Valorant has become increasingly more difficult with each new Act that gets released. Players are expected to learn lineups on their respective agents, while many spend hours a day playing the game to memorize every single angle on each map. Sure, those are all extremely important aspects of the game. However, many will argue that nothing is more important than mastering the art of gunplay in Valorant.

Gunfights in Valorant aren’t as simple as pointing and clicking. There are so many different factors that you have to consider when taking a duel in the game. Mainly, a player has to consider their positioning, how they peek, crosshair placement, and movement.

Crosshair Placement

Everybody knows that you should aim at head level in Valorant. That way, you make it much easier to kill the enemy when all you have to do is shoot after they run into your crosshair. Think about it this way. If your crosshair is all over the place, then you have to aim horizontally and vertically to land a headshot. However, if your crosshair is already at head level, then the only factor you have to consider is aiming horizontally. There’s no need to adjust your mouse vertically because it’s already at head level.

Nonetheless, many players still struggle with this aspect of the game.

If you want good crosshair placement, you will need to have good knowledge of all the angles on the maps. Fracture and Icebox are the two maps that require the most vertical aim because there are so many angles a person can be in. You will need to spend plenty of time in the Deathmatch game mode to get more comfortable aiming at head level, no matter how high up or low the enemy can be on each map.

In the left picture, my crosshair placement is extremely low. If an enemy were to peek at me, I would likely be shooting at their legs. In the right picture, my crosshair placement is significantly better because I am deliberately aiming at around head level. This would give me a much higher chance of landing a headshot.

Another crosshair placement factor you must consider is how far from a wall you should hold your crosshair. Let’s look at the image below.

In the left picture, I am holding the corner with my crosshair extremely tight to the wall. This could be okay for some people, but the main problem is that most of the time the enemy would wide swing that angle. This means that I will have to flick to the left if I want to land a headshot.

In the right image, I am distancing my crosshair a good amount from the wall. This is ideal because the enemy will generally swing into my crosshair and all I’ll have to do is time the shot correctly. There’s no need for me to unnecessarily adjust my mouse. The amount of distance that you should have from a wall is purely personal preference. Everybody’s reaction time is different. If you have a fast reaction time, then hold your crosshair a little tighter to the wall. If you have a slow reaction time (like me), then hold your crosshair at a further distance from the wall.

Keep practicing your crosshair placement and you will be sure to win more gunfights!

Peeking

We’ve all heard of the term “peeker’s advantage” before. But what exactly is it? Peeker’s advantage is the edge that somebody has when they are peeking a corner. Because of latency, framerate, and a bad connection between clients, the person that peeks an angle will be able to see the enemy that is holding the angle first. But that does not mean you should always be peeking.

If you are on defense, you obviously shouldn't be “ego peeking” at the entrance of a site. Sure, you might be able to see the enemies first by a few milliseconds, but when you’re peeking into three attackers by yourself at the entrance, you’re sure to die. Peeking is only something you must do if you have to (like if you were an attacker who’s pushing onto a site, or when you have to retake a site). Positional advantage is far more important than “peeker’s advantage”, which I’ll discuss later.

With that said, the most common types of peeks are:

Wide Peek: Swinging wide around a corner. It will be harder for enemies to land their shots, and you can quickly create space when attacking. However, you may possibly peek into multiple enemies at once.

Jiggle Peek: Jiggling around a corner, exposing your body for milliseconds at a time. This peek is great to gather intel and isolating angles to ensure that you only take 1v1s. Combine this type of peeking with pre-firing and it can become deadly. However, if your strafe timing is off, it can be hard to get kills.

Jump Peek: Jumping around a corner and quickly going back to cover. This technique is great for baiting Operator shots and gathering intel. It makes it near impossible for an enemy to kill you when done correctly. You cannot get a kill using this peek.

Walk Peek: This is the worst way to peek at an angle. But if the situation requires you to be quiet, then it can be useful to surprise the enemy.

To summarize: Wide peek when you know that there’s only one enemy there. Jiggle peek to isolate 1v1s and gather information (this is the best type of peek that you should be utilizing). Jump peek to gather information and bait out Operator shots at the entrances of a site. Walk peek when you don’t want the enemy to know where you are.

Another thing to keep in mind is that re-peeking the same angle is always very risky. The enemy already knows you’re there, and they have lined up their crosshair for you to peek again, which makes it very easy for them to kill you. The only exception to this rule is jiggle peeking.

Next, we’ll talk about angle advantages.

