The Ares is a beginner-friendly machine gun in VALORANT. Here, we’ll be listing the best Ares 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 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 VALORANT. 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 compared to the default skin. Although compared to other games like CS2, 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 CS2, 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.
How Many Ares Skins Are There?
As of this writing, there are currently a total of 33 Ares skins available in VALORANT. This includes skins from different skin bundles and Battle Pass.
Top 10 Best Ares Skins in VALORANT 2024
Among all the Ares skins released in VALORANT so far, here are the 10 best Ares skins we’ve picked. While picking the skins, we considered several factors like looks, animations, and VFX. Moreover, the price and Edition of the skins are not considered. So, you may notice a less pricey Deluxe Edition skin placed higher than a Premium Edition skin on our list. In any case, here are our 10 best Ares skins in VALORANT, from good to best order.
10. Endeavour Ares
Endeavour Ares is a neat-looking skin. The white colored skin is adorned with yellow and blue patches to provide a futuristic cyborg-themed appearance. It is a fact that You will miss the animation or sound effects as it is a Select Edition skin. But if you are looking for a cheap Ares skin without compromising the looks, this is just for you.
- Rarity: Select Edition
- Price: 875VP
- 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 you 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. Aristrocat Ares
The Aristrocat collection is one of the oldest skin bundles in VALORANT. It was included just with the launch of VALORANT. Being a Deluxe Edition skin, Aristrocat Ares is on the cheaper side. However, don’t let the price point get to you, as it is one of the most elegant-looking skins you can get your hands on.
- Rarity: Deluxe Edition
- Price: 1275 VP
- How to Buy: Store, Night Market
- VFX, GFX, Finisher: No
- Color Variants: No
7. Infantry Ares
If you are a Fan of WWII-era guns, you will feel right at home with the Infantry collection showcasing wooden stocks and bare-metal features. The Infantry Ares is the best budget Ares skin out there with decent looks. In case you are coming from Call of Duty or Battlefield, you 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. Valiant Hero Ares
The Valiant Hero collection is inspired by ‘Sun Wukong.’ If you’re unfamiliar with Sun Wukong, he is a legendary figure from Chinese mythology, also known as the Great Monkey King. The Valiant Hero Ares features a subtle design that looks great in the game. Nevertheless, this Ares skin is worth it alone just for its finisher; you can summon the Great Monkey King!!
- Rarity: Premium Edition
- Price: 1775 VP
- How to Buy: Store, Night Market
- VFX, GFX, Finisher: Yes
- Color Variants: Yes
5. Magepunk Ares
At the top 5, 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 collection is one of the most popular skin collections in VALORANT. However, for the Ares users, it might have been a little bit disappointment as it didn’t include one. But Riot fixed it with the Oni 2.0 collection. Now, you can have your favorite skins for your favorite gun. The skin has three different color variants and upgrades, making it 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 #2, we have the Singularity Ares. The singular line of skins is a weapon 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 makes it not only 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 #1 spot.
- Rarity: Exclusive Edition
- Price: 2175 VP
- How to Buy: Store only
- VFX, GFX, Finisher: Yes
- Color Variants: Yes
How to Get These Ares Skins?
Ares Skins can be obtained from a variety of sources in VALORANT. To begin, the majority of Ares skins are only available as part of specific skin bundles. For a limited time, these skin bundles are available for purchase at the VALORANT store. You can purchase the entire bundle or just the Ares skin for a fraction of the overall bundle price, and the skin will be yours to keep forever.
However, it is understandable if you did not have the opportunity to purchase a specific Ares skin when it was first released. But that doesn’t mean it’s gone for good. The skins appear in your VALORANT store at random after certain time periods. Moreover, every two months, the skins also appear at random in the Night Market. So keep an eye out because your favorite Ares skins might be waiting for you at the store or Night Market. However, because VALORANT has such a huge selection of weapon skins, it’s unlikely that you’ll find the exact skin you’re looking for there.
So, another way to get Ares skins is using the Battle Passes. VALORANT generally includes three sets of skin collections in a Battle Pass, one of which is a melee. An Ares skin is almost certainly in one of these collections. If that’s the case, you’ll have to grind through the Battle Pass tiers to get your hands on the Ares skin of your choosing.
Is it Possible to Get Free Ares Skins?
VALORANT does offer some free weapon skins from Agent Gear and Battle Pass completion. Unfortunately, all of these skins are only for pistols. For example, Sheriff, Shorty, Classic, Frenzy, or Ghost. So, there is no way to get free Ares skins in VALORANT.
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
