Buy Phase in Valorant: How to perfectly manage your economy

Like in CS: GO, managing your finances in Valorant is crucial when it comes to winning matches.

The shopping phase ahead of each round is one of the most important moments in Valorant and should be utilised for strategy ideas and weapon distribution. It is incredibly important for economic management as the team members will collectively have to decide whether they want to go for an all-in purchase or save until they get better guns.

Credits in Valorant can be obtained in various ways: kills, passive round end income (either win or lose) and by planting or defusing the spike. Keeping track of your money is, therefore, crucial when it comes to winning a game like Valorant. For newer players, this will require a lot of getting used to.

So, if you’re having trouble in deciding how to best spend your finances in Valorant, here is a quick guide.

How to perfectly manage your economy in Valorant

1. Getting smart with your Pistol Round

During the first round on either attack or defence, each of the players will start with 800 credits and then go on to manage their own economy as the rounds progress.

The first round or the pistol round is quite important in both Valorant and CS: GO because winning it will allow you to have better control and map pressure on your opponents in the next few rounds. With more credits, you will be going into the next fight with better guns and more abilities.

However, unlike CS: GO where you just need to worry about buying weapons and utility grenades, Valorant requires you to consider ability purchases as well. You get one ability for free every round and depending on how many of the skills you have used in the previous round, you will need to purchase them accordingly.

It is, therefore, important to be smart about the first round in Valorant and to not be too overly cautious or greedy with your credits.

What you purchase will mainly depend on your game style and the agent that you’re using.

With controllers like Brimstone and Omen, it’s important to invest in all of the Sky Smoke and Dark Cover charges, while opting for a pistol like Frenzy or just sticking to the Classic.

With duelists like Raze or Reyna, get the Ghost and one ability charge. For Reyne, the Ghost, one point in Leer and one point in Devour is the current meta.

If you’re feeling quite confident about your aim, then you can even opt for a little bit of armour or a Sheriff but this is not recommended.

2. Tips for your Economy Round

The economy or econ round in Valorant takes place when you have been losing rounds consecutively and hardly have enough money to go for decent weapon purchases. In moments like these, it’s very important to save up and go for minimal purchase options.

Econ rounds can feel quite daunting if you’re on the losing side. However, it is not the end of the world (unless you’re 0-12 down) and you can always come back from the situation. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

During econ rounds in Valorant, work as a team and try staying in a group to have more chances of getting frags.
The aim of the round is to not exactly win but to take as many enemies down with you as you can and try ruining their economy in the process.
Opponents with better weapons will generally try to rush into enemies who’re forced into an econ round, so camping out chokepoints can be a very effective strategy as well.
Always pick up enemy weapon drops as it will significantly improve your team’s chances at a comeback.

Here are some economy charts by Joseph Edwards, who goes into some detail about the ways in which the econ system in Valorant works:

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

The above spreadsheet image will give you a much better idea on how to work your econ rounds in Valorant based on your wins and losses.

3. Tips for your Shopping Round

The shopping round in Valorant is for when you aren’t looking to save but are aiming to invest a large number of your credits to buy better weapons and abilities, along with 50 points of armour.

You should go for a shopping round when you’re either feeling confident or the half is about to end and your credit score is going to reset.

In both CS: GO and Valorant, the Shopping Round can be categorised in two separate situations:

A Full Purchase: This is when you’re overloaded with credits and can go for a shopping round two times in a row even if you lose. These types of purchases usually occur when you are winning consecutive rounds without dying.
A Forced Purchase: This is when you’re neither willing to save nor have enough credits to go for a full purchase. So, you settle for mid-tier weapons and just 25 points of armour.

Unlike a Full Purchase Round, a Forced Purchase occurs when your backs are against the wall and you need to invest in some decent weapons to try and not lose the next round.

4. It’s important to shop for your allies

Image Courtesy: Polygon

Valorant is a team game; it is a tactical first-person shooter that relies heavily on teamwork for wins. So, never be shy to help out an ally who is low on credits and needs a bit of help for the next round.

When buying a weapon for an ally in Valorant, you can either purchase it directly on the shop screen (after they demand a particular weapon), or go the CS: GO way and just purchase it yourself and throw it on the ground for the ally to collect.

However, if you’re the one in need of a weapon and you notice that your allies have enough credits to get you a decent gun, you can always ask for it. On the shop screen, you can hover your cursor on the weapon you want and right-click.

This will send out a voice line from the agent that you’re playing, letting your allies know that you’re in need of a weapon. A buy option will appear next to your name after that, and when a teammate with enough credits clicks on it, you will automatically get the gun.

5. Go all in during the final round of the half

During the final round of the half, don’t leave out any credits. Instead, go all-in as your credit score will reset once the half is done and you will start with 800 again but on the other side.

So, invest in heavy armours- your Vandal, Phantom, Operator- and even get a better sidearm while you’re at it. Invest in your allies if you still have some credits to spare and always purchase all your abilities.

When you have extra credits, instead of typing in the chat, you can open the shop screen and click on the Extra Credits command. Your agent will give out a voice line again, letting your teammates know that you have some extra cash to spare.

Valorant has small but fun ways of communicating with the team, which helps to build up good synergy. The buy phase is quite unique and interactive and you can move during the phase to get to advantageous positions and discuss strategies to outwit the enemy team.

Edited by Rachel Syiemlieh