Are skins ACTUALLY pay to win?

[@Archmeton]

Or you can shift the entire discussion by saying it makes me feel more comfortable, which is a solid argument :P

[@darkhaze2818]

for me, skins makes me feel cool and strong and i play better cause i feel better, thats about it xd

[@32bit27]

@@darkhaze2818 exactly, it's a personal preference like the sounds a spectre produces makes me feel like I'm using a nerf gun , already reducing my confidence , on the other hand mage punk spectre gives a better impression

[@BabyRage100]

I think a good example of this is in this video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iHXbmqh-mbeSipY In the game Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory the Allied Thompson was seen as stronger than the Axis MP40 by the players, which was even reflected in winrates. But I'm reality, the devs confirm that the stats of the guns were equal and it being stronger was just player perception. Basically, if ur gun sounds and feels stronger, you're more confident, winning you more gunfights.

[@shinylikearebeti4439]

well, it make you go with extasis when you are about to do an ace, with the sound effects and the finisher, sometimes is the confident you need to win a clutch situation, it can work mentally, i mean when i see a normal ace compared with a skin ace, its feel different, the sound of kills put you in extasis and combined with the emotion to kill the rest, it make the differences in decisive moments.

[@xP1exi]

yup this right here

[@1mperialfist]

I think the most important is the feeling of the gun, especially it's sound. Great example - Prime Vandal, somehow makes me shooting a little bit more accurate than usual.

[@bubblefv]

neptune fish gun sounds goodi like it

[@andyiscominn8407]

for me i like skins that dosent have too many curvy parts,

[@yoffeetoffee3229]

Prime Vandal go Pew

[@novawolf4877]

Buts that’s you just because u find a skin better to handle doesn’t mean it’s pay to win

[@regissoldier7196]

same bro, i loev the reloading and the sound

[@Duffelii]

Also the psychological side of sound effects that skins bring is insane. For example, prime vandal feels softer to shoot and therefore mimics more of a phantom-style shooting, when in reality it is a Vandal.

[@Archmeton]

Yeah it could make for an interesting topic for an interesting video

[@lance1635]

thats so true..i own no skins and when i use the classic vandal it sounds so bad idk why but i also play bad with it. on the other hand when i use my frnds rgx vandal it sounds suppressed and makes me better

[@Flowerthe9]

So true

[@ShadowXnightmareSDXN]

holy shit the quality of this video is immaculate. the breakdown whether skins are pay to win is executed so well. definitely an underrated creator. more subscribers to come!

[@Archmeton]

Appreciate the kind words, thanks mate!

[@hoggriderrr4577]

the quieter the gun skin, the more pay to win it is, so guns like the prime vandal and the neptune vandal just hits different

[@misfitxo]

As a music producer/audio engineer, I really appreciate the detail you went into here. I would definitely consider volume, but as you briefly mentioned, the one that's less bassy will make it significantly easier to hear footsteps. I'd argue, even if the rgx was a louder than the normal phantom, it'd still be better in terms of not covering footsteps as much, since it's just different frequencies on the spectrum. So for me the rgx is the clear winner in that case, as the toy phantom has a good amount of bass/rumble in there in comparison

[@Archmeton]

Another audio expert commented to use a different kind of way to express the audability instead of decibels to closer resemble what the human ear. I'm planning to make a video covering the best skins for all the guns in valorant and while doing so I'll go more in-depth hearing footsteps and such :)

[@misfitxo]

@@Archmeton yea its also not always about pure volume, for example the human ear is much more sensitive to frequencies around 3-6khz. very interesting stuff, and its really cool to see that this will be considered too!

[@imprincesswolfy2565]

For me the difference between a skin and the default Is the feel. Skins like the Reaver make the guns feel heavy, and I can't aim well, while skins like the Prime, Spectrum and especially the Gaia that make it feel lighter, more specifically on the Vandal and Guardian.

[@FrefFriedRice]

I think with the sounds, the reason why you can hear the footsteps better is because of the contrast of the pitch. The footsteps have a low pitch while the rgx phantom (the easiest one to hear) is the highest pitch of the three phantoms.

