuronami Vandal is the skin you'll see on most high-ranked players, and it overtook Reaver as the community favorite. Clean outline, a heavy but crisp firing sound, and a swirling water finisher with one nice touch: shoot the bubble around your finished enemy, and it pops. At 2,175 VP, it's standard Exclusive pricing, and the easy answer if you only buy one Vandal skin.

The standout feature is a floating reactor with electricity constantly running through it, plus a lever that reciprocates with every shot. The firing sound is a distorted electric-guitar stab: genuinely polarizing, so preview it before buying. The recoil pattern reads cleaner than the default Vandal's, and the blue variant is the best-looking of the set. The finisher lags behind newer skins like Kuronami and Primordium, but the shooting itself still feels premium.

Araxys is the cleanest sci-fi option: a simple outline that keeps crosshair placement easy, sharp bullet tracers, and one of the best inspect animations on any Vandal. At 2,175 VP, it comes with the full Exclusive package: custom firing sound, finisher, and equip and reload animations. The red default is the iconic look; blue and green are the competitive picks.

Reaver launched in VALORANT's first year and still holds S-tier. The firing sound is heavy and satisfying on headshots, the purple-and-black design stands out without blocking your view, and the reload holds up. The finisher looks dated next to newer releases, but at 1,775 VP, it's the cheapest S-tier skin. And if a skin you bought four years ago still feels just as good as anything released last month, Riot did something right.

Prime is the classic glass-and-gold pick: crisp firing sound, an instantly recognizable reload, and possibly the best weapon outline on this list for aim readability. Three color variants, a smooth equip animation, and a simple finisher for 1,775 VP. The safe recommendation for a first skin purchase.

The Oni Vandal has one of the best headshot sounds in VALORANT. Three color variants, a red demon-mask look that ages well, and a serviceable finisher. At 1,775 VP in Premium, Oni is another “you cannot go wrong” pick, and if you swap to Phantom on pistol rounds you can pair it with the matching Oni Phantom for a full set.

Champions 2023 is the best of the Champions line: the gold glow, an MVP aura that flashes after multi-kills, and a heartbeat animation on the hologram. At 2,675 VP, it's the most expensive skin here, and it leaves the store once the Champions window closes. The value case weakens with every new Champions release, but this is the strongest version so far.

Dragons! Imperium has the standout finisher in A-tier: a full-sized dragon that encases your last kill in a gemstone cocoon. The rest of the gun matches: gold-and-jewel detailing with subtle VFX moving inside the weapon, based on real artifacts the dev team referenced. At 2,175 VP, it's the pick for an oriental theme over a sci-fi neon vibe.

Magepunk has a firing sound crisper than most skins at its price. The steampunk detailing is busy but stays out of your sight line, and the color variants are distinct enough to swap by map. At 1,775 VP, it's one of the best-value Vandal skins in the game. 

The Sentinels of Light Vandal has one of the best finishers on any sub-2,200 VP skin. A hero-themed kill animation that feels like a League of Legends cinematic, a pink color variant that is weirdly clean, and a firing sound that is solid if not remarkable. At 2,175 VP in the Exclusive tier, the skin is priced a little high for what the base shooting feel delivers, but the finisher carries it into A-tier on its own.

Primordium visibly heats up as you fire and cools back down after, a detail most skins skip. Four color variants, a finisher that sets your kill on fire, and 2,175 VP pricing make it the strongest modern pick that isn't Kuronami.

Glitchpop's glitch sound mutates with every bullet, and the animation work is the busiest on any Vandal in the store. That's also the problem: the visual noise gets distracting, and in ranked, crosshair placement matters more than spectacle. At 2,175 VP, it's a Y2K-style buy, not a competitive one.

Mystbloom is Glitchpop's opposite: quiet animations, a floral pink-and-white palette that won't be for everyone, and a clean but forgettable firing sound. At 2,175 VP, you're paying for the aesthetic, not the audio. A good pick if you want a pretty skin that stays out of the way in ranked.

The Singularity Vandal is the transparent-body pick. You can see through the weapon to its internals, the firing feel is light rather than heavy, and the finisher involves a black hole that sucks your kill into oblivion. At 2,175 VP in the Exclusive tier, Singularity is a personality skin rather than a pure-performance one, and the animation work has aged surprisingly well.

The Arcane Vandal has a snappy, precise shooting sound and moving energy tubes that catch the light during firefights. At 2,175 VP in the Exclusive tier, the content is all there, but the visual language leans more magical than competitive, so your decision varies depending on whether you like the League of Legends Arcane crossover aesthetic.

Elderflame (2,475 VP, Ultra) turns your Vandal into a living dragon: the gun has eyes, the reload pries its jaws open, and the finisher makes you a dragon rider. The novelty is real, but the long animations and noisy outline cost you in fast rounds. Unique, not competitive.

Champions 2021 (2,675 VP) launched the Champions line and keeps its prestige for that reason. The catch: the firing sound is weaker than its successors and retains some of the default Vandal audio. If you're choosing between this and Champions 2023, the 2023 version wins in almost every category.

Not every skin needs to be a full production. Select Edition picks like Sensation and Wonderstallion run 875 VP; Deluxe options like Sakura, Sandswept, and Aristocrat run 1,275. None come with custom finishers or audio overhauls, but you get a color swap and sharper visuals for a fraction of the Exclusive price. Sakura is the standout entry-level buy — not Kuronami, but a clear step up from the default Vandal.

Riot's store rotates four random unowned skins daily. It's also the only path to an Exclusive Edition Vandal, since the Night Market excludes Exclusive and Ultra tiers from its discounts.

The workaround is buying the whole collection as a launch bundle: roughly 20% off, no RNG. Kuronami, Araxys, and Imperium all launched this way. Radianite Points are the separate upgrade currency, earned through the Battle Pass or bought directly. They unlock animation levels and color variants on skins you already own.

If you're putting money into the gun, put an hour into your mechanics too. A session with a Radiant VALORANT coach on WeCoach is the fastest way to find out why you plateau at a specific rank.