Pit two weapons against each other, choose HP, range and hit zone – and watch the animated duel to see which kills first. Real stats from the Valorant API.
Vandal or Phantom? Few questions split the Valorant community like this one. With the TTK duel simulator you stop answering it by feel and start answering it with real numbers: pit any two weapons against each other, choose enemy HP, hit zone and range – and watch live which weapon kills first. "TTK" stands for time to kill, the time from the first shot to the kill. Two animated health bars show you, shot by shot, how fast each weapon drains the enemy, and a clear verdict tells you who wins and by how many milliseconds.
Every value comes straight from the official Valorant game database – damage per range bracket, fire rate and magazine size are exactly the ones that apply in game. No login, no installation, completely free. In seconds you understand why pros reach for one weapon in some situations and the other in others.
The controls are deliberately simple and work on PC and mobile alike:
The math behind it is simpler than many think. First the simulator determines the damage per shot for the chosen hit zone and range. Then it divides enemy HP by that value and rounds up – that gives the number of shots to kill. Example: if a weapon deals 40 body damage and the enemy has 150 HP, you need four hits (3×40=120 isn't enough, 4×40=160 kills).
The actual time comes from the fire rate. The first shot lands at 0 milliseconds, each following shot at the fire-rate interval. If a weapon needs four shots at ten rounds per second, three intervals of 100 ms pass – TTK is 300 ms. This is the standard method wikis and pro analysts use too. Important: the model assumes perfect hits. In real duels aim, recoil and reaction time are added on top – so TTK is a theoretical best case, not a promise.
No duel gets debated more. Both rifles cost the same and are fully automatic, but they differ in one decisive point: the Vandal deals the same body damage at every range and one-shot-headshots at any distance. The Phantom fires faster and has a bigger magazine, but loses damage at long range – so a far-away headshot no longer guarantees an instant kill.
The simulator makes that difference visible: set the range to a few meters and the Phantom often wins thanks to its higher fire rate. Drag the slider to 30 or 40 meters and the Vandal takes over because its damage stays constant. That's exactly why many players prefer the Phantom on tight maps and the Vandal on open, long-sightline maps. If you want to compare the skins of both rifles, find them in our rankings of the best Vandal skins and best Phantom skins.
In the pistol round, TTK decides win or loss especially often. The Sheriff one-shot-headshots but is slow and hard to control. The Ghost is quieter and faster but needs several body hits. The Classic is free and surprisingly strong up close. Put these pistols against each other in the simulator and you instantly see why the Sheriff is the high-risk, high-reward tool: a headshot ends everything, a miss costs precious time.
If you want to understand the economy behind these buy decisions, the basics are in our beginner guide. It also explains when a "force buy" pays off and when you should save.
The Operator, Valorant's sniper rifle, is a special case. A body hit almost always kills instantly, no matter how much shield the enemy has – TTK is effectively 0 ms because the first shot is enough. In return the weapon is extremely expensive, slow and punishes every miss hard. In the simulator you spot it because the enemy's health bar drops straight to zero on a body hit. The Operator only loses to a rifle if the sniper misses the first shot and then has to reload or reposition.
A common mistake: "this weapon two-shots." That's only true for one HP assumption. In Valorant every player starts with 100 health but can buy light shields (+25) or heavy shields (+50). An enemy with 150 HP needs noticeably more hits than one with 100 HP – and that can flip the duel order entirely. The simulator lets you play through all three cases so you see how much shields stretch TTK. That's exactly why buying shields is one of the most important economy decisions of every round.
Stubborn myths surround weapons and damage. "Expensive skins shoot faster." Wrong – skins are purely cosmetic and change no value. "The Phantom is always worse than the Vandal." No – at short range its higher fire rate is often an advantage. "Leg shots are a waste of time." Not quite: they deal less damage but often land when you aim low while peeking – the simulator shows exactly how much you lose. "TTK is everything." Only half true: aim, recoil control and positioning decide at least as many duels as raw TTK. The simulator gives you the theoretical base – your aim does the rest.
Valorant sorts its weapons into clear classes, and each has its own TTK profile. The rifles (Vandal, Phantom, Bulldog, Guardian) are the all-rounders with the best balance of damage, range and fire rate – they win most standard duels at medium range. The SMGs (Spectre, Stinger) have a very high fire rate and therefore an extremely short TTK up close, but lose damage and accuracy fast at range; that's why they're typical eco weapons for aggressive close-quarters fights. The shotguns (Judge, Bucky) deal brutal damage at one meter and often one-shot, but are almost useless beyond a few meters.
