Select, Deluxe, Premium, Ultra, Exclusive – Valorant divides its skins into tiers that determine their rarity. Anyone who understands the Valorant skin tiers and their rarity immediately knows what a skin can do and roughly how much it's worth. Here's the complete overview.
Valorant skins are divided into price tiers: Select ≈ 875 VP, Deluxe ≈ 1,275 VP, Premium ≈ 1,775 VP, Exclusive ≈ 2,175 VP and Ultra ≈ 2,475 VP. The higher the tier, the more animations, sounds, effects and upgrade variants.
From cheap Select finishes to the coveted Ultra and Exclusive editions with unique animations and finishers – the tier decides a skin's price in VP and how flashy it feels in-game. Below you'll find every tier with prices and clear examples.
Select ~875 VP
Deluxe ~1,275 VP
Premium ~1,775 VP
Ultra ~2,475 VPEach tier has its own colour, a typical VP price and a certain range of effects. Roughly: the higher the tier, the more animations, sounds, variants and finishers. Most skins launch inside themed collections – our Valorant bundles overview shows what full sets cost and when a bundle saves you VP.
Select Edition (~875 VP · approx. €9)The cheapest tier. Select skins mainly change the appearance of the weapon but usually have no special effects, sounds or finishers. A good entry point if only the looks matter to you.
Deluxe Edition (~1,275 VP · approx. €13)Mid-range. Deluxe skins often bring their own sound or small effects and feel more premium than Select – without costing premium prices right away.
Premium Edition (~1,775 VP · approx. €18)The most popular tier. Premium skins have their own animations, firing and reload sounds, effects and usually upgrade variants (different colours/finishers) that you unlock with Radianite Points. Many of the best Vandal skins are in this category.
Ultra Edition (~2,475 VP · approx. €25)The highest-value regular tier. Ultra skins have elaborate, unique effects, special finishers, their own music/sounds and often a thematically matching melee. They're rarer and are considered prestige objects.
Exclusive Edition (variable)Special cases outside the normal range – for example distinctive melee skins or event editions like the Champions collections. Prices vary greatly and for knives are often between 3,550 and 5,350 VP. More on that in the most expensive melee skins.
Because the VP price results directly from the tier, you can estimate the value of a skin well once you know its tier. Using the rule of thumb 1,000 VP = €10, for example: a premium skin ≈ €18, an ultra skin ≈ €25, an expensive knife ≈ €44–55. But you don't have to add up your locker's total value yourself – Valorant-Spind calculator does that automatically.
Skins are often sold in bundles: a set of several weapons plus a knife, buddy, spray and card. The price depends on the highest tier in the set. A premium bundle often costs around 7,100 VP, an ultra bundle 9,900 VP and more.
In the store Valorant shows a small tier symbol in the respective colour for each skin. Otherwise the rule of thumb via price helps: the higher the VP price, the higher the tier and the more elaborate the effects. And if you want to know how much your entire collection across all tiers is worth, Valorant-Spind reads your locker locally and shows you the euro value in seconds.
The VP price of a skin is only half the story. Much more interesting is the question of what you actually get in effects for your money. Because this is exactly where the tiers diverge: between a pure visual change and a skin with its own equip sound, reload animation, colour-changing variants and a spectacular finisher lie worlds – and both can look similarly pretty at first glance. Anyone who knows the effect packages per tier knows before buying whether a skin is just beautiful or also feels alive.
At the Select tier (around 875 VP) you get a new texture and a new model – nothing more. No custom firing sound, no special reload animation, no finisher and no unlockable variants. These skins are deliberately kept plain and aimed at players for whom a fresh look without an effects fireworks display is enough. The advantage: they often look cleaner and distract less in the match than more elaborate designs.
Deluxe (around 1,275 VP) adds the first step. Here you usually get a subtle custom sound when shooting or reloading, occasionally a small visual effect on the weapon. A real finisher or several large colour variants, however, are usually not yet available at this tier. Deluxe is the point at which a skin feels noticeably “different” for the first time, without you having to move into the higher price ranges.
Premium (around 1,775 VP) is the tier most people mean when they talk about a “real” skin. Here you usually get custom firing and reload sounds, an animated equip, visible effects, a custom finisher animation on the last kill of the round and several unlockable variants. These variants – often called chroma – change the colour of the weapon and sometimes the effect colour too. The base colour comes with the purchase; you unlock the further variants separately.
