Tips and Tricks for New Players

Valorant’s gameplay is full of features, agents, and abilities that can be daunting to new players. If you’re new to the game and looking to join your first matches, here’s all the tips, tricks, and strategies you need to get started in Valorant.

Once you’ve got to grips with the basics of the game and played a few matches, the next step is learning more about vital mechanics and beginner mistakes to avoid.

Know Your Agent

Valorant Agents and their unique abilities are the core of Valorant’s gameplay. It is important for a team to have a well-balanced roster of Agents in order to consistently win rounds. You should play with all the starting Agents to get a feel with what you are comfortable with — over time, you’ll figure out which play style fits you the best.

20 Agents are separated into 4 categories based on their play styles. See which category sounds best for you:

There are four types of Agents:

• Sentinel: Passive Agents who can lock down areas and watch flanks, both on attacker and defender rounds. There are currently 4 Sentinels: Sage, Cypher, Killjoy, and Chamber. Sage is automatically available to you.
• Initiator: Specialize in challenging enemy map control, gathering information, and giving your team the advantage when pushing positions on the battlefield. There are currently 5 Initiators: Sova, Breach, Skye, KAY/O, and Fade. Sova is automatically available to you.
• Controller: Controls the battlefield by blocking lines of sight and locking down areas for the team. There are currently 4 Controllers: Brimstone, Viper, Omen, and Astra. Brimstone is automatically available to you.
• Duelist: Aggressive Agents who are expected — with the help of their abilities — to seek out opening firefights and apply pressure to the enemy. There are currently 6 Duelists: Phoenix, Jett, Raze, Reyna, Yoru, and Neon. Phoenix and Jett are automatically available to you.

There is plenty of utility in the 20 Agents currently available, so knowing their abilities and what roles they specialize in will put you in the best position to succeed. Check out the Agent breakdown for what each of them do to find out more.

Choose Your Agent Unlocks Wisely

You have only 5 Agents to start with: Brimstone, Jett, Phoenix, Sova, and Sage. Of these 5, two are duelists (Jett and Phoenix), while the other 3 fall into the other 3 categories of Agents (Brimstone for Controller, Sova for Initiator, and Sage for Sentinel).

As a new player, you will get 2 extra agent unlocks as part of the Play to Unlock contract: One at 7,000 XP earned and one at 12,000 XP earned. After that, you will have to unlock each Agent through their individual Agent Contracts which takes 200,000 XP each to unlock!

Since they give you such a variety of Agents to start with, sit back and use them for a while before you jump right into unlocking a new one. This will give you some time to figure out which type of Agent fits how you play the game best. Because after the Play to Unlock contract, every next Agent will take a while to acquire for you!

Remember: When you do decide you are ready to unlock a new agent, Why not hop into the Open Range and try out their abilities before you commit. Once you unlock the Agent there is no going back!

Visit our Best Valorant Beginner Agents to Unlock First page to learn more.

The Practice Range is Your Friend

It is highly recommended you check out the Open Range before diving into a game of Valorant! The open range gives you unlimited funds to try out the weapons and Agent abilities.

This will let you figure out which weapons you do and don't like for your playstyle. You can also try out any Agent here - even the ones you don't have unlocked. Go nuts!

Dominate the Corners

Valorant is all about getting the right angles in gunfights. The best way to get the drop on your enemies is to hug the corners! Peeking corners will let you find the best line of sight to either drop an ability or check on an enemy.

Always approach corners and new areas with caution, you never know what may be on the other side!

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!

At the end of the day, Valorant is a team game. It doesn't matter how good you do on your own. You will need everyone working together to succeed.

Obviously, the best way is always going to be with a headset and using call-outs to let your teammates know enemy positions, but the reality is that isn't always an option. Luckily, Valorant has an excellent Ping System. Default Key locked to Z (easily changed in settings) will automatically ping the area highlighted by your crosshair. Call out whatever you are looking at, so if you ping an enemy or the Spike, everyone on your team will be made aware of their location.

