Valorant Vandal vs Phantom: I’ve Finally Decided

Valorant is one of the fastest-growing, most-exciting games on the market right now. Since its release in 2020, the game has taken over the competitive (and casual) gaming scene by storm, with millions of players daily.

Despite all these hours logged on Valorant, one of the biggest questions remain unanswered: The Phantom or the Vandal?

As you load into the buy phase with just enough credits to buy a rifle, full armor, and all your utility, you’re essentially left with two rifle options to complete your loadout. So you must pick one: will it be the Phantom or the Vandal?

Bottom Line Up Front

The Phantom has many features like its suppressor and larger magazine that’s negated by the damage falling past 15 meters. The Vandal, on the other hand, has worse recoil and a smaller magazine. However, its one-tap potential makes it a favorite amongst highly accurate players.

Choosing one over the other is a matter of personal preference and in-game context. Duelists and controllers may be better off with the Phantom as they seek engagements at high speeds or spam through smokes. Sentinels and initiators may be better off with the Vandal given their ability to trade no matter the distance.

The Phantom: Key Features

The Phantom in Valorant costs 2,900 credits. It has a 30 round magazine that shoots 11 rounds per second with a 0.2 first shot spread. The Phantom’s damage is variable and depends on your distance away from the target. The feature that sets the Phantom apart from all the other options is its silencer allowing it to be used to spam through smokes without much risk of giving up the shooter’s positioning. On top of this, the sound of firing can’t be heard at distances of 40m+ except in the firing direction.

Here are the Phantom’s full statistics:

Overall, the Phantom remains the best general-purpose weapons in the game where it excels in close-range combat while remaining above average in long-range shooting battles. Even with the damage falloff, the Phantom remains a popular choice amongst Valorant players because of its ability to clear close angles and corners that populate many of Valorant’s maps.

If you aim down sight (ADS) with the Phantom, your fire rate and movespeed decrease by 90% and 76%, respectively. To compensate for that, aiming down your sight allows you to zoom into your scope by 1.25x while your recoil and spread reduce marginally as well.

Pros:

• Silencer
• Spray Control
• 30 Bullet Magazine

Cons:

• Damage Fall Off

As I mentioned earlier, the Phantom’s silencer and recoil reset times are some of the biggest advantages that the Phantom has over the Vandal. In Valorant, where many maps are filled with tight corners, the quick recoil reset is a welcome addition to the Phantom’s feature set. Because of these features, a gun like the Phantom would be extremely useful if you’re looking to constantly spam through smokes or walls given that the recoil is more manageable than it’s one-shot headshot counterpart.

To offset the advantages that the Phantom provides, Riot Devs have made it a point to introduce damage fall-off to the gun. From 15 to 30 meters, a headshot with the Phantom will only do 140 damage. From 30 meters onwards, a headshot with the Phantom will only do 124 damage. The damage difference means that if you’re against an opponent with full armor and a vandal from 15 meters onwards, you’ll need 2 shots, one to the head and one anywhere else, to kill him while he’ll only need 1 shot to your head to kill you. The damage, in my opinion, nullifies every advantage afforded by a larger magazine, a silencer, and better spray recoil.

Why does the fall off damage justify all these advantages? The answer is pretty simple. At the highest level of the game, at the top 5% of players, they’ve trained their aim and gamesense to the point where their first shot is more than likely to be on target: your head. All things equal, if you give the top players either a Phantom or a Vandal, the player with the Vandal would win out over the Phantom at any distance greater than 15 meters because all it takes is one bullet to the dome for the Vandal player to get the kill.

Here’s 100Thieves pro player Sean “Bang” Bezerra on the topic:

The Vandal: Key Features

Where the Phantom is an amazing gun for spraying through smokes, the Vandal is its louder, more powerful brother. The Vandal shoots a 25 round magazine at 9.75 rounds per second with a 0.25 degree first shot spread. When you ADS with the Vandal, your fire rate and movespeed also go down by 90% and 76%, respectively. Like the Phantom, ADS-ing zooms your vision into your scope and reduces your spread and recoil. This alternate firing mechanic is much more used by Vandal users as all it takes is one bullet to the head to eliminate a player from the round. Professional players like C9 Yay have gained great notoriety for holding angles with the Vandal while ADSed and one tapping opponents’ heads.

