5 Common Mistakes Valorant Players Make

Ah tactical shooters. The place where true, twitchy, hardcore gamers are made. Valorant is exactly that, rewarding precision, strategic thinking, creativity and, above all, teamwork. If you’re trying to rise up the ranks you have two options: buy Valorant boosting or get good.

 

 

Fortunately, getting good is usually just a few steps away: requiring us to take a step back, analyse our gameplay and make some meaningful changes. You’d be surprised how the majority of players are all held back by the very same things. That’s why in this article we are taking a look at the 5 most common mistakes made by Valorant players—so you can stop making them too!

 

Poor Crosshair Placement

A large part of Valorant is about clicking heads. While that sounds simple, aim is not an easy thing to master. But you can set yourself up for success.

Unfortunately for most players the crosshair goes where they want to look instead of staying where it should be—at head height. If your crosshair is anywhere other than head height, you’re going to need to do extra work to aim at your opponents when they most certainly show up. And that time difference will likely see you end up dead.

Mastering crosshair placement is easy, but it requires discipline. Simply keep your crosshair level to the ground whenever you are moving around or not using an ability. Trust me, this is one of the most surefire ways to secure kills.

 

Running and Gunning as One of the Common Mistakes

Valorant is about precision. And you cannot get that while moving. Seriously, Valorant seriously punishes moving and shooting. So if you’re coming into the game from other shooters, you may well have to retrain some of your tendencies when it comes to knowing when to shoot.

The way to overcome this is to very briefly stop—better yet, stop and crouch—when your fire at enemies before returning to cover. Shooting like this will seriously improve your odds of hitting your shots—especially at distance. 

 

Underutilizing Utility

While Valorant feels a lot like CS:GO, it has one fundamental addition—agent abilities. Lots of new players either overuse or underuse these abilities.

Learning how to choose an agent and when to use their abilities is a true game changer in Valorant. Doing this right can give you and your team a serious edge—from gaining information about enemy locations, blocking off areas, dishing out debuffs or even bringing back dead teammates.

As there are so many different agents and abilities in the game I can’t cover them all here: the best bet is for you to look up guides for your favourite agents. 

But as a rule of thumb: as abilities are only available once or twice per round you’ll want to use your abilities only when you think they will actually get real value. This isn’t Overwatch! That said, don’t hold them too long so that they are not used.

 

Ignoring the Minimap

Listen, I get it. A lot happens in a Valorant match and part of the thrill/challenge is simply trying to stay alive yourself. But a huge part of staying alive is keeping up with everything that’s happening around you. The minimap provides you with perhaps the most important information you will need to survive.

By glancing at the minimap you can see teammate positions and lines of sight, see where your teammates die, see where enemies are shooting and even the location of more subtle sound cues.

Seriously, look at the minimap and you’ll gain a treasure trove of knowledge.

 

Not Learning from Common Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes in Valorant, no matter our skill level. But the key to overcoming those issues and rising up the ranks is recognising and rectifying those problems. This comes from truly analysing your gameplay.

This analysis can come either in the game or after the game.

In the game, when you die consider why you died instead of your opponent. What could you have done differently to have survived, or killed them yourself. Did you have tools you weren’t using? Did you have information you weren’t paying attention to? Was it simply a silly play on your end? Be honest with yourself, and actively try to take a different approach next life.

After the game, you can review your performance and even watch replays from your POV. This is one of the best ways of analysing your performance as you can see why you made the decisions you did, while also seeing all the other possible options available to you. You can also analyse how others play to see why they bested you or your team.

 

Bonus Tip for Common Mistakes: Communication Is Key

I’ll keep this short, Valorant is a team game. You need to be communicating about where you are going, when you see enemies and what options are available to you in any given moment. If you coordinate, you’re way more likely to stay alive.

Good luck out there agent.