[@clowd763]

you cant tell me just the feeling of shooting a reaver vandal is not better than a normal one

[@Oguh608]

I literally started getting better at shooting with the Vandal after buying the Glitchpop Vandal. The feeling of the gun is different from the regular gun making it feel better and easier to shoot. I think certain guns really do make shooting a gun easier or it is just a change in mindset after buying an expensive skin lol..

[@supaunicat1382]

The sheer quality of these videos are so much better than some of the big creators out there. I almost gasped when I saw that you have only a few more than 100 subs. PLEASE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!

[@Archmeton]

Thank you good sir 🙏 I will 🙂

[@supaunicat1382]

@@Archmeton yeah I will be sure to follow any future content that comes out. Love the vids so far. 😀

[@dustruction5938]

Really nice editing. You really do deserve more subscribers!

[@benshapirohamburgerhelper1239]

something I think is worth mentioning is the bullet tracers on different skins. The RGX guns in particular have very bright tracers, specifically the blue variant. RGX is to tracers what the prime is to audio, and can especially give you an edge when you spray since the bullets no longer match the crosshair.

[@Specialist_99]

for me i want a vandal skin that is sharp, allowing for a psychological impact for hitting clean headshots like the sentinels of light (my fav), rgx, prelude to chaos, and origin. while for phantom, since spraying is the key, i like the ion, glitchpop, protocol, and oni skins cuz their sounds make it sound like its a "light" enough gun to be sprayed witha nd not relying on headshots. then again, the sounds also allow me to choose models that will not help me, like the glitchpop for vandal cuz its not sharp, and with the recoil/reciprocating barrel, it makes one taps harder while the rgx phantom just makes it sound so light and "weak". and the operator and sheriff skins are just the ones that fave the best single fire sounds and kill banner/sounds, like ion, sentinels of light, rgx, and glitchpop. hope my theory/reasoning wasnt too weird/difficult to understand. plus i go for skins that slook for futuristic or have cool sounding shots/kill banners like SOL, ion, protocol, rgx, and prelude to chaos.

[@Flame_Core_Online]

ion phantom is a laser

[@vamvavaa8905]

Funnily enough, it's the exact opposite for me. On Vandals I like higher pitches like Prime, Glitchpop and RGX. The laser like sounds make me feel MUCH more accurate (both flicking and spray control) and also make the guns sound much lighter so I end up putting less pressure on my mouse, (you can check this by paying attention to your hand after equipping Pistols vs. Rifles) allowing more fluid movement with it. Same goes for the OPs EXCEPT the thunder like sound on Magepunk brings CS nostalgia. (Elderflame too but too distracting). On Phantoms however, I like sharper, deeper sounds such as only Singularity (for now) because the Phantom is so optimised for spraying, I found myself stopping even bothering aiming for the head, apply much less pressure on my mouse so I can track better which is, for obvious reasons, a VERY bad habit. The sharper sound makes it feel more like a Vandal and instantly makes me aim for the head from the get-go

[@robotjones9131]

Great vid! The new xenohunter phantom is criminal with that heartbeat sensor and how much it covers your screen

[@lemonylimes9013]

Good video, I like how you breakdown and explain underrated topics like these. Definitely earns a sub!

[@Archmeton]

Blessed to have you on board Lemon man, new video will be out in an hour or two :)

[@hephaestus333]

the best skins are the ones you pick from the enemies you killed with your gun without skin

[@najmicho7240]

really detailed and nice totally wasnt expecting you to have any less than a 100k subs 😂

[@Archmeton]

Haha youre too kind, hopefully one day 🤣🤣

[@adammzte]

It's the sound of the gun that makes it pay to win, when im shooting a glitchpop vandal i feel like im shooting a damn cannon, its too loud and I seem to play bad with it, but when I'm using a prime vandal I feel like I have aimbot. Same goes for spectrum phantom and prime phantom. They just feel special.

[@4ll_Pretty_0_Ability]

Rgx vandal is my favourite, they sound nice and satisfying. Kinda like helping me calm down while shooting.

[@zorinmuller7795]

I like these types of content. Lateral and investigative. Keep it up mate!

[@ANoobInvoid]

the silent pew pew shooting of the prime skins made me my fav skin pack.

