THIS IS NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE GUIDE. CONSULT OTHER RESOURCES WHEN LEARNING
Some very good videos for beginner to intermediate Valorant players: Woohoojin Valorant Guides
Aimlabs playlist with instructions: Voltaic x WHJ Routine
How to ACTUALLY angle hold properly.. (In-depth Breakdown) How To ACTUALLY Move In Valorant.
Op = Operator
Notes About How Valorant Works
Shooting Inaccuracy
If you are learning how to shoot in Valorant, turn on the shooting inaccuracy graph in the settings. It will show you movement inaccuracy (blue lines) and spray inaccuracy (orange lines). If you have both types on a shot, it will show an orange bar on top of a blue bar. Generally, with the exception of shotguns, you should aim to have zero movement inaccuracy in your shots. Depending on the weapon, if you are close enough if may be best to “run-and-gun” (walk/run while spraying). When jumping or falling, you have very bad movement inaccuracy, and after falling a good distance it takes a good amount of time to recover your accuracy.
Deadzoning
Speaking of movement inaccuracy, it is possible to shoot one bullet that has no movement inaccuracy (fully accurate) in the moment when you change directions, while holding down a movement key the whole time (Ex: as you switch from holding D to holding A). This is called deadzoning. Because there is momentum in Valorant, the timing is a bit tricky to get at first. You should shoot slightly after you switch which key you are holding. Practice in the range with the shooting inaccuracy graph on to get the timing down.
Counter-strafing, which is tapping the opposite direction key to come to a stop more quickly, does not help in Valorant, unlike other games. (Ex: tapping D to come to a stop more quickly after moving left) While it does bring you to a stop more quickly, it does not make a big enough difference for humans to reliably take advantage of. However, for some people, tapping the opposite key helps them with the timing of deadzoning bullets.
Spray inaccuracy increases as you shoot more bullets in a row without a break. The spray pattern and the amount of time you have to wait between shots to reset the spray inaccuracy differ between guns.
Other notes
When anyone is hit by bullets, their movement is slowed for a little bit. Additionally, different weapons change your movement speed when you have them out, listed in the buy menu. Having knife/melee out gives you the fastest movement speed.
Bullets do not have speed in Valorant. Shots hit instantly when you click (not actually instantly because of nonzero ping, but you get the idea)
Final bullet trajectory is calculated on the server, but bullet tracers (on the guns that have them) are calculated client side. The bullet tracers are generally accurate enough for controlling spray, but do not represent the actual path of your bullets.
Because Op scope has two different zoom levels, there are a few ways to control it. My preferred settings are hold to enter scope and set a different key to toggle between the two zoom levels.
Use keys to switch between weapons, not the scroll wheel. (Default is 1 for main weapon, 2 for secondary, and 3 for melee)
It can be very helpful to have “Always Show Inventory” on. This makes it so that the game will always display which weapons you have in the bottom right corner of your screen. This is helpful because it is easy to walk over a weapon and not realize you have picked it up (When starting with a pistol only, such as on a save round)
Guns have different levels of penetration, or “pen” (displayed in the buy menu) which affects their ability to shoot through walls. Some walls are impenetrable, some only by heavy pen, some by medium and heavy pen, and some by any gun. Read the buy menu!
Fight Basics
Isolate fights—if possible, make it so you are only fighting one person at a time. Even better is if you have two people fighting one enemy. The problem is that the enemy is also trying to do this. In practice, this means peeking one angle at a time and not exposing yourself to angles that you are not looking at (see Slicing the Pie). This requires learning the maps and on and off angles. Deathmatch is very helpful for learning where you are exposed to multiple angles, as there will usually be someone there to shoot you in the back or side.
Reloading
Don’t reload too early - enemies can hear you reload, and reloading means you can’t shoot for a little bit. The best timing to reload depends on the situation and gun that you have, but as a general rule of thumb, reload when you don’t expect to have to fight, and try to reload before you go into a fight (as long as the reload sound won’t put you at a disadvantage). If you are expecting a fight and have at least half a magazine left, probably don’t reload. Note: Frenzy and Stinger should be reloaded before pretty much every fight, if possible. Those guns go through a magazine very fast, and especially with Frenzy, you often need a whole magazine to get a kill. If you run out of bullets in your primary weapon and you do not have time to reload, switch to your secondary weapon to give yourself a chance. Doing a Jump Spot while reloading can be a good way to keep an eye on enemies while you can’t shoot.