The snipers (Operator, Marshal) flip the logic: extremely high damage per shot but a very low fire rate – one hit decides, one miss is expensive. The heavy weapons (Ares, Odin) have huge magazines and a fire-rate ramp-up, so they shine at suppressing chokepoints. And the pistols range from the one-shot-kill Sheriff to the free Classic. When you pit two weapons from different classes against each other in the simulator, you see these characters instantly – and understand why there is no "best weapon," only the best weapon for a given range and situation.
This question sits behind almost every weapon comparison. As a rule: damage per shot lowers the number of hits needed, fire rate lowers the time between hits. For TTK, the product of both matters. A high-damage weapon that kills in three instead of four shots saves a whole firing interval – often worth more than a marginally higher fire rate. Conversely, a very fast weapon can offset a shot threshold if its intervals are short enough.
That's exactly where the simulator gets interesting: set the HP so a weapon jumps from three to four shots and watch its TTK suddenly spike. These "threshold jumps" are why some duels are clear at 100 HP and razor-thin at 150 HP. Understanding them leads to better buy decisions and tells you when the expensive shield really pays off.
The most underrated factor is probably range. Many weapons have several damage brackets: up to a certain distance they deal full damage, beyond it less. The Vandal is the famous exception – its body damage stays constant across the whole range, which is why it's so strong on long sightlines. The Phantom, in contrast, falls off in two steps, costing it instant headshot kills at long range.
In the simulator the slider moves through these brackets, and the shown damage per shot changes abruptly the moment you cross a boundary. That's where the most interesting break-even points sit: at 10 meters weapon A can win, at 25 meters suddenly weapon B. Knowing these crossover points is real advanced knowledge and helps you pick the right weapon for the right position in a round. If you want to dig deeper into maps and sightlines, find context in our map guides.
A few ideas to take away more. First: don't just compare Vandal and Phantom, but also what you can do against them – for example Spectre vs. rifle at short range to see whether an eco push is worth it. Second: slowly push the range slider up and watch at what distance a weapon flips – this "break-even point" is hugely instructive. Third: deliberately toggle the hit zone to internalize how much headshots shorten TTK – that motivates you to aim higher in training. And fourth: share close duels as a link when you argue with friends about the best weapon – nothing ends a debate faster than hard numbers.
If you then want to dress your favorite weapons in matching skins, try our Dream Loadout Builder or build your own ranking in the skin tier maker.
Take the classic Vandal vs. Phantom at short range against an enemy on 150 HP with body hits. The Vandal deals 40 body damage – 150 divided by 40 is 3.75, rounded up to four hits. At a fire rate of about 9.75 rounds per second, three intervals of roughly 103 ms pass, so about 308 ms to the kill. The Phantom deals 39 body damage up close – also four hits needed, but at 11 rounds per second the intervals are shorter, dropping TTK to about 273 ms. Result: at short range the Phantom kills a good 35 ms faster.
Now push the range to 40 meters in the simulator. The Vandal stays at 40 damage and four hits, its TTK unchanged. The Phantom, however, falls to 31 damage – 150 divided by 31 is 4.8, so five hits instead of four. Suddenly the Phantom needs one more interval and the Vandal pulls ahead. This exact flip – same weapons, different result depending on range – is the tool's most important lesson. Then switch to headshots and you'll see both rifles one-shot up close, while the Phantom loses that instant kill far away.
A few pairings are especially worthwhile. Spectre vs. Vandal at five meters shows why an eco push with an SMG can work against a fully bought enemy – the Spectre's high fire rate turns short range into a weapon. Sheriff vs. Ghost answers the eternal pistol-round question: do you bet on the one-shot headshot or the faster, more forgiving gun? Operator vs. everything demonstrates why a single clean shot is so powerful – and why a miss flips the whole duel. And Guardian vs. Phantom pits the semi-auto precision weapon against full-auto firepower, a comparison that depends heavily on your hit zone. Play these duels out, vary HP and range, and you'll build an instinct for which weapon is the right pick when.
Are the values real? Yes. Damage, fire rate and magazine size come live from the official Valorant API and match the in-game values.
Does the simulator account for recoil and spread? No, deliberately not. TTK shows the theoretical best case with perfect hits; recoil, spread and your aim are added in the real game.
Why does the Operator show almost 0 ms? Because a single body hit kills instantly – the first shot is enough, so there's no further interval.
Can I share the duel? Yes. The share button copies a link with your exact setup; anyone who opens it sees the same duel.
Does it work on mobile? Yes. On narrow screens the two weapons stack vertically, otherwise everything is identical.
