Valorant’s 5v5 FPS competitive mode has been taking the gaming community by storm and you finally decided to see what all the fuss is about. You completed your placement matches and received your starter rank.
“It’s okay,” you tell yourself, “Everybody’s got to start somewhere.”
The problem is that you’ve been in the Bronze tier for a while. It seems like no matter how many matches you complete; you just can’t break through that Bronze ceiling.
Unfortunately, many new players think that playing enough matches can help you climb the ranks, and with Valorant, that’s simply not the case. For Riot Games’ shooter competition, quality outweighs quantity.
Getting out of Bronze may seem like an uphill battle, but the key is to play smart and focus on the game mechanics. Riot Games is relatively open about which skills will yield more points and help you climb the ranks if you’re willing to put in the work.
Useful Tips to Get Out of Bronze in Valorant
Unlike some other competitive shooter games, Valorant rewards skill and performance, and poor performances can cost you a rank. Check out these tips to help you level up faster and get to the next rank:
1. Aim
You may think a hit is a hit, but in Valorant, it’s all about headshots. If you want to advance the ranks, you need to learn to keep those crosshairs up and it may be harder than it sounds. The last thing you want is the teammate whose crosshair is constantly dipping around for the next target. Keep your crosshair at head height and keep them there or you lose valuable time readjusting for every new target.
Consistent headshots are also a way to rack up points during a match but getting your aim picture perfect isn’t something you can do by watching.
You need to practice – a lot. If you don’t want your practice time to impact your competitive performance, consider going into the practice range or jump into a Deathmatch. Keep practicing until headshots become second nature.
Some players find Aim Lab a useful tool for aiming practice and developing muscle memory. You don’t necessarily have to use the aim trainer, but you do need to practice aiming outside of matches to get good at it.
Keep in mind that the key to great aim isn’t just crosshair placement. You also need to make sure that your sensitivity is “just right” so you don’t get excessive movement when you’re making micro-adjustments.
Generally, aim sensitivity is a personal preference. However, many pro players adjust their settings to a 400 to 800 DPI range with a 0.2 to 0.7 in-game sensitivity. Even if you don’t use the same settings as pro players do, it’s a good place to start when looking for your setting preferences.
2. Gun Recoil
How do you choose your weapons in Valorant? Do you go with the flashiest cosmetics or the highest damage stats? Your weapon matters in competitive play, but maybe not the way you think.
Each weapon in Valorant has a specific spray pattern and recoil. For example, the Vandal sprays upward, to the right, to the left, and back towards the right before returning to the starting point. Once you understand the spray pattern, you can move in the opposite directions with micro-movements to control your fire.
Using the Vandal spray pattern example, you’d move slightly downward, to the left, to the right, and back to the left again to keep your fire relatively centered.
Keep in mind that Riot Games has a semi-random horizontal spray mechanic implemented for most guns. You may understand the pattern of your gun’s horizontal sway, but how long it stays in one direction before switching is completely random.
Fortunately, there is a visual indicator when your gun sways left or right. If you look at your weapon closely, you’ll see it move in the direction of the spray, giving you time to compensate for the movement.
3. Patch Notes
Patch Notes are a great way to find out about new Agents and Battle Passes, but it also tells you what’s changed with the new update.
Have they nerfed specific Agent abilities? Buffed damage output for a weapon or made changes to competitive mode? You’ll get a front-row seat to all these changes if you read the Patch Notes released with every update.
For example, Patch 3.0 announced the release of a new Agent, Kay/O. However, it also had some changes to the matchmaking system in Competitive Mode to improve the system’s accuracy. Riot Games made some changes to rank distribution as well.
The game evolves with every Patch, so it’s important to keep track of these changes and how they may affect your gameplay.
4. Agent
You may have unlocked all the Agents in Valorant, but each one has strengths and weaknesses that may enhance or destroy your stats, depending on how you use them. It’s not about picking an Agent that deals the most damage or is the most popular.
In competitive mode, you need to pick an Agent that you like to use and get very good with him or her. Each Agent fills a specific role in your team dynamic, so you must understand who your Agent is and what they excel at so that you can play to your Agent’s strengths.
Also, pick a couple of alternative Agents to use just in case you can’t use your main Agent. The key is to focus your attention on a small handful of Agents that you play very well instead of a large roster of Agents that you barely know how to use.
