If you’re interested in learning how to practice spray control, you’ve come to the right place! Our guide walks you through what a spray pattern is and provides a comprehensive list of must-know practice maps for CSGO!
Have you ever missed a kill and wondered, “Where did my bullets go?! I swear I was shooting their heads!” Well, you might have fallen victim to a weapon’s tricky spray pattern. Like many other first-person-shooter games, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive weapons have recoil and spray patterns.
Weapon recoil adds another layer of mechanical skill that separates the casual player from the tryhards! This is because spray control is a skill that takes hours upon hours of practice to improve. A player that lacks recoil control will find themself losing duels against other players and having low accuracy. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how recoil affects your accuracy. Furthermore, we’ll explain what a spray pattern is and how your aim corrects recoil. Lastly, we’ll provide you with a few console commands and workshop maps that will help practice spray control.
Just like in real life, firearms in CSGO experience kick-back when fired. Commonly known as “recoil”, the weapon’s kick-back is a rearward force that causes bullet inaccuracy. When uncorrected, the weapons spray pattern causes bullets to land in undesirable areas, walls, and the ceiling, instead of your opponent's body!
If you’ve never noticed your weapon’s recoil, hop into a server and shoot any weapon against a wall. You’ll notice the bullets don’t land in the same place, instead they move progressively upward and maybe even from side to side.
The image above shows the bullet holes for the AK-47 when shot automatically. The way the bullets are scattered is what constitutes the spray pattern. It’s worth noting that every weapon has a unique pattern. Some guns have more severe recoil than others, but their overall patterns aren’t too different from each other.
To correct a weapon’s recoil, players practice spray control. Basically, spray control is the process of pulling your weapon’s crosshair in the opposite direction of the gun’s spray pattern. This might not seem very intuitive, but it makes sense! If your gun’s recoil forces the bullets to move away in a pattern, then moving in the opposite direction will correct their path.
Image credit to 12Up
For example, the image above shows the M4A4’s spray pattern. The image on the left-side depicts the weapon’s spray pattern, this is the way that bullets land when the recoil is not corrected. To compensate for the gun’s recoil, players must follow the path shown in the right-side image with their crosshair.
Whether you’ve chosen to practice your aim solely in Workshop maps, it’s highly recommended to set up a few commands to practice on a local server. Here, we’ll drop console commands used to practice spray control. The commands can easily be popped into your personal config file so you don’t have to worry about remembering them.
Console commands:
sv_cheats 1
Enables cheat console commands for you, it does not enable cheat commands for others inside the server. Turning on sv_cheats is required because it allows you to use the rest of the commands.
sv_infinite_ammo 2
Allows the player to have infinite ammo. However, players still have to reload when the weapon’s magazine is emptied.
sv_showimpacts 1
Bullet holes appear as red and blue boxes that indicate where the bullets have landed. This command is great for players learning how to control their spray because they can see exactly where they are shooting.
View_recoil_tracking 1
Allows your crosshair to move in the same direction as your bullets instead of remaining static.
Now that you have your commands set up, hop into the server! When learning spray control, focus on the weapons you use the most in-game. We suggest making sure you familiarize yourself with the AK-47 and M4A4/M4A1-S spray patterns. Learning these primary weapon patterns will give you a good foundation that can be applied to other weapons.
Now, shoot freely against an empty wall and do not compensate for the recoil. At this point in your training, you’ll want to focus on observing the spray pattern. It’s good practice to trace the spray pattern with your crosshair to gain a “feel” for the pattern. Once you have a good idea of how you’ll need to move your mouse, shoot against the wall while compensating for the recoil. You’ll know that you’re getting better when the bullet spread is confined to a single area.
Next, we’ve chosen several Steam Workshop maps specifically designed to help you practice your spray control. We’ve also included the links to the most updated version of each map!
ULLeticaL’s recoil training map features a built in ‘ghosthair’ that players can follow with their crosshair to train their muscle memory while spraying. What’s more, Recoil Master features twenty different shooting ranges, a weapon wall and extra settings like infinite ammo and no spread.
Released in 2015, recoil_training is a simple yet effective training map. Unlike other training maps, recoil_training has a unique take to learning recoil. Creator of the map “ZIM” says, “I think it’s best to practice one axis at a time.” Therefore, players use the grid to practice weapon recoil on the x axis and then the y. When a player becomes comfortable moving their crosshair in both directions, they put their skills together to practice both together.
Aim Course 2 is a highly rated aim training map and is great for practicing spray control on moving targets. Obviously, it’s great to practice controlling your spray against a wall, but real enemies move!
Below is a list of the map’s features:
Training your spray control will seem frustrating at first but know that every good player started somewhere. As you continue to practice, you’ll see improvements, and one day it’ll be second nature.
If you’re still interested in learning more about spray control, check out these tips from the legendary GeT_RiGhT on improving your spray control. Send over any comments or feedback to Twitter! Stay tuned to Dignitas for more Counter-Strike Global Offensive guides!
