As most Valorant players know, Phantom is one of the most popular and most well-rounded weapons in the entire game, and it comes with a variety of beautiful skins. Its the M4 of Valorant, providing good damage, nice handling and low recoil making it an effective in just about every situation. This means that you’ll be seeing a majority of players using this gun whether you’re new to the game or have been playing it for a while.
If you particularly love Valorant, players also have the option to buy optional skins for their favorite weapon or agent. Players can earn Val- Oh what’s that? You can’t? Oh okay cool. In this tier list, you can find out the best skins for Phantom ranked for this year. We also have a similar ranked tier list for the best Vandal skins and the agent you should pick based on the latest patch.
Players can actually buy the currency or skins using real cash or earn cash through the Premium Battle Pass contracts instead. But with hundreds upon hundreds of skins to choose from, it can be a little troublesome to figure out exactly what skin you want to buy due to all the options available, which is why we have made this tier list of all the skins ranked for the Phantom in Valorant.
Criteria:
As usual, this tier list will be divided from S-E tiers. I will be rating the lists based on how meaningfully they alter the weapons’ visuals and sounds. Because all of these skins require a lot of effort to unlock and need to bought with real money, low effort skins like basic palette swaps will be ranked in the bottom few tiers in most cases.
E-Tier:
While I know I’m already breaking the rules here with this tier, This is a special hall of shame reserved for the worst of the worst, the fact that these Phantom skins require real money is an embarrassment, not that the next two tiers are going to be any more impressive either. This is reserved for the most basic of palette swaps that offer little to nothing.
| Skin | Requirements |
| Avalanche | 1275 VP |
| Prism | 1275 VP |
| Smite | 875 VP |
| Rush | 876 VP |
| Winter Wunderland | 1275 VP |
| Team Ace | 1275 VP |
| Silvanus | 1275 VP |
Avalanche:
Avalanche is a very poor skin, something that can be said for every entry in this tier. Its a very basic color swap of the phantom, instead of black, now the gun is icy blue!
Prism:
As if Avalanche wasn’t an embarrassing enough entry we have Prism sliding in which is literally just “Blue gun”.
Smite:
Do you fancy your weapon looking like an ice troll’s diarrhea? Well then do we have the choice of skin for you!
Rush:
While somewhat better than the rest, the Rush is a streak of red and white that just looks plain mediocre.
Winter Wunderland:
Unlike the other entries in this tier that are there because they simply look mediocre for their price, this skin is just bad.
Team Ace:
Probably the least offensive skin in this list, Team Ace avoids the narrow pitfall of being bad or terrible by being simply mediocre.
Silvanus:
Almost as bad as Winter Wunderland, which is saying something, but this is yet another art edited on top of a weapon.
D-Tier:
While not quite in the hall of shame, these skins aren’t any better considering their cost and what they offer in terms of visual change. They’re still mostly palette swaps that don’t offer anything unique or special in their design.
| Skin | Requirements |
| Kingdom | Battlepass: Ignition: Act 1 Level 25 |
| Serenity | Battlepass: Ignition: Act 3 Level 25 |
| Valorant GO! | 1775 VP |
| Celestial | 1775 VP |
| Snowfall | 1275 VP |
| Galleria | 875 VP |
Kingdom:
Kingdom is a fairly okay skin. Its a neat looking palette that looks just different enough to feel unique.
Serenity:
Once again somewhat like Kingdom, its an okay looking skin but not something we would recommend shelling out actual money for.
Valorant GO!:
As much as I wanted to post this both lower or higher, I have a soft spot for things that have a sorta spacey look to them.
Celestial:
Celestial Skin goes for a more Oriental look compared to the other weapon skins in Valorant.
Snowfall:
Snowfall really captures the essence of holding a frozen piece of weaponry in your hands. It looks somewhat pleasing, hence making its way into tier D.
Galleria:
Galleria just looks cool, that’s really all I can say about this.
Read More: Valorant Settings Guide for Max FPS Optimization & High Performance
C-Tier:
These Phantom skins are okay, they offer a unique design or an interesting enough change that they feel somewhat unique from the tiers mentioned above.
| Skin | Requirements |
| Nebula | 1775 VP |
| Ion | 1775 VP |
| Tigris | 1275 VP |
| Minima | 1275 VP |
| Undercity | 1775 VP |
Nebula:
Another weapon I have soft spot for simply because of my own tastes, I find Nebula’s design to be quite pleasing.
Ion:
Compared to others, Ion offers a fairly distinct sci-fi/futuristic look that looks sleek and satisfying.
Tigris:
Going away from Ion’s sci-fi look, Tigris goes for a high-fantasy aesthetic in its design.
Minima:
Authentic to its name, the Minima skins introduce a minimalistic design to all the weapons in Valorant that fans of a minimalist aesthetic are sure to love.
