Dear fellow noobs welcome to the daunting world of Valorant. Where unnecessary feeding, not knowing the agent, wrong crosshair placement, using ADS, and rushing or camping in the same spot can get you killed early. These beginner mistakes and lack of basic game sense/knowledge will lead you to a losing streak.
New or migrating players from CS-GO or other FPS games, always have a tough time adjusting to playing Valorant because of additional agent abilities, and differences in shooting mechanisms. This makes it more desirable to avoid beginners’ mistakes and learn tricks and tips to improve your gameplay.
This guide will give you all the necessary tips to avoid these mistakes and enhance your gaming experience.
1- Know Your Agents
Agents in Valorant are divided into four types, Sentinels, Initiators, Controllers, and Duelists. These four types further include four or more agents in each category. To start in Valorant you must select your agent type and master its abilities and utility.
Select Your Agent Based On Your Play Style
Everyone has their own playing style from aggressive fast players to mid range slow paced players and heavy campers. These styles are based on aim accuracy and mechanical skills.
- Players with higher aim accuracy and aggressive style are front liners or flankers, they rush into thin down enemy ranks with their strong mechanical skills. They can play Initiators and Duelists in Valorant. As they are self-sufficient fraggers and can create a huge impact on the game.
- Players with the average aim are best in good short-range or mid-range combat and they can pick Controllers and Sentinels. As they can deny access to areas and bring the fight to themselves in a controlled space.
Use Your Abilities Early And Often
Knowing what your abilities are and when to use your abilities is important in Valoran. Using abilities early and on point can change the flow of the game in your favor. Instead of keeping your abilities for the end, start using them early and more frequently. Most of the base abilities return after a specific time Like Sage’s “Healing Orb”, and Phoenix’s “Hot Hands” Some abilities return after two kills like Raze’s “Paint Shells”.
Using an Ability can Make you Vulnerable
Sometimes in crucial situations, people make a basic mistake and try to use their abilities in the face of the enemy and get shot down. Abilities take time to cast and your enemies can easily aim you. That’s why it’s better to avoid using abilities when you are having a one-on-one fight.
2- Aiming/Crosshair Placement
Valorant’s shooting mechanisms are different from CS-GO, PUBG, and other FPS games as it requires you to stand still to shoot accurately. Moving and jumping will only make your aim worse even if your aim is on point. Moving while shooting in Valorant will send your bullets flying all over the place.
However, there is a trick known as counter-strafe. That is moving from right to left and halting your movements by pressing the opposite button. While in one on one situations, you can use the counter strafe to shake your enemy’s aim accuracy. This is an advanced technique of shooting and moving for beginners can master crouching as it gives more stable aim and precise shooting.
Avoid ADS in Valorant
ADS is always more accurate while shooting in every FPS game and most of us are accustomed to using it. However, using ADS in Valorant will slow down the fire rate and follow-up. Hip fire is far better in Valorant as it allows more maneuverability and fire rate.
3- Utilize Cover And Be Patience Before Pushing Forward
A major mistake players do is that they push too early in attacking or defending and get killed. It’s because the moving player is more vulnerable in Valorant than the standing one as it disrupts the aim. Follow these tips to avoid unnecessary deaths.
- Use covers while moving forwards
- Disrupt enemy vision by using abilities before peaking
- While defending don’t rush into enemies
- Hold the choke points
4- Crossfire/Trading
Instead of going one-on-one and solo pushing areas, you can play in pairs and push a site from two sides to have more advantage. Going from two sides will create the chance of crossfire or trading kills. Valorant is not about who killed the most, it’s more about who won the most rounds and matches.
5- Selecting a Weapon
Selecting a preferred weapon is also necessary as all weapons have their perks and downsides. You must select your weapon based on maps and your playing style.
- Close-range players can pick shotguns and submachine guns. As shotguns are one-shot kills and submachine guns are lethal with their rate of fire.
- Players with long-range accuracy can use Vendal a perfect one-tap headshot killer, Phantom a perfect spray gun in mid-range, and one tap in long-range
- Or they can use Snipers which are all-time favorites for people with strong Aim.
6- Sound is the Game
Sound is the most crucial part of this game. You can hear footsteps, reloads, abilities casting, and more. This will help you in locating your enemies and know where they are coming from and what they have used. When a player uses ultimate in Valorant their character will shout out a tagline like Phoenix’s ultimate tagline “Joke’s over, you’re dead!” or Raze’s “Fire in the hole”. Hearing these will help you in deciding when to push or run back.
7- Play The Two Sides Differently
Most beginners make a common mistake and play both sides the same way. Attacking and Defending in FPS games are totally different types of gameplay. You can push a single site with all five players while attacking but if you are defending and leave a site with zero agents to defend then the enemy can use that opportunity and get control of that site.
Playing Attacker
- Push site with all five agents or fake at site A and plant on site B
- Watch out for enemy flankers and defend back lines
- Learn jiggle peeking to peak safely around corners
- Check every corner and let your teammates position before planting
- Once the boom is planted don’t rush into enemies, defend the plant and make enemies waste time
Playing Defender
- Defend all sites and make sure to work in teams
- Don’t push aggressively into the enemies
- If a strategy is working then keep using it and don’t change things
- Decide your defending position on the map and stick with it
- Don’t abandon your position until the enemy attack location is confirmed
- Flank enemies from behind to trade kills
8- Minimap Awareness
Most new players are unaware of the benefits they can have from looking at the mini-map. Mini provides you with the most crucial information about the deaths of your allies and enemies and their positioning.
- A minor peak or just a single foot peaking out of the wall will show the enemy icon
- Allies can mark positions for attacking or defending from
9- Make Use Of The Practice Modes
Valorant provides a practice range for players to understand the game mechanics and try out the scenarios and improve their aims.
Test Guns and Learn to Control the Recoil
Understanding the recoil and damage of a gun can lead you to better decisions in picking your gun. It’s good to have a single gun mastered and a backup gun if you are running low on cash. Try every gun in practice modes like practice range and death matches and find your perfect match.
Adjust Your Mouse Sensitivity
Aiming and firing require your mouse sensitivity to be precise and optimized according to your reaction time and preferences. New players should try different mouse sensitivities to find their perfect match in the practice range. Practice range provides options to change the sensitivity so you can practice without changing settings.
10- Weapons Economy
The biggest mistake beginners make is that they use everything to buy guns and forget or ignore to buy shields. It’s good to have Vandal for high damage but if you die because you are not buying a full shield that means you are wasting cash on the gun only. It’s better to buy under budget and if you have allies with extra cash right click and request them to buy a gun for you.
Wrap Up
We all were Beginners at some point or we have migrated from different FPS games. This guide gives you solutions to the most common beginner mistakes and a better understanding of Valorant gameplay.
