Valorant TTK duel simulator: Vandal vs. Phantom

What is the TTK duel simulator?

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 from Valorant’s game data via the community API valorant-api.com (not run by Riot); if it’s unreachable, the simulator uses the same values as our damage calculator. That means damage per range bracket, fire rate and magazine size match what you get in-game. No login, no installation, completely free. Within seconds you’ll see why pros reach for one weapon in some situations and the other in others.

How to use the simulator

The controls are deliberately simple and work on PC and mobile alike:

• Pick weapons: Use the two dropdowns on the left and right to choose the weapons you want to compare – from Vandal and Phantom to Operator, Sheriff, SMGs and shotguns.
• Enemy HP: Choose 150 (Heavy Armor), 125 (Light Armor or Regen Shield) or 100 (no armor). This changes how many hits are needed.
• Hit zone: Head, body or legs – damage differs a lot. Headshots end many duels in one or two shots.
• Range: The slider sets the distance in meters. Many weapons deal less damage at range – the simulator switches to the matching damage bracket automatically.
• Watch the duel: Both health bars drain in real time and the faster weapon is highlighted. “Play again” restarts the animation.
• Share: The share button copies a link with your exact setup – perfect for settling arguments on Discord or Reddit.

How is time to kill calculated?

The math behind it is simpler than most people 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, there are three 100 ms intervals between them – 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 come on top of that – so TTK is a theoretical best case, not a promise.

Vandal vs. Phantom: the classic

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 kills with a single headshot at any distance. The Phantom fires faster and has a bigger magazine, but loses damage at long range – so a long-range 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, you’ll find them in our big overview of Valorant skins.

The key numbers for four full-buy rifles at a glance (values from the Valorant API, as of patch 13.09: the 13.09 Warden buff only changed recoil and spread – damage and fire rate are unchanged since 13.06; TTK = time to kill at 150 HP with body shots, first shot at 0 ms):

With a headshot, all four rifles kill a 150 HP enemy instantly – the only exception is the Phantom beyond 20 meters (140 damage). You can compare the Bulldog and all SMGs, pistols, shotguns, snipers and heavy weapons above in the simulator using the same API values.

Why time to kill matters at all

Why is it worth thinking about milliseconds? Because Valorant is a game of split seconds. Two players spot each other, both fire – and whoever drops the enemy to zero one interval sooner survives and often wins the round single-handedly. Time to kill is the hard lower bound for how fast that is even possible. It doesn’t tell you whether you’ll hit, but it tells you the best you can get if you do. That knowledge is exactly what separates a deliberate weapon choice from pure gut feeling, turning the often emotional “Vandal or Phantom” argument into a sober question of range, HP and hit zone.

For beginners this is especially valuable: once you understand that a weapon suddenly needs one more shot at a certain HP threshold, you stop being frustrated by supposedly unfair fights and start reading the math behind them. Experienced players use TTK to probe edge cases: is the expensive shield worth it? Does the eco weapon still land a clean kill at this range? The simulator answers in seconds instead of leaving you to guess across hundreds of rounds. You’ll find more basics on the round and economy system in our beginner guide, and our Valorant glossary explains unfamiliar terms in plain language.

Pistols and the first round

TTK decides pistol rounds especially often. The Sheriff kills with one headshot 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: one shot, one kill

The Operator, the most powerful sniper rifle in Valorant, 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 exchange, it’s extremely expensive and slow, and it punishes every miss hard. In the simulator, you can tell 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.

Why HP and shields change everything

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 Armor (+25), the Regen Shield (+25) or Heavy Armor (+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.

TTK myths fact-checked

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.

The weapon classes and their TTK

Valorant sorts its weapons into clear classes, and each has its own TTK profile. The rifles (Vandal, Phantom, Bulldog, Guardian and, since patch 13.06, the Warden) 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, Outlaw) 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.

Fire rate or damage – which matters more?

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, both work together: (hits − 1) divided by the fire rate. 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.

Range and damage fall-off in detail

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 best-known exception – like the Warden, Bulldog, Guardian and all snipers, it keeps its damage at every range, which is why it’s so strong on long sightlines. The Phantom, in contrast, drops off past 20 meters (140 instead of 156 head damage), costing it the instant headshot kill against 150 HP at range.

