How Much Radianite to Upgrade Valorant Skins

The short answer is 10 Radianite Points per upgrade level. A standard weapon skin has four levels: level one is the base skin you buy, and levels two, three and four each cost 10 RP. That means taking a skin from base to fully levelled costs 30 RP in total. If the skin also has colour variants — most premium skins have three — each variant costs 15 RP, so a skin with every level and every variant unlocked costs 75 RP altogether. That 10-30-75 structure is the standard for almost every upgradable weapon skin in Valorant, and it is the number to remember before you spend anything. The only exceptions are a few special bundles with their own costs, and the client always shows the exact price before you confirm, so check there rather than trusting a video. If you want a per-skin example, the Reaver Vandal Radianite guide applies this same math to the game's most popular skin.

Each level unlocks something visible, so it helps to know what you are paying for. Level one is the base skin — the look you bought, with no extra effects. Level two adds visual and sound effects: the muzzle flash, the firing sound and the hit markers change. Level three adds animation: a new reload animation, an inspect animation and sometimes a different firing animation. Level four adds the finisher: the kill banner and the death animation your enemies see when you finish them. After level four, colour variants unlock, and each one costs 15 RP. Variants only change the colour scheme — they add no new effects — so they are the most optional part of the whole system. Knowing this order matters because it tells you where to stop: if you only care about the finisher, you need all 30 RP, but if you only want the new firing sound, level two alone costs 10 RP and you can stop there.

Work through one real example so the numbers are concrete. Take a Vandal skin with three colour variants. Level two costs 10 RP, level three costs 10 RP and level four costs 10 RP — that is 30 RP to reach the finisher. Then each colour variant costs 15 RP, and three variants cost 45 RP. Add them together and the full package is 75 RP. Now compare that with a skin you only take to level two: 10 RP, done. The difference between a casual upgrade and a complete one is 65 RP, which is more than two full skins' worth of levels. This is why planning matters. Before you upgrade anything, open the skin in your collection and read the full track: how many levels it has, which variants exist, and what each one costs. Then decide your stopping point in advance. A useful rule is to fully upgrade one skin you use every day before spreading points across five skins you barely touch — one finished Vandal beats five half-finished guns. The Radianite points guide explains the currency itself in more detail, including how it differs from Valorant Points.

Radianite Points come from two places: playing and paying. The playing route is the Battle Pass. Each Act's pass includes Radianite Points among its rewards, and finishing the pass is the best value in the game for a regular player — you earn the points by playing matches you would play anyway. The paying route is converting Valorant Points in the client: 20 RP for 1,600 VP, 40 RP for 2,800 VP, or 80 RP for 4,800 VP. Notice the larger bundles give you more RP per VP, so if you are buying, the 80 RP bundle is the best rate of the three. A common mistake is converting VP for RP the moment you want one upgrade, then converting again a week later for the next one — small repeated conversions at the worst rate. Instead, build a small stockpile first: finish a Battle Pass, then top up once with the largest bundle you can afford, and only then start upgrading. Also remember that Radianite can never be earned by buying skins directly, and it cannot be traded between players or accounts. If a website offers cheap Radianite or free RP, it is a scam — the currency only exists inside the official client.

Upgrades are permanent and the points are gone once spent, so a little planning saves real regret. Use this checklist before every upgrade. One, check the skin's full upgrade track in your collection and write down the total to your stopping point. Two, confirm the skin is one you actually play with every day — upgrading a gun you never pick up is the most common waste. Three, decide whether you want the colour variants at all; most players are happy with the default colours and can save 45 RP per skin by skipping them. Four, compare the cost against your stockpile: if you have 40 RP and two skins you love, finish one completely rather than half-finishing both. Five, wait for the Battle Pass to refill your stockpile before buying RP with VP — a few weeks of patience often saves a whole conversion. Six, never buy RP from a third-party site; the only legitimate source is the in-game client. Follow that order and your Radianite will always go to the skins you actually see in your hands, not the ones sitting in your collection.

Melee skins — knives, axes and the like — follow the same 10 RP per level rule, but their upgrade tracks are shorter and their variants work differently. A melee skin usually has fewer levels than a gun skin, and the top level often unlocks a special inspect or equip animation rather than a finisher. Because melee skins are the ones you see in every round, many players upgrade their knife before any gun — it is the most visible cosmetic in the game. The same planning rules apply: check the track in your collection, decide your stopping point, and remember that variants cost extra. One more difference is worth knowing: some melee skins cannot be upgraded at all, and some bundles include a melee with a different cost structure. As always, the client shows the exact cost before you confirm, so the number you see there is the only one that matters. If a skin shows no upgrade levels, no amount of Radianite will add them — that is a base skin, and it will stay that way.