These are the best ways to practice and improve aim in Valorant

Fariha Bhatti Published 06/08/2021

Have you ever watched your teammates hit incredible shots during a game and wished that you could do the same? It’s not impossible. A bit of aim training can help you to get much better at Valorant.

Practice makes perfect. But what if you practice something wrongly without knowing it? Bad practice is a real thing, and it’s likely part of the reason why many players struggle to improve. If you spend two hours shooting bots yet still miss easy shots in your ranked games, it’s probably time to unlearn the shooting habits you’ve adopted in training.

Here are a few tips that could better your focus on the correct aspects of aim training.

Understanding spray and recoil in Valorant

A big part of poor practice is recklessly shooting at bots without understanding your weapons and their recoil. You first need to learn the spray and recoil control of your chosen weapon before you enter the range to master that pattern.

For example, most of the weapons in Valorant, including the Vandal, have a spray pattern that looks like an inverted letter L, or a slanted number seven. If you’re learning to spray, do some research, watch some pro games, and copy that style of control instead of just recklessly shooting and hoping to keep your spray tight.

Keep your crosshair height in check

There’s no threat from the other side in the practice range, which often helps to better aim consistently at the head. The case may be different in ranked games. While focusing on many other factors like communication, map control, and strategy, players often disregard correct crosshair placement.

Until you have naturally memorized the perfect range for your crosshair, you may want to remind yourself to adjust it now and then during games. Be your own tutor in ranked games and remind yourself to aim high at the start of every round.

Prefer burst fire over spraying or tapping

Tapping may make you look cool in front of your squad, but it’s not recommended in high-ranked games. Few professional players tap-kill in tournaments, and there’s a good reason why. The chances of getting a kill are way higher when you’re accurately burst-firing rather than tapping. One tapping is a style that is a lot harder to be consistent with than spraying.

Burst-fire is one of the best shooting styles you can adopt. It provides greater accuracy and control than spraying, but it doesn’t require perfect aim the way one-tapping does.

Don’t run and gun

Bullet inaccuracy in Valorant is partially dependent on movement speed. This means that your accuracy decreases when you’re running. To land an accurate first shot, try movement techniques like counter-strafing over running and crouching.

Be aware as well that your opponents are often going to be mobile during live games. It’s easy to hit a stationary target on the practice range, but you won’t always have those opportunities when you’re competing. Instead of running across the range shooting at stationary targets, try practicing against moving targets from one spot.

Play aim training games

Apart from Valorant’s practice mode, try other aim training games to learn different shooting styles based on range and movement. Aimlabs is a great find that many pro players use to hone their one taps in both close and long-range duel situations.

Play more!

Once you have a correct practice regime in place, use it consistently to build muscle memory by playing the game often. The more often you play, the more muscle memory you will build in Valorant, helping you to land effortless headshots.

Eventually, you won’t have to remind yourself to aim a bit higher or stand still while shooting.

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.

View full profile