Aim basics
Look at the target, not your crosshair.
Move your crosshair in a straight line directly to the target.
Use your shoulder and elbow for large flicks, and your wrist and fingers for small flicks or microadjustments. Find a sensitivity/DPI that allows you to do this. Generally between 200-400 eDPI works for most people. (eDPI is your Valorant sensitivity multiplied by your mouse DPI). Valorant takes mouse input directly, so Windows mouse/cursor settings should not affect it.
For a big flick, you should ideally get your mouse moving fast with your shoulder and/or arm muscles, and then as your arm travels through the flick, relax your arm muscles so that you can make precise microadjustments near the end of your flick. For smaller flicks you may just use your wrist and fingers.
Run-and-gun at close range is especially good with frenzy and stinger, and is actually the ideal approach at close range with those guns.
Taking your time to aim and hitting your first shot is usually better than rushing and spraying a bunch of bullets everywhere. Of course, taking your time is relative, and as you improve your aim the amount of time you need to “take your time” should decrease.
Crosshair Placement
Crosshair placement is one of the most important skills for getting kills in Valorant. When holding or peeking or anytime your gun is out, it should be at head level on the angle that you think is most likely an enemy will appear on. How far away from the corner you should have your crosshair depends on a few factors, which I will discuss later. Generally your crosshair should not be directly on the corner, and instead out a ways so that when an enemy peeks their head will be close to your crosshair.
Deathmatches are good for practicing crosshair placement, as you can generally tell when an enemy peeks you/you peek them if your crosshair is on their head or at head level. One way to practice this (from Woohoojin) is to have someone else who knows what good crosshair placement looks like to watch to play and hit a buzzer or something any time they notice your crosshair in the wrong place. If you know what good crosshair placement looks like even if you have trouble doing it yourself, you can do this for someone else.
Crosshair placement for angles far above or below yours is especially tricky. You can also use a Yoru clone in a custom game to find crosshair placements for tricky angles. For some angles you can also find lineups to get your crosshair perfectly positioned before you peek.
Exceptions: If you are using a gun that you should not go for headshots with, don’t aim at head level. (Op and shotguns mostly)
Movement (while peeking and during gunfights) is just as important as raw aim (such as in Aimlabs) in getting kills in Valorant.
Peeking
First: Whenever you can, use only A or D to peek (move sideways, not diagonally) and peek perpendicularly to the enemy’s line of sight. If you are moving perpendicularly to their line of sight, you will appear to be moving faster to them than if you are moving diagonally. This is because forwards and backwards movement (toward or away from the enemy) does not change the position of your head very much. Thus, you want all of your speed to go into moving sideways.
Angle Advantage
A very important concept to understand when peeking is angle advantage. I’m not going to explain how or why it happens here except to say it is a result of geometry. Angle advantage means that when one person is peeking another person, the person farther from the corner will see the other first.
How to Peek
- If you are the one farther from the angle, you can peek them slowly, perhaps even shift or crouch peeking them if you are very far and they are very close. Continue peeking very slowly until you see them, and then shoot. When doing this, your crosshair should generally be right on the corner as that’s where the enemy will be when you peek them. Sometimes you can stop before you can see their head (when you can see just their leg/shoulder) and shoot them through the wall
- Most angles it will be obvious which side has angle advantage, but if you want to know for sure you can go into a custom match and ping the corner (with Z) from each spot and it will tell you how far away it is.
- If you are the one closer to the angle, if you peek slowly they will see you first and you will die. Therefore, you must get close to the angle, pre-aim into the wall, and peek out quickly (full speed, no walking or crouching) using only A or D (as mentioned above). Getting as close to the corner as possible will mean you move faster on their screen, so although they will see you first, they should not be able to react in time to shoot you before you can aim and shoot.
- You can take two full steps at full speed before making any noise. Use this to peek quickly but silently when lurking or trying to take space silently.
- If you are about the same distance from the angle, you will generally want to peek fast, as it will still give you an advantage to be moving as fast as possible. If you both know each other are there, I would not generally recommend holding, as then they will be the ones with peeker’s advantage. Instead, try peeking and unpeeking them repeatedly to catch them off guard, and expect them to be further out if they are trying to peek you.
