In Valorant, managing your credits is confusing for new players. You must figure out when or what to buy, and you often fight at a disadvantage if you make a mistake.

Your whole team suffers when you make these mistakes, which is crucial in winning most matches.

Fixing your team economy is the first step to winning more matches. Here is everything you need to know about Valorant’s economy.

Credit or Money Mechanics

ActionReward
Eliminate an opponent200 creds
Plant a spike300 creds
Winning a round3000 creds
First round loss1900 creds
Second consecutive round loss2400 creds
Third consecutive round loss2900 creds

There are various ways to earn credits in Valorant, but how you plan and use your finances is crucial to your team’s success.

The goal is always to have one full-buy round, where everyone on your team has everything they need.

Full-buy – A player with the best rifle, fully purchased all abilities, and with full shields.

Managing Your Team’s Economy

Valorant's economy mechanics

Full-buy rounds

Since the goal is to have everyone ‘full-buy,’ it is everyone’s job to manage their economy so they can purchase everything needed for a full-buy.

If your team isn’t getting a round with everyone on full-buys, everyone is doing it wrong.

Players can still perform well with a rifle, some abilities, and half shields, but make sure they risk the economy for something good.

For example:

Losing the first round on the attacking side, but your team planted the spike for money on the loss

Your enemy’s economy will hover around 3,000 credits each. Your team’s economy will hover around 2400 each.

You can surprise the enemy by purchasing Spectres and half shields with some utility.

Other situations include building an economy by winning a lot and suddenly losing a few rounds. Some of your teammates might have fewer credits than others.

You might need to drop weapons for other teammates for a full-buy, but it can cause a member to have a ‘weaker’ full-buy on another round.

Your mentality should always be having the strongest arsenal available to win a round. If you can sacrifice buying a few abilities to get a stronger loadout, you can do that.

The same goes for dropping from a Vandal or Phantom to a Spectre or Bulldog to buy more abilities. Agents like Sova, Skye, or agents with flashes come to mind as they sacrifice their weapons to buy abilities to support their team.

Eco rounds

Eco rounds – saving enough credits for a full-buy the following round

The goal is to save money for a full-buy round as a team. If you bought a Sheriff and you don’t have enough money for a full-buy next round, you are doing it wrong.

Buying Stingers, Spectres, or Sheriffs are still ‘eco rounds’ as long as you have enough money for the next round.

You don’t have to calculate your credits. When you open the armory, you’ll see the number of credits you’ll have for the next round under your current credits.

You only need to calculate whether a teammate can drop another player a rifle to get a full-buy on a team.

Agent ultimates

There are some agents with ultimates that are used as a weapon. Jett, Neon, and Chamber can forgo buying a rifle and use their ultimate instead.

They can buy other teammates a weapon or even save for future rounds.

The perfect setup

The perfect setup is not only having all the skills and a rifle, but it is also having a teammate with an Operator. Most maps favor the Operator as it threatens to one-shot anyone trying to peek carelessly.

In high-ranked games, it is used as a zoning weapon to get more space on the map. However, the weapon costs 4750 credits. There is no way you are buying that weapon without a winning streak or going eco for two rounds straight.

Jett is perfect for this situation because her ultimate ability is a weapon. She can use her ultimate on full-buy rounds and get enough credits for an Operator in the future.

When to Save Your Weapons

Saving in Valorant's economy

Saving is completely understandable if there is no chance of winning the round. If you are going for a 1v5 retake as a defender, you might as well save your money.

Here are the saving mechanics in the game:

  • Attackers – you’ll only receive 1,000 credits if you don’t die and lose the round while the spike isn’t planted
  • Defenders – you’ll only receive 1,000 credits if you don’t die and lose the round when the spike detonates

These credit penalties will hurt your economy if you don’t play it correctly.

This is the golden rule you must follow:

  • If you don’t have a Phantom, Vandal, Odin, or Operator, you must die to the spike/attackers or die to the defenders to avoid the 1,000 credit penalty.

It is also worth noting that dying to the enemy gives them an ultimate orb. If you need to die, you can die to the spike.

However, if they have no information on your location, it is better if you can pick off an enemy and die. Hurting their economy is better than giving one ultimate orb.

Here are some scenarios of when to save and when not to save your weapons.

Is the round winnable? (time to defuse or time to plant)

Save – if the round isn’t winnable and you have rifles, an Odin, or an Operator

Do you have enough utilities to retake while down multiple players (2v4, 1v3, 2v5)?

Save – it is too risky to retake. This scenario is not mandatory. Players can still clutch on random lobbies

Is your weapon worth saving? (Phantom/Vandal/Odin/Operator only worth saving)

Save – if you have good weapons. If your economy is good, you can try and hurt their economy and risk losing your weapon.

Are you a defender who is trying to defuse the spike?

Save – if you have a loadout worth saving and the round isn’t winnable or too risky. 

Are you an attacker with no chance of planting the spike or eliminating all the defenders?

Save – if you have a loadout worth saving

There are so many other scenarios because saving weapons is highly situational. When you pay attention to the overall economy of the team and the enemy, you’ll know when to save or risk your weapons.

If your team has a lot of credits remaining, you can still try risky retakes. You can also try to go for frags on unwinnable rounds to hurt the enemy’s economy.

When you get more experience, you’ll know when players try to save their weapons. You can start hunting out players who are saving on hurting their economy even more.