Want to shoot better in Valorant? Want everyone to be impressed by your aim?
But no matter how many deathmatches you play or how much you drill your shooting, nothing comes of it?
Then here are 4 important tips from Valorant pros on why your aim might be terrible!
Reason one: you are getting it wrong and not shooting with calm aim
YouTube has hundreds of videos about using calm aim, so let us go into a little more detail about what it actually is.
To use the calm aim technique properly you only need to stick to 2 principles:
- Stop before you start shooting.
- Only shoot once the crosshair is already on your target.
Learn to hold to those 2 simple rules and your shooting will already be a great deal better.
The reason those two principles matter is that if you start firing at a target before it appears in your crosshair, you lose the accuracy of your first bullets, and everything after that flies into thin air.
At that point you have to stop shooting and start over, and in that moment you can already be dead. Or you stick to the technique above: the crosshair is on the enemy, you are standing still, so you can shoot!
Video: a breakdown of shooting technique in Valorant
Drill 1: mastering calm aim
Calm aim is the key skill for raising your accuracy in Valorant. This drill will help you master the technique.
The steps of the drill:
1. **Pick your spot**: take a comfortable position on the range, a decent distance from the targets.
2. **Focus on the targets**: choose two targets and alternate shots between them, trying to hit the head.
3. **Control your fire**: standing still, concentrate on the bullet's path and on how fast you react after each flick.
Reading it and adjusting:
If you notice the second shot missing, you are probably rushing. Judge your timing and adapt to it, using this drill to improve your results.
This approach will not only improve your shooting, it will also help you build the ability to react to changes in the game quickly and accurately.
Reason two: mistakes when clearing angles
Mistakes when clearing angles are a common problem among new Valorant players, and one that can seriously cut their effectiveness. Most players at low ranks (more than 90%) run into it without even realising.
How to clear angles properly:
Do not rush: when you clear angles it is important not to hurry and not to skip the spots where an opponent could be hiding.
Strafes: use strafes to clear angles - move in the direction opposite to the angle you are clearing, so that the field of view opens up gradually and you are ready to meet the enemy.
Practice:
To get used to clearing angles properly, try the following exercise on the range:
1. Choose two points to alternate between.
2. Stand still and shoot the targets, switching from one to the other.
3. Concentrate on not rushing and on controlling every shot.
This exercise will help you build your flick shooting and teach you to react correctly after a strafe, which will raise both your accuracy and your reaction speed.
Drill 2
The drill for clearing angles properly is extremely simple. Stand behind this beam on the range and start moving with A and D, taking a single headshot at one bot.
That way you learn to shoot as fast as possible after a strafe, and to take angles properly at the same time, understanding that an opponent could be there and therefore reacting to shoot sooner.
Reason three: crosshair versus target.
A very awkward name in practice, but there is no other way to put it=)
A great many players have the problem that they cannot focus on one thing: either the crosshair or the enemy.
Players split into 2 camps. Some usually watch the enemy and then bring the crosshair to them on instinct and shoot, or start shooting too early (back to problem 1).
The second camp ALWAYS goes by the crosshair. The moment the enemy is in the crosshair, that is when you shoot. No prefires: only when the enemy shows up in the cursor and you are not moving can you shoot.
In most cases the crosshair is what you should go by, and you should try to peek angles with the crosshair rather than hunting for models on the screen.
But in close range, or a little under mid, there is no time or attention to spare for the crosshair: the target area is bigger and the reaction window smaller, and in those cases people usually watch the target and start holding the trigger on instinct.
Reason four: ignoring weapon mechanics
For some reason a lot of players completely ignore the mechanics of each weapon, and they differ, sometimes very sharply. The main things worth paying attention to are:
- First-bullet spread;
- The recoil pattern of the weapon;
- The reload time of the weapon;
Every weapon has its own quirks and limits, and knowing them makes the game easier to read.
One of the most common reasons for losing a fight at mid to long range is a player who does not understand how the first bullet leaves their weapon and either sprays wrong or shoots with enormous spread.
The player Royalg, for example, understands how the Classic works and managed to reach Immortal with it, all of it on stream! A lot of players simply do not understand how that pistol works, and a streamer took the highest rank playing nothing else, with very respectable results at that.
The main reason is that Royalg understands that weapon completely. He knows how the spread behaves, how often you have to shoot and plenty of other details.
In closing
You can drill your aim as much as you like, but do not forget that you also need to understand the basics of the game. As long as you feel you lack the skill to win most of your duels, as long as you have not reached a high rank and do not feel confident, drill those basics alongside your shooting.
Work on your prefires, run the map clearing every angle while going by the crosshair, and shoot without forgetting to stop first. Good luck out there!
