The Ares is a beginner-friendly machine gun in VALORANT. Here, we’ll be ranking the skins from worst to best.
The Ares is a cheap machine gun coming in at 1600 in-game credits. This makes it affordable even in half-buy rounds or force-buy rounds. For the price, it has decent damage, a rate of fire, and a huge 50-round magazine. It is not as accurate or high damage dealer compared to the rifles, but you can still get a lot of kills with the Ares, especially by aiming down the sights. This weapon is deadly in the lower elo, and if you’re new to the game. However, expect this gun to get underwhelming as soon as you rise.
Skins in VALORANT are merely decorative and do not offer any real in-game advantages vs. the default skin. Although compared to other games like CS:GO, which only offer recolors of the same exact weapon, the devs at Riot went a bit overboard with the skins in VALORANT as they completely altered the look of the weapon, added special VFX, GFX, and one skin turns your weapon into a literal dragon!
While choosing a good Ares skin for yourself, you should determine if you like the theme of the skins, the looks, the inspect/equip animations, the finisher, and the firing sounds. Unlike other games like CS:GO, which has individual pricing for skins, the skins in VALORANT come at a fixed price, depending on their collection. Select Edition skins cost 875vp, while Premium and Exclusive Edition skins cost 1775vp and 2175vp, respectively.
Ares Skins Tier List in VALORANT 2023
Since the game’s release, Riot has released more than 28 different Ares skins in VALORANT as a part of weapon bundles, agent contracts, and battle passes. Since battle pass skins are obtainable only during their respective act and cannot be obtained later in the store, we excluded those from our top 10 but included them in the tier list. Battle pass skins are occasionally good, but they aren’t usually better than skins from featured bundles and some agent contracts, so our top 10 will remain unaffected by their exclusion.
| Tier | Ares Skins |
| S-Tier (Best) | Sentinels of Light, Singularity, Ion, Oni |
| A-Tier (Good) | Magepunk, Doodle Buds, Infantry, Celestial, Valorant Go! Vol. 2, Nunca Olvidados, |
| B-Tier (Average) | Rush, Sakura, Endeavour, Hivemind, Spitfire, Goldwing, 9 Lives, |
| C-Tier (Underwhelming) | Aristocrat, Nunca Olvidados, Divine Swine, Premiere Collision, Nebula, Outpost, Prism |
| F-Tier (Not Recommended) | Jigsaw, Minima, Polyfrog, Snowfall, Titanmail |
Top 10 Best Ares Skins in VALORANT
Among all the Ares skins released in VALORANT so far, here are the top 10 ranked according to the basis of looks, animations, and VFX:
10. Sakura Ares
The Sakura Ares is a good-looking budget skin. It features the Ares in a beautiful white colorway with cherry blossoms, a mountain, and the rising sun. Coming in at only 1275vp, if you’re a fan of Japanese-themed skins, you’ll definitely love this Ares skin.
- Rarity: Deluxe Edition
- Price: 1275VP
- How to Buy: Store, Night Market
- VFX, GFX, Finisher: No
- Color Variants: No
9. Valorant Go! Vol. 2 Ares
The VALORANT Go! bundles feature weapon skins themed after cute chibi version of the agents. The VALORANT Go! Vol. 2 Ares is an explosive Raze-themed skin. It appears with a 3D holographic effect which some might consider remarkable. Still, for the price, it is inferior to the other Premium Edition skins on this list as it lacks VFX, finishers, and color variants. But this is still an excellent skin, and if you’re a Raze main, you can pick this up.
- Rarity: Premium Edition
- Price: 1775 VP
- How to Buy: Store, Night Market
- VFX, GFX, Finisher: No
- Color Variants: No
8. Celestial Ares
The Celestial Ares features an animated design of shooting starts which looks very beautiful. Something about using this skin with its animation just makes it feel very soothing, as you mow down iron lobbies with this gun.
- Rarity: Premium Edition
- Price: 1775 VP
- How to Buy: Store, Night Market
- VFX, GFX, Finisher: No
- Color Variants: No
7. Infantry Ares
Fans of WWII-era guns will feel right at home with these guns showcasing wooden stocks and bare-metal features. The Infantry Ares is the best budget Ares skin out there with decent looks. Players coming from Call of Duty and Battlefield will definitely love this skin.
- Rarity: Select Edition
- Price: 875 VP
- How to Buy: Store, Night Market
- VFX, GFX, Finisher: No
- Color Variants: No
6. Doodle Buds Ares
Doodle Buds’ skins are some of the most liked skins in the game. Riot Games went with a different approach while making the upgrades for these skins. There are three variants of the Doodle Buds Marshal. One with the VALORANT Agents, one with VALORANT Tactifriends, and the third one with League of Legends characters.
If you upgrade the skin to Level 2, the black and white characters on the weapon skin become colorful. Once you get an ace, all characters come back to life, and the skin looks astonishing.
5. Magepunk Ares
At the top 3, we have the Magepunk Ares, which came with the 2nd Magepunk bundle to be added to the game. It features a steampunk version of the Ares along with cool lightning GFX. It has different colored lightning as the color variations and has all the special sounds and animations you could want.
- Rarity: Premium Edition
- Price: 1775 VP
- How to Buy: Store, Night market
- VFX, GFX, Finisher: Yes
- Color Variants: Yes
4. Oni Ares
Oni Ares is the latest addition to the game. The skin has three different color variants and upgrades, making the skin look unique every time.
- Rarity: Premium Edition
- Price: 1775 VP
- How to Buy: Store, Night market
- VFX, GFX, Finisher: Yes
- Color Variants: Yes
3. Ion Ares
If you’re looking for futuristic but sleek Ares skin, look no further than the Ion Ares. It has three different color variants and three upgrades. Even the barebone Ion Ares looks better than most other Ares skins in the game.
- Rarity: Premium
- Price: 1775 VP
- How to Buy: Store only
- VFX, GFX, Finisher: Yes
- Color Variants: Yes
2. Singularity Ares
At #1, we have the Singularity Ares. The Singularity line of skins are weapons infused with the power of Radianite and is constantly deforming and reforming around it. This skin has a very satisfying firing sound which is fun and does not distract you.
It can be upgraded with Radianite points to unleash more of the skin’s radianite energy exposing its core. The best feature of this skin is its drum magazine, where the ammo is loaded in the form of radianite crystals. This chamber is exposed and spins around while firing which not only makes it the coolest Ares skin but also one of the best-looking skins overall in the game. And did we mention the finisher is a literal black hole that sucks in enemies?
- Rarity: Exclusive Edition
- Price: 2175 VP
- How to Buy: Store only
- VFX, GFX, Finisher: Yes
- Color Variants: Yes
1. Sentinels of Light Ares
The Sentinels of Light Ares was added as a part of the Sentinels of Light skin bundle in collaboration with Riot’s popular League of Legends franchise. It features the Ares with intricate patterns and crystals that form into a barrel in the weapon’s equip animation. It also has beautiful color variations, VFX, and finishers, earning it the #2 spot.
- Rarity: Exclusive Edition
- Price: 2175 VP
- How to Buy: Store only
- VFX, GFX, Finisher: Yes
- Color Variants: Yes
So this wraps up our top 10 Ares skins in VALORANT. Note that, like all lists, this is subjective, and your personal rankings might differ from the ones we have here. You can also take a look at the best skins for other weapons in the game:
Best Phantom Skins | Best Vandal Skins | Best Operator Skins | Best Ghost Skins | Best Spectre Skins | Best Classic Skins | Best Sheriff Skins | Best Odin Skins | Best Marshal Skins | Best Guardian Skins