How Far to Peek
When peeking fast, you can choose how far you want to swing out. If you want the option to retreat to safety, you probably shouldn’t peek out that far. In some scenarios, it can be advantageous to swing out very far. For example, after you do a Jump Spot or Shoulder Peek their crosshair is most likely close to the corner, and so if you then swing out wide you put yourself farther from their crosshair. If possible, do not swing so far that you are exposed to multiple angles at once (see Slicing the Pie). However, when combined with util like a flash or recon, or when double swinging, it can be acceptable or even good to wide swing many angles at once.
Additionally, if you have enough team coordination, when you are double peeking someone and committing to the fight, it is usually best if one person swings wider than the other. This distracts the person you are peeking and gives them two targets father apart than if you peek close together. Just make sure not to swing so far that you can’t see the person you are trying to peek.
If you manage to swing past the enemy’s crosshair, and their bullets are all shooting where you were (they are failing to track you) then keep swinging in the same direction. If you stop and move back, you will move right into their crosshair and the path of their bullets.
When swinging with stinger or frenzy, it is often best to wide swing to try to swing past their crosshair and simply run and gun them. Don’t stop moving until the enemy is dead.
Crouch Peek
Crouch peeking refers to starting a peek at full speed, but as you come to a stop, tap or hold crouch. Especially against enemies aiming at head level, this can cause them to shoot over your head. Many players crouch peek most of the time when doing normal peeks. If you are very low health (one shot) it is slightly better than usual to crouch because a shot on any part of your body will kill you, so you might as well give them a smaller target.
Pre-firing
When peeking a particularly common angle, you can pre aim exactly where the enemy’s head should be, peek out just enough for your crosshair to clear the corner, shoot, and tuck back around the corner. If you do it right, you can get free kills this way with very little danger, as the enemy will likely not be able to react in time. Sometimes you might not even see the enemy before they die.
Slicing the Pie
”Slicing the pie” refers to a technique to clear many angles one at a time. When slicing the pie, you peek each angle in succession, not exposing yourself more than necessary, so you don’t get caught off guard by someone in an off angle and you can fight the person at each angle one at a time. Look up a video tutorial for a more in-depth explanation.
One tip—you may have to stay further back from the angle when slicing the pie, as if you are close it can become impossible to peek only one angle at a time.
Peeker’s advantage/peeking advantage
When you are the one peeking and fully expecting someone, you have a slight advantage (everything else being equal) Because you are already looking for someone and they must react to seeing you on their screen.
When you are both peeking: Peek with your crosshair out wider, as they will be moving and be further from the corner when you get there.
Jump Peek
When peeking with gun with a slow movement speed, such as a sniper (especially an Op) or a machine gun, it can be good to jump peek. That means jumping around the corner and usually landing crouched. This can throw off enemy crosshairs enough for you to get a shot off. Jump peeking allows you to move faster with slow guns that would otherwise negate your peeker’s advantage. The downside is that it reduces your accuracy because you are jumping.
The other situation where it can be good to jump peek is with a shotgun. If you are close enough to the enemy, jumping does not reduce your shotgun inaccuracy enough that you cannot kill the enemy, and it makes it very hard for them to headshot you.
Jump peeking fully commits you to swinging that angle. It is very hard to jump peek and get out if you do not kill the person you are peeking.
Peeking with a Sniper
When peeking long angles with an Op, you usually want to scope in to the first level first, and then scope to the higher zoom level as you peek. With other snipers simply scope in as you peek.
Jump Spot
Jump spotting consists of jumping out to check an angle and using your ability to move while in the air to land back in safety. I won’t describe exactly how to do it here, as there are a few different ways including silently and a video is much better for learning that. While jump spotting, you should be looking at your minimap to see enemies appear on it. If you jump spot correctly, you will probably not be able to see on your screen what enemies are where, but they will show up on your minimap.
As the name implies, this is not exactly a peeking technique, but instead for gathering information. Use jump spotting when you don’t have other ways of gathering info and you want to stay alive. It is very hard, even with an Op, to kill someone who is full health and jump spotting correctly.
Jiggle Peek
Jiggle peeking can be used as an easier alternative to jump peeking. Basically, you jiggle out and back to peek while still maintaining relative safety. However, jump peeking is safer and doing an actual peek is more likely to get you a kill.