[@obentoubako]

I know there are quite a few videos out there already that talks about this topic but, most of them just ramble on about the "feeling and sound" of the gun skins, which is totally subjective, and just points out obv points about bigger or smaller gun models. On the other hand, you gave actual examples of when a skin could hinder or help you with some great editing to really show the differences between the skins. This is some amazing quality content, even when compared to bigger channels. Hope your yt blows up 👍

[@Archmeton]

Glad you enjoyed it! More to come and even better editing and narration :)

[@50hvn]

rgx phantom footsteps are primarily more easy to hear because the auditory ranges differ so much

[@neonoir__]

Onthe awp and scout you can unscope without going through the 2nd scope in phase while having toggle scope by clicking inspect. This makes the awp skin with the spinny inspect animation (i don't remember what it's called, i don't play this game) better since they don't block vision of the middle of your screen

[@kurb0]

There's actually something you didn't mention. The Toy guns have a special effect that when you shoot a wall a dart is sticking out, unless the bullet went through. This makes it supremely easy to know if you wallbanged something, but admittedly I don't know how good this is.

[@LowKaifeng-dr6wq]

yea the blastx skins

[@pwnwin]

For sound, you should consider the frequency range, ad the frequency range closer to the footsteps would mask the steps better than a different frequency.

[@koshkamatew]

dude the skins are clearly pay to win, didnt you check the skin stats? origin operator has 50% more wallbang damage and 15% more flickshot accuracy, while spectrum phantom gives 15% better spray control and 30% faster reload speed!

[@Archmeton]

Rookie mistake my bad

[@sagarpratapsingh9428]

The willing to see it's kill effects, vfx and finishers, it even makes us clutch sometimes lol it's 100% true

[@lodjic3840]

Really great video but I think you should have talked about skins with tracers, like the vandal reaver which gives you tracerbullets. This can actually help with spraying or just like tapping.

[@Archmeton]

Good call! I might make a video about the "best" skin to play where I'll keep this in consideration :)

[@un-nown7227]

@@Archmeton please do! This is a topic ive been trying to look into quite a lot too but its hard to find good information on it! You could also use audio from other youtubers to find quieter guns, for example the prime sounds quieter than default to me and the neptune feels like it has more audio gaps, either way amazing video and i love all the content youre coming with, im very nit picky with competitive advantages so i love this topic.

[@priyanshurangpariya1837]

Man this video is so great, we need second series where you compare audios of different skin for example prime vandal vs reaver vs champions vs glitch pop vs RGX

[@alteredcandle]

This is pretty detailed and cool, nice!

[@Archmeton]

Thanks for the kind words

[@r.i.pfilthyfrank9835]

Yo i'll be back when this blows up and is massive.

[@Archmeton]

Pink guy pls come back

[@Ac3Hub]

I've noticed on some vandal skins the bullet tracers are so much more accurate than default skin

[@r.lalrinhlua7402]

for me personally, the vfx is the real game changer. and bullet colors in bullet tracing

[@m77x]

you're channel is underrated

[@hiticalcrit4046]

Yes, the confidence boosting makes me able to one tap

[@darkiyh749]

Man, you don't know how grateful I am right now O.o THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

[@zuhm4183]

vfx is visual effects btw, sfx is the sounds

[@ryod4351]

Sometimes, gun skins gives us the illusion that you get less recoil with the skins (like reaver vandal) and helps you perform better.

[@thestone1235]

For me, whatever phantom skin change the color of the billet tracers just feel much easier to hit head

[@vincentprieto8780]

everytime i pick up a prelude chaos vandal i pop off the sound of the gun is so nice

[@nubeviolet]

This video is really good! I however don't have any skins and just pick up whatever I find on the floor during the end of the round, even if it covers more than half my screen

[@pusakalmkb]

I think you mean SFX? Sorry can’t help it I work as a multimedia artist. SFX - sound effects VFX - video effects. Overall very nice video.

[@Archmeton]

You're right! Silly mistake :)

[@pvthon]

underated af, I LOVED this video breakdown tysm for the wonderful artwork that is this video

[@Archmeton]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Foosion]

This is such a well made video man, keep it up, loved every second!

