Calculating damage...
Pick a weapon, distance, and hit zone above to see the exact damage.
How Damage Falloff Works In Valorant
Every gun in Valorant has a base damage value for three hit zones — head, body, and leg — and most guns lose damage the further a bullet travels before it lands. A close-range headshot with the Phantom deals 156 damage; the same headshot at 40 meters deals only 124. That 32-damage gap is the difference between a guaranteed one-shot kill and needing a follow-up bullet, and it's exactly the kind of number a raw "damage per gun" list never shows you.
Not every weapon falls off the same way. The Vandal, Bulldog, Guardian, Marshal, and Operator deal flat damage at any range — no falloff at all. The Phantom, most sidearms, SMGs, and the two heavy machine guns step down in two or three bracketed ranges. The three shotguns (Shorty, Bucky, Judge) are different again — their listed damage is per pellet, and a single trigger pull fires 12–15 pellets at once, so total damage depends on how many actually connect.
Headshot Damage vs Distance — Three Weapon Types
The chart below plots headshot damage against distance for three representative weapons: the Vandal (flat, no falloff), the Phantom (three-step falloff), and the Sheriff pistol (two-step falloff that briefly matches the Vandal's headshot damage inside 30 meters). The dashed red line marks 100 — full unarmored HP — so you can see exactly where each weapon stops guaranteeing a one-shot headshot kill.
How Shield Armor Changes The Damage You Take
Light Shields (400 credits, +25 armor) and Heavy Shields (1,000 credits, +50 armor) don't add extra health — they change how incoming damage is split. On every hit while armor remains, the shield absorbs two-thirds of the damage and your health loses the other one-third, until the shield's capacity runs out; any damage beyond that overflows to health at full value.
health_damage = damage − shield_absorbed
For example: a Bulldog leg shot at close range deals 30 raw damage. Against a Heavy Shield (50 armor), the shield absorbs 20 and health loses only 10 — the shield drops to 30 remaining. Once armor is fully depleted, every further hit deals its full raw damage straight to health, exactly like having no armor at all.
Damage By Weapon Category
| Category | Weapons | Falloff Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| Sidearms | Classic, Shorty, Frenzy, Ghost, Bandit, Sheriff | 2–3 range brackets; Sheriff and Bandit can one-tap up close. Shorty is a sidearm but fires 15 pellets like a shotgun |
| SMGs | Stinger, Spectre | 2 brackets, effective mainly inside 20m |
| Shotguns | Bucky, Judge | 3 brackets; damage is per pellet, 12–15 pellets/shot |
| Rifles | Bulldog, Guardian, Phantom, Vandal | Vandal/Bulldog/Guardian flat; Phantom steps down in 3 brackets |
| Snipers | Marshal, Outlaw, Operator | Flat damage at all ranges — highest raw numbers in the game |
| Heavy | Ares, Odin | 2 brackets; high magazine capacity offsets lower per-bullet damage |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Vandal really have no damage falloff?
Correct — the Vandal deals 160 headshot / 40 body / 34 leg damage at any distance up to 50m, with zero falloff. That's its defining trait versus the Phantom, which drops from 156 to 124 headshot damage over the same range.
Why does the Phantom deal less damage than the Vandal?
The Phantom trades raw damage for a silenced, tracer-free spray pattern and slightly better first-shot accuracy while moving. Inside 15m the gap is small (156 vs 160 headshot), but beyond 30m the Vandal's flat 160 pulls meaningfully ahead of the Phantom's 124.
How much damage do shotgun pellets deal in total?
Multiply the per-pellet value by however many pellets actually land. A close-range Bucky headshot connecting with all 15 pellets deals 15 × 34 = 510 damage — wildly lethal — but a Bucky is nearly useless if only 2–3 of its 15 pellets connect.
What's the highest one-shot headshot damage in Valorant?
The Operator deals 255 headshot damage at any range — more than double full HP even through a Heavy Shield. The Outlaw (238) and Marshal (202) are the next highest, followed by the Guardian (195).
Do body shots ever one-shot kill?
Only a handful of weapons can: the Operator (150 body), Outlaw (140 body), and Marshal (101 body) all exceed 100 unarmored HP on a single body shot. Every other weapon needs a headshot, or a follow-up hit, to secure an unarmored kill in one bullet.
How is this different from a TTK or shots-to-kill calculator?
TTK and shots-to-kill tools sequence multiple bullets against a target's health and fire rate to compute elapsed time or hit count. This calculator answers a narrower, more exact question — the raw damage a single specific bullet deals — which is the underlying number those other calculations are built on.
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