Shoulder Peek
Shoulder peeking, as the name implies, involves sticking out only your shoulder and going back quickly. Shoulder peeking is generally only used when you know that there is an Op there and you want them to waste their shot and try to kill them. Thus, after a shoulder peek you would usually do a normal peek and try to kill the Op (person with the Op) while they can’t shoot. However, most of the time the Op will unswing and be safe.
Jump/Run at Them
If you have good enough teamwork, in a 2v1, it can be a valid strategy to have one person run at the single enemy with their knife out, jumping and air-strafing around (“Neon movement” because Neon while sprinting is especially good at this) to make a very hard target and distract the enemy while the other person just peeks normally and shoots the enemy.
Holding
Crosshair placement is extremely important when holding. Ideally, your crosshair should be placed such that when an enemy peeks, their head ends up directly under your crosshair. As you get more practice, this should happen more and more often. The next best thing is that your crosshair is wider than the enemy’s peek. This means that if they keep peeking further, they will peek into your crosshair, and if they go back then you have stopped them from pushing out. Holding wider than the enemy will swing helps prevent a scenario where they peek past your crosshair and you are unable to correct and track them and your crosshair lags behind them.
When holding (unlike when aiming) keep your eyes on your crosshair and click when the enemy is under your crosshair.
Because of Angle Advantage, you pretty much always need to be further from the corner you are holding than the enemies that can peek you. In other words, you need to have angle advantage when holding, or you will simply die without even seeing an enemy. Because of this, it is usually best to hold as far back from the angle as possible, to give yourself the most angle advantage.
You can get away with not having angle advantage when you are in an unexpected position so that the enemy doesn’t clear the angle you are in. In Valorant, this usually occurs when you are hiding behind a small box or something where the enemy does not expect you to be.
When holding with an Op, hold your crosshair at crotch level or slightly above so that if they crouch peek you your crosshair is still on their body, giving you the easiest shot. When holding with an Outlaw and you know they likely have light shields, the same applies.
When unpeeking normally with an Op after taking a shot (not using dash or teleport or anything) it is usually best to pull out your knife so that you move faster and thus get out of danger faster. Jumping back to cover can also help you survive.
Crosshair Placement When Holding
As mentioned above, experience helps with correct crosshair placement, but here are some simple tips.
If you hear nothing, chances are the enemy is either not there or going slow and clearing everything carefully, so hold closer. If you hear footsteps, they are likely going to wide swing you, so hold wider.
If you know what kind of gun the enemy has, you might be able to predict where they are likely to swing. If they have a sniper, they will likely swing close because they can’t move fast enough for an effective wide swing. If they have a stinger, they will likely wide swing you.
After You Shoot While Holding
After you shoot while holding, go back to cover. Do this automatically, whether or not you got a kill. Again, when unpeeking normally with an Op (not using abilities like dash or teleport (TP)), it is usually best to switch to melee or secondary so that you can move to cover faster.
Because you should always return to cover if possible, you should be standing as close as possible to cover while still having angle advantage. To recap where to stand (usually): stand as far back as possible to give yourself the most angle advantage, and move sideways until you are as close to cover as possible while still being able to see the far corner that you are holding. If you move sideways such that a closer angle is in front of the one you actually want to hold, then you are reducing your angle advantage or even giving yourself angle
This is assuming you are not in an off angle (See Off Angles vs On Angles) and can easily get back to cover. If you are in an off angle, use your dash/tp to get to safety. If you do not have such an ability, then move immediately after you shoot, ideally closer to cover.
If you do shoot and fall back to cover, you then have a few options.
If you are fighting just one person, it can work quite well to move close to the angle (you were holding from far back, right?) and wide swing them. Because you just unpeeked the enemy, it is likely that their crosshair will be close to the wall, so wide swinging will put you past their crosshair, which is good for you.
If there are multiple enemies, it is usually best to fall back and hold the next angle, and repeat. If you have utility to slow them down (smoke, molly, etc), you can use it here but it will not be covered in this guide.
Crouch Hold
Normal hold, but you crouch to avoid the enemy’s crosshair. Usually best used when expecting one enemy to peek, as it makes it slightly harder to escape to safety because crouching slows you down. If you are very low health (one shot) it is slightly better than usual to crouch because a shot on any part of your body will kill you, so you might as well give them a smaller target.