[@TraeBaldwin]

Very high quality content. Criminal that this video on has 484 views. Love that compared the actual sound waves of the skins. This is something I’m always thinking of as I’m a big skin fanatic. Subbed and will be watching all your content

[@Archmeton]

Thanks for the kind words and appreciation mate, hope you enjoy. Will have a new video ready either today or tomorrow, time to grind some content out :)

[@thighknives]

this is exactly why I got the Inftantry skin for the Operator. I can't stand just how much screen real estate the og skin took up lol

[@thecrimsonshadow7024]

I like how he refers blast x to toy

[@cattosama4701]

0:31 you are not alone my guy :)

[@nutellamitquark]

Im actually really happy about skins being offered. Even tough I don’t buy them… it makes the game free without real pay to win…

[@marcusdiiulio1186]

I think it is most of all the felling of the gun in general how prime just feels lighter while reaver feels more heavy

[@annguyenangquoc576]

Prime classic gives me better aim because the model feels like it fits right in my hand, and that im holding it tighter than the normal classic

[@ducktes]

The pitch of RGX is higher, that’s a reason why you can hear footsteps easier because they are more on bass focused

[@ducktes]

RGX of phantom

[@isecreth]

Loool. I legit spend 6 years using gms before finally getting serum. I was making blown out saw softs and exporting them to Edison

[@isecreth]

Wtf? I did not write this?

[@micemu3232]

To me it's always been a psychological thing, I got skins = I get more kills, I don't know how but it's a common thought in the community and I couldn't agree more myself. Also, great informative video!

[@BingBongBee]

bro you are hella underrated, the quality of this video is fire

[@Archmeton]

Appreciate you man! One day haha

[@BingBongBee]

@@Archmeton keep up the good work mate! you deserve more subs

[@cdb1913]

I also feel like picking up a skin you like that you dont have in a game is different than having the skin in your collection. When you pick up a skin you like in game it gives you a better motivation to survive and to keep the skin, but with a skin you already have you dont have to worry about losing it.

[@jyacthepianoman]

i feel like he missed a crucial point; the finisher. some guns (for example the forsaken guns) have a finisher where it doesnt get rid of the player model completely, and even moves it so that some people might not know that it died immediately because of the stress of a battle and waste an extra second shooting it. and we all know how crucial that extra second is in a 1v1 spike clutch situation.

[@Im_SuperNova]

wow I didn't expect this video to be facts and evidence I thought this was a quick vid nice work bro

[@Archmeton]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@theivan8463]

the editing and the quality of the video is so good that it should have more views, you do it very well buddy

[@Archmeton]

I appreciate your kind words mate! Thanks a ton 🦾

[@crunc6646]

Such a good quality video! Very informative and I enjoyed watching this. Very underrated and you deserve more recgonition in the valorant community

[@martijn2k]

For future reference, VFX means Video or VisualFX, whereas SFX is referring to the sound (hence the S).

[@benjamincross2830]

honestly i feel like certain gun sounds just put certain people in the zone

[@nervz]

thought this was going to be another montage thing but I was pleasantly surprised

[@Archmeton]

youre welcome sing jung woo

[@mr.someone5679]

You should have put the prime vandal because it is the most pay to win skin in the sense that the vandal sound goes from annoying, to smooth and soft. Same with the prime classic, or zedd classic, and prelude to chaos operator. They are sounds your ears like in comparison to their default versions, and you may think that doesn't affect the gameplay but trust me that unconciously you play better, more relaxed with certain skins and sounds, we are animals at the end of the day, not robots

[@kori7788]

i think you got it wrong at 0:45 because vfx stands for visual effects i think what you meant is sfx which stands for sound effects

[@Archmeton]

Yup I did! Small brain moment :P I changed the chapter card

[@rezwan_edit]

You made me feel happy cuz I bought the rgx phantom over the vandal xD loved the video!

[@hypotheist3737]

same here

[@zxck.parrIG]

Bro soooooo underrated, you're definitely gonna blow up soon

[@arthurgrillo4314]

Prime vandal sfx is the quietest.

[@Masked_Vitality]

yes they are pay to win in my opinion. Eggwick made a video about this a little while ago. he took about 50 participants from different ranks and made them do the bots in the range on the difficulty for their rank. He made them do some times without a skin and some times with a skin. He found that generally people performed better with skins. The only rank that performed worse with skins was gold because of one person that did absolutely horrible with skins that brought all the golds down. My belief is that people perform better with skins because of a small placebo and because on many guns like for example the reaver and prime skins the bullet trails are more visible which makes correcting mistakes easier.

