Everyone wants to improve in Valorant and get a better rank, but many just assume this will happen naturally by playing more games. Just like studying if you play games without the intention to learn anything you likely will not improve much in between games. This guide is meant to give you tips to improve and keep things in your mind while playing so you are always aware of your mistakes and how to improve. Whenever you die or a lose a round, it's good to ask yourself what you did wrong and what you could have done better. Many people like to blame their team for not being as good as them, however you cannot improve your random teammates but you can improve yourself. So it is always better to focus on yourself after every round and ask what you could have done different and understand your mistakes.

Aim

Improving you aim is probably the easiest way to improve your rank and skills. In many one vs. one fights where both opponents see each other at the same time, it comes down to who has better aim. When you do lose the fight, you have no one to blame yourself really. Of course, depending on your rank, you can improve your aim in different ways. If you are lower ranked such as Bronze, always remember to have your cursor aimed where your enemy's head would be. Many players are used to aiming at the chest naturally while walking around and, when they see an enemy, they have to take time to adjust their cursor toward the head. While if your cursor was already pointing toward the head, you would get a clean kill. Many players know this but do not always implement it, so it's good to remind your self.

The image shown below it shows (on the left) how most players have their cursor while walking around the map, which is wrong since if an enemy pops up they would either shoot at their chest or will have to readjust their aim to the enemy's head. While the image on the right shows where your cursor should be while roaming around which would greatly help with headshots.

For a higher ranks such as Silver and Gold, you should focus on being able to shoot multiple targets without missing and being able to snap on to multiple heads on moving targets. I know many people would recommend an aim trainer app to practice this in. However I suggest doing this in Valorant's deathmatch mode. The reason I suggest this is because everyone is always moving around in randomly patterns with different guns and there are no abilities to kill you or blind you. So, it is the best way to practice your aim.

Once you feel a bit more comfortable with your aim, try to always be moving as you are shooting. Many players in silver and gold tend to stand still when taking shots to increase their accuracy. However, it also makes them very vulnerable to get shot since they are standing still. I would still suggest doing this in deathmatch. Make sure you are moving while shooting and killing people. You can also practice strafe shooting. I am sure many of you know what strafe shooting is, but for those who don’t know strafe shooting is holding an angle or a corner, and using your A and D key to keep peeking and going back to safety. You have probably seen this done in many games such as Cs:Go, Rainbow 6, and call of duty. This is probably one of the best ways to peek enemies while still remaining pretty safe.

Gun Recoil

Every gun has a different recoil pattern, usually the first few shots will shoot straight but after a few bullets the bullet pattern will start to get random and move upward. That is why it's important to never spam shoot and always try to use bursts. While other competitive shooters like Call of Duty Warzone do not really punish you for spam shooting since the recoil is easy to control and there is not too much recoils on those guns, it's different in Valorant. Even though the recoil pattern is different for every gun, you do know the bullets will start going higher and higher. So if you are spraying multiple enemies, it is important to remember this and bring your mouse down to make up for the recoil.

The Importance of Patch Notes

If you have played League of Legends, then you know the importance of reading patch notes. Many players seem to skip it or just read what they see on twitter or what they hear from friends. The issue with this is many short tweets do not explain all the buffs and nerfs in the patch and when you try learning about the patch notes through friends, they could be misinformed which would cause you to learn the wrong things. I would suggest reading the patch notes through Riot or a detailed explanation such as through Dignitas. Patch notes talk about many important things such as increasing or decreasing gun damage, reload times, ability timers. For example, this recent patch explains that Jett's smoke duration decreased from 7 to 4.5 seconds that is a huge decrease especially if you are a Jett main. This would affect your game a lot if you did not know this. You may get caught out expecting your smoke to last longer.

Choose Your Agent

You should be able to play and know the abilities of each agent, but you should have at least 3 agents that you are extremely good at, kind of like your pocket picks. These agents should be ones you perform consistently good on. This will also help you find your play style too. If you find out your main agents are mostly duelists, it would mean you get most of the kills and play aggressive, or if you play more sentinels, it means you play more support and focus on area control and map information. This will also help you strengthen your game style, there is nothing wrong to sticking one game style and playing that way. Not everyone can be a duelist or a support or gather map information.

Communication

If you can, always use a headset to communicate with your teammates. Pinging or typing in chat is not as effective as using your voice to do a call out. It is also the fastest way to get someone’s attention. Having a headset will also allow you to hear enemy footsteps better and hear what guns they are using without even seeing it. This could be extremely helpful for your team since they will know what guns the enemy has before even seeing them.

Watching Pros

One of the best ways to learn is to watch a professional play the game on Twitch or YouTube. All the players on the Dignitas Valorant team stream on Twitch and are always down to explain how they play and why they play that way. Which is a really good way at learning the game. You may see them do things you never thought or know frag spots or arrow spots that you just did not know. You will get to see how they play with Randoms and communicate with them. You will also be able to see how to make come backs or remain calm when they are behind in wins. This is also a great time to watch a professional play your agent and see what they do different which can help you improve.