How to improve your aim in Valorant

“In Valorant, shooting matters.” Those were the words of Riot Games’ CEO when the game was announced — and it couldn’t be more true. If you are struggling to get good at aiming in Valorant, here’s a few tips to get you on your way.

Valorant is no different from any other FPS title: you have to be able to aim to get kills. While tactics can help you win rounds, it’ll all be for nothing if you can’t click heads. If you are struggling to pick up the basics of aiming, there’s a few things you can do to help yourself out. From figuring out crosshair placement to training your aim, getting good at shooting in Valorant is easy ⁠— it just takes a bit of time, practice, and patience.

1. Perfect your crosshair!

The first thing you’d want to do when looking to improve your aim is to design the perfect crosshair. When you want to nail down your crosshair placements, being able to see your cursor at all times is key.

• Read more: Valorant weapon guide: Damage stats for all guns

Typically, FPS veterans will tell you a few things about crosshairs. One, it should always be static. This means that when you are running or shooting, your crosshair doesn’t change size. You can set this in Valorant by turning off movement and firing errors in your crosshair settings. The second is that the color should always be high-contrast. Green and purple are the two colors of choice for most pros. A quick tip is to run an outline outside your crosshair, too. This also helps if you are colorblind and can’t use certain crosshair colors, but need the contrast. You can set this in Valorant by turning outlines on in your crosshair settings. After that, it’s really up to you. Some prefer crosses. Some players prefer dot crosshairs. Others prefer a mix of both. If you haven’t played an FPS before, it might take some time to find what suits you. Nail this down, though, and it’ll help you immensely.

2. Crosshair placement is key

The biggest downfall of newer FPS players is where they hold their crosshair. Often, new players will aim at the toes of enemies, and struggle with juggling depth. You’ll always want to be aiming at head height — especially in a game like Valorant, where one-shot headshots are key. The only way you can really fix this is with time and practice. Thankfully, there’s some handy tools that you can utilize within Valorant itself to help to get used to aiming at head height.

• Read more: Best weapons to use in Valorant: Every gun ranked

In the Shooting Range, you can run through a shooting test to get used to the character model sizes. You can either challenge yourself by doing the test ⁠— where enemies appear one-by-one at a set speed ⁠— or you can run through a practice run. Try and complete these challenges using one-taps only, practicing your trigger discipline and your first shot accuracy. The practice run is handy for trying to keep up aim over extended periods of time, bouncing from one target to the next. Meanwhile, the test is good for testing reaction times and your flicks. You can adjust your sensitivity up or down with the interactive display if you notice yourself missing targets consistently.

3. Use 3D Aim Trainer

While the in-game practice mode is good, it can only do so much. If you really want to take your aim to the next level, you’ll want to use 3D Aim Trainer. 3D Aim Trainer gives you the chance to practice certain drills to get better at all aspects of your aim. You can either use it from your browser or via a downloadable stand-alone application. The really great thing here is it’s completely free, meaning you can improve your aim without breaking the bank.

• Read more: 5 features Valorant desperately needs

Using this program on a daily basis is key, too. It’s one thing to use an aim trainer once and be done with it. But if you want to get noticeable, long-lasting results, you want to throw yourself into an 3D Aim Trainer for at least 15 minutes every day. Like any skill, practice makes perfect.

4. Does scoping help?

Unlike CS:GO, Valorant gives you the option to aim-down-sights and scope in with almost every weapon. If you are coming from a title like Call of Duty or Rainbow Six: Siege, scoping in to shoot will feel very natural. But in Valorant, it’s not as pressing. While scoping will give you a slight zoom-in on your enemies, there’s a trade-off, as it does slow down your rate of fire. You’ll notice watching top-level Valorant players that most of them don’t scope in whatsoever.

• Read more: How Radianite Points work in Valorant

There are some situations where scoping is good. Obviously, if you’ve got a Sniper, you’ll want to scope in to shoot. But if you are holding a long angle with a rifle for a long period of time, it might be worth scoping to just have that extra bit of zoom, and easier recoil control at distance.

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If you are getting to grips with aiming in Valorant, these tips should set you on your way. There are obviously more technical things you can work on – like learning spray patterns – but these tips should help set you on the right path to getting your aim pixel perfect.