Climbing the Valorant ladder can be a tough task, especially if you’re new to the game or the first-person shooter genre in general.
Embarking on this journey solo can be a tough task, but armed with the right knowledge and approach, you can tackle the challenges that lie ahead and reach the top ranks on the ladder.
Whether you're struggling with aim, game sense, or teamwork, the following tips can give you a leg up as you strive to reach higher ranks and improve your gameplay.
Expand your agent pool
Learning new agents and new playstyles is essential when it comes to long-term Valorant improvement, especially if you’re tired of playing the same Agents over and over again.
Exploring new Agents potentially opens the door for a completely new main that you had no idea you were good at.
On top of that, learning a new Agent can also inspire you to try harder in your games and be more focused as you’ll have more motivation to tryhard when the gameplay is exciting.
Not only does playing a wider variety of agents provide you with more flexibility, but it also allows you to gain invaluable insight into their playstyle. Countering your opponents is much easier if you’re familiar with the Agents’ skills and usual in-game patterns of play.
Don’t obsess over your rank
While not paying attention to rank might seem counterintuitive at first as you’re trying to climb the ranked ladder, it opens the door to improvement that was previously locked behind your anxiety.
Playing a match that could potentially result in a de-rank is never a fun time and stressing over matches like these can ruin your fun completely.
What’s more, overly focusing on your rank can result in a tunnel-visioned mindset that only prioritizes ranked wins over improvement.
While this may yield some short-term success, it won’t help you invest in your Valorant skills in the long run, resulting in a harder time when climbing the ranks.
Order an elo boost
The fastest and easiest method of climbing the ranked ladder is to order a Valorant elo boost performed by top-tier Radiant players.
Instead of going through the stressful process of ranking up the account yourself, you can order a pro player to play on your account and reach whichever rank you desire.
However, if you want to participate in the process of climbing yourself, you can also order a duo boost in which you play duo with your booster. This has become a popular method in the last few years as it involves no account sharing, making it a 100% safe elo boosting option
Elo boosting is very common in Valorant and plenty of people order elo boosts every day from trustworthy boosting platforms with years of experience under their belt.
Communicate with your team
Giving good comms while playing is an essential skill and the best way to communicate with your team is through voice comms. Text messages just don’t cut it in Valorant’s fast-paced environment as they’re too slow and often get ignored as such by your teammates.
If you don’t currently have a microphone, you should aim to invest in that piece of hardware at the first opportunity. This is crucial because real-time audio communication with teammates offers invaluable information that can only be conveyed effectively through a microphone.
On the other hand, if you have a microphone but you’re hesitant to use it, you should change that habit as constantly talking to your teammates is mandatory, especially in the highest ranks on the ladder.
Pay attention to the man advantage
Even though Valorant is a game where mechanical prowess and aim are arguably the most important skills to master, improving your strategic approach will also yield great success while climbing.
One of the best ways to improve your strategic approach is to pay attention to the occurrences on the map and your current man advantage. The term man advantage refers to which team has more players currently alive which always impacts how teams play and rotate on the map.
This is why making the first pick is so important, as it allows you to stick with your team and use the numerical advantage. Rushing with your teammates and outnumbering your opponents increases the likelihood of emerging victorious at the end of the round.
On the other hand, if you’re down in numbers, your main goal should be making aggressive plays by catching the opponents off guard, allowing you to even out the odds of winning.
Stop blaming your teammates
Some games aren’t meant to be won and we’ve all had situations in which we’re the top fragger with 30+ kills but the screen still says defeat in the end.
In this scenario, the first thing that comes to mind for many is to blame the team as they’ve likely underperformed and could’ve contributed more to the game’s outcome.
However, this doesn’t achieve anything as it won’t help you improve in the long run and you’ll just waste your energy on something completely pointless.
For the most part, you’re most likely going to never encounter the players you’ve just played with, so flaming them doesn’t achieve anything at all.
Furthermore, this continuous habit of blaming your teammates subconsciously reinforces the idea that you’re never the one who’s at fault for a loss, resulting in an over-inflated ego.
Play with premades
Most solo queue games feel like a coin toss as you get matched with random players who often end up being the reason you lose because they underperform.
However, you can reduce this aspect of randomness by adding more familiar faces to your solo queue games.
Playing with a premade partner, especially with a 3-stack party will significantly improve your chances of winning as you will be surrounded with players whose skills you can trust.
By 3-stacking in Valorant, you ensure that the mathematical majority of your teammates are skilled players instead of complete randoms.