Pixel Hold
A pixel hold is when you hold a gap between two corners that is as narrow as possible (Down to a single pixel wide, hence the name) while still seeing if an enemy goes past. This is a very safe type of hold, as it is unlikely that the enemy will be able to aim and shoot you through such a small gap. However! you must have angle advantage on the corner that enemies will peek around, or else they can kill you without you even seeing them. When pixel holding, you can take one or two shots when you see the enemy before falling back. If your crosshair placement and reflexes are good enough, it is possible to get kills like this.
Crossfire
Because friendly fire does not exist in Valorant, it can be quite advantageous to hold with at least one person on both sides of a choke point, as one enemy peeking you cannot kill both holders at once.
Double Hold
When double holding an angle (two people holding the same angle) you should generally be lined up horizontally so that you both can see the same enemies at the same time, but not lined up vertically. This usually means that one person crouches. It is the responsibility of the person in the back to stay not lined up vertically, because they can see the other person in front of them. This means the person in the back crouches if the person in the front is standing, and stands if the person in the front is crouching (the latter scenario is ideal)
High-Low
This is one variant of the double hold where instead of crouching, you use terrain to vertically separate the two people holding. Generally people use this phrase to mean a significant difference in height between the two holders. For example, on backsite B on Split there is a box that one person can stand on while the other person stands on the ground in front of them. If both people in a high-low have good crosshair placement, reflexes, and ping, it should be basically impossible for one enemy to kill both of them. Therefore, a high-low is most useful later in the round when you can expect to get peeked by only one person.
Off Angles vs On Angles
As opposed to common or on angles, off angles are spots where people do not usually hold from. Generally on angles are spots where you can easily escape to safety, and thus off angles are angles where you cannot easily escape to safety. Therefore, off angles at the beginning of rounds are usually only held by agents such as Jett, Reyna, or Chamber, who can easily get out using their abilities and not just by unswinging. Later in the round, if/when you expect to get peeked by just one person, off angles can be held by anyone. Off angles can be very unexpected for the enemy, leading to easy kills.
When holding on angles with a rifle, it can be good to move around a little bit, strafing side to side and maybe tapping crouch. This can throw the enemy’s aim off slightly. When holding off angles, you generally want to stand still to make it easier for you to aim. Since the enemy is probably not expecting you, it doesn’t matter if you move or not. Additionally, crouching holding can be especially good when in an off angle both to move your head down and help control your spray.
When holding with a sniper, just stay still. A red dot appears at the center of your sniper scope crosshair when you are not moving.
It is usually not a good idea to crouch hold when you are in an off angle standing higher than the enemy, as this puts your head closer to their crosshair.
Types of Off Angles
There are three main types of off angles from a holding perspective.
If the off angle is before the on angle (from the peeker’s perspective), you should hold very wide, with your crosshair far out from the corner. This is because when the enemy peeks the on angle, they will swing past you in order to peek the on angle, which means they will end up far from the corner from your perspective. However, if you are playing against a very smart enemy, they may expect you to be in an off angle and slice the pie, thus peeking your off angle normally. If you expect this, it may be better to hold the angle normally (not wide)
If the off angle is past the on angle, hold very close to the corner. This is because when the enemy peeks the on angle, they will end up right at the corner from your perspective. This only works if you have angle advantage and the enemy is not wide swinging and not expecting you.
If you are holding an angle where there is no on angle, hold right at the corner and spray as soon as you see the enemy. Because the enemy is not peeking an angle at all, they should just be running/walking around the corner.
Sound
If you are close enough to the angle that you can hear the enemy moving, you can prefire based off the sound of their footsteps. In other words, you shoot before you process seeing them so that your bullets reach the enemy right as they come around the corner.
Ping
When you have much higher ping than the person peeking you, combined with them having peeking advantage, it can be very hard to react in time. If this is the case, it is often better to never hold angles, and instead periodically peek them so that you have peeker’s advantage, helping to counteract your ping disadvantage.
Shooting
First shot
There are two main ways of approaching your first shot in a gunfight (with a vandal or similar): either flick to their head or move and flick (basically)
- Flicking directly to their head - you should use this when holding an angle with a rifle or when using an Op (don’t aim for the head with the Op though, aim for the crotch)
- you should start off fast and as you get closer you slow down.
