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The one-shot feature for weapons has always been an integral part of Valorant's mechanics.
A player’s choice of weapon usually depends on their individual playstyle as well as game role. However, in certain situations, a player might require a specific weapon to fulfill a specific requirement in a given scenario.
A player’s shooting skills combined with a respective weapon's one-shot potential can be a deadly combo. Even though rifles and snipers hold an upper-hand over any other weapon in Valorant, the Bucky defeats the Phantom assault rifle's purpose in certain aspects.
Different guns in Valorant
Valorant offers the player the option to choose from a variety of different weapons. There are 17 guns, including the basic pistol (Classic), provided for free at the start of the round.
The 17 guns in their respective categories are:
Pistols:
- Classic
- Shorty
- Frenzy
- Ghost
- Sheriff
SMGs:
- Stinger
- Spectre
Rifles:
- Bulldog
- Guardian
- Vandal
- Phantom
Heavy:
- Ares
- Odin
Shotguns:
- Bucky
- Judge
Sniper:
- Marshal
- Operator
All these guns come in handy in their unique ways. Despite how useful a specific weapon might be, players would often prefer a weapon depending on their team’s in-game economy.
Valorant is a well-balanced game when it comes to in-game shooting mechanics as well as money-management. If a team falls behind in the economy, they will be forced to make economical purchases more often than they would like. In rounds bearing a similar situation, shotguns and pistols come in extremely handy.
Shotguns have always been one of the most reliable weapons in FPS history for close-range combats. Valorant is no different either. Both shotguns available in this game are of extreme importance.
While Bucky provides more DPS at a shorter range with a low fire-rate, Judge brings a semi-automatic fire rate with considerably low DPS.
Shotguns have been such a vital part of Valorant that they even influenced an agent’s pick percentage. Shotgun Sage is something to look out for when one is playing against the operator.
Range comparison of Phantom and Bucky
A recent video surfaced in the Valorant subreddit, where a Reddit user proved that the one-shot range for Bucky is larger than that of Phantom.
The user goes by the name of rezellia. They posted a video with two different footage showing the Bucky and Phantom's damage numbers from the same range.
Phantom is a rifle and one of the most used weapons in Valorant. The accuracy of this weapon is much higher than that of Bucky. The foremost reason being that Phantom is a rifle while Bucky is just a shotgun. But Valorant's shooting mechanics aren't that simple to begin with.
A weapon’s class cannot be determined by the category it belongs to. Bucky in short-range is much deadlier than Phantom. On the other hand, Phantom has a high ground in long-range battles. At least, that is what was perceived until recently.
The video posted on the Reddit thread shows why we should think otherwise.
In the attached video, the user shoots a dummy from a long-range with Phantom. Upon hitting the headshot, the damage number shows 140, which is not enough to one-shot a player if they have full body armor. One must afflict at least 150 damage to instakill an opposition player.
However, upon being shot at from the same range with Bucky, the damage number shown varies from 155-210, which is enough to kill a player with full-body armor.
Even though the damage number is very high at this range, it is also to be noted that the damage number isn’t everything. Bucky itself is very unstable.
Sometimes Bucky will feel amazing, while some other times, it will be despair holding it in one’s hands. Since, accuracy-wise, Phantom is a much more reliable weapon, one can never nullify its importance.
