There are many weapons in VALORANT, the tactical first-person shooter made by Riot Games. In order to become a master of the game, it's pivotal that you learn to master the weapons in it. That's why we've made a series of weapon guides for VALORANT weapons discussing the weapon cost, the weapon damage, and controlling the weapon's recoil. In this guide, we'll be talking about the Stinger submachine gun.

Cost

There are only two submachine guns (SMGs) in VALORANT, and the Stinger is the cheapest one of them. Though you can't buy it right out of the gate at the start of each half, as you only have 800 credits to spend then, you can afford a Stinger at each subsequent round. The Stinger is a great weapon to purchase when you're "in transition" to upgrade to the more expensive rifles, as it leaves room to buy abilities and shields.

Damage

The individual bullets of the Stinger don't deal an impressive amount of damage at all. It's actually comparable to the bullet damage of the Classic pistol, the free, basic sidearm. Even better: the Classic deals more damage when landing a headshot. Of course, the Stinger compensates for this with a massively higher fire rate. It shoots 18 bullets per second, making the Stinger's potential damage per second soar above that of the sidearms. The magazine of the Stinger holds twenty bullets in total.

You can see the exact numbers for the Stinger's damage in the table below:

Though the Stinger's bullets lose damage relatively soon, the damage dropoff isn't that severe. In most cases, it'll take you exactly the same amount of bullets to take down your target.

Recoil

Like all fully automatic guns in VALORANT, the Stinger has quite some recoil. Important, as the weapon is meant for close-range combat and would otherwise be too powerful at long distances. After the first few bullets, the Stinger starts to move upwards. Then, it either swings to the left of the right—it's impossible to predict what it will do.

To control the recoil of the Stinger in VALORANT, you simply need to counter the upward trend of the weapon by dragging down your mouse. As it is a gradual motion, you'll only need to practice it a few times on the practice range to get the gist of it.

Recoil when aiming down sight

All non-sidearm weapons in VALORANT have a toggled zoom function, except for the heavy shotguns. This is more commonly refered to as ADS: Aiming Down Sight. While for most guns this means that they become more accurate at a slower regular fire rate, the Stinger is different. Instead of a continuous stream of bullets, the Stinger bursts out four bullets at a time in its zoomed-in mode.

As can be seen in the recoil pattern, the bullet spread is reduced a lot. The Stinger becomes far more precise, and all of a sudden can reliably hit targets over twenty meters away. It still isn't accurate enough to take targets down quickly, but it at least isn't completely ineffective anymore, as it is in its non-toggled mode.

To summarize:

If you're looking for a cheap weapon to deal a reasonably high amount of damage with at a close range, the Stinger is perfect. It's swift, fit for run-and-gun action in VALORANT. You can pair it with shield and ability purchases to be effective in rounds leading up to purchases of bigger weapons. However, the Stinger's value drops off quickly. Other, more expensive weapons are far more accurate at a longer range, and deal more damage reliably as well.

VALORANT weapon guides:

For more VALORANT content including guides, patch notes, and news, check out our dedicated VALORANT section!

Images via Riot Games