- As your crosshair approaches their head, you should be evaluating how you need to adjust to land on their head at the end of your flick (more for long flicks than for short ones).
- According to Voltaic (I think) you should ideally get your mouse moving fast, and then as your arm travels through the flick, relax your arm muscles so that you can make precise microadjustments near the end of your flick.
- When moving and flicking - you should use this technique most of the time with a rifle when you are not holding in order to make you a harder target to hit.
- Your first instinct when encountering an enemy that you cannot immediately flick to or your crosshair is not already on should be to move. It prevents you from dying as often and gives you more time to aim.
- Move your crosshair to the opposite side of the enemy as you are moving or plan to move. Ex: if you are moving right, put your crosshair on the left side of the enemy. How far away from the enemy you put your crosshair affects how much you will have to move/readjust.
- Move in the direction you want to move in, or keep moving in that direction until your crosshair is on the enemy. Then stop and shoot. In reality, it takes some time to come to a stop, so you actually want to start stopping before your crosshair is quite on the enemy. It will take some practice to get the timing right. Ideally you should shoot as soon as you are completely stopped and thus will not have movement inaccuracy.
- Often with a Vandal or Phantom people will shoot two bullets here, but to make yourself harder to hit try deadzoning one bullet as your first shot, before entering the burst/move pattern below.
After the First Shot
If your first shot misses (likely) then you will most likely want to start a burst/move pattern. Exceptions: if you have an Op you probably want to tuck and hold a farther back angle, or maybe, maybe re-peek the same angle. With an Outlaw you might be able to get off your second shot before tucking. Marshal can sometimes be used for shoot/move, or use it like the other snipers.
- After your first shot, immediately start moving again. Probably in the opposite direction, but maybe not. After 1-3 steps, stop and shoot at them again. With a Vandal or Phantom, a 2-bullet burst is standard. Of course, while you are moving you should be aiming to try to hit their head. Of course, they will probably also be moving, which complicates things.
- Keep up this up until one of you dies or you run out of bullets (or you decide you don’t want to take this fight and hide.)
- Don’t just go back and forth between the same two spots. This makes you very predictable and easy to kill. Try to vary the amount and direction you move randomly. Ex: 2 steps left, 3 steps right, 1 step right, etc.
- To make you even harder to hit, throw in some crouching as you move and/or shoot. Moving your head up and down as well as side to side will make you a much harder target, especially against people who hit their headshots.
Spraying
Crouch spraying exists in Valorant. This is because crouching reduces your spray inaccuracy, which makes for a tighter spray. However, if you are crouching you cannot move very fast, making you an easy target. Generally, do not crouch spray unless you are certain your spray is on the enemy and you need the extra spray control. Speaking of spray control, each weapon in Valorant has its own spray pattern. Learning to control the spray pattern at least on the main gun you use, such as Vandal, is very important. Spray control means moving your mouse to counteract the spray pattern of the gun. All the spray patterns move up, which means you need to move your mouse down to keep the bullets going toward the enemy, and most move side to side to various degrees. Spray transfer is, as the name implies, transferring your spray to a different enemy. Sometimes it is better to keep spraying and move the spray over to the next enemy rather than stop shooting, aim, and then shoot again. This is mostly true when the enemies are close together. Practice spray control in the range by continuously shooting at a wall and trying to keep all the bullets in about the same area. Look up a guide for a more detailed explanation and advice for different guns’ spray patterns.
Minimap Refrag/Minimap trade
Because enemies appear on your minimap when your teammates can see them, it is possible to kill enemies through a smoke or wall without you ever seeing them. Simply point your player indicator at the enemies and spam bullets at them. It takes practice to figure out the alignment, as the minimap is a lot less precise than actually seeing enemies. If you get good at it it’s a reliable way to at least get some chip damage on enemies.
Spamming
As mentioned, many walls in Valorant maps are penetrable. Some maps have common spots (such as a plant spot or ult orb) that you can get free kills from if you have a lineup to spam them through a wall.
When spamming smokes, enemies sitting in smokes generally stick to the edges of smokes, so it’s usually best to spam there.
Crouching is a good way to control your spray as long as you are sure enemies are not going to peek you without you being able to spray them down.