Image by RiotTuxedo

The picture above shows exactly what an angle advantage is. The scenario on the right side, which represents showers on Bind, shows that the red player has an advantage over the blue player because the red player is further away from an angle than the blue player. This means that the red player is able to see the blue player’s body first because the blue player’s body is sticking out from the corner.

So in simpler terms, always peek into a corner from as far of a distance as you can.

Positioning

Positioning in Valorant is one of the most crucial aspects that will determine whether or not you will win your gunfights. Ideally, you should be in a situation where you can fulfill at least 2 of these criteria:

• Retreat
  
• Be unpredictable
  
• Trade with a teammate

Now, of course, it’s very hard to fulfill all of these criteria at once. You will also have to consider how many people on their team have flashes and whatnot, and that will dictate what kinds of angles you’re able to take during that match. However, the main focus is to always remember to stay unpredictable. Here are the different types of angles.

Default Angles: These are angles that are “okay” to hold. They’re not bad, but they’re not great either. They’re fairly predictable, but you could possibly be able to get a kill or two by holding it. However, never use these angles for more than two rounds in a row, or else the enemies will predict that you’re there.

A quick tip is to never hold an angle with your character directly at the corner. I would always make sure that my character stays slightly away from the corner to make it more unpredictable.

Off-Angles: These types of angles are my personal favorite types to hold. Off-angles are named this way because they are highly unpredictable and may require agent-specific abilities to get to them (like Jett’s Updraft or Omen’s Teleport). These ensure that you get at least one kill. This angle is great, as you can secure a kill and then retreat by dropping down below and behind Generator.

Peek Angles: The sole purpose of these angles is to gather intel without taking any damage.

You should usually jiggle-peek when holding these kinds of angles, and normally you would be looking at the entrance of a site. Additionally, you can pre-fire every time you jiggle peek if you know that somebody could be there.

No position will ever be “perfect” in a game like Valorant. The key is to stay unpredictable so that it will keep your enemies guessing your next move.

Movement

Last but not least, movement is a mechanic that every player must master to stop losing their gunfights.

This goes hand-in-hand with peeking. Your movement should be unpredictable. If you wide-swing every corner you see, the enemy will probably adjust their crosshair to you and easily line up a headshot. But if you mix in a jiggle-peek here and there, you will give your enemies a much harder time lining up a headshot.

Crouching instantly when spraying is a habit that nearly every single player makes. The problem with this is that it makes you extremely immobile. In lower ranks, crouching instantly after shooting is a quick way to get your head blasted in half a second during a gunfight. However, don’t confuse this with deliberate crouching. Experienced players occasionally crouch as soon as they shoot because they know that the enemy has their crosshair at head level. Once you crouch, the enemy will need to adjust their crosshair lower to land a headshot, which should give you the advantage. Additionally, some players hold an angle while crouching so that it makes it harder for the peeker to line up a headshot (and your gun becomes more accurate).

Another advanced movement involves strafing after shooting. In longer distances, you should fire about 3-4 shots, strafe to the side, fire 3-4 shots, strafe to the other side, and repeat until you kill the enemy. This makes it much harder for the enemy to kill you at longer ranges because you are constantly moving. Never crouch when taking a long-distance gunfight.

Jump-crouching is a technique that can allow you to reach certain places without using any abilities. The idea is to jump forward, crouch mid-air, then land. This should allow you to reach higher boxes and corners on specific maps.

Conclusion

Whew. That was a lot to take in huh? I don’t expect you to apply all of these tips to your gameplay right away. Learning new skills takes time, and you can always refer back to this guide to master your gameplay.

Crosshair Placement

Learn the different maps in Valorant. Know where to put your crosshair when peeking at different angles at different heights. Understand how far to place your crosshair from a wall so that the enemy can simply run into it. Master your crosshair placement in Deathmatch!

Peeking

Wide peek when you know that there’s only one enemy there. Jiggle peek to isolate 1v1s and to gather information. Jump peek to gather information and bait out operator shots at the entrances of a site. Walk peek when you don’t want the enemy to know where you are.

Remember to always peek into a corner from as far of a distance as you can so that the enemy doesn’t see your body sticking out first.

Positioning

Stay unpredictable. Be in spots that the enemies will least expect you to be in. This will make sure you’re able to win gunfights when they’re not even aiming at you!

Use unpredictable off-angles and information-gathering peek-angles to win your games.

Movement

Don’t instantly crouch right after you shoot (unless you intentionally do so)! Use jump-crouching to reach certain places without using any abilities, and learn how to strafe and shoot to make it harder for enemies to kill you!

I hope this guide has helped you. Best of luck to you all!