In VALORANT, understanding the fundamentals of aiming and peeking is extremely important for players to get a grasp of when climbing the ranks. As you rank up, it will become clear that holding down the left click and praying that your spray is more favorable than your opponent’s is not sustainable. However, applying the tips we will go over today to your gameplay will give you the necessary tools to gain your footing and head in the right direction when trying to hit more headshots in VALORANT.

Stop Crouching and Spraying

Starting things off, nipping this bad habit in the bud will help with the rest of the tips on this list. While it is true that crouching makes your spray more accurate, getting in the habit of spraying, in general, will do more harm than good in the long run. When you crouch, you become immobile, allowing any good player to pick you off easily and give their team a man advantage, and when you spray, you rely on RNG to win your fights. Now these things have their place in-game, like trying to wall-bang someone with a spray or hold a cheeky one-off angle one round. The vast majority of the time, these habits are going to do more harm to you than your opponents.

So, what can be done to fix this? The easiest way to address this issue is to unbind your crouch key so that nothing happens when your reflex to crouch in a fight is triggered. Unbinding crouch and then hopping into a deathmatch can help you train your brain to acknowledge that the key no longer does anything, forcing you to do something other than spray in fights. This may take a few games to get used to, as you will die in the fights that you usually would have crouched in, and it takes time to be mindful of tap firing and bursting when you are used to spraying. However, as you get used to strafing, tapping, and bursting instead of crouch spraying, you will notice that you will hit significantly more headshots.

Understanding Proper Crosshair Placement

When peeking and holding angles, crosshair placement is essential in hitting headshots and getting picks for your team. Understanding where head level is is crucial in hitting headshots because it allows you to pre-fire and be ready to swing common angles more efficiently. This gives you an immediate advantage, because having your crosshair prepared already prevents you from needing to flick and adjust to where the enemy’s head will be. Of course, they can jump-peek or bait your shot, but being ready at head level will yield the best results when swinging or peeking at an angle. A great example of this is attacking A-Main on Ascent. Having your crosshair at head level, swinging, and pre-firing the angle will increase your odds of killing the defender peeking from an aggressive angle.

A good way to practice this is to go into the practice tool and play the Spike Defuse drill on hard mode. At first, it may take a little while to get used to the angles the bots hold (like on any map in an actual match), but after a few rounds, you will understand where they may hold. Be mindful of where head level is relative to the angle you are swinging or peeking from. After you do this, go into Swiftplay or Unrated and apply the same technique in the game. After a while, understanding where to place your crosshair will come naturally, and it won’t be something that you need to think about.

Use The Practice Bots

While Third Party aim trainers can be beneficial for some, VALORANT provides players with a very suitable one within the game. The Range is an excellent tool for people who need to practice hitting headshots or warming up. Think about it; the bots replicate the models of every character in the game. They are the same height and have the same hitbox. So, it can be the perfect tool for practicing headshots. Both basic bot drills help practice flicking, counter-strafing, and tracking. After all, the practice tool is in the game to help players with their aim and warmups.

One drill that can help with flicking to the head goes as follows: Enable the default practice bots and turn off strafing. Next, go all the way to either the back right or left corner. Ensure that the bots have full armor and that you use a weapon that will kill from any distance with a headshot. Next, start killing bots, but try and only aim for the head. After a few kills, move over and start again. Repeat this process until you end up in the other corner of the room. This drill aims to help with the feeling of flicking and adjusting your positioning. Eventually, once this gets too easy, you can turn on strafing and add your own counter strafing.

Apply These Tips in Unrated and Swiftplay

While it’s understandable that you may want to immediately take these tips and apply them in your next ranked game, it is vital that you fully understand the information we have gone through to maximize your returns when it comes to using these tips. The best way to do this is in Unrated or Swiftplay, where the stakes are low, and you are not penalized for losing a match if it does not go your way. While you may be eager to apply these things immediately in a Ranked match, getting these fundamentals down to a science is important, so you do not need to think about them as much while playing. They should come naturally.

Playing two or three Swiftplay matches or an Unrated match is also a great way to warm up before hopping into a long Ranked session. Deathmatch is also good, but the constant chaos can make it difficult to simulate an actual Ranked match. Finding a nice warmup routine with the other game modes allows you to dial in and prepare yourself while also applying the tips we went through.

Conclusion

Perfecting your aim in VALORANT takes time and practice to improve. It does not happen overnight. These things do not come instantly, and great players take time to perfect fundamentals before anything else. These tips are meant to help players strengthen the fundamentals of good aim while not being overly complicated. Apply these tips to your gameplay and see yourself improve!