Aiming in Valorant is a huge variable to winning games, but it isn’t everything. However, that does not mean you shouldn’t try to improve on it. Here are some tips for getting a better aim in Valorant that will help you win duels.
The aiming mechanic in Valorant is easy to learn and hard to master. The rules are simple you cannot be accurate while moving. You have to stand still to land your shots accurately. However, there are a myriad of other mechanics that come into play when aiming. Strafing, counter-strafing, swinging, crouching, and spraying are essential mechanics that everyone should know.
However, learning them and then properly utilizing them at the right time is going to take practice and tons of time. The more experience you get, the better you get in terms of your mechanics. Then comes gamesense, strategies, and more. However, we won’t get into that. Let us see how you can improve your aim in the game.
Contents
- How to Get Better Aim in Valorant: Here’s How the Pros Do It
- The Essential Kit to Good Aim
- Comfortable Crosshair Suited to the Player
- Aim Trainers
- Target Switching
- Crosshair Placement
- Strafing and Counter Strafing
- The Tools of the Trade
- Maximize the FPS
- Get a better Keyboard and Mouse
- Tips to Get Better Aim in Valorant
- Play a Couple of Deathmatch Games before starting your Session
- Practice! Practice! Practice!
- Die a Lot
- ADS when you Can
- Learn Tracking
- Reduce Your Sensitivity
- Copy a Pros Aiming Routine and Aim Style
- The Takeaway
How to Get Better Aim in Valorant: Here’s How the Pros Do It
Aiming in Valorant is not difficult to learn. Every player started somewhere. In the case of most Valorant players, they started with CS: GO before transitioning. However, in terms of raw mechanics, Valorant is way more forgiving than CS: GO. If you have the aim, then you will not get in trouble most of the time.
However, to fully master the game, you will have to learn how to use abilities and have a good game sense of where the enemies could be headed. Make no mistake, aiming is an essential part of it but as you go higher up the ranks, gamesense and ability usage take priority.
The Essential Kit to Good Aim
There are some fundamentals to having a good aim in Valorant. There are multiple ways in which you can develop your aim style. You can either be fast and snappy or slow and steady. Neither aiming style is wrong. You have to adjust depending on your comfort. That being said, there are some things you should start doing to learn the essential aiming skills required of a good player. Check them out below.
Comfortable Crosshair Suited to the Player
Your crosshair should be made in such a way that it makes you feel comfortable. Too big of a crosshair and you will not be able to see enemies in long ranges and too small means you will not be able to gauge the headshot arc. We recommend going with a static crosshair with the Inner Lines set to 1,4,2,0. You can also turn on firing and movement errors if you want to train your movement and recoil control.
You can also use a dot crosshair if you want to. Ensure that the crosshair is visible on every map you play and does not blend into the environment. This will confuse you when facing enemies.
Aim Trainers
Using Aim Trainers like AimLabs or Valorant’s own Range is going to help you practice multiple techniques such as snapping, tracking, counter strafing, proper crosshair placement, and so on. Not only that, using aim trainers will improve your reaction time which is crucial is hitting the first shot on target.
A lot of professional players use AimLabs for their routines so there is no reason for you to not try it out. It has multiple modes suited to various scenarios in-game that will help you practice efficiently.
Target Switching
Moving forward to mechanics, you have to be comfortable engaging multiple enemies at the same time. Now, if two enemies appear on your screen at the same time, you should be ready to take down the first. However, if you can move while adjusting to where the second enemy is, stop, and then take the shot to kill them, you will have switched targets effectively.
Target switching helps you engage multiple enemies at the same time and also helps you prioritize which enemy to take down so you can get the advantage as a team. Essentially, it is moving your crosshair from one head to another, fast or slow, depending on the situation.
Crosshair Placement
Crosshair placement is king when it comes to learning how to aim. The maps of Valorant are unique with multiple angles. If you can master those angles by placing your crosshair at the head level of each enemy, then you can get easy headshots without having to readjust massively.
You can learn crosshair placement by going through each map and keeping your crosshair to where the enemy’s head might be at on each angle. Try to play with friends in custom matches and learn the most common angles to peek from to master it.
Check out the video above from professional player Jacob “yay” Whiteaker to learn crosshair placement.
Strafing and Counter Strafing
Strafing and Counter Strafing are essential mechanics of any FPS game that a player should be aware of. Strafing essentially is moving to either side and stopping for a minute second to take a shot and then starting movement again. This movement causes the enemy to miss their shots to your head and helps you get the kill.
It is a difficult skill to learn but with consistent practice, you should be doing it in no time. If strafing is moving sideways, then counter-strafing means moving side to side and faster.