Use this to ping things like enemy locations, possible flanks incoming, or a dropped spike (if playing Defense). This will help your team position themselves and take the proper angles.

See more at our guide to communication in Valorant.

Buy/Request Weapons from Your Teammates

Another sweet team-focused feature in Valorant is the ability to request guns during the buy phase and being able to purchase requested guns for teammates.

During the Buy phase, on the right side of the screen when you have the shop open, you will see the list of teammates and their current kits. If they have requested a weapon you will see it here. If you have spent a few rounds without dying or racking up kills, chances are you have some extra cash. Use that cash to purchase weapons for teammates if they need them - a kitted team is a winning team!

On the flip side, if you have spent a few rounds without kills and need a weapon because you spent what little cash you had on armor and abilities, right clicking a weapon on the buy screen will let your team know you need some help finishing your kit.

You should purchase a weapon for your teammates if requested whenever you can. You'll never know when you might be down on your luck and karma works in mysterious ways.

Try Editing Your Crosshair

One of the coolest personalization options that Valorant offers to you is the ability to customize your crosshair.

This is incredibly in depth, including the ability to change the color, opacity, width, length, and more! Take a second to change around the crosshair, or take it away completely. Whatever you want - it's your game!

See our Crosshair Guide to learn more.

Play it Slow

The stakes are high in Valorant. One wrong move can lead to your untimely death, leaving your team with one less gun on the battlefield. Running at normal speed is loud, giving away your position to enemies in the area, especially to those with a good headset. Unless planned beforehand, there is no reason to rush into a fight in Valorant!

Obviously there are exceptions to every rule, but more often than not taking it slow and always checking your corners will benefit you in the long run. Sometimes taking the Loss in a round, but staying alive so you can keep your equipment may be the best option for future success.

This is also where communication comes in. If you know the general positioning of the enemy, this will give you the situational awareness to know when running is (and isn't) an option. Don't be afraid to ping and call out positions to your teammates, they will thank you in the long run.

Know When to Buy or Save

Money isn't infinite in Valorant. Between rounds you will get cash based on your performance in the previous round. Sometimes, it may be a good idea to buy the bare minimum in order to have a more complete kit next round. Headshots are devastating no matter the weapon, so if you know you can land them, there might not always be a need to spend all your money, every round.

However, after round 12, there will be a side swap and the game will restart (other than the score). This means you will lose all your money, ability charges, and ultimate if it is ready.

USE EVERYTHING BEFORE THE END OF ROUND 12. Anything not used will be lost forever, so don't waste it!

General Tips

• Have Fun! Valorant is a tough game, don't beat yourself up if you aren't playing great. The learning curve in this game is STEEP so just focus on learning the flow of each round when you start out. No need to stress about your K/D ratio until you decide you are ready for competitive. Plus, all progress resets once the closed beta is over.
• Don't stick to one agent/type of agent. When you're playing a hero based shooter, the best kind of teammate to be is one who can help fill in the gaps. Not only will this force you to learn other Agents, it will also make you popular with your teammates. Filling needed roles sounds like a simple thing, but most people refuse to go outside their comfort zones in this type of game, so being one that does will give you plenty of utility.
• ADS (aim down sights) isn't necessary, so don't force it. Guns are very accurate when used correctly in Valorant, so while some weapons have ADS as their secondary fire, you don't always need to use it. ADS usually comes with a big disadvantage, such as limited view, slower rate of fire, and slower aiming. Knowing when to ADS could be the difference between a headshot and death.
• Learn every inch of maps. If you dominate angles, you dominate the game. Learning the maps and figuring out the best angles and flanks will give you an advantage when navigating gun fights during matches. If you know where the enemy can come from, then you know which lines of sights to keep tabs on.
• It's tempting to save ultimate abilities for big multikill plays, but the reality is Valorant isn't about the big plays - it's about the small victories. Sometimes your ultimate may kill no one, and that's okay! Using an ultimate to push enemies off a point, buy time for a spike defuse, or kill the top Agent are all successful uses in their own way. Ultimates are made to be used, so use them!