The Phantom is VALORANT’s more subtle assault rifle, offering less recoil and no bullet tracers, making it ideal for close-range encounters. Phantom is seeing more usage now compared to previous years, and you can look good while tapping heads with a boatload of stellar cosmetics.
What are the best Phantom skins in VALORANT?
If you’re looking for the best Phantom skins in VALORANT, you’re in luck because this weapon is fortunate enough to have many incredible skins with unique animations. These cosmetics can do anything from sucking your enemy into a black hole to sending out a bull to launch your target into the air.
Here are the 15 best Phantom skins in VALORANT.
Riot Games constantly releases new skin bundles in VALORANT that feature Phantom skins, so expect this list to change and grow over time.
Recon
- Price: 1,775 VP
- Bundle: Recon Collection
- Release Patch: 3.04
Simple and sleek, the Recon Phantom offers the look and feel of a real-life rifle, as you would see in a game like Rainbow Six: Siege, CS:GO, or Call of Duty.
The Recon line comes in a default sand color with three military camo variants, including a very popular black and red. It’s a perfect match if you have the elusive Riot gun buddy, and it’s also a popular choice for pros on teams with red color schemes like 100 Thieves or Sentinels.
A unique feature of Recon skins is randomized weapons attachments. Every time you buy a weapon in the round, it can have a flashlight, vertical grip, angled grip, or a laser sight. While they don’t have any gameplay effect, these attachments sure emphasize the “tactical” part of VALORANT.
Oni
- Price: 1,775 VP
- Bundle: Oni Collection
- Release Patch: 1.04
VALORANT players were blessed with a cool theme, great animations, a badass finisher, and flawless variants in the Oni Phantom. The skin is as close to perfect as it gets, and Riot also gave us a Vandal option in the second edition of the Oni Collection.
Oni has roots in Japanese folklore, featuring the traditional demon-like mask in its design. Upgrading the skin’s animations gives you a cool spiritual aura emanating from the skin and a finisher that calls swords from the sky to trap your opponent while cherry blossoms fill the air. And let’s not forget the beautiful Arizona Green Tea variant, which combines a mint green with bright pink hues. As one of the Phantom’s oldest skins, Oni certainly sets the bar high.
Radiant Entertainment System
- Price: 2,975 VP
- Bundle: Radiant Entertainment System Collection
- Release Patch: 6.08
The Radiant Entertainment System bundle has been deemed one of the best (and most expensive) bundles in the game. Inspired by classic arcade games, VALORANT introduces its own titles with corresponding skin variants—Bazooka Badger, Dance Fever, and K.nock O.ut!!
Play a game within a game with the skin that has Game Boy-like buttons, a game cartridge instead of the magazine, pixel gunfire sounds, and a finisher featuring a character from the game based on the variant you’re using. Your agent will even use the buttons on the gun to play the game’s music during the inspect animation.
This full arcade package comes at a whopping 2,975 VP per skin. It’s the most expensive skin line in VALORANT, but it’s a great way to show off during the match.
Prime//2.0
- Price: 1,775 VP
- Bundle: Prime//2.0 Collection
- Release Patch: 2.04
Prime//2.0 brought back the ever-so-popular Prime skin line with some minor adjustments, throwing a Phantom into the mix. And it doesn’t disappoint.
Taking inspiration from a hypercar, according to senior weapon artist Chris Stone, the Prime Phantom is sleek, clean, and modern. It maintains a similar reload animation to its predecessor while throwing in some exhaust ports on the side for light to shine through.
Unlike the original Prime skins that have a wolf in their design elements and finishers, Prime//2.0 features a bull. The finisher literally summons a bull to toss your enemy into the air for a neon explosion.
Spectrum
- Price: 2,675 VP
- Bundle: Spectrum Collection
- Release Patch: 3.05
The Spectrum Phantom is one of the most audibly pleasing Phantom skins available, soaring to popularity after the Zedd-collaborated collection was released back in September 2021.
The Spectrum Phantom features three different color variants, but the sleek default white-and-red design is easily the most popular. The most appealing feature of this skin is the soothing yet electrifying notes curated by Zedd that play when inspecting the weapon, in addition to the gorgeous, colorful VFX.
The finisher animation is quite lovely to witness as well, with the skies turning colorful and Zedd’s tune playing in the background.
Protocol 781-A
- Price: 2,475 VP
- Bundle: Protocol 781-A Collection
- Release Patch: 4.0
According to Riot, Protocol 781-A was ideated by blending elements of Artificial Intelligence with a dark, dystopian universe: sort of like the Glitchpop, Singularity, and Ion collections, but quite distinct. The Protocol 781-A skins have a built-in AI voice-over that watches over your performance.
The voice-over unlocks at the fifth upgrade level and reacts to kills, finishers, and inspect animations. The voice of the AI in your gun depends on the skin variant, so choose the one you like most. “Mission complete. Thank you for your service,” is one of many lines you can expect to hear when wielding this advanced weapon.
Besides the sleek SFX design, another profound feature of this collection is the finisher, which features a mighty robot firing down on the last enemy killed in a fascinating sci-fi backdrop.
Glitchpop 2.0
- Price: 2,175 VP
- Bundle: Glitchpop 2.0 Collection
- Release Patch: 2.02
Riot devs surprised fans with a second Glitchpop bundle, delivering the popular skin line to VALORANT’s most-used weapons. And it’s a godsend if you enjoy the cyberpunk theme.
Riot’s intention with the bundle was to make “everything [look] uniform and “[follow] the same design” as the first Glitchpop bundle, producer of skins Preeti Khanolkar previously said in an interview with HITSCAN.
