What Does Thrifty Mean in VALORANT? (2022 Update)

Valorant is a 5v5, round-based tactical shooter with a major focus on gunplay and abilities. Its pool of unique agents brings an extra layer of complexity to the genre that encourages players to get creative and develop knowledge on the many possible team compositions.

However, an aspect that is sometimes misunderstood by new players is the in-game economy system, which determines your access to guns during any given round. It is arguably one of the essential concepts that you’ll need to get a grasp on to be a successful Valorant player.

If you are able to disrupt the enemy team’s economy, they won’t be able to acquire the strongest weapons available. That will put them at a severe disadvantage and give your team a better chance of winning the round.

Playing in accordance with the optimal economic decision can make the difference between winning a single round and even turning the tides of the entire game. 

If you’ve played your fair share of Valorant matches, then you’ve probably heard the announcer call out the “Thrifty” tagline after your team or the enemy team wins a round. 

We’ll explain what this means and why it’s an integral part of the game. 

Also read: The Fastest Way To Get XP in Valorant

What is a Thrifty round?

You’ll generally hear the “Thrifty” tagline when the round-winning team was playing on a Full Save or Eco round. That means that either everyone saved their credits or spent very little on their loadout. 

More specifically, a round has the potential to earn you the “Thrifty” commendation when the average loadout in your team costs 2500 fewer credits than those in the enemy team.

For example, if everyone in the enemy team comes into the round equipped with Vandals and Full shields while your team only purchased Frenzies, Shorties, and Light Shields, you could earn a Thrifty by securing that round for your team.

Why Does a “Thrifty” Round Matter?

A “Thrifty” round is most likely to occur when your team is forced to play a “Save” or “Eco” round because your collective credits are not enough to cobble together enough guns and abilities to put up a proper fight. 

If you were to force a buy and spend all your credits, you could risk putting yourself at an even worse disadvantage by losing the round and widening the gap between the teams’ economies. 

Conversely, this is why winning a “Thrifty” round while scraping by with weak guns can hugely impact the rest of the game. 

Doing this can equalize the economy between the teams and put you back on even ground with a significantly higher chance of winning the next round by having access to equally powerful guns as the enemies. 

Moreover, if the enemy team is only slightly ahead and they invest all their resources into full buying while your team saves, winning the round can actually turn the tables entirely and give your team the economic lead. 

As mentioned, this means you’ll be able to equip the most powerful guns while the enemies will be forced to play on the backfoot.  

It’s also a huge morale boost for the team when you can secure a win on a “Thrifty” round. Just think about it, if you can come out on top while severely outgunned, imagine how easy it should be to keep doing it once you’re the ones with the superior loadouts. 

Plus, nothing tilts a team more than losing an easy round they were supposed to win, so clutching out a “Trhifyty” is part of waging the mental warfare against your opponents.

Any way you look at it, getting a “Thrifty” is one of the best things that can happen for your team. 

Also read: The Best Valorant Key Binds

How do I Win a “Thrifty” Round?

There’s no tried-and-true method that can guarantee you a “Thrifty” win, but there is some general advice that you can try to keep in mind while playing a “Save” round.

If the enemy team knows you’re low on credits, they are more likely to want to exploit the gun advantage and get a little more aggressive. You can punish this type of play by slowing down, holding some angles with your team, and waiting for the enemy to push into you. 

Successfully pulling this off can even secure you a Vandal or Phantom that can help you pick up more kills in that round, which will put you well on your way to securing it.

Further, winning a round without proper guns will require that you get scrappy and creative with how you play the round. 

Maybe you can buy a Shorty and play some unexpected off-angle that you haven’t used all game. Perhaps everyone in your team can buy a Frenzy and rush to the site to overwhelm the enemies with a numbers advantage. 

Ultimate abilities like Chamber’s Tour de Force and Jett’s Bladestorm are entirely free and can stand up to all other guns in the game, so popping your Ultimate during a “Save” round can give you a relatively good chance of getting some crucial picks and securing a “Thrifty.”

We hope this article helped shed some light on what “Thrifty” means in Valorant and why it is important.

Good luck with your games! 

For more useful content, check out our article on how to view team abilities in Valorant.