In duels, aiming is one thing, but gunplay is another. To improve as a player, it is crucial to know the ins and outs of VALORANT’s fundamental mechanics. This guide will teach you why, how, and when to spray or tap bullets.
Shooting is easy enough — aim your crosshair at the opponent’s head and click. But players will often find themselves losing their duels despite such an easy task. Your crosshair may be on your opponent’s head, but bullets can fly astray from various factors embedded in VALORANT’s gameplay like movement or gunplay. Fret not — losing duels is not particularly because of your aim, but how you utilize your gun.
This guide will cover the details of two main gun mechanics — spraying and tapping — and how to apply them in your games. No longer will your bullets fly around their heads as you make the perfect headshot and win your duels with your mastery of VALORANT’s gunplay.
Before we get into depth about these mechanics, we need to establish what they are. Spraying is when you hold down the fire button, releasing a stream of subsequent bullets. Tapping is when you click the fire button, releasing one bullet at a time. Simple in concept, but complex in application.
With a faster fire rate than tapping, it’s instinctual to opt to spray to hit the enemy as much as possible. However, with a faster fire rate comes less control. The longer you spray, the less accurate the bullets become. It may seem unpredictable at first, but there are two ways you can control the spray.
To master the spray, we must understand the “spray pattern”, a technical mechanic in which the bullets, as your gun and crosshair move from recoil, shoot in a specific path that is not as random as you might think. Every gun has its own unique spray pattern. Generally, SMGs, rifles — the Phantom more so than the Vandal — and machine guns are most optimal for spraying.
If you know where the bullets will go relative to the length of time at which you spray, you can control it by moving your crosshair. For example, if the bullets stray up, then you move your crosshair down to even out the recoil. Ultimately, it’s about timing and instinct, which can be mastered as you gain more experience and familiarity with the gun. Go to the Range and test each of them out — knowing how to use a variety of guns is a valuable skill to improve as a player.
On top of the spray pattern, you can also crouch for even more control. Crouching makes your bullets more accurate, tunneling them into a more central area. But crouching is not without its downsides. When you crouch, you are locked in place. You gamble your mobility for fire rate. Thus, you must commit to the spray in a duel because running away gives you a zero percent chance of winning and a likely result of death.
Each game has hundreds of unique situations, but general situations in which spraying is advantageous are when facing multiple enemies and wall-banging.
Although you ideally want to isolate one-on-one duels, there come times that you are forced into facing more than one enemy. When facing multiple, spraying could be optimal with the mechanic of “spray transfer” where you change targets during one spray. With a faster fire rate, it’s more efficient to switch targets at the peak of your spray speed and you have an advantage over your enemy if they had not begun shooting.
Wall-banging is shooting through walls or crates. Not all guns can pierce through walls and crates, but when they can, you’d want to spray because bullets do less damage when shot through something. Thus, the more bullets you shoot, the more damage and chance you’ll hit the enemy if they are behind that wall or crate.
The takeaway is to consider situations where the fire rate is more favorable, and keep in mind the risks that come with spray.
In contrast to spray, tapping is quite the opposite. The fire rate is not fast because it is a singular bullet with each click, but it is more precise in accuracy and you have full control. There is no major technicality to learn like how the spray pattern is with spraying. Most importantly, your mobility is not restricted.
Unlike spraying, there is no pattern to learn with tapping. Because you have full control of your bullets, you can take your time with your bullets and aim precisely. Guns that are best for tapping are the Vandal, the Guardian, and sniper rifles, all of which have the potential to kill with one headshot. It will be in your favor to take your time with your bullets to secure a kill.
Like how you gamble your mobility for fire rate with spraying, you gamble your fire rate for mobility. Because you are standing, you have the freedom to move back and forth between each shot. The term for moving after each shot, Which one is harder to shoot, a static target or a moving target? Not only do you make it harder for your enemy to hit you, but you can also position yourself however you like. By tapping, you can move to and fro from behind a cover.
Furthermore, you get the chance to reset yourself and your recoil. The specific term for moving after each shot is called “counter strafing”, a mechanic where you go one direction, be it left or right, and then click the opposite direction to fully stop your character; typically, with the pattern of ADAD keys or vice versa. Partnered with tapping, it utilizes the first shot accuracy to its fullest because the first shot is always the most accurate among the subsequent ones that follow.
Situations in which tapping is involved are more tactical than spraying, such as dueling or clearing corners.
In any fight from a long distance, tapping increases your chance of winning greatly because your shots are more accurate and your focus is more tunneled into the crosshair. Although you may feel frustrated if you keep missing since it’s hard to aim at a small target, keep your head cool because tapping is all about patience and precision. When people are impatient, they unintentionally spray or let their recoil get the best of them, and the last thing you want in a long-distance fight is inaccurate bullets.
Clearing corners requires peeking around said corners. It’s risky initiating a potential duel, but with risks come awards if you do it right. When you peek around the corner with your crosshair ideally by where the enemy’s head will be, you want to do the counter strafe and tap combination to get the first jump on them. This tactic is called “pre-firing”, in which you shoot a corner and you peek whether or not an enemy is actually there.
Takeaway: consider situations where mobility is more favorable, and keep in mind the cruciality of your movement and precision.
So, which one will help you climb? Short answer is there is no right answer.
Again, it’s purely situational because no game is the same. But a good player will know how to adapt to each situation with their knowledge of the fundamentals of gunplay. Being well-rounded helps you improve as a player and overall gameplay.
So, practice! Practice, time, and experience will be your best friend in mastering VALORANT’s gunplay. Fundamentals are nothing without application and practice. Be patient with yourself, and most importantly, enjoy the game!
