Gaming
Gaming
8 tips for improving your aim in Valorant
Have the enemy in your sights but you just can’t seem to win before you’re stuck watching everyone else play? These tricks and adjustments will have you clicking heads first in no time.
VALORANT’s cast of Agents have a slew of powers to one up the enemy, but, at the end of the day, it’s your aim and game sense that will get you through most situations in Riot Games’ team-based, tactical shooter. While Agent abilities are a core part of the game, you’ll notice that VALORANT has more in common with CS:GO (Counterstrike: Global Offensive) than it does with other hero-based shooters like Overwatch.
So, if you’ve been struggling to get through the narrow chokes on Bind or a late round C long push on Haven, this guide will help you be the one sending opponents to spectate instead of spectating yourself.
1. Stacking the odds: Crosshair placement
Crosshair placement is, without a doubt, the most important aspect of aiming to improve your k/d ratio in VALORANT. Good crosshair placement will win you duels more often than not. What good crosshair placement means is keeping your aim centered on screen and setting your crosshair at perfect head height, as you move around the map and clear corners.
The idea behind good crosshair placement is to minimize the amount of correction you will have to make when you see an enemy player. If your crosshair is at head height, then you only have to cover a (relatively small) horizontal distance. In return, you’ll start to win more duels with enemy Agents in one hit as you’ll be landing more headshots (and body shots) than before.
This will take time, and the dedication to break a few bad habits. The most common time you’ll see poor crosshair placement is when players are moving around the map. Crosshairs tend to start dropping down as you’re rotating to a new site, which means the Sentinel guarding the flank is going to win that duel when you come across them.
You’ll need to make a concerted effort to change your playstyle if you’ve already picked up some bad habits. However, it is one of the most consistent ways to improve your (and see your improvement) game.
2. Practice
As the old adage goes: to be an expert in something, you must first put in ten thousand hours of practice. That might be a tad excessive, but the core idea is sound. You should be dropping into The Range before you queue up, practicing your “flick” aiming and tracking against the AI opponents. It’s no substitute for the real thing, but it’s a great way to get yourself into the zone.
Bots at the VALORANT range
© Riot Games
It’s a great way to test out the various weapons and how each of them plays. Want to pick the Operator? Go ahead, it’s OP, but get used to it before you take it into competitive play. Getting a handle on the ranges, spreads, and strengths of each weapon while figuring out what you're comfortable with will help you as your econ shrivels up and your options start to run out. Be careful not to spend too long in the range and burn yourself out, though.
If you need more practice with smarter opponents, you can always switch to a game of Deathmatch.
3. Sit still
Call of Duty and Battlefield have taught us a lot of skills that won’t really be helpful in this game. Sprinting across the map, hip firing a submachine gun is nothing more than a fantasy when you drop into a game of VALORANT. Your shots will be noticeably wild and inaccurate while shooting on the go, even if you aim down sight. Take your time with those corners and plant your feet. A Vandal can one shot someone with a heavy shield, but only if you click on their head. The steadier hand in VALORANT comes out on top just as often as the quickest hand.
4. Understand shot spread
Weapons have what is called a Spread Value. The longer you shoot, the more inaccurate your bullets are going to be. That’s why people will say your first shot is the most accurate in VALORANT because it is. After that first shot, if you continue to hold down the fire button your next shot will likely go wide due to spread. With the Vandal, the spread values go from 0.25 to 1.0. So, by the time you’ve shot 6 bullets, they’re making an outline of the enemy Agent instead of killing them.
You’ll need to learn to reset the shot spread by taking your finger off the trigger and letting the weapon reset. Learning the exact timings for this takes time, but it’s worth it because while watching two players spam a whole clip at each other and every single bullet misses is funny, it doesn’t win rounds.
5. Your crosshair and you; what you’re doing wrong
Some may think this isn’t a big deal, but finding a crosshair that's right for you and your style of play is essential. Reducing the spread indicator (or eliminating it entirely) and picking a colour to stand out against the drab backdrop of Bind will help a lot. It can also give you a more accurate reference to land that flick headshot with increased consistency. It’s all about what's best for you. Once you adjust your crosshair, you’ll be shocked at the improvement. In the simplest terms: your crosshair should be simple, small, non-distracting, and consistent.
VALORANT's crosshair menu
© Riot Games
You’ll find that most crosshairs will eliminate the shot spread indicators. These static crosshairs are more popular, but you won’t have any indication of the spread while you’re shooting. In a hectic fight where you’re holding down the trigger, your shot spread will be massive. Without the indicators, though, you’ll need to know when to let go and how long it takes the shot spread to reset for an accurate shot. So if you’re a beginner, it might be good to keep the shot spread indicators on while you learn each gun in The Range and then switch to a static crosshair once you pop into a match.
VALORANT'S crosshairs
© Riot Games
If you want to try out a lot of crosshairs but don’t want to take the time to program each one, there are many useful sights like the VALORANT Crosshair Database that show you a preview of the crosshair and provide you with a code to import it into your account. You can even pickup the crosshairs that the pros use. There are, however, many joke crosshairs in the database.
6. From the hip
Firing from the hip isn’t usually the best option in typical shooters. However, if you’ve been keeping your feet planted while you shoot and have a reliable crosshair you can trust, then scoping out should be your method of choice for clearing corners in VALORANT. Aiming down sight (ADS) makes you more accurate, but decreases your fire rate. It’s optimal for range but, in close when one shot could be all you need, keeping yourself scoped out gives a better field of view and a quicker first shot compared to ADSing. Remember, your first shot is always the most accurate, which means as you clear that corner with excellent crosshair placement, you’ll only need one shot to take out that Sage.
7. Before you play
A great crosshair, good crosshair placement, and excellent game sense are all great to have, but you still need to take care of one more thing. Finding a mouse sensitivity that is right for you. VALORANT is a slower paced game than most, so a lower sensitivity is more forgiving.
A lot of gaming mice will have profiles that you can program, so set up a DPI setting just for VALORANT. Set up two or three if you need to. A DPI setting for Jett and Raze could be very different from a DPI setting for Chamber.
You’ll also need to adjust your sensitivity to your liking. You’ll find a lot of advice online for the absolute best DPI and sensitivity for VALORANT, but it’s really what feels best for you. You can find multiple converters online to figure out preferred settings for VALORANT and all your other favorite games while you’re at it. Most pro players find themselves at 400 or 800 DPI so that can be a good place to start.
8. Leave no stone unturned
If you’re new to PC or never really got aiming down with a mouse, then an aim trainer might be your best bet. Aim Hero, Osu, Aiming.pro, Aim Labs, and 3D Aim Trainer have a myriad of games and modes that help you with different aspects of PC gaming. Whether it's tracking, flick aiming, or strafe firing, you’ll find more than a few options to help sharpen your skills. You can find aim trainers ranging in price from free to topping out around twenty dollars, with different games and drills to test your skill.
