VALORANT's Latest 'Exclusive' Tier Bundle is Rough...

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Valerance are releasing the rogue skin bundle in just a few hours, but it being classified as exclusive tier is raising a few eyebrows. We all know that Valerant skins are fairly expensive, but even more people than normal seem to have an issue with this particular bundle being priced at 8,700 Valerant points. Despite it bringing a new type of knife and the vanel sounding really nice to shoot with, I'd have to agree with this bundle overall feeling underwhelming. The most common complaints I've seen are people mentioning the lack of animations or the lackluster of finisher, but let's talk about the theme first. There are definitely elements of recon, phase guard, and even protocol here with the precise military vibe. Visually, these skins all look solid to me. They aren't too bulky, and they feel pretty different to your standard weapons. Even though the Vandal is a similar shade of black, in fact, I actually really like the script option that they went with for the Rogue Vandal. There are people saying that it should have been randomized with multiple options like recon or phase guard, but personally whenever I use those skins, I just keep on buying them until I get the grip that looks like this. Anyway, I will circle back to this idea at the end of the video. But I think between the grip, audio, and overall feel, we have a really popular Vandal skin on our hands here, even if it's overpriced. Speaking of the Vandal, let's address the elephant in the room and talk about some of the animations, or lack thereof. The one bright side here is that I honestly really like the equip animation. Yeah, it's subtle and pretty similar to the default one, but adds this quick activation of the laser site. And I do like the little sound effect that comes with that.

[00:01:29]This, in my opinion, is exactly what this skin could have used on the inspect and reload. Nothing flashy or spinny necessarily, just something a little bit extra to lean into this tactical theme.

[00:01:39]Instead, unfortunately, we just have the default reload and inspect animation on this exclusive tier skin line. Now, the animations aren't necessarily the be all end all when it comes to skins. Take Primordium or Recon for example. Neither of those have any animations, but they are both incredibly popular.

[00:01:55]Particularly in the case of Primordium, which also costs 2,175 Valeron points. You at least get these cool lava effects and a world transforming finisher, but there is no equivalent to that on Rogue. Anyway though, moving on to the sound design for these skins now, and especially with the Vandal, I really like how it shoots.

[00:02:23]I think the way you can hear the gun clicking with each shot is super satisfying, but then the echo and boom from each bullet still feels really impactful. That's just for the shooting sound, however. And when we get to the kill sound, I'm actually a little bit let down. Don't get me wrong, just purely on how the kill banner sounds on its own, I do rate it.

[00:02:52]You might recognize though that Rogue sounds pretty similar to Overdrive, particularly that almost afterlow like sound on Kill.

[00:03:12]Obviously, Kill Banners and Valerant all follow the same, you know, key and intonation. They are bound to sound similar, but I don't think these two in particular should sound so alike.

[00:03:21]Overdrive is this skin brimming with the power of a motorbike overcharging as you shoot it. Meanwhile, yeah, Rogue should sound powerful, but I wish it sounded more discreet and precise at the same time. My problem here isn't that Rogue sounds like another skin that's basically unavoidable. It's more so what skin it sounds like. This kill banner makes sense for Overdrive and less so for Rogue. If the kill sound here was a lot more aligned to something like Recon, I would just outright be praising it instead. Let's move on now to some of the other skins in this bundle.

[00:03:49]Unfortunately, with the Bucky and the Operator, there isn't a whole lot to discuss. These two weapons both got completely shafted in the animation department, not even getting an adjusted inspect animation like the Vandal did.

[00:04:00]It's obvious that these weapons would be considered less desirable. They just aren't bought as often in the game, hence why they don't get that extra time put into them. Having said that, though, literally just a small animation difference on this Bucky skin could be the difference between someone buying and not buying it. Obviously, that wasn't the case here, though, and overall, I don't think either of these weapons are worth it. Maybe if you straight up have no Bucky skin and you like the theme here, then you'd pick this one up. Then for the operator, sure, it sounds good, but we've been getting way too many operator skins lately. The last three bundles with effects in a row, hollow meridian, Kuranami, and now Rogue, have all contained this weapon. Then we get to the bandit, which at the very least had a slightly new equip animation, just like the Vandal, I have no issues with the equipment itself, and I actually like it if anything. Again, it's just a shame to see no additional tactical elements to the reload or inspect. Even with the shooting audio here, I think they did an excellent job of keeping the bandit's identity intact while still making the gun sound satisfying.

[00:05:02]That brings us to the variants. And none of these feel out of place for me, but I'm overall a little bit uninspired. I think that's just due to the nature of these military camoesque skins. They are quite literally meant to blend in rather than pop out and be eye-catching. None of these colorways are bad. I just don't love any of them. This might even be one of the few skins in the game where I wouldn't bother upgrading any of the variants and instead stick with the defaults. This colorway is probably solid if you like red skins. And then this one is a nice splash of white and blue, but overall none of these really do anything for me. Even when we get to the finisher, my opinion more or less stays the same where I'm still just feeling a little underwhelmed. Sure, it's interactive and it's cool that you can shoot the drones. However, this doesn't really feel like an exclusive tier finisher for me. I'm definitely picking out some of the better ones as examples there on screen, but still Rogue just doesn't feel very grand scale compared to what we've grown to expect from exclusive tier finishes. Sure, not every exclusive tier skin has an insane finisher, but normally they'll then have some other standout feature that you can identify. Last but not least, we come to the knife. Sometimes this can be the saving grace for a bundle or even just the main reason you'd buy the entire thing in the first place, but the push daggers just aren't really my type of melee. I'll even point out that the left hand looks like it's sitting a little bit too close to the blade for comfort, but maybe that's just me. I will give credit where credit is due though, I like that they've added a new type of knife with unique animations. Even if this isn't for me or you, I will rarely complain about Riot introducing something that we haven't seen before.

[00:06:27]Oh, and just quickly before I forget, here is a look at the Gumbuddy player card and spray for Rogue. That finally brings us to the price of the Rogue skin bundle and whether it is worth it or not. Like I said earlier, this bundle is apparently considered exclusive tier, which means 8,700 Valerant points for the entire collection, 2,175 Valerant points for the guns, and 4,350 Valerant points for the knife. I don't think the knife is worth that much and could have easily been premium tier, 3,500. Same with the Bucky and Operator, considering their overall lack of effects and animations. That leaves us with just the Bandit and the Vandal, which do get their slightly adjusted equip animation. To put it plainly, I definitely do not think you should buy this whole bundle. Sure, if you really love everything that you're seeing here, then treat yourself, but I think this is just an underwhelming exclusive tier collection. The Bandit on its own, I'm considering because we have so few Bandit skins right now. Even though I'm sure there will be better ones down the line, I think for the moment, I would prefer this over Revo. Then for the Vandal, I do still think you can make an argument to buy it on its own. Yes, it lacks animations and has a rough finisher, but look at Recon. It has no animations, no finisher. It even has the default shooting sound, and it is still considered one of the most popular Phantom skins in the game. That alone is proof that the deciding factors on a skin are mostly just how it feels and sounds in game. And I think the grip is actually a pretty underrated factor in that. At the end of the day, I'm probably just going to stick with the Bandit and Vandal. But let me know what you're planning on getting from this skin bundle in the comments.