Ultra (around 2,475 VP) is the most elaborate regular tier. Ultra skins have not only effects but a whole production: dynamic animations that change with kills, custom music stings on the finisher, transformable models and especially striking kill effects. Many ultra lines additionally bring a thematically matching knife that's sold separately. When a skin feels almost like a small experience of its own while playing, there's almost always Ultra behind it.
Besides the coloured tier symbol in the store, there are tangible features by which you can read the tier even without a price tag. In the collection or upgrade menu you see how many levels and variants a skin has: the more upgrade levels and the more chroma tiles, the higher the tier. Another indicator is the behaviour in the match – if you hear a custom sound when equipping and see an elaborate animation on the last kill, you're at least in the premium range. If everything stays at the standard sound when shooting and nothing special happens on the kill, it's a Select skin.
Part of a skin's value isn't in the purchase price at all but in the upgrades that come afterwards. Higher tiers bring several levels that you unlock individually with Radianite Points after purchase. Only these levels turn a pretty weapon into the full version with all animations, effect levels and colour variants. Anyone who only looks at the VP price therefore often underestimates what a skin really “costs” in the end – measured in time and Radianite.
The basic principle: Select skins usually have no or hardly any upgrade levels, because there's simply nothing to animate. From Deluxe onwards, individual levels are added, and with Premium and Ultra you usually find several levels plus additional colour variants. Each of these levels requires a certain amount of Radianite, which you accumulate separately from your Valorant Points – mainly via the Battle Pass and occasional offers.
For you this means, quite practically: the VP price gets you the skin, but Radianite decides whether you also see it in its full splendour. So with premium and ultra skins, plan on investing more Radianite after the purchase to unlock all the levels. How exactly this second currency system works and how to collect it sensibly you can explore separately – for the tier classification the rule of thumb is enough: a higher tier means more levels and thus more Radianite up to the full version.
Knives and melee: a category of their own
Knives – kept in the game as melee – follow their own logic and fit into none of the regular weapon tiers. Unlike with rifles or pistols, there's only one melee slot per account, which is why a knife skin is practically always visible once you equip it. It's precisely this that makes melee skins the most popular status symbol in the game: they're shown constantly, when equipping, when jumping, in the collection and of course on the spectacular melee kill.
In terms of price, knives play in a league of their own. Instead of the fixed weapon tiers, they're usually between around 3,550 and 5,350 VP – so, using the rule of thumb 1,000 VP = €10, roughly between €35 and €56. The higher price is explained not only by the visibility but also by the effort: a high-quality knife often brings several custom animations for equipping, idle and attack, plus its own sounds and elaborate effects. Many knives also have unlockable variants, quite similar to premium and ultra weapons.
Because knives are so expensive and so present, they shape the perceived value of an entire locker disproportionately. A single good-looking knife can make more of a visual impression than three cheap weapon skins combined. Which models are considered especially coveted and what their prices look like in detail can be found in our overview of the most expensive melee skins. Anyone planning to invest in skins long-term should consider early on whether a knife is on the wishlist – it's usually the single most expensive purchase.
Exclusive and limited editions in more detail
The Exclusive tier is not a fixed price class but a catch-all for special cases that elude the normal grid. This includes special event collections, anniversary editions and above all the skins around the major tournaments. What they have in common: they don't follow the clear price scale from Select to Ultra but are priced individually and often appear only in a limited window.
It's precisely this limited character that makes Exclusive editions appealing to many players. Anyone who owns a skin that was only sold during a certain event or a certain season thereby carries a visible sign in the match that they were there at that time. Unlike regular skins, which can theoretically return to the shop at any time, with some limited editions it's unclear whether and when they'll ever be offered again. This uncertainty is part of their appeal – and one reason they're often rated higher than their pure VP price suggests.
How to recognise a limited edition
Important for classification: “limited” doesn't automatically mean “better in gameplay”. An Exclusive skin can be effect-rich or quite plain – the tier says something above all about availability and collector value, less about the amount of animations. When buying, it therefore pays to assess separately: do I like the skin visually and in terms of effects, and how much is the pure rarity bonus additionally worth to me?
