First of all, I’m not here to discuss the economics of Valorant. What this article aims to do is to explain why Eco rounds are very essential rounds to take when things aren’t looking good in your favor. If you want an in-depth explanation to how Valorant’s economy works, I will leave a video from ProGuides at the end of the article where you can learn more about it. Take this article as an introduction to the concept of economy, as there are already a lot of articles and videos that explain this far better than I could. It’s best you check those out after reading this.
First of all, what’s an eco-round?
What is an eco-round?
Eco comes from the word “economy”. Simply put, it’s a round where you buy almost next to nothing in an attempt to save as much money for the next round. People usually do this when they’re behind and need to save for the bigger guns later on. Usually, the strategy would be to buy a pistol and some abilities and go about your day. What I usually do is buy all my abilities, get a Light Armor, and a Ghost.
When should you eco-round?
Taking Eco-rounds in Valorant
A well placed eco-round is a few rounds from crucial rounds. But that is not always the case. Every time the round starts, make sure to think about the repercussions that could affect your next rounds. Is it viable to eco this round? Maybe full-buy for a surprise attack? It’s a case by case basis, so make sure to talk to your teammates about it. So, what are the crucial rounds I talked about? Well, the first one is the last round before the switch. The agents themselves says it, “We don’t keep anything after this, so better spend all of it.” Obviously, you shouldn’t eco in this round and try your best to full-buy.
Another crucial round is when you’re about to lose. This means that when the opponent team has a score of 11 or 12, you better buy as much as you could, as an eco round in this crucial moment will surely lead to your demise.
Why take eco-rounds?
Valorant Eco-round
Again, I want to reiterate this. Eco-rounds are very essential to your team’s success. I have played with a lot of people in unrated and it seems that people don’t have any idea what a team’s economy can do to help you win the game. People usually buy the most expensive gun they can find as a hail-mary and then die. Which is something you don’t do when you’re already behind, unless you’re forcing. But that’s a different topic all in all. Anyway, why should we take eco-rounds? There are a lot of reasons, but this one is the most common:
To attempt to level the playing field
Taking eco-rounds minimizes the losses you’ll get when you’re behind. There’s a credit cap of 9000 in Valorant. Once the enemy team has reached that, they won’t have any advantages on you besides the fact that they have better equipment. So what do you do to minimize the damages? You save money, so you can catch up and get the credits you need for a full-buy, which costs around 4500 credits if you’re a rifler or a whopping 6100 if you’re an AWPer (or OPer). What this creates is a balanced economy where you have a chance of fighting back instead of just forcing all game until you lose every credit you have left.
If you have more questions, Pro Guides have provided a very good economy guide for Valorant. You can check it out here:
