The Guardian is a semi-automatic rifle in VALORANT that can deliver high damage with pinpoint accuracy. Here, we’ll be listing the ten best Guardian skins in VALORANT.
The Guardian is a cheaper alternative to the main rifles, such as the Phantom or Vandal, but can still be deadly in the right hands. Its semi-automatic mode of fire lets players be very accurate with it, and its ADS capability allows for further zoom compared to the other rifles. This, in turn, makes the Guardian a long-range headshot machine. It can kill at any range with a headshot or three body shots. The Guardian costs 2250 in-game credits to purchase and has high penetration power to give to those cheeky wall bang kills.
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 one step further 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 Guardian skin for yourself, you should determine if you like the theme of the skin, the looks, the inspect/equip animations, the finisher, and the firing sounds. Unlike other games like CS2, which have individual pricing for skins, the skins in VALORANT come at a fixed price depending on their collection. For example, select Edition skins cost 875vp while Premium and Exclusive Edition skins cost 1775vp and 2175vp respectively.
Read More: Cheapest VALORANT Weapon Skins: The Best Select Edition Skins
How Many Guardian Skins Are There?
As of this writing, there are currently a total of 38 Guardian skins available in VALORANT. This includes skins from different skin bundles and Battle Pass.
Top 10 Best Guardian Skins in VALORANT
Among all the Guardian skins released in VALORANT so far, here are the 10 best Guardian 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 Guardian skins in VALORANT, from good to best order.
10. Infantry Guardian
Title | Description |
---|---|
Rarity | Select Edition |
Price | 875 VP |
How to Buy | Store, Night Market |
VFX, GFX, Finisher | No |
Color Variants | No |
Fans of WWII-era guns will feel right at home with these guns showcasing wooden stocks and bare-metal features. The Infantry Guardian is the best budget Guardian skin out there with decent looks. Players coming from Call of Duty and Battlefield will definitely love this skin. Also, the fact that Riot managed to incorporate the popular “M5 Garand Pinging sound” into this skin is just the icing on top.
9. Recon Guardian
Title | Description |
---|---|
Rarity | Premium Edition |
Price | 1775 VP |
How to Buy | Store, Night Market |
VFX, GFX, Finisher | Yes |
Color Variants | Yes |
Another one for the fans of the Call of Duty/Battlefield series or Modern weapons in general, the Recon Guardian is the perfect choice for you. It has a unique feature where you get randomized barrel attachments when buying the skin during a match. When fully upgraded, you can get either a flashlight or laser attachment on this skin.
8. Magepunk Guardian
At #8, we have the Magepunk Guardian, which came with the 2nd Magepunk bundle added to the game. It features a steampunk version of the Guardian 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.
Title | Description |
---|---|
Rarity | Premium Edition |
Price | 1775 VP |
How to Buy | Store, Night Market |
VFX, GFX, Finisher | Yes |
Color Variants | Yes |
7. Ruination Guardian
Title | Description |
---|---|
Rarity | Exclusive Edition |
Price | 2175 VP |
How to Buy | Store only |
VFX, GFX, Finisher | Yes |
Color Variants | Yes |
The Ruination series of skins are a part of a collaboration with Riot’s other hit game, League of Legends. The Ruination Guardian comes in an ancient theme of the Ruined King and has a smokey aura coming out of it. The best part about the Ruination Guardian is that each and every color variant looks amazing with its vibrant colors. It comes a bit pricier as it is an exclusive edition skin, but it is well worth the cost.
6. Oni Guardian
Title | Description |
---|---|
Rarity | Premium Edition |
Price | 1775 VP |
How to Buy | Store, Night Market |
VFX, GFX, Finisher | Yes |
Color Variants | Yes |
At #6, we have the Oni Guardian, which is comparatively less popular among the Oni lineup. But this is no bad skin by any means. Everything about this skin, from beautiful color variants to firing sound and finisher, is amazing.
5. SPECTRUM Guardian
Title | Description |
---|---|
Rarity | Exclusive Edition |
Price | 2675 VP |
How to Buy | Store only |
VFX, GFX, Finisher | Yes |
Color Variants | Yes |
“A collection of weaponized color and sound that elevates the way you experience the game, taking you from a player to a performer” – Zedd on SPECTRUM
The Spectrum line of skins was VALORANT’s first collaboration with the artist Zedd, including the SPECTRUM Guardian. The Spectrum Guardian offers satisfying firing animations, RGB lights, and an insane finisher. Also, did we mention that you can listen to sick tracks by Zedd during the inspect animation?
4. RGX 11z Pro Guardian
Title | Description |
---|---|
Rarity | Exclusive Edition |
Price | 2175 VP |
How to Buy | Store only |
VFX, GFX, Finisher | Yes |
Color Variants | Yes |
The RGX 11Z Pro Guardian is a gamer-esque take on the Guardian skin, coming in at 2175VP. It has a satisfying muted firing sound and can change its RGB lights with the inspect animation. It comes in 4 different color finishes and has a decent finisher.
3. Reaver Guardian
Title | Description |
---|---|
Rarity | Premium Edition |
Price | 1775 VP |
How to Buy | Store, Night Market |
VFX, GFX, Finisher | Yes |
Color Variants | Yes |
The Reaver series of skins is one of the most popular skin bundles in VALORANT, with the Reaver Vandal and Reaver Operator gaining much popularity along with the Reaver Guardian. The skin has a unique reload animation, with the player reloading the magazine without touching it as though using some sort of dark magic. The firing sounds, skin color variants, and finisher put this Guardian skin in our top 3.
2. Prime Guardian
Title | Description |
---|---|
Rarity | Premium Edition |
Price | 1775 VP |
How to Buy | Store, Night Market |
VFX, GFX, Finisher | Yes |
Color Variants | Yes |
The Prime series of skins is one of the oldest and most coveted skins in VALORANT. Although quite plain in looks compared to the newer skins, the Prime Guardian still gets top 2 because of its satisfying firing sounds, VFX, and cool reload animation.
1. Sovereign Guardian
Title | Description |
---|---|
Rarity | Premium Edition |
Price | 1775 VP |
How to Buy | Store, Night Market |
VFX, GFX, Finisher | Yes |
Color Variants | Yes |
Finally, we have the Sovereign Guardian at our #1 spot. The Sovereign bundle is one of the oldest but best-looking bundles in the game. It features an angelic or holy theme with intricate patterns in white with gold accents. When upgraded, it also shines in blue. The Sovereign Guardian also comes in different color variants as well. The best one is the black and purple combination which looks amazing and is often considered a dark version of the skin. However, the other two are nothing to write home about.
The Sovereign Guardian’s satisfying firing sounds, GFX, and a very excellent finisher finally seal the deal on why this is the best Guardian skin you can get in VALORANT to date. Additionally, it is a Premium Edition skin which not only makes it cost less than the Exclusive Edition skins but also means the Sovereign Guardian can appear in the Night Market to be bought at a discount!
How to Get These Guardian Skins?
Guardian Skins can be obtained from a variety of sources in VALORANT. To begin, the majority of Guardian 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 Guardian 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 Guardian 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 Guardian 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 Guardian skins is using the Battle Passes. VALORANT generally includes three sets of skin collections in a Battle Pass, one of which is a melee. A Guardian 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 Guardian skin of your choosing.
Is it Possible to Get Free Guardian 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 Guardian skins in VALORANT.
So this wraps up our list of Best Guardian skins in VALORANT 2023. 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 Ares Skins | Best Odin Skins |