Whether you're about to play VALORANT for the first time or you were part of the closed beta, it's always good to learn a tip or two from the ones who grind the game for hours on end, day in and day out, and compete.
Here is some information passed on from the experts to buff your VALORANT gameplay.
Editor's note: These quotes have been adjusted for grammar and style.
Sova
Harrison "Psalm" Chang: I mainly use Shock Darts in three ways. First, to displace people off certain angles. Second, to deal damage on set positions on post plant retakes. Lastly, to deal damage defending an attacker team execute.
Amgalan "Genghsta" Nemekhbayar: It's better to use your ultimate after the second ping from your Owl Drone to get a better shot off.
In your ult, after you shoot you can move your crosshair in a direction for a little bit, helping you readjust your shot if you think they've juked you.
Jay "sinatraa" Won: Just learning cool darts on Sova on every map is fun. Shooting a recon arrow through smoke and spraying through the smoke is a good tip.
Yassine "Subroza"' Taoufik: Try following the Sova drone on attacker side (especially when he has his ultimate because the defenders will fear it even more) and trading off of it. I don't see enough people doing it in Ranked/Unrated and no one really counters it well.
Against Sova?
Subroza: Quick tip: If you are defender and hear the drone, use your abilities to stop an attacker following it (slow orbs, molotovs, etc...).
Raze
Lucas "Mendo" Håkansson: Using a satchel to bounce your Boom Bot into the air and make it harder to shoot when it spots someone. You can even learn to stick the Boom Bot with the satchel.
Dom "soulcas" Sulcas: You can satchel underneath your Boom Bot and make it jump so it can get over objects and walls to catch the enemy off guard.
Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks: Using Raze's Boom Bot and attaching a Sova Recon Bolt to it can create chaos and some fun moments, but requires a little bit of skill.
Cypher
Mendo: After your Trapwires have been noticed and they start countering with Shock Darts or even shooting the wall for them, simply hold your traps and don't place them down until later in the round to keep them guessing where they might be.
Noah "jcStani" Smith: If you're playing