So, the Glitchpop Phantom boasts the familiar blend of neon colors and industrial frame seen in the previous iteration. You also get light-hearted and humorous stickers throughout and finishing an opponent leads to an explosion of colorful advertisements. The gun skin sounds amazing, with its silenced shots taking on a more futuristic tone. Riot hit it out of the park with this skin line, offering a fun cosmetic that isn’t distracting considering all its bright colors.
Ion
- Price: 1,750 VP
- Bundle: Ion Collection
- Release Patch: 1.12
If you are a fan of League of Legends‘s Pulsefire skins, Ion is made for you. Ion uses a futuristic palette of white and blue, with a core at its center fueling the charge. Every time you reload the weapon, you seemingly replace the core with a new one. It sounds great and pulses geometric shapes when you shoot or equip it. And its finisher predictably explodes the enemy in a spherical electro-pulse.
The original Ion Collection doesn’t have variants like the Ion 2.0, but it’s a skin that’s not too showy or distracting and still offers a clean look with premium VFX.
Reaver 2.0
- Price: 1,775 VP
- Bundle: Reaver 2.0 Collection
- Release Patch: 5.03
One of the most beloved Vandal skins made its way to the Phantom with the Reaver 2.0 bundle, much to the delight of Phantom users. The Reaver’s iconic dark and edgy look fits the Phantom just as well as it did the Vandal, and there’s not a single bad color variant available.
Its satisfying bell chime headshot sound is one of the best in the game, and it’s got a reload animation that makes you feel all-powerful. Oh, and it also drags players down to hell with its finisher. This is a great continuation of a classic VALORANT skin line.
Singularity
- Price: 2,175 VP
- Bundle: Singularity Collection
- Release Patch: 1.10
Even though it’s one of the older skins on the list, the Singularity Phantom has some of the best animations in the game.
Seemingly held together by a powerful force from space, the weapon deconstructs and comes back together whenever you reload. Its muzzle flash is like a small black hole that foreshadows its finisher animation, a larger black hole that sucks your opponents in to never be seen again (until the next round, of course).
And don’t forget the crisp gunshot sounds that make you feel like you have an aim-bot. The Singularity Phantom is an all-around skin, perfect for any player.
Champions 2024
- Price: 2,675 VP
- Bundle: Champions 2024 Collection
- Release Patch: 9.02
This wouldn’t be the best skin list without a Champions skin. It’s an incredibly rare skin and has some of the most interactive VFX in the entire game. Alongside things we’ve seen in the previous Champions bundles, like the easter egg in the middle of the finisher and Champions Aura, the Champions 2024 Phantom also has an AimLabs-like minigame during the finisher where you can shoot flying asteroids.
The Champions skin line always makes you feel like you’re in the middle of a tournament surrounded by crowd and excitement. While you can’t pick up the Champions 2024 Phantom anymore, as it was only available during the VCT Champions 2024, rest assured there will be more Champion skins to come with the next event.
Mystbloom
- Price: 2,175 VP
- Bundle: Mystbloom Collection
- Release Patch: 8.08
For something more peaceful, Riot Games released the Mystbloom Collection. This skin line may remind you of Gaia’s Vengeance, except it’s centered around lotus flowers. The weapon is covered in flowers that bloom when you pull out the weapon.
The finisher also creates a large field of flowers with color depending on the skin variant you’re using (pink, blue, orange, and purple). To focus on the game (or to show off), the inspect animation plays a mystical musical loop. VALROANT’s cosmetic art director, Sean Marino, said the devs created it to be Zen and BM at the same time, so use it as you see fit.
RGX 11z Pro
- Price: 2,175 VP
- Bundle: RGX 11z Pro 2.0 Collection
- Release Patch: 4.08
RGX 11z Pro is one of the best skins for the Vandal, and you can also pick it up for the Phantom. The skin line is inspired by gaming PCs and has arguably the most satisfying gun audio in VALORANT.
Like any true gaming PC, the RGX 11z Pro has RGB lighting that changes when you inspect the weapon. Be careful, though, or you might end up spending the entire buy phase trying to find the perfect lighting color instead of discussing strats.
The unique feature of this skin line is the kill counter available on the fifth upgrade level for an additional 10 Radianite. It counts all the kills you got in the match and even briefly displays “EZ” when killing the last enemy in a round.
Sentinels of Light
- Price: 2,175 VP
- Bundle: Sentinels of Light 2.0 Collection
- Release Patch: 7.10
Another classic skin line that at some point was only available on the Vandal, Sentinels of Light, also made its way to the Phantom. It follows the same design as the original collection, with the relic spinning and breaking apart when pulling out and inspecting the weapon.
The sound is as satisfying as before but slightly lighter, with the weapon being a Phantom. Skins in the Sentinels of Light 2.0 Collection also have colored kill banners depending on the variant you’re using, unlike the original bundle.
Neo Frontier
- Price: 2,175 VP
- Bundle: Neo Frontier Collection
- Release Patch: 7.0
While it may not be the most popular skin line in VALORANT, it’s perfect if you like the Wild West theme or are looking for something different. Neo Frontier skins are inspired by Wild West and come in two variations: old and futuristic. You can choose to stick with old on the second upgrade level or fully max out the weapon to try out fancy futuristic variants.
The Neo Frontier Phantom has a unique reload animation where your agent spins the mag in their palm before reloading, and the finisher is a straight-up standoff. It kicks the enemy through the saloon doors, confirming that you successfully processed your bounty.
Whether you prefer an older look on the Neo Frontier Phantom or futuristic, the gunfire has that whistling sound you only hear in movies. This site ain’t big enough for the ten of us!
