In Valorant, wallbanging, or shooting through walls, is part of the gameplay mechanics. However, the mechanics behind it work a bit differently than many of you might have thought. Read here why you should never stand too close to seemingly solid walls in the future.
What is wallbanging? Wallbanging refers to a gameplay mechanic that allows shooting through seemingly solid obstacles. Depending on your weapon’s penetration power, you can shoot through certain obstacles in the game and injure enemies on the other side.
You can tell if a bullet penetrated if a visible hole or only a crater remains after shooting. If you see holes, the enemy behind the obstacle receives a portion of the damage. Weapons like the Vandal, the Operator, or the Odin LMG are very well suited for this. The lethality of the Odin with wallbanging has been extensively demonstrated by top player Sinatraa during recent tournaments.
But besides this already known use of wallbanging, there is another game mechanic that can be much deadlier in certain situations.
Solid walls are not safe
This is the “secret” wallbanging: A user on reddit has discovered that wallbanging works in another way. It seems that there is also a kind of penetration with apparently impenetrable walls.
The bullet penetrates the obstacle to a certain extent and then eventually disappears into the wall without exiting on the other side. However, while it is still in the wall, it deals full damage.
Where is the problem? This wouldn’t be a big deal if walls in Valorant were actually fixed objects that nothing can penetrate. However, your characters tend to clip with individual body parts into the walls when you stand too close to them. The body parts that are “stuck” in the wall are fully valid targets for any bullets that might be passing through the wall.
An example: Someone is firing wildly with an Odin at a supposedly solid wall that they cannot penetrate. Due to the high penetration of the Odin, the bullets come close to halfway through the wall. Your agent crouches in front of the wall, and his knee clips halfway into the wall. The Odin’s bullets just reach your character’s kneecap, which means you find yourself in a world of pain.
Because the bullets deal full damage here, not the reduced damage they would deal with a complete wall penetration.
Is this a bug? The whole thing doesn’t sound like an intentional feature. After all, impenetrable walls should be impenetrable. However, there has been no feedback from Riot on this matter so far. Should anything change, we will inform you here.
Another nuisance in Valorant are currently overly loud footsteps.