In the simulator the slider moves through these brackets, and the damage per shot shown jumps the moment you cross a bracket 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 genuine 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, our map guides give you the context.

Tips to get the most out of it

A few ideas to get more out of it. 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 and put together your perfect arsenal.

Why your aim matters more than the “best” weapon

Perhaps the most important lesson of the simulator is one it does not show directly: in most duels it isn’t the weapon that decides, but who hits first and more often. A 30-millisecond gap in theoretical TTK evaporates instantly if your first shot misses or you flick past the head on the follow-up. So the most honest conclusion from every comparison is this: train your aim, and the choice between Vandal and Phantom becomes almost secondary. A perfect TTK on paper is worth little if only every second shot lands.

That’s exactly what our tools are for. First build a clean, clearly visible crosshair in the crosshair generator and carry over your usual sensitivity correctly with the sensitivity converter so your mouse movement feels the same everywhere. Then sharpen your aim in the aim trainer, deepen the routine with our structured aim training and test your reaction speed in the reflex arena. If you want to know which settings the pros play with, check our pro settings. That’s how the simulator’s theoretical best case becomes one you can actually reach in a real match.

A worked duel, step by step

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, drops to 35 damage beyond 20 meters – 150 divided by 35 is 4.3, 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.

How to read the results correctly

After each duel the simulator shows several values, and it pays to read them carefully. Damage per shot is the value that changes with hit zone and range – if it drops as you move the slider, you have just crossed a range boundary and slipped into a lower damage bracket. Shots to kill is the real heart of it: when this number jumps from three to four, the TTK spikes, even if the damage only fell by a few points. The fire rate and magazine size round out the picture and show whether a weapon even has enough ammo in the magazine to finish the kill without reloading.

The verdict at the top names the winner and the gap in milliseconds. A gap of just a few milliseconds means, in practice, that the duel is so close your aim decides it, not the weapon. A large gap, by contrast, shows a real, tangible advantage you can deliberately exploit. Watch out for the “dead heat” message too – it appears when both weapons take the same time, e.g. the Warden (3 hits, 6.5/s) and the Vandal (4 hits, 9.75/s) at about 308 ms each. And when a weapon needs more hits than its magazine holds (like the 2-shot Shorty from 15 m), the simulator shows “Kill only after reloading”. That way you read the whole story of a fight from just a few numbers and instantly know whether the weapon swap really pays off or is just habit.

Warden vs. Vandal vs. Phantom: the new rifle in the TTK check

The Warden (patch 13.06, 2,900 credits) is the first new rifle since launch. What makes it special is its damage curve: 50 body and 200 head damage at every distance up to 50 m, at 6.5 rounds per second and 18 rounds per magazine. Against 150 HP, its time to kill produces a surprising result:

In short: on body shots the Warden is exactly as fast as the Vandal – it needs one hit less but fires more slowly. At long range it beats the Phantom, up close the Phantom stays quicker. Its weakness is the small magazine and the low fire rate: every miss costs more time than with the automatic rifles. Try it yourself: Warden vs. Vandal at 15 m · Warden vs. Phantom at 30 m · Warden vs. Phantom at 10 m. Everything else about the new rifle is in our Warden guide.

Interesting duels to try

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.

Who is this simulator for?

The TTK duel simulator is for anyone who wants to understand Valorant better – from the very first ranked game to an ambitious climb. Beginners learn here why some fights are already lost before they’ve really begun, and what role shields and range play. Advanced players use it to probe edge cases and tune their weapon choice to the map and the distances typical for it. And anyone who likes to argue ends every heated debate about the supposedly best weapon with a shared link – hard numbers instead of loud opinions.

The simulator pairs especially well with the rest of the site. Check the rank overview to see where you stand and what level comes next, look at which agents suit your playstyle, and use the individual map guides to learn the distances you usually fight at. That way you link raw TTK to what actually happens on the map and stop choosing your weapon in a vacuum – instead, you pick the gun that fits the situation.

🎯 All 20 guns at a glance: the damage calculator shows damage, armor and shots to kill.

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