Valorant: Tips and Tricks

Valorant: Tips and Tricks

Without further ado, let’s dive in.

Steady your aim. Whatever your mouse setup, it’s vital you’re keeping your crosshair at around head height as you traverse the map and try your best to avoid letting it wobble all over the place when moving. Of course, you can’t keep it at this height all the time, but think about optimally positioning it at all times, so whenever you’re rounding a corner, climbing a ladder, or looking down from a vantage point.

By doing this you’ll give yourself the best possible chance of landing your shot if you’re confronted by an enemy, as you will have to make minimal crosshair adjustments.

Walk as much as you run. This is bread and butter stuff for Valorant. You make a lot of noise when running around, which can easily give away your position. If you’re pushing a site or lurking around the map, make sure you’re walking so the enemy can’t pinpoint your whereabouts.

Stop and shoot. Again, this is an absolute must in Valorant. In 99.9% of cases, you’ll want to stop moving before you begin pulling the trigger. If you walk or run while shooting, your accuracy drops dramatically – we’re talking bullets whizzing all over the place. Try and get into the habit of stopping before shooting!

Use the shooting range. Seriously, it’s a tremendous tool to help sharpen your aim and makes for a brilliant warmup routine too.

Communicate with your team. Even if you’re not the most outspoken player in the world, or you’re a little shy about using the mic – you don’t need to deliver a speech. It’s vital to deliver key information to your teammates, and you can do so with a few choice words. “I’m watching mid” or “Someone halls” will do the job nicely and won’t overcomplicate things.

In our experience, even if no one else is really saying anything, keep making callouts and it’ll inspire your team to get behind each other, play seriously, and even begin to make callouts if they’re a little shy too. There is literally no drawback to delivering key info like this, so try and make it a habit!

Patience. This isn’t your typical ‘run and gun’, Call of Duty-esque game. Valorant is all about careful, considered teamwork. Plus, it doesn’t take much to eliminate someone. For the most part we’d recommend taking your time when roaming the map and not being afraid to hold positions if you’ve found a lovely little angle.

You run faster with your knife out. Alright, this one’s a quick tip. If you know for certain you’re in a safe area, switch to your knife to run as fast as possible to reposition. This is particularly useful if the enemy has planted at a site and you’re nowhere nearby. Of course, be a bit wary of being caught out by an enemy, but it can save you valuable time to counterattack or get aggressive.

Shoot through walls. Don’t be afraid to ‘wallbang’ an enemy if you know where they are or if you suspect someone might be holding a sneaky spot. We wouldn’t waste too much ammo, but it can chip down someone’s health pretty drastically if you’ve anticipated correctly.

You’ll know if you’re able to shoot through a wall as bullet holes will clearly appear. If your bullets are being met by orange sparks with no clear bullet penetration, then the wall is too thick to shoot through.

Be careful when peeking. If you’re going to peek around a corner, always be in the mindset that there could be someone waiting to dink you across the way. Position your crosshair nicely, so all it’ll hopefully take is a few quick taps to take them out.

You can also try equipping your knife and strafing quickly to and fro to peek if things are looking a bit hairy. This enables you to peek even faster than you would with a rifle, and should prevent you from getting tapped if the enemy is watching. We’d recommend this strategy if you’re anticipating a push and don’t want to put yourself in danger. Spot someone? Make the call to your team, switch to your rifle, use utility to slow them down, and wait for your teammates to back you up before making a move.

Tap and burst. Each gun has a recoil/spray pattern, so when you hold down the trigger they’ll fire their bullets in a particular order. Some will sway left, then right, while others will rocket straight up. Unless you’ve learned each pattern and how to control them by swiping down your mouse (which are both really quite difficult), we’d recommend tapping the trigger or burst firing in most scenarios.

Consider your abilities. It goes without saying, but use your abilities. However, also think about how they impact your team too. This applies mainly to smoke grenades, flashbangs, walls, and the like. If at all possible, make a call when your using an ability to warn your teammates so they don’t awkwardly get done in by it.

Make use of vertical spaces. Agents like Jett can hop up onto boxes to hold angles which enemies won’t suspect. Not only will you make it hard for the enemy to attack, they may also be perfect spots to give you more info on the enemy team’s movements.

Bunny Hop your way through slows. (patched out, but still worth learning) Alright, this might be a touch more advanced but there’s no reason why a newcomer to the game can’t learn to bunny hop. What do we mean by bunny hop? It’s a way of traversing the environment and picking up a little more momentum than you normally would running with your knife out in a straight line. At it’s heart, you strafe from left to right while hopping.

While in most cases it’s more for showing off your movement skills and looking cool, there is one use you should master it for. Sage has an ability which coats an area in ice which slows you if you wander through it. To avoid this horrible slow, you can bunny hop your way through it! Of course you’ll need to watch yourself while doing so, but if you’re in a pinch, it be a real difference maker. Plus, enemies may not suspect someone to move through it in such a speedy manner, meaning you can really take players by surprise if you’re attacking.

Video by Fable HTX

The video above is a great tutorial for learning how to bunny hop as he breaks it down into manageable chunks. Definitely give it a watch if you’re interested in adding this maneuver to your arsenal.

That’s it for the first iteration of this Valorant tips and tricks page, but we’ll continue updating this page over time – stay tuned!