Gaming
Gaming
5 ways to improve your kill-death ratio on Valorant
Want to boost your KD? Use these tips to help you secure those kills in Valorant.
Just like any other shooter game, having a good kill-death ratio (KD) is incredibly important in Valorant. Although it is somewhat role dependent when it comes to competitive play, if you want to rise through the ranks in solo matchmaking, you need a good KD ratio to be able to carry as well as being a useful teammate.
Improving your KD consistently is no easy task but if you’re committed, invest the time and take the game seriously, these five tips should see your kill count dramatically increase...
1. Know what every agent does
While Valorant shares many similar aspects to Counter Strike, Riot Games’ FPS has added an extra strategic layer to its game with the introduction of Agents. As of now, there are 10 Agents available to players, and each is equipped with a range of abilities aimed to help players take objectives. Unlike Riot’s MOBA League of Legends, the Agents' abilities in Valorant aren’t overly complicated and there are, after all, only 10 of them in comparison to the 148 in League.
Learning what every Agent does is a no-brainer when it comes to Valorant. If you know what Omen’s Ultimate sounds like or how much damage Raze’s Grenade does, you’ll be better prepared when it comes to avoiding death as well as making counter plays. So, even though it might be slightly tedious, it’s imperative to know all the Agents inside out before you do anything else.
2. Find a crosshair and sens that works for you
Take some time to figure out what sens works best for you
© Riot Games
Putting the Agents’ individual abilities aside, Valorant is still a very traditional shooter game at heart and even though planting and defusing the spike is the ultimate objective, you need to ace the opposition before they wipe out your team. One of the biggest mistakes players make is not putting in enough time to find a suitable crosshair or finding what sens works for them.
If you’re already a seasoned player in other FPS games such as Counter Strike or Overwatch, you can use a sens converter to find what sensitivity your mouse should be in Valorant. If you’re a newbie however, there’s a number of tests you can do to determine what works for you. You can replicate professional players’ crosshair if you think that’d be suitable or hop into the Practice Range in Valorant to test out a variety of crosshair and sensitivities.
3. Learn recoil and spray patterns
Learn the spray pattern and recoil of every weapon
© Riot Games
There are a variety of weapons in Valorant and each one has a different recoil and spray pattern. Of course, there are ways to easily take out your enemies by using your abilities but it’s unlikely you’d be able to pick up enough kills if you don’t know how the weapons work.
Take some time to go through every weapon in the practice range and get used to the recoil and find out what the spray patterns are. Doing this will also give you an insight on which weapon you might have a preference with, especially since they all vary in cost so it’s important to have good knowledge on every single one.
4. Aim train
This is by far the most important thing you can do if you want to see consistent and drastic improvement to your KD over time. Don’t just jump straight into matches without warming up in the Practice Range in Valorant. Even if you don’t feel like playing a full game, you should try and squeeze in 30 minutes of aim training a day to build up muscle memory.
If you don’t like the aim training tools provided in-game, you can always try out CSGO’s ‘Aim_bot’ which offers a more intricate and varied way to help you with your aim training.
5. Learn from the pros
Although Valorant is still just in its Beta phase, plenty of pros from other esports titles have hopped on Riot’s new FPS and plenty of them have already developed their own strategies when it comes to finding creative ways to secure rounds.
While it’s important for you to play the game and put in the hours to grind, it’s also important to make sure you watch other players and find inspiration in how they approach the game. Streamers and former pro player Shroud streams on Mixer regularly while current players like Brax and Stewie2k also offer up great insight.