Undercity:
The Undercity skin goes for a Cyberpunk look to itself, fans of the genre who enjoy works like Ghost in The Shell or Blade Runner are particularly going to enjoy this one.
B-Tier:
These Skins are fairly decent, they offer something pleasant and interesting instead of a basic palette swap. Might be worth getting if you’re seriously invested in the game and want to actively support the devs.
| Skin | Requirements |
| Radiant Crisis 001 | 1775 VP |
| Doodle Buds | 1775 VP |
| BlastX | 2175 VP |
| Infinity | Battlepass: Formation: Act 1 Level 45 |
| Recon | 1775 VP |
| Lightwave | Battlepass: Formation: Act 3 Level 25 |
| Protocol 781-A | 2475 VP |
| Aero | Battlepass: Reflection: Act 3 Level 45 |
| Velocity | Battlepass: Disruption: Act 1 Level 25 |
Radiant Crisis 001:
This one’s for the comic book fans. Radiant Crisis 001 is a weapon that adds a very cool cel-shaded look to your Phantom.
Doodle Buds:
Doodle Buds is a unique skin in Valorant with a special effect. On kill, some of the characters seen on the weapon will become colored in.
BlastX:
The BlastX weapons go for a toy aesthetic wherein they look more like harmless nerf guns more than actual weapons.
Infinity:
Infinity adds a sci-fi, fantasy flair to the weapons, so players who prefer skins like the Ion or Tigris are really going to enjoy the Infinity.
Recon:
The Recon skin turns the Phantom into a weapon that players would see more often in something like Call of Duty due to its realistic look.
Lightwave:
The Lightwave is similar to the BlastX in that it looks somewhat similar to a toy instead of an actual weapon. However lightwave is different due to its more neon look and special effects that it adds.
Protocol 781-A:
Protocol 781-A feels unique in the sense that its something players would see in a futuristic Call of Duty game or a mobile version of Halo, keeping that in mind, its still one of the better weapon skins in Valorant.
Aero:
Aero is another pretty decent choice when it comes to skin selection, while not as good as some of the rest in this list, Aero offers a wild look with its splashes of Red and white.
Velocity:
Another entry that is somewhat similar to entries like Lightwave and BlastX, Velocity looks like a harmless paint gun with its sporty orange look and cylindrical magazine that resembles an ink bottle.
A-Tier:
These skins are pretty neat, some of them not only have unique designs but also entirely unique animations and sound effects.
| Skin | Requirements |
| Artisan | Battlepass: Reflection: Act 2 Level 25 |
| Oni | 1775 VP |
| Spline | 1775 VP |
| Singularity | 2175 VP |
| Glitchpop 2.0 | 2175 VP |
| Prime 2.0 | 1775 VP |
| SPECTRUM | 2675 VP |
| Ruination | 2175 VP |
Artisan:
The Artisan skin looks, as its name implies, somewhat artsy with its distinct rounded design and visual flair.
Spline:
The spline is a weird skin that looks like very weird and uncomfortable, which is partly why I like the design of this skin. Its also probably the most unique of all the Phantom skins in Valorant.
Singularity:
This is yet another neat skin, what separates this skin from the rest is its unique sounds and special reload animations.
Prime 2.0:
Been in the game since launch, the Prime skins are one of the oldest skins in Valorant but still very much deserving of a high spot due to their slick, and satisfying visual design.
SPECTRUM:
SPECTRUM goes for a much more angular look than any other weapon skin in Valorant. The small shades of red in the pure white design give it a distinct futuristic look that I think is pretty neat.
Glitchpop 2.0:
One of the more popular skins in Valorant and for good reason indeed, the Glitchpop 2.0 is a great skin due to its unique kill effects and sound effects.
S-Tier:
These are some of the skins that I really dig, the best of the best, and while I wouldn’t ever shell out money for this, its always fun to look at and admire like a child looking through a store window except I’m now an adult and thus I have bills to pay.
| Skin | Requirements |
| Oni | 1775 VP |
| Ruination | 2175 VP |
Oni:
I personally find this design to be very badass, it really speaks to me as someone who enjoys Japanese mythology and is also a fan of Shin Megami Tensei.
Ruination:
Its a portable Dragon that fires bullets and you reload it by feeding it ammo. That’s it, that’s the description.
Players interested in seeing all the unique effects, animations and sounds for all the Phantom skins can watch the full video below.
And these are all the skins in Valorant for Phantom ranked for your gaming convenience. Valorant has become a highly influential title since its launch, especially due to its free to play nature bringing in a ton of new players interested in this genre from all over the world. Its success continued with a high amount of support from Riot Games ensures the game will most likely only grow stronger throughout its future.
We hope you found this guide helpful, for more guides on Valorant, check out our Guides section! And like we mentioned earlier, we have some more useful Valorant related tips, guides and how-to tutorials you might find useful:
