Valorant: Mastering the Basics

How does valorant work?

Valorant is a 5v5 Competitive FPS Game that is packed full of action, control one of 12 Agents, and bring your team to victory by planting the spike before the 2-minute timer or preventing it from happening when you’re on defense.

Why was it developed?

Valorant was developed by Riot Games... Creators of the critically acclaimed game, League of Legends.

They had an idea that mashed together everyone’s two favorite games.

CSGO and Overwatch.

Two of the most famous FPS games focused on tactile controls and unique abilities for every Character.

Valorant cleans up everything CSGO had wrong when it came to this creative genre by picking up where it left off and improving on it.

What is the goal for each round:

In Valorant the attacking team’s goal is to plant the spike and to detonate it.

The enemy’s objective is to stop it from happening by any means possible and defuse the spike.

Planting the Spike requires coordination and working together to prevent players from dying due to the enemy team.

Try to work together to secure as many rounds as possible.

The first team to get 12 rounds wins, if both teams get to 12 - overtime occurs.

How to warm-up

Warming up in an FPS game can be very difficult - the best warm-up I’ve found is 10 minutes in the Shooting Range and 10 minutes in Deathmatch fighting human opponents, don’t get obsessed with aim training - it’s always better to play the game.

The ideal sensitivity will be between

0.15 - 0.55 with 800 dpi for Valorant.

This will allow fast but precise mouse movements and allow you to do the occasional flick onto an enemy player.

How to Improve your aim

Always aim for the head to kill your opponent as fast as possible, and as quickly as possible.

Aim training for 15 minutes, 4 times per day can help improve your aim significantly.

It’s best not to wear yourself down and tire yourself out by training for extended periods of time.

Try to dedicate 30 minutes every day to watching pro-gameplay and fixing your own gameplay by watching vods of yourself.

This will help you improve by looking at some of the best players in the world go head to head and using strategy to win round after round.

Compare yourself to them, and realize you’re not on their level.

Once that is realized, you’ll be able to improve.

Confidence is one of the key factors of Valorant - having the confidence to peak someone and kill them immediately will allow you to make plays that you otherwise would’ve thought were impossible.

Mindset is very important - don’t be toxic to yourself or your teammates.

Choosing an Agent:

There are 4 different categories to choose from when it comes to choosing an agent in Valorant.

Initiator, Duelist, Controller, and Sentinel.

Choosing an Agent:

In Valorant the 12 agents are split into 4 different categories.

Initiators create unique opportunities for players to get kills.

An example of this is Sova, he has an arrow that allows him to see players through walls.

Allowing Duelists a unique opportunity to pinpoint exactly where players are and kill them before they have a chance to react

Duelists create space for their team by being the first to take engagements.

Phoenix is a self-sufficient fragger that has a blind and a firewall, he can use these abilities to heal himself - or to take control of certain areas of the map by creating unique angles for himself.

Controllers slice up dangerous territory by smoking out dangerous areas.

Omen has the ability to control many areas of the map by using his regenerative Smokes and Paranoia.

His Paranoia ability allows him the opportunity to blind an entire entry point of a site, stopping players from entering the site and making them vulnerable to attack.

In Valorant a smoke demands map control for your team and allows your Duelist to not worry about countering an Operator, which allows them to be aggressive as they want when the time comes to entry on-to the bomb site.

Sentinels are defensive gods, they can solo hold a site and watch for flanks.

Cypher has a tripwire that allows him to see the character’s outline whenever they fail to shoot it in time.

His Cypher cage prevents enemies from seeing him and makes him a very hard character to kill.

Most Sentinels try to stay alive for as long as possible to allow their team to make the rotations they need.

When to be Aggressive

When going for an aggressive play make sure you use all of your abilities when making a successful push.

Mistakes in Valorant can be easily corrected as long as you have the ability to rewatch your gameplay – make every death a learning experience.

Every player has the potential to control the tempo of the game by using blinds and their signature abilities.

By limiting the number of plays they can do defensively and offensively you get to dictate the tempo of the game.

Now that you understand how pivotal of a role you play - let's move on to the next subject.

Basic Team Comps

A basic team comp has a Sentinel, Duelist, Initiator, and a Controller to prevent heaven from being a powerful spot on most maps.

Most teams have two Duelist, a Sentinel, and an Initiator/Controller.

Try to play pick an agent that has this basic team comp in mind.

Sound

In Valorant sound is one of the most important aspects - enemy teams can prepare for you if they hear a step and call for their teammates to rotate to the site they are on for back-up.

It is very important not to run when you think an enemy is nearby or when you’re close to the bombsite.

Mini-Map

The mini-map will become your best friend in Valorant, it will allow you to jiggle peak and see the person on the mini-map, even if you never actually saw them.

Jiggle Peak

In this game, you can jiggle peak by pressing the A and D keys very quickly back and forth, which will allow you to have the chance to improve your movement and also make it harder to shoot you.

When aiming it is important that you aim at head level, aiming at head level is quite easy because of how the maps are designed.

You’re able to adjust and control your aim based on the markings around the map.

How to Advance to the next rank in Valorant

Improving in Valorant is quite difficult the higher you go, it is important to always focus on improving and to rewatch your vods over and over again, and to submit them to be reviewed by well-renowned coaches and players alike.

Conclusion

Valorant is an intriguing game with a very high skill ceiling, improvement in this game is slow and steady but it will be worth it in the end when you reach the highest rank in the game.