Valorant

Tips

• Start here

  Heads, not sprays

  Put the crosshair where a head will be when you swing. Tap or burst at range; the rifle's first-shot accuracy is the gunfight. Counter-strafe (tap the opposite move key) before you click.

• Start here

  Don't insta-lock Duelist

  A team without a smoker (Omen, Brimstone, Clove, Astra) cannot take a site. On pistol, light armor plus a Sheriff is often better than a full Classic spray into a Phantom the next round you cannot buy.

• Advanced

  Utility then lurk, or utility then hit

  Smokes go down, flash goes in, then the first player swings. A Jett dash is not an i-frame through a holding Operator. Default a site (plant for default, not for a hero angle) so your post-plant utility actually covers the spike.

• Advanced

  Save the AWP on a lost round

  If the round is over, hide the Operator instead of dying with it. Anti-eco: buy a Sheriff or a Spectre and hold closer angles; don't give rifles to a team that saved.

• Secrets

  One-ways and Sage walls

  One-way smokes (Ascent cat, Bind showers) are map knowledge, not agent mastery. Sage walls that boost onto a box are the difference between a default and a lost round; practice them in a custom before you try them in ranked.

• Multiplayer

  Comms are the agent

  Call 'one Heaven, swinging' not 'he's there.' Don't hard-clear the same angle a teammate just died on. Play the half; a 4-round first half is still a pistol and a timeout away from even.