[@sreevnair]

this video is so underrated, the details that you get into to make us good and useful videos is amazing :). keep it up

[@jeck3203]

the bullets for the marshal changes

[@vas675]

i swear when i find a prime vandal i go crazy

[@alexha4305]

great video, deserve my sub, such a well made and thoughtful video. Learned a lot from this!

[@Archmeton]

Welcome aboard! 🙂

[@samuelhsu4544]

There should be an option to be able to hear other skinned guns' audio instead of the default

[@MrDavpu]

DAMN my guys quality made me thought u hade 500k subs

[@saheelpala]

They give you a DRAGON 🤩.... they give you a dragon😔

[@AverageFerrarifanboy]

I am telling rn you will get 1k next week or tomorrow you contant is so fun to watch

[@deleted-user-y305]

People like Prime for the light feel and say it makes them play better I prefer the Champions Vandal for the kill sound and finisher even tho it has no vfx

[@ypr4636]

This video is literally what I couldn't explain my friends whenever I chose a skin that was different from their suggestion. Like why I bought RGX operator over elder flame or prime phantom over singularity, etc. I could never make them understand my thought process and why I used to watch and compare to skin videos again and again before coming to a conclusion. I'm sharing this to my squad so they know that I didn't mean any disrespect to them and I was just very observant of the details.

[@Archmeton]

"Think twice before making fun of me next time!"

[@ypr4636]

@@Archmeton haha true! Also subbed! and All the best! I'm also streaming Valorant everyday in my gaming KZbin channel - Yash Rannavare (XLR8ASH) kindly take a look into my montages ✌️

[@QuyNguyen-tz6zh]

After owning skins for 6 months now, sometimes I actually like the default vandal sound lmao

[@sjeese4666]

You have the quality of a youtuber over 100K subs, while you have way less! Keep this amazing content up! I'm not even into valorant and I enjoy watching your content :)

[@cccspwn]

Ion sheriff increases my HS % because the crisp sound :)

[@litez1232]

not to be that guy but VFX stands for Visual Effects, SFX is SOUND Effects

[@Archmeton]

Its okay to be that guy youre correct!

[@xaviershah3159]

I always think that skins are payed to win since for me picking up a new skin or using a skin i really like the sound of look of gives a feeling to my brain that just thinks 'i dont want to lose this skin its sooo cool' which gives me the extra edge as i end up doing better weirdly so that why i sometimes change my skins up a bit so i can refresh my brain and sort of tricking it to use the %90 percent of my brain not wanting me to use it

[@respectus154]

Now that's what i call putting huge efforts into a video , +1 subscriber

[@Archmeton]

Welcome!

[@dojoishere1825]

Skins can just give us a better mental than skinless. Mental is almost everything.

[@learneverything3769]

Most underrated channel remember me when u have 1 mil subs

[@PlanktonWhisperer]

Algo comment. Subscribed. Edit: There's a nerf dart gun that marks wallbang spots. Definitely a huge advantage in the moment.

[@johnex2154]

Great video! The only thing i'd add is that the minima adds a clean enjoyable reskin and removes the details of the base gun. Though I don't think it'll really make a difference visually, it helps with concentration.

[@parasgupta1343]

You know this is actually a good video, with a unique script, keep going king

[@bignoseandrew]

2:01 Except that in a real match, no one would hold that angle. If they peek from mid, B short or B site you get killed, cause you're holding the wall, and enemies can't come out from walls, which means you're useless either way, no matter if you see B site or not.

[@paramrm]

oni is just simply an advantage

[@sunajeon5319]

I love skins that shoot like lasers, to me they just feel a lot nicer and smoother. I wish I had money to spend on one, but I'm that one annoying teammate that goes "does anyone have a nice vandal/spectre skin??" xd

[@deadinside-iq2ry]

TLDR some skins have benefits and/or drawbacks depending on the skin

[@baelayet]

bro this finna blow up real soon frfr 🔥

[@Archmeton]

Haha im already happy with the current numbers, but its always welcome 😅

[@TrueAlchemistSteel]

You forgot to mention the alien operator. You can literally see trowh the gun lol

[@erenkaradag9977]

coz you did great work on the video, thank u for your help o7

[@sfb-wi9pn]

Wait vfx is visual effects, not to be confused with sfx which is sound effects.

[@Archmeton]

You're correct, silly mistake :)