Here are the statistics of the Vandal:

Pros:

• No Damage Fall Off
• Perfect for Pre-Firing Angles

Cons:

• Worse Spray Control
• No Supprssor

The best thing about the Vandal is that it has no damage fall off, no matter the range. Say you’re in Ascent and you have a vandal and fighting someone top mid, a Phantom would require you to hit the enemy twice before you even have a chance of killing him. A Vandal, on the other hand, would instantly kill the attacker if you manage to land a headshot.

Now, say, you’re on the attack and peeking into A main. If you’ve noticed someone almost always likes to peek early, then you might try prefiring the opponent before he gets a chance to aim at you. Assuming that the distance between where you peek and where the target stands is greater than 15m, then you’re more likely to eliminate the enemy with a Vandal than a Phantom.

However, in many other scenarios, the Vandal doesn’t share the same advantage over the Phantom. Compared to his counter part, the Vandal has way worse spray control and is therefore a less suitable weapon for 1vX scenarios in high elo where enemies have a greater tendency to play together and double peek. The lack of a suppressor also means bullet tracers. This makes the Vandal less optimal for spraying through smokes as the opponents can guess where you’re shooting from based on the bullet’s tracks.

Main Differences

All in all, the Vandal and Phantom have the following differences:

Spray Control

The Phantom has a more compressed spray pattern compared to the Vandal. This means two things:

Gun fights are easier

CSGO players have always had an issue with Valorant’s recoil taking forever to reset. In CSGO, for example, if you whiff the first burst round of your AK-47, you could theoretically strafe a little and your recoil will almost immediately reset. In Valorant, the reset time is considerably longer. However, the Phantom’s reset time is also considerably shorter than the Vandal’s. This makes gun fights easier, especially if you’re having an off day.

Spray transfers become possible

Valorant added a lot of RNG to their gun’s spray. They’ve done so in an effort to make those 1vX fights possible. The difference in the Vandal’s and Phantom’s volatile spray patterns means that accomplishing spray transfers with the Phantom is more possible.

Presence of a Suppressor

The Phantom has a suppressor. The Vandal does not. The suppressor is an extremely powerful feature that allows you to do different things without repercussions. Because of the way Valorant was developed, the smokes in the game are extremely powerful tools with a variety of chokepoints and one-way ledges that you could put them on.

With a suppressor, you could mag dump round after round without having to worry about your enemy tracking your bullets and spamming you right back. If you do this with a Phantom, which has a higher mag load and firing speed than the Vandal, then you’ll have a higher chance of getting a pick off. With how the Phantom damages people right now, all you need are 4 to 5 body shots to land a kill with the Phantom.

Firing Rate

The final difference between the Vandal and the Phantom is their firing rates. The Vandal can shoot 9.75 rounds per second, while the Phantom can shoot 11 rounds. This slight difference in mechanics makes a minute but very considerable impact in how long you strafe and shoot in Valorant. The timing in your strafe isn’t the same when you’re using a Vandal or a Phantom — so make sure you practice the mechanics in the range. I’ve personally found that firing 2 or 3 bullets with the Vandal is the perfect amount of rounds without introducing recoil or standing still for too long. For the Phantom, quick bursts of 3 or 4 bullets are the perfect range of bullets.

Using quick bursts this way is perfect for Valorant because of the slowness applied when you hit somebody. While it may take you 1 or 2 strafes to get the kill, you’re much harder to eliminate and slow down when you strafe.

Choosing Between The Two

I’ve talked about the pros and cons of each gun and touched on a little about the different situations where one is better than the other. In this section, I wanted to give you a better idea of questions that you should be asking yourself to justify a Phantom or Vandal purchase.

