Does Valorant Skins improve your aim? Is Valorant pay to win?
Updated: Sep 25, 2022
Valorant is one of the most popular first person shooter in 2022, and has a very high global popularity. Weapon skins in Valorant is a big part and therefore there has always been a conflict that whether the skins improve your aim or not in Valorant and whether Valorant is a pay to win game or not. The weapon skins in Valorant are known for their animations, sound effects and visuals which are very different from a default skin.
Riot Games released Valorant in 2020 and since then, many skins have been launched in the game, and we keep getting a new skin collection every big patch. Being a free to play game, skins are a major part of their revenue and business model, therefore the designers and developers try hard to make these skins attract casual players as well. Valorant is being considered as free to play pay to win game.
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Does skins make your aim better in Valorant?
Skins does not affect your game and aim physically, but they definitely impacts your gameplay psychologically and mentally. Skins can provide confidence and a different feel for game, but this statement is not true for every player. Almost every player in Valorant prefers to play with animated skins, some may prefer default skins but that player base is negligible.
There are two types of skins in Valorant, one with no effect, they are just vinyl on a default skin with no special effects. The second type of skins are with special effects like from different sounds, animations, bullet tracers and scopes. These skins are the ones that players claim to improve their aim and gameplay.
The majority of players in Valorant agrees that they tend to perform better with a skin. This has many reasons including higher confidence and different feel for game and guns. Some skins make it feel like the gun has a different rate of fire and thus can make it easier to control spray. Here are some of the reason which we think affects your gameplay -
1. Sound affect-
The sound of gun firing completely changes the feel of a gun in Valorant, players feel the same gun heavier or lighter, sharper and smoother just because of different skins.
2. Visual assists-
Some skins in Valorant came with their own bullet tracer style, which makes it easier for players to see their spray and bullet path. This can make some players control their spray better. The tracers highly help you to shoot more precisely when tap firing.
3. Kill animation-
Top skins in Valorant have their own kill finisher and kill confirmation sound, this improves player confidence.
Some people might have these reasons, some may have other reasons while some players might not even feel any difference in gameplay with skins. But for the majority of players (every 3 out of 4), weapon skins improve their gameplay and help them aim in some way.
Prime and Reaver Vandals are without a doubt the most popular skins in the game since their release, player with these skins claim to have much more accuracy and better performance than the default skin. The sound effect of Reaver Vandal makes it feel hollow and a very light weapon that feels very smooth to aim with. On the other hand, Prime Vandal feels sharper and has a laser-like sound effect, which makes players feel more confident when tap shooting. In both these skins, bullet tracers are clearly visible which is one of the reasons which make them so popular.
Which are the best Valorant skins to improve aim?
Valorant and Riot games have released many insane skin collections within just two years of the game's lifetime. With so many choices every player has a different skin and animation style which suits them, but there are some collections that are undisputedly preferred by almost everyone. These skins will certainly improve your Valorant experience and might help to make you perform better. Here are some of the best Valorant skin bundles-
Reaver
Prime
Glitchpop
RGX 11Z Pro
Ion
Here are some more skin collections which are also widely popular.
Sovereign
Recon
Singularity
Oni
BlastX
Protocol 781-A
*Do not purchase any skin just because of a guide or other's opinions, first experience it yourself in the game and then make a choice.
Is Valorant a pay to win game?
Valorant currently is one of the biggest free to play game available and weapon skins is a major part of their revenue. With their weapon skins, Valorant does have some aspect of a 'pay to win' game in it. While some players may argue with this and it is true that Valorant is not a direct pay to win game but with weapon skins, it does have some sort of pay to win aspect.
It is no doubt that a high portion of free-to-play games has some sort of pay to win aspect in their game. The reason for this is to simply earn some revenue from their game, Valorant is in the same boat. Since Valorant is a multiplayer competitive game, they tried to make this game very least pay to win as possible, but they made their weapon skins in such a way that it will attract casual players by adding some things in their designs to make it feel more advantageous than default skins.