5. Teamwork & Communication
Teamwork is integral for success in Valorant’s competitive mode. Riot Games wants you to talk to your teammates and work together to complete an objective, but you won’t get far unless you learn callouts.
One of the simplest ways to get familiar with callouts is to go into custom matches and look at each match. You can see the tags for each callout area on the map, but there’s a better way to learn callouts: start a custom match and go to the individual areas. Memorize the key points of each area so that you’re well-prepared when you need to head to a callout in the heat of battle.
You also want to make sure that you’re doing your part to create a friendly and positive environment. Be the teammate you would want in a match.
Valorant has its share of toxic environments and even more toxic teammates that can lead to bad games, but you can set the tone of a match with a positive attitude. Give compliments when they’re due, reassure teammates who took a hit or made a bad play, and keep spirits high throughout the match.
7. Watch How Pros Play
Athletes watch pro players to discover new techniques or improve old ones, and gamers are no different in this respect. Take the time to look up a few Valorant pros and watch how they play, especially if they happen to “main” the same Agent that you do.
Common Mistakes That Keep You From Ranking Up
Sometimes it’s the simplest mistakes that may keep you from ranking up in Valorant. You probably don’t even know that you’re making these mistakes because they’ve worked well in other games. Or maybe you’re new to video games and don’t understand basic shooter mechanics the way that other veteran players do.
Whichever the case may be, check your playstyle and make sure these common mistakes aren’t holding you back from ranking up in Valorant:
Attack Mistakes
1. Using Utility Skills at the Start of a Match
Using your Agent’s utility skills early in a match is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in competitive play. You want to save them and use them when you’re near the end of a match or you’re in a bind. The team that has the most utility towards the end of the match is usually the one that wins it.
2. Not Baiting or Trading
Baiting is when you use another teammate’s position or a utility to trick an opposing team member into the line of fire. Trading is when you and other teammates trade-off techniques like peek-sniping or baiting to get the frag or kill shot.
Valorant’s competitive mode is supposed to be a team effort, so it doesn’t help your ranking when you’re only concerned about yourself. Get together with other members and work together to take down the opposing team and rack up the kill count.
3. Poor Crosshair Placement
Headshots are key if you want to rise through the Valorant ranks. Unfortunately, though, there are many players out there that think that “a kill is a kill.” While that may be true, a body shot doesn’t count quite as much as a headshot. Nor do they win you the kill or the game.
Practice placing your crosshair at head height, even when there are no opponents in front of you. Running around with your crosshair pointed at the ground could cost you a match.
4. Too Much Grouping Up
What happens when all the attackers group up on a couple of defenders? You may overwhelm an enemy’s defense but grouping up too often gives a defending team too much opportunity to take control of the map. They know where everybody went at the start of the match and, suddenly, the tables are turned.
Instead of rounding up everybody to rush a site, leave behind a player or two to keep a presence on that side of the map.
Defense Mistakes
1. Not Using Teammates to Retake
The spike’s planted and it’s time for the defending team to retake a lost area. It usually signals “go!” time for the other teammates, but you’ll run into problems when a lone wolf decides to go it alone. Instead of waiting for teammates, the lone wolf team member ends up in a bunch of 1v3 fights to retake which can spell disaster for the entire match outcome.
Rather than running in guns blazing, wait for your teammates to catch up with you before trying to retake an area. In this case, there is safety – and victory – in numbers.
2. Rotating Too Often
If you’re on defense, you’re probably going to get twitchy. Every noise from the attacking players will send your teammates sprinting to their location. Unfortunately, when everybody rotates over to a new area your area is open for the taking.
Instead of sending everybody to investigate, make sure you have at least one member stay behind until there’s a commitment in the area by the other team.
Master Game Mechanics to Advance
Valorant isn’t just another FPS game. You need to understand the detailed mechanics behind each facet of the game to master it and climb the ranks. It takes a lot of time and even more patience to develop muscle memory, aim, and placements to excel at the game. And just when you think you have a handle on it, you’ll find more ways to improve.
After all, the game isn’t the only thing that’s constantly evolving. You’ll find that you’re going to evolve as a player, too, if you’re up for the challenge.
How long did it take you to rank out of Bronze? What advice would you give for ranking out of Valorant’s lower tiers? Tell us about it in the comments section below.
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