How the tier determines the value of your skins
Because the VP price hangs directly on the tier, the tier is the fastest way to estimate a skin's value. The real benefit, however, only shows when you add up many skins: a collection of ten Select skins is worth considerably less than one of five premium skins plus a knife, even though the first collection contains more individual items. It's not the number that decides a locker's value but the distribution across the tiers.
A small example calculation makes this tangible. Using the rule of thumb 1,000 VP = €10, roughly the following euro value results per tier:
Approximate euro value per tier
If you add this up for a typical locker, even a few higher-tier pieces sum to a considerable amount. That's exactly why many players are surprised how much euro value sits in their own inventory after one or two years – often without it having felt like much, because each purchase seemed small individually. How to determine your collection's total value cleanly, without looking up every skin by hand, is shown in our guide to the value of your Valorant skins.
An important note on the topic of value: the value meant here is a pure replacement or collection value in euros, not a sale price. Skins and accounts cannot be officially traded, and reselling accounts violates the terms of service. The euro value of your locker is therefore more a guide to how much you've invested overall, and a yardstick for classifying future purchases more consciously – not an amount you could get back.
Which tier is worth it for which type of player
Not every tier suits everyone. Which tiers make sense for you depends less on the budget than on the question of what actually matters to you about a skin. Roughly, three types can be distinguished, and for each there's a clear recommendation.
The looks purist
You care about a clean, coherent look, not effects or kill animations. For you, Select and Deluxe skins are often the smartest choice: they change the appearance noticeably but cost only a fraction of an ultra skin. Because they blink and glow less in the match, they also feel calmer and don't distract you when aiming. Anyone who ticks this way can equip several weapons with a new look for the price of a single ultra skin.
The effects fan
You want the weapon to feel special when shooting, reloading and on the last kill. Then Premium is your range: here you get the full package of sounds, animations, finisher and variants, without jumping straight into the most expensive class. Premium is the best compromise between price and experience and therefore, not by chance, the most popular tier. Just factor in the additional Radianite for the upgrades so the effects come fully into their own.
The collector and prestige player
The big entrance matters to you – the rare line, the striking knife, the limited edition. For you, ultra skins and selected Exclusive pieces are worth it, because they clearly stand out in the match and carry collector value. Here it's less the price per effect that counts than the overall picture of your locker. Anyone collecting in this direction should keep an eye on the euro value, so that many prestige purchases don't become an unnoticed high sum.
Practical tips for buying consciously
Anyone who understands the tiers automatically buys more thoughtfully. The most common mistake is to be guided by the image in the store and overlook the range of effects – so you quickly end up with an expensive skin that barely looks different in the match from a cheap one. With a few simple rules you avoid this and get more out of your budget.
And a final thought on buying consciously: a full locker rarely comes from one big purchase but from many small ones over time. That's exactly why it pays to keep track of what euro value has already accumulated. The free Windows tool Valorant-Spind reads your locker locally, assigns each skin to its tier and calculates the total value automatically in euros – without login and without data being transmitted to the developer. That way you see in black and white how your collection is made up across all tiers, and make the next purchase decision with a clear head.
Know the value of every tier in your locker
Valorant-Spind calculates the total value of your skins in euros – across all tiers, free & local.
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Skin tiers: the key facts
Valorant has five tiers: Select (~875 VP), Deluxe (~1,275 VP), Premium (~1,775 VP), Ultra (~2,475 VP) and Exclusive (variable, e.g. special melee skins). The higher the tier, the more effects, sounds and finishers.
The highest regular tier is Ultra. Above it are only Exclusive editions – special cases like distinctive melee skins or event collections whose prices vary greatly.
A premium skin usually costs 1,775 VP. Using the conversion 1,000 VP = €10, that's around €18. Premium skins have their own effects, sounds and upgrade variants.
In the store Valorant shows a coloured tier symbol for each skin. As a rule of thumb: the higher the VP price, the higher the tier and the more elaborate the effects.
With Valorant-Spind: the free app reads your locker locally and converts the value of all skins – regardless of tier – automatically into euros.
Select, Deluxe, Premium, Exclusive and Ultra – plus special cases like melee skins. The price rises with the tier from around 875 to 2,475 VP.
