Oni Claw

EP 1: Ignition, Act 1 · July 22, 2020 · 3,550 VP (individually) / 7,100 VP (full bundle). One of the earliest Premium melee skins in VALORANT and one of the strangest melee designs in the game. The Oni Claw is a double bladed handheld weapon shaped like a Japanese Oni mask. In Japanese folklore, Oni are a type of yokai (demon spirit), ogre, or troll believed to ward off evil spirits and protect their users from harm. The entire Oni collection is heavily inspired by ancient Japanese samurai culture and mythology, with Oni masks at its core. A combination of 3D renders and traditional 2D anime style animation bring the mask spirits and their effects to life across the bundle. The Oni set was one of the first skin bundles added after the game left Closed Beta, arriving just weeks after launch alongside Elderflame as one of the earliest Premium lines to establish what VALORANT skins could be. The original bundle included the Claw, Phantom, Guardian, Bucky, and Shorty. The finisher turns enemies into a ghost wearing an Oni mask, chained to the ground by samurai blades. The Oni Phantom from this bundle became one of the most popular Phantom skins in the game and remained a community favorite for years, directly fueling demand for more Oni content. Features 3 color variants originally named Black, Green, and White, later renamed to Kumo, Hana, and Tsubame with the release of Oni 2.0 in Episode 6. The Claw was eventually succeeded by the Onimaru Kunitsuna katana in the Oni 2.0 bundle (March 2023), which was described as "a major upgrade from the original Oni Claw while featuring similar light trails depending on the color of the equipped variant." Despite being nearly six years old, the Oni Claw remains a recognizable and iconic melee in VALORANT's history as one of the skins that helped define the game's cosmetic identity early on.