If you lack skilled friends in your friend list, make sure to add top fraggers after each game and ask them to play with you, potentially leading to a beneficial friendship.
Reduce tilting by taking breaks
Managing your mental while playing in long gaming sessions is an essential aspect that allows you to stay ahead of your opponents.
Instead of queueing for another game after you’ve just finished one, you should take a 5-10-minute break involving any form of physical activity.
This can be something as simple as walking to the bathroom or fetching a glass of water, just as long as it gets you out of your chair and your eyes off the screen.
Taking breaks is even more important if you’re on a tilting loss streak as these pauses allow you to refresh yourself and reset your mindset for the upcoming match.
Balance your team economy
Generally speaking, low elo players tend to not understand Valorant’s economy system and how it can be used to gain an advantage over their opponents.
For this reason, rounds where half of the team is on pistols and the other half is on rifles are very common in the lower ranks, creating disbalance for the entire team. If you want to avoid these, you have to balance out your team’s economy and save instead of spending in certain rounds.
One of the best ways to make use of eco rounds is to communicate with your team and stack a specific spot when you’re all saving up for a new weapon.
By having all of your teammates at the same spot and working together, you increase the likelihood of one-shotting your opponents, even with inferior weapons.
Command the high ground
Like in many FPS games, being on high ground vastly improves your likelihood of outgunning your opponents as you’ll have an easier time aiming at them.
The biggest reason why this is the case is that your opponents that peek at you need to re-adjust their aim and flick the crosshair upwards if they’re positioned below you. While they perform this movement, you have more than enough time to seal their doom with a fatal headshot.
The platform you don’t stand on doesn’t need to be particularly tall in order for this method to work, so standing on a small ledge or any elevated surface will do the trick.
Watch pro players and streamers
Sometimes, the best way to improve how you play Valorant is to not play at all. What we mean by that is that you can actively improve as a player by passively adopting new skills and knowledge while watching a pro player.
There are hundreds of Radiant-level streamers playing on Twitch at any given moment and watching their gameplay will grant you insight into their gameplay patterns and routines.
Pay close attention and try to mimic their crosshair placement, movements, and team rotations which will elevate your gameplay as a result.
Use your utility
One of the biggest differences between skilled high elo players and the low elo ones is their ability to use their utility effectively.
Plenty of rounds are lost before the first utility ability is used because players often wait too long for the perfect moment to use it. By actively holding on to your utility abilities for too long, you’re decreasing the likelihood of winning the round as you’re crippling the potency of your Agent.
Instead of being greedy with your utility abilities, you should rather try to use them early in the round as a method of capturing certain spots on the map and exerting pressure.
Create a warm-up routine
Consistency is one of the key elements when it comes to climbing the ranked ladder and being prepared for your first match of the day will improve the consistency of your performance.
The first game of the day syndrome is real and stepping on the battlefield without any preparation can be fatal. For this reason, creating a warm-up routine that will help you hit headshots better and improve your spray is essential to increasing your overall win rate.
The beginning of your warm-up routine should start with a warm-up of your wrists as the physical warm-up improves your reflexes and sharp in-game movements.
When it comes to in-game warm-up, the best routine consists of loading up the shooting range and practicing your aim by shooting spawning bots for 5-10 minutes.
Practice aggression
You might not want to hear this if you’re a passive player who prefers to stay in the back while playing Controllers or Sentinels, but playing as a support won’t get you very far in ranked.
By staying behind and relying on your team while only casting utility, you relinquish any ability to carry the game yourself and make a broader impact.
What’s more, you reduce your potential to improve as a player by not taking any in-game risks. Playing aggressively will make you more confident and mechanically sound, allowing you to clutch in the crucial moments of the match.
Don’t hesitate to pick a new duelist Agent that you’ve never tried such as Reyna or Jett and practice aggressive movements and rotations in unrated before trying it out in ranked.
Learn to strafe when moving
One-on-one fights and outplays are what Valorant’s all about and winning a tight fight like this can completely swing the course of a match.
The best way to increase your win percentage of 1v1s is to improve your movement and increase the number of bullets you dodge. Strafing is a common method that players use to dodge bullets in combat and it means only using A and D when fighting.
This strategy allows you to evade bullets by consistently shifting your body, unlike moving up and down, which doesn't alter your opponent's target.
In practical terms, this implies that your movement will only be from left to right, confusing your opponents and making your body harder to hit.
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