Here's how Valorant beginners can improve their aim

Fariha Bhatti Published 03/06/2022

If you find yourself blaming Valorant’s “broken gunplay” after whiffing easy shots, you may benefit from this guide. Here’s how beginners can improve their aim in Valorant in no time.

Valorant’s agent roster may have lured in a number of expats from other hero shooters, but it’s a tactical shooter at its core. Without a crisp aim, players may find it challenging to make silver ranks. Thanks to in-game challenges that drive players to grind hard, Valorant’s skill ceiling touches the sky. Ranking up has become a tall order for newcomers, but fret not. Aiming is the ultimate key to unlocking winning streaks in Valorant.

Aim practice works differently for each player. It’s best to seek help of a professional coach if you’re looking to rank up quickly. Metafy can help you find a coach to find the perfect practice regimen to hone your aim in Valorant.

How to improve aiming in Valorant for beginners

New players can easily breeze through ranks by learning how to aim. Here’s how beginners can improve aiming in Valorant and say goodbye to low ELO.

1. Crosshair placement

Keep your crosshairs at head level, and stick them to the corners of any walls you’re approaching.

Even when you’re not in the middle of a firefight, you need to focus on your aim placement. You don’t want your crosshair to be far from the edges of an object or a wall when the opponent peaks, otherwise you won’t be able to make the split-second play to take them down or deal serious damage. It’s always best to have your crosshairs on the edge of the corner you’re watching, lined up with the face of any enemy that may be lurking.

Your aim placement may wobble until you’ve developed the muscle memory to automatically place it. Remind yourself to be mindful of your crosshair placement after every few seconds.

2. Pick a weapon

Before jumping into competitive games, play tons of deathmatch and casual games to find your best weapon.

Valorant has two primary weapons in the Vandal and Phantom. Both are equally deadly but operate differently. If you find yourself often spraying in deathmatches, pick the Phantom. If you instinctively go for taps, opt for Vandal. You may feel a dramatic change in your game after opting for a primary rifle suited to your style. It’s completely fine to juggle between the two based on maps, but mastering one is recommended until you’re sure you can handle switching.

3. Understand recoil

Traditional FPS games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have complex recoil patterns for each weapon. Luckily in Valorant, recoil is simple and similar for all guns. However, understanding the basics is still crucial.

The first few bullets of your primary rifle will always land at the spot you’ve aimed for. Bullets after that will trend upwards. To balance that, you want to drag down your mouse slightly as you spray.

In many games, it’s recommended to aim for the waist to deal guaranteed damage to the body through spraying. But in Valorant, you want to keep your crosshair on the head and try to finish off enemies with the first few bullets. The simple recoil in Valorant offers maximum headshot potential.

4. Be aggressive

Keep in mind that Valorant has a peeker’s advantage problem, so holding an angle when the enemy has spotted you is playing with fire.

Peeker’s advantage refers to how a game handles the situation of an attacking player moving around a corner that an enemy is defending. Depending on a variety of factors including character models, netcode, lag, and so on, either the attacker or the defender will structurally have an advantage in the game.

In Valorant, those factors align such that the attacker has the advantage. This means that it’s generally better to be the aggressor in a situation rather than sitting back and letting the enemy come to you.

5. Buy a coaching plan

The simplest way to polish aim is to seek the help of a coach. Metafy has dozens of qualified coaches who can help find your unique playstyle. Picking the right weapon, agent, and tweaking settings to suit your playstyle are some essential factors that may drastically improve your play. A coach can help achieve all of that and more.

Besides that, warming up before each match is a given. If you have fundamentals down and get practice in, escaping low ranks should be a cakewalk even if you’re a beginner in Valorant.

This post is sponsored by Metafy, providing gamers with the coaching resources they need to take their game to the next level.

Fariha Bhatti

About Fariha Bhatti

Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.

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