The Tools of the Trade
Even if you have the best aim in the world, if your PC constantly lags or your mouse loses connection every now and then, you won’t be able to play up to your potential. That is why, getting the proper tools to master your aiming routine is essential. A good mouse and a keyboard are a good place to start if you cannot get a new system.
But there are a couple of other tweaks in-game you should make as well. Check them out below.
Maximize the FPS
Even if you have a potato PC, you can easily alter the Graphics settings to ensure that you can get at least above 60 fps in-game. Click here to see how you can do that. Essentially, decreasing the required Graphics lets your system focus on performance rather than quality which is crucial to track enemies.
If your system lags in the middle of gunfights or if you are skipping frames because your graphics are too high, then it could be a problem. For most people, 1920×1080 is a good resolution to play on and gets higher FPS so there is no need for you to play on 4k unless you have a custom-built gaming rig.
Get a better Keyboard and Mouse
A better keyboard and mouse will help you aim and counter-strafe better. Gaming and mechanical keyboards are designed to be snappy and quick. Most of the standard keyboards have sticky keys that will hinder your movement so upgrading to a mechanical can help you drastically with your movement.
The same goes for the mice that one uses. A mouse that has DPI changing and Mouse 4 and 5 buttons are good but if you are more of an old-school person, a three-button gaming mouse from reputed companies is more than to ensure that your aim is snappy. Ensure that you have a long mousepad as well.
Tips to Get Better Aim in Valorant
Moving onto the main part of the article, there are multiple things you can do to get a better aim. Most of the time, players have a good aim but can’t get past the enemy due to a mental inferiority barrier. It is important to stay confident in most situations no matter who you are up against. That being said, here are some things you can do to ensure that your aim gets better over time.
Play a Couple of Deathmatch Games before starting your Session
Now, the first thing you need to do upon entering Valorant itself is to ensure that you do not hop into a game without warming up. For that, a couple of deathmatches is the perfect way to warm up. It will not only awaken your reflexes but also train your aim if you do it consistently. Plus, warming up is essential in gaming as well as working out, you are ensuring that the muscles you will use are ready to function.
Deathmatches are fast-paced, not only will they train your reflexes and aim, but they will also train your game sense and movement.
Practice! Practice! Practice!
It is easy for one to tap out without seeing any improvements. There will be a phase where you will constantly lose gunfights but do not be saddened. Every player goes through this place. The best thing you can do is practice as much as you can in that session and once that is done, take some rest and go for a walk.
It is crucial for you to keep practicing on the good and the bad days, that is where your craft strengthens itself.
Die a Lot
It sounds a lot counter-intuitive in an aiming guide but what we mean by dying a lot is that take as many risks as you can. Long flank the enemy, take a duel, venture out mid, and so on. Taking risks equals learning from failures and then using that experience to do better.
You will keep improving and learn the ins and outs of the game by venturing into unchartered territory. A lot of players in-game will have a fear of dying, they play it safe, and sure that is fine sometimes but you will only see results and betterment if you take risks.
ADS when you Can
A forgotten trick that not a lot of people use to get a better aim in Valorant is ADS. Aiming Down the Sight is extremely useful in extreme distances where you cannot trust hipfire. Granted, the automatic fire when ADSing can be haywire. It is a good mechanic to use when you have to land a couple of precise shots. A lot of professional players use ADS in situations where it is required to secure a kill.
Learn Tracking
Go to the Range and ensure that the bots are moving. Once they are, place your crosshair on an enemy’s head and keep it on the bot even while it’s moving. This is called tracking. It will help you be accurate even when you and your enemy are counter-strafing. Once you learn tracking properly, you can move faster while keeping your crosshair on your enemy, stop, and then pop their head for a kill.
Reduce Your Sensitivity
Sometimes a high sensitivity can prevent you from tapping heads. A lot of players in general play on a lower sensitivity so they can have a stable aim. A lower sensitivity ensures that you can track effectively, lock on enemies at a distance, and target switch without overshooting the mark. It might work for slow and steady aimers and not for snappy ones but we recommend giving it a try anyway.
Copy a Pros Aiming Routine and Aim Style
Finally, the best advice we have is to copy a professional player’s aiming style. The best way to get good is to learn from someone who is already better than us. Professional players have varying degrees of aim. Players like Sentinels ‘Tyson “TenZ” Ngo and EG‘s Max “Demon1” Mazanov have a snappier aim while Matthew “Cryocells” Panganiban has a more stable aim.
Copy anyone’s aiming style to a tee and then develop your own as you get better.
The Takeaway
Having a good aim in Valorant is not just about clicking heads or winning every gunfight. It is a complex web of combinations such as good peripherals, game sense, counter-strafing mastery, consistency, and so on. If you master one aspect, move on to the next, that is how most professional players get to the top of the game.