What’s The Opponent’s Money Situation?

A lot of people only consider the team’s economy when making a buying decision — but that doesn’t really make sense with the Vandal and Phantom as the two rifles have exactly the same cost: 2900 credits. Instead, you should be looking at your enemy’s money situation and making your decision off of that. If, for example, you’re looking to buy a rifle in their save round, I always like to buy the Phantom, given that it shoots better and is more effective in close-quarter combat. The damage fall-off doesn’t impact you as much because the enemy is unlikely to have full shields anyway.

The same logic holds true when the enemy is on a half or force buy. In these cases, the Phantom is the far superior gun, given the minimal impact the damage fall-off has.

When the enemy has enough to fully buy, you should be going with whatever gun you’re more comfortable with.

What Map Are You On?

Some maps are more open than others. Some angles are longer than others. That’s just the way map design works.

When choosing between the Phantom or the Vandal, you should consider the map you’re on and the angles you want to hold. If you want to hold a long angle, you might want to think about using the Vandal and scoping in to get a clearer shot. This works great for maps like Fracture, Bind, Breeze, and Ascent, which have tons of long angles for you to play with.

For more advanced players, you could also be thinking about what angles you’re looking to prefire. Using our A main on Ascent example, you might be unfortunate enough to predict the A player peeking early into main, land your prefire, but leave your opponent with ten hp given the damage fall off.

How Comfortable Are You With The Gun?

Knowing which gun to use won’t do much if you don’t know how. I mentioned earlier how the different firing rates slightly change how you play and shoot with the gun. This contributes to your overall comfort with the gun.

The same holds true for spraying with the gun. If you don’t know how to control the gun’s recoil, don’t use it — unless you’re ScreaM or Yay and can perfectly perform micro adjustments with your crosshair.

It also feeds into your confidence, which I think is much more important. The abilities in Valorant can kill, but the majority of kills you’ll make will be with your gun. You need the confidence to swing out and take first contact or trade your teammate when necessary.

What Type of Agent Are You?

The final thing to consider is your role on the team. Valorant has four major roles: duelist, controller, sentinel, and initiator.

Duelists and controllers, in my opinion, benefit more from the Phantom, while sentinels and initiators benefit more from the Vandal. Of course, in pro play, players can use different guns depending on their feelings.

But let me explain my thought process.

Duelists are more likely to take close-quarter combat. They’re tasked with clearing corners and seeking engagements for the team. They should be able to shoot, strafe, reset, and burst again — all of which the Phantom allows.

Controllers are more likely to capitalize on their smokes and spam enemies.

Sentinels and Iniators are likelier to play the second entry role and trade their duelists. Long engagements become more probable because they’re probably standing farther away.

Alternatives To Consider

If you’re not feeling the Phantom or the Vandal, here are some great alternative guns that you may want to start practicing on.

Operator

The operator is Valorant’s high-cost sniper rifle with a double scope for extra accuracy. It’s a one-shot kill weapon that can easily turn the tides of the game into the correct hands.

Odin

The Odin is Valorant’s machine gun. Unlike other guns, its 100 round magazine increases its fire rate over the duration that the weapon is fired. Use this gun at your own peril, as its lower mobility, equip time, and reload speed make you an easy target for highly skilled players.

Guardian

The Guardian is the Vandal’s cheaper semi-automatic cousin. It’s effective in long-range fights and has higher penetration while costing only 2250. Because it’s only semi-automatic, make sure you’re warmed up and deadly accurate prior to using the gun.

FAQs
Is the Phantom better than the Vandal?

The Phantom has a suppressor, a higher fire rate, and a bigger magazine than the Vandal. However, the damage drop-off makes the Vandal a more popular choice amongst pro play.

Do Pros Prefer Vandal or Phantom?

In Valorant Champions 2022, the players picked the Vandal 44.52% of the time, while the Phantom was chosen 15.19%. This could be a direct result of the Chamber meta, which means that players had to eliminate the opponent quickly else they teleport and escapes.