Valorant recently introduced the Bandit pistol in Patch 12.00. This new weapon sits between the Ghost and the Sheriff in terms of price and performance. It has the ability to kill an enemy with heavy armor in one shot if they are within 10 meters. For enemies with light armor, that one-shot range extends all the way to 30 meters. This specific capability creates a serious problem for the game’s balance.

Many players have noticed that the Bandit feels very similar to the Five-SeveN from Counter-Strike. The Five-SeveN is a pistol known for being excellent at close range while still performing well at medium to long distances. The author of this article usually creates content about Counter-Strike, so they are very familiar with how overpowered the Five-SeveN can feel in that game. However, Valorant is not Counter-Strike, and the differences between the two games might make the Bandit even more dangerous in Riot’s tactical shooter.

Once professional players start using the Bandit regularly, its usage will likely spread to casual matches. If the weapon remains as strong as it is now, it could become so broken that playing the game feels unfair. The Bandit might lead to a meta where rounds are decided by who can afford this cheap pistol rather than who has better strategy or aim.

Valorant Does Not Need a Five-SeveN Clone

While having a weapon that bridges the gap between the Ghost and the Sheriff seems like a good idea on paper, the Bandit’s current stats are too high. Anyone who has played a lot of Counter-Strike knows that the Five-SeveN is considered overpowered. In CS, the only real counter to the Five-SeveN is the Tec-9, but even that weapon falls short compared to the Five-SeveN’s dominance in close-quarters combat.

There are some differences in Valorant that might help balance the Bandit. For example, the Phantom can kill with a headshot at close range even against enemies with head armor, which is not always the case in Counter-Strike. The Bandit also holds 12 fewer bullets in its magazine compared to some other weapons, which limits its potential to get multiple kills in a single magazine. It also has significant recoil after the first few shots, making it harder to control during sustained fire. Additionally, it gives the attacking side a better option during low-buy or eco rounds, which was something they lacked compared to the defending side. This is a welcome addition for game balance.

However, none of these minor balancing factors really matter in the grand scheme. If Counter-Strike wasn’t really designed to handle the power of the Five-SeveN properly, then Valorant certainly isn’t designed to handle the Bandit.

The biggest difference between Valorant and Counter-Strike isn’t just the gunplay or the map designs. It isn’t even the fact that Valorant has agents with unique abilities. The real difference lies in how those agent kits change the way rounds play out from start to finish.

Although agents now have a wider variety of utility tools, a typical Valorant team still has less utility available compared to a Counter-Strike team. In CS, every single player has access to smokes, high-explosive grenades, flashbangs, and molotovs. This is not the case in Valorant, where utility is distributed unevenly among agents. This means that using utility to clear out dangerous angles is even more critical in Valorant because there are so many spots to check.

The relative lack of utility in Valorant gives the Bandit a significant advantage. There is a much higher chance that a player using the Bandit won’t be cleared out by a smoke or stunned by a flashbang. Instead, they get to take a direct gunfight without interference. This means that good aim or poor positioning from the enemy can easily allow the Bandit user to get multiple kills, bringing back that multi-kill potential that the smaller magazine size tried to prevent.

Then there is the fact that it can kill light armor enemies with one shot. This makes it vastly superior to the Ghost during pistol rounds. Alongside the Outlaw sniper rifle, the Bandit makes buying light armor or regen shields a risky move that might not be worth the credits. If a cheap pistol can kill you instantly, why spend money on protection?

The final issue is the price. The Bandit costs just 600 credits. While this price stops Sage players from buying it on pistol rounds if they want to afford their wall ability, it won’t stop other players. Players who would normally buy utility might sacrifice their smokes or flashes just to afford the Bandit. Having less utility in a tactical FPS game is never a good thing, as it slows down the pace of the game and makes rounds less dynamic.

How to Fix the Bandit Pistol

No one enjoys a meta dominated by force-buys. Counter-Strike’s history with weapons like the UMP, MP9, Five-SeveN, and Tec-9 provides enough evidence that this is bad for the game. Fortunately, the solutions to balance the Bandit are relatively easy to identify.

The most obvious fix is to remove its ability to kill heavy armor in one shot. No pistol outside of the Sheriff needs to be able to do that. The Sheriff is a high-skill weapon because it costs a lot of money and requires precise aim to be effective. There is far less skill involved in simply headshotting an enemy as they round a corner at point-blank range with a 600-credit pistol.

The second change should focus on preserving the value of utility in the game. By increasing the cost of the Bandit by 50 or 100 credits, it becomes much harder to buy on pistol rounds. This would force players to make a difficult choice between utility and firepower. An increased cost would also make the weapon a bigger investment during low-buy rounds, potentially affecting the team’s economy for the next full-buy round.

As the usage of the Bandit increases in professional play, both in terms of how often it is bought and how effective it is, the need for these changes will become very apparent. If the developers do not make adjustments, much like the Five-SeveN in Counter-Strike has often gone without sufficient nerfs, too many rounds will be decided by a cheap gun doing the job of a much more expensive one. That is a dynamic that should never exist in a competitive game.