Vandal vs Phantom (2026): VALORANT Rifle Stats and Weapon Matrix

Rifles · same price, different gun

2,900 credits each. Twenty metres apart.

Inside 20 metres both rifles kill with one headshot through full heavy shields. Past it, only the Vandal still does. The Phantom pays that back with speed, a bigger magazine and no tracers.

Vandal

"This accurate powerhouse is ferocious in small bursts."

Fire rate

9.75/s

Magazine

25

Head, close

160

Head, 20 m+

160

1st bullet

0.25

Silenced

No

Phantom

"A balanced weapon built for stable, extended shots."

Fire rate

11/s

Magazine

30

Head, close

156

Head, 20 m+

140

1st bullet

0.2

Silenced

Yes

Damage, fire rate, magazine and first-bullet spread: the game's weapon data via valorant-api.com, read 8 November 2026; the 20 m break matches Riot's 9.10 notes. Quotes: Riot's Arsenal page. The one-tap line is our arithmetic for 100 health plus a full heavy shield.

Every VALORANT player has had the argument. The Vandal and the Phantom cost the same 2,900 credits, sit next to each other in the buy menu and look like a matter of taste. They aren't: the game's data gives them different damage at range, different fire rates, different magazines, different first-bullet accuracy and different recoil rules, and Riot has tuned both more than once. This guide lays the numbers side by side — straight from the game files, checked against Riot's patch notes — works out what they mean for one-taps and time to kill, and finishes with a weapon matrix for every gun worth buying on a full or partial buy. Checked 8 November 2026, patch 13.09. Prices and the economy around them are in the economy guide.

The two rifles, number by number

Here is every stat the game's weapon data gives both rifles, as a head-to-head. The longer bar wins each row; for spread, smaller is better, so the bar shows the tighter weapon as longer.

Game data via valorant-api.com (read 8 November 2026); protected bullets from Riot's 11.08 notes. Both rifles share price (2,900), equip time (1.0 s), reload (2.5 s), wall penetration (medium) and run speed (×0.8).

The pattern is clean. The Phantom wins every row about volume — rate, magazine, protected bullets, first-bullet spread — and the Vandal wins every row about range. Close up they're nearly identical per bullet (156 vs 160 to the head), which is why the Phantom's extra speed decides most close fights.

Damage at range: the Phantom's 20-metre break

The Vandal has no damage fall-off at all: 160, 40 and 34 from point-blank to the end of the longest lane. The Phantom has two bands. Before patch 9.10 it had three — body damage of 39 (0–15 m), 35 (15–30 m), 31 (30 m+) — and Riot simplified it on 19 November 2024 to 39 (0–20 m), 35 (20 m+), moving the first break from 15 to 20 metres and removing the long-range penalty. Some older guides still quote the 15-metre break; the game data and Riot's notes both say 20.

How far is 20 metres? Riot doesn't put distances on its maps, so the honest answer is: use the Range. Many site entries and close holds fall inside it, while the long lanes on maps like Abyss or Haven often don't — our map guides, from the map pool guide down, cover where the long angles are.

One-taps and shields

A one-tap needs a headshot big enough to get through both the shield and 100 health. The game's gear data says light and heavy shields absorb 66% of each hit until they've taken 25 or 50 damage; the regen shield absorbs everything up to its 25. Apply that and you get this grid — our arithmetic, hit by hit:

The useful reading: against a full buy with heavy shields, the Phantom needs you inside 20 metres for the one-tap; on a round where enemies bought light shields or the regen shield, it one-taps at any range. The Sheriff is the surprise on the list — 159.5 to the head inside 30 metres is a one-tap through heavy shields.

Time to kill

When nobody lands a headshot, fire rate and body damage decide the duel. Time to kill is the gap between the first and the last bullet needed, so a four-bullet kill takes three intervals. Against 100 health and a full heavy shield:

(Body shots − 1) ÷ fire rate — our arithmetic, assuming every bullet hits, no first-shot delay and no recoil. Real fights are slower.

Inside 20 metres the Phantom kills with body shots about 35 ms faster than the Vandal. Past 20 metres the fifth bullet it needs makes it about 56 ms slower. That's the whole argument in two numbers.

Recoil, protected bullets and spraying

Riot reworked how both rifles' sprays drift sideways in patch 11.08 (14 October 2025): the time between horizontal switches rose from 0.37 to 0.6 seconds and the chance of a switch from 6% to 10%, while the "protected" bullets at the start of a spray — the ones that can't switch direction — went up to 6 for the Vandal and 8 for the Phantom.

The spray technique itself — pull down through the protected bullets, then correct or stop — is in the aim guide.

Silencer and tracers

The game data marks the Phantom as silenced. ProSettings.net's comparison (2 September 2025) spells out what that means in a fight: the Phantom shows no visible tracers, so "you can spray a full magazine through a smoke, and the enemy won't know where you are," while the Vandal gives your position away when it fires. That makes the Phantom the better gun for spamming through smokes, holding a site you've smoked off, and fighting when you'd rather not be seen.

Which one should you buy?

BoostPirate's advice, built on the numbers above: decide by the fight you expect, not by habit.

ProSettings.net's comparison notes a general pro lean toward the Phantom for multi-opponent fights, adding that "A lot of pros still use Vandals in pro play" — there's no single right answer at the top level either. Picking up an enemy's rifle after a kill changes nothing about this list: use the one the next fight needs.

The weapon matrix

Every gun you'd seriously buy on a full or half buy, in one table. Damage is close range; bodies are body shots to kill through heavy shields; one-tap is against heavy shields, close and far.

WeaponCreditsRate · magHead / body / legBodiesOne-tapPen.

VandalRifle 2,900 9.75/s · 25 160 / 40 / 34 4 Yes Medium

PhantomRifle 2,900 11/s · 30 156 / 39 / 33.15to 20 m 4–5 Close only Medium

WardenRifle 2,900 6.5/s · 18 200 / 50 / 42 3 Yes Medium

GuardianRifle 2,250 5.25/s · 12 195 / 65 / 48.75 3 Yes High

BulldogRifle 2,050 10/s · 24 115.5 / 35 / 29.75 5 No Medium

SpectreSMG 1,600 13.333/s · 30 78 / 26 / 22.1to 15 m 6–8 No Low

OdinHeavy 3,200 12/s · 100 95 / 38 / 32.3to 30 m 4–5 No High

AresHeavy 1,600 13/s · 50 75 / 30 / 25.5to 30 m 5–6 No High

OperatorSniper 4,700 0.6/s · 5 255 / 150 / 120 1 Yes High

MarshalSniper 950 1.5/s · 5 202 / 101 / 85.85 2 Yes Medium

SheriffSidearm 800 4/s · 6 159.5 / 55 / 46.75to 30 m 3 Close only High

GhostSidearm 500 6.75/s · 13 105 / 30 / 25.5to 30 m 5–6 No Medium

ClassicSidearm free 6.75/s · 12 78 / 26 / 22.1to 30 m 6–7 No Low

Game data via valorant-api.com (read 8 November 2026); Warden from Riot's 13.06 notes (22 September 2026, 18-round magazine, 2x scope; recoil eased in 13.09). Bodies and one-taps: our arithmetic against 100 health and a full heavy shield. The Bandit (patch 12.00, 600 credits) is missing because Riot's notes don't list its damage. Prices are in-game credits; current gun prices are in the economy guide.

When the answer is neither

Common rifle mistakes