Valorant is currently the hottest first-person shooter tactical game right now. If you have been playing this game, you should know how important it is to position yourself better to get the best results. This game heavily depends on movement, peeking, and positioning to win gunfights. Nonetheless, the strategies and characters your team decides to play make a significant impact too. But this guide isn’t about that; it’s about movement, peeking, and positioning.
Peeking techniques
The fundamentals of peeking should be the same throughout every FPS game. I’m going to walk you through a list of peeking techniques:
- Silent wide swing
- Ferrari peek / Jump peek shoot
- Jump peek info
- Jiggle peek
- Shoulder peek
- Refragger peek
- Prefire
- Shift walk peek
Silent Swing
The simplest on the list is the silent swing peek. A + D is the only input you have to use in this technique. The best part is you don’t make too much noise with this one. Enough to peek quickly to get the information or shoot your enemy. Simply get behind a cover and strafe left and right.
Shift Walk
You can perform a shift walk peek simply by holding down the shift key while moving to walk across an open space silently. The idea is not to make a sound for your enemy to predict where you are. It’s all about the game sense and not letting your enemy know your whereabouts. This peeking technique is a gamble to walk in the open.
Jump Peek for info
Jump peek is the most fun among them all. This is where you input movement in action. Jump peeking requires you to jump from a corner to an open area for information and air strafe with either A or D input, with your mouse directing you back to cover. Undoubtedly, you will require a fast reaction to get the information. Additionally, you should look at the map to see if you saw someone.
Jump Peek for shooting or Ferrari Peek
Jump peek for shooting or Ferrari peek is used right after you’ve pulled off a jiggle peek or shoulder peek to draw or bait an attack. This is used for counter-striking your enemy on the other side. Simply hold A + D at full speed and input jumping along with it, and optionally you can input crouch to avoid headshot damage. Before we get into Ferrari peek, you must first understand what jiggle and shoulder peeking are.
Jiggle Peek
Jiggle peek is like a silent swing peek; the only difference is you don’t swing too much and come back instantly after shooting. Moving faster, unlike silent swing, can help you bait a shot from an enemy, helping you counter-shoot. You may expose your entire hitbox when you jiggle peek, but you definitely need to come back after shooting.
Shoulder Peek
The shoulder peek is where you expose your hitbox as little as possible, as in exposing only a part of your hitbox to your enemy. A shoulder peek is used to draw your enemy’s attention to bait an attack. It is not for shooting but for counter-strike. It’s the same as a jiggle peek with the same A + D input. It’s the best when you’re dealing with a sniper.
Prefire
As its name, pre-fire, is all about pre-firing while jiggle peeking around the corner. You input A + D while jiggling peeking, shooting, and coming back. You can spam this, but I wouldn’t recommend it as often.
Refragger Peeking
Refragger peeking is where you use the mini-map to shoot an enemy agent. In this case, you align your crosshair where the enemy is and use the mini-map, and as soon as you see the enemy agent on the map, you pull the trigger. It is best done if your teammate already has an angle on the enemy.
The place to use these Peeking techniques
Now the real question is when do I use them and which ones?
You must minimize your risk of overexposing yourself and acting on enemies’ vulnerabilities. It’s all about finding openings for yourself.
For starters, when you have the opportunity to pinch your enemy or outnumber them with your team, then the chances you are at an advantage, and you should exploit it. It means that you can take risky bargains to make a move on your enemies.
There are three angles: common angles, off angles, and roulette angles. You need to account for everything when you’re in battle. Common angles are angles that are very predictable with your crosshair. Off angles are positions where you are least likely to expect your opponent to be, such as high ground/rooftops.
Roulette angles are uncommon but expose you or your enemy to an uncomfortable position from multiple angles. The best use of roulette angle is to pinch your enemies when you know there’s an enemy agent in this spot.
Once you understand the basics of these angles, the peeking techniques should make sense. In common angles, jiggle peeking, jump peek, and prefire should make a lot of sense, but you can add the other peeking techniques if that’s what the situation demands. When you’re in a spot that could be considered an off-angle or a roulette angle, you should consider jump, shoulder, and refragger peeking. The idea here is to bait your enemy, know their location, and build awareness.
I’m sure awareness or game sense will play a huge role, and understanding these facts will improve your gameplay.
For you to get better, you need to know your positioning and your enemies’ positioning, and a detailed awareness of the map you’re playing should give you an upper hand.