As a tactical shooter, Valorant requires a lot of skill in handling weapons and aiming. If you want to improve, this should be one of your first approaches. MeinMMO reveals 5 quick tricks to improve your aim.
What tips are these? The tips provide general guidance that you should consider when starting with Valorant. You don’t need any special prior knowledge, equipment, or skills for this.
Anyone can improve with these tricks, whether beginner, intermediate, or veteran. If you feel like you can get more out of your abilities, at least one of the tips will surely help you.
Where do the tips come from? Many of these tips are promoted by good players in their streams or on YouTube. Websites like the US site Dexerto or the German site esports.com also recommend them.
If you want to see some of the tips in video form, check out the approximately fifteen-minute guide from German YouTuber aSmoogl, which we’ve embedded here for you:
1. Improve Your Crosshair
The most important thing you can adjust, and at the same time the easiest, is the crosshair in Valorant. In every shooter, it is important to always see your crosshair. It must meet certain criteria:
- it should be thick enough to stand out
- it must be thin enough to not block your view
- it should indicate the hit zone as accurately as possible and forgo “coolness” if necessary
- the color must fundamentally differ from common background colors
Especially the last point is important. A dark red or black crosshair will often not be easily recognized at a glance. However, if it is turquoise, pink, or bright yellow, it becomes much easier.
The shooter pro shroud has already revealed his settings for crosshair and mouse. You can orient yourself by his tips, as he is considered one of the best players in the world.
2. Position the Crosshair Correctly
You do the most damage in Valorant with a headshot, and many weapons can kill with just one shot this way. Therefore, it is crucial to aim for the opponent’s head as much as possible.
However, especially beginners and even some intermediates often make the mistake of aiming for the torso or the stomach instead. While it is easier to hit there because the target is larger, you usually lose the duel because you die from a headshot first.
So get used to always aiming for the head. It’s best to visit the training mode of the shooting range and practice always aiming at the heads of the bots. This will give you a better feel for aiming itself and train your muscle memory.
3. Memorize “Spray Patterns”
This tip goes hand in hand with the second. Your shots should always hit the opponent’s head, but your crosshair cannot be aimed directly at his head all the time. At least not when you are shooting fully automatically.
The weapons in Valorant have what are called “spray patterns”. They have a recoil that shifts their shots in a characteristic way downwards or to the sides. Each weapon has a different spread pattern.
To learn the patterns, it’s best to go back to the shooting range again. Instead of shooting at the bots, shoot at the target in the next lane. There, you can see all the shots you fire at it.
Fire off a magazine first, without compensating in any way – this way, you can see what spread pattern the weapon has. Then try to compensate for it with your mouse. You’ll notice that the crosshair sometimes sits noticeably below the actual hits.
The right mouse settings help you with this but depend heavily on your personal preference. Initially, practice with the weapons you like best. We recommend the Vandal, one of the strongest weapons. You can find a guide for it here:
4. Don’t Rely on the Scope
Many shooters, like the popular Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Rainbow Six: Siege, allow you to look through a weapon’s scope. In those shooters, it’s even important to aim properly.
Valorant allows you to do this with most weapons as well, although it is more closely related to Counter-Strike (where this is not possible). However, you shouldn’t rely on the scope, as it brings several disadvantages, such as restricting your field of view.
Instead of trusting the scope, you should practice shooting and hitting from the hip instead – like in Counter-Strike. With the previous tips, that should no longer be a problem.
Looking through the scope is, by the way, called “ADS” in gamer jargon, which stands for “Aim Down Sights“. How well do you know gamer jargon?
5. Use External Aim Training
If these tips are not enough and you want to belong to the absolute best players, you should train your aim properly – consistently and constantly. There are various programs specifically designed for this purpose.
A powerful program that helps you improve is the free tool “Aim Lab”, which you can download via Steam. Aim Lab gives you the opportunity to practice different weapon types while collecting information about your performance. Here’s a short trailer for the program:
In different scenarios, you practice hitting moving targets or aiming at specific positions. The program thus also helps you find the right settings for your mouse.
In general, the rule for all these tips is: Keep trying and practice as much as you can. In the end, you won’t automatically become a pro through simple settings, but through practice. However, you should avoid one mode for the moment. Shroud advises in one of his recent streams: If you want to become a pro in Valorant or CS:GO, stay away from ranked.
