The Valorant design team have come up with some genuinely interesting skins, and the high level of detail and elegant crafting go a long way (though not all the way) towards making up for the wild prices. But we’ve also seen a few curious design decisions that seem to come to a head in the gun’s muzzle brakes. The Sovereign collection is the best example of this and the Marshal, Vandal and Guardian are clearly the weirdest.
The Vandal is probably the most mild of the oddities, featuring a gold muzzle brake that seems purely ornamental. If you aren’t familiar with what a muzzle brake does, it basically makes the gun easier to handle by directing the gasses out of the barrel in a direction that helps compensate for the recoil.
The natural behaviour of the weapon when fired is for the barrel to move upwards, making it harder and taking longer to return the crosshair to the original target. This muzzle break appears to do basically nothing. Ok, yes, maybe we are being pedantic, but we pay attention to the details so you don’t have to: the highest level valorant skins news! But I’m srsly, the next two are actually really weird.
Guardian and Marshal – weird muzzles…
Turning first to the Marshal, it really isn’t clear if rifle actually shoots. Looking closely you can see the points of the the brake come together like they’ve been pinned in a vice or melted. Will a bullet actually fire through without exploding the end of the gun? Probably not...
Ok, ok, maybe we’re still being pedants, but the Guardian really is weird. Check out the Sovereign, Prime and the variant below. The first gun is probably pretty decent as a bayonet tip but I can’t see a bullet getting through there. But look at that second image and compare it to the third – 100% no way that fires. No way. No way.
