Most competitive games are created with an economic system. Whether it is a creep, minion or enemy, there is always a way to earn in-game money to buff your character, buy items or skills.
Same rules apply for VALORANT too. In addition to similarity with other kinds of competitive FPS games’ economical systems, VALORANT provides a more unique way with skill buyings, next round credit feature and different alternatives to save money. Let’s take a brief look at how the economy works in VALORANT and what can be followed to get better.
VALORANT Economy
First of all, we should start by mentioning the in-game currency, Creds. You will need Creds to buy guns, skills and armors. VALORANT gives several ways to all players for earning Creds. Here is the all ways of gaining Creds:
800 at first round of each half
200 for each kill
300 for the team planting the spike
3,000 for round win
1,900 for round loss
Additional 500 for 2x loss streak or 1,000 for loss streaks of 3x or greater
Reduced to 1,000 (with no loss streak bonus) in the following scenarios:
- Any attackers that survive a round without planting the spike
- Any defenders still alive after the spike has detonated
Compensation for Missing Players
5,000 at overtime
Creds can be stacked up to 9000 and it resets while changing sides after 12 rounds. Depending on your economical situation, score, team and strategy, different paths can be followed by knowing these ways.
Pistol Round
Including mainly the first and optionally second or third rounds, Pistol Rounds are the most important ones for building the base of your in-game economy. Each player in the game starts with 800 Creds.
Since all players have different agents, they may prefer different starts. We would like to give four different examples for four different Sidearms, the only weapons you can get on first round:
Classic (FREE) + All available skills with Omen
Ghost (500 Creds) + Boom Bot with Raze
Frenzy (450 Creds) + Blaze with Phoenix
Shorty (150 Creds) + Barrier Orb and 2 Slow Orb with Sage
Sheriff (800 Creds)
These examples can be changed by your playing style and also preferences. While some players prefer to start with half armor, others directly rush into buying skills and playing with Classic or by buying a Ghost. Once you get used to your agent, you will have a better idea about your First Round preferences.
Saving money and buying main weapons
When VALORANT players have enough money to buy their main weapons, they generally go with two different types of weapons: Vandal, or Phantom. These two types may not be possible if you don’t stack enough money. That’s why there are three different types of buying in VALORANT.
Full buying
Full buying is the main buying system for all VALORANT players. Like we mentioned above, this system requires a main gun like Vandal, or Phantom. In addition to that, you should be able to have all your skills and full armor. To achieve it, here is the math:
Vandal/Phantom (2900 Creds) + Full Armor (1000 Creds) + Skills (At least 500 Creds) = 4400 Creds approximately.
This does not always mean that you should spend money in each round. You may have a weapon from last round or did not use your skills or even did not take any damage so your armor is still safe. But if you lose one round, you should have approximately 4400 Creds, depending on your agents’ skill costs.
Half buying
This is to have enough money for full buying in the next round. While some players stay for one eco round, others may buy more cheaper weapons such as SMG’s, Shotguns or cheap Sniper Rifles called Marshal and Cheap Machine Gun Ares.
We already mentioned that you need to have at least 4400 Creds to get a Vandal/Phantom, skills and a full armor. By noting that, here is what will cost you to buy half:
Spectre (1.600 Creds) + Light Shield (450) = 2.100 Creds
Stinger/Marshal (950 Creds) + Light Shield (450) = 1.400 Creds
Bucky (850 Creds) + Light Shield (450) = 1.300 Creds
Judge (1.850 Creds) + Light Shield (450) = 2.300 Creds
Ares (1.600 Creds) + Light Shield (450) = 2.050 Creds
The choice is yours according to your playing style and in-game situation. The most popular half buying method is the Spectre one. Spectre is the closest SMG for main rifles Phantom/Vandal. But some people like Sniper Rifles more so they can go with Marshal and save more money too.
Forcing
This should be the last thing you need to do to save your economy in VALORANT. Forcing brings a 100% risk for the economy and only be used if it is the last chance. What forcing exactly means is that you buy whatever you can with all your Creds. This could be a half armor and Phantom, full armor and Spectre or anything you can imagine. Forcing does not have any economy so there is no math at all.
If you would like to have more ideas about in-game VALORANT economy, you can follow VCT 2022 matches. Also, you can play some bets on upcoming matches with Luckbox and increase the joy more.
