The Half Shield FNC Strategy: Key Takeaways
- Full Shields provide more protection than Half Shields.
- Light Shields provide less protection but can allow you to buy more utility.
- FNC was able to buy approximately 7.7% more gun rounds than the enemy team.
Buying Full Shields has always been the go-to strategy when it comes to buy rounds. Full Shields gives a total of 50 extra health and gives you the opportunity to live through gun fights.
However, Valorant has evolved a lot ever since it was released. New strategies get used regularly, and some of the best players discover new things. One of those things is buying Half Shields, originated by Fnatic.
So join us as we explore if the new FNC strategy is actually viable and how they won the VCT 2023 LOCK//IN event using it.
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Table of Contents
Full Shields Vs. Half Shields in Valorant
Everyone has 100 HP in Valorant. This isn’t much, especially since most of the weapons in the game can kill you with headshots at 100 HP. Luckily, there are two types of shields that you can buy to extend your HP a bit.
Light Shields cost 400 Credits and get you an extra 25 HP. Depending on the weapon used, this can let you take an extra bullet or two. The extra protection that Light Shields can give you can be the deciding factor between winning the fight or getting caught with a stray bullet.
The other type of shield is Full Shields. Full Shields cost 1,000 Credits for an extra 50 HP. Most weapons can’t one-shot headshot you aside from a few ones like the Vandal, Guardian, and Operator. It’s the most protection you can get in Valorant, and for the most part, the 1,000 Credits are usually worth it.
Fnatic is the only team that thought about buying half-shields in professional Valorant tournaments. In fact, they are the first team to do so on supposed full-buy rounds. This had the entire Valorant community in shock and left them wondering what the new FNC strategy was about.
However, the 600 Credit price bump for basically just double the HP can be a bit steep. That extra 600 Credits can be used to buy a bunch of extra abilities instead or maybe even a better weapon instead of the extra shield. This is what makes Fnatic’s strategy good in the long run.
Does the FNC Strategy Actually Work?
Now, we all know that the FNC Strategy revolves around having more Credits for more buy rounds. But does it actually work? Well, it surprisingly does. They did win the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo, after all.
According to Fnatic, their half-shield strategy leads to fewer rounds where you need to full save and more rounds where you can have rifles which also leads to better economy management. They also state that if players headshot you with a Phantom, you’re most likely dead anyway.
The data backs this up as well. The average percentage of gun rounds of all teams in the LOCK//IN event was 64.2%. However, Fnatic’s average gun rounds were way higher at 71.9%. This means that FNC is playing 7.7% more gun rounds than most teams.
During the LOCK//IN event, half-buy rounds won 46.4% of the time. While this may not look much at first, considering how many times FNC got to bring rifles, the 46.4% win percentage is solid enough. This holds especially true since they need to play fewer save rounds which have a win percentage of anywhere from 10% to 20%.
Most professional players love using the Vandal as well, which can one-shot headshots even players with Full Shields. At the professional level, everyone is good enough that they almost always hit headshots. Phantoms only deal 140 headshot damage. However, it’s stated that if you’re hit with a headshot, it almost always gets followed up with a body shot as well.
This makes the difference between Light Shields and Full Shields seem negligible at the highest level. This is why the FNC strategy of buying Light Shields and rifles works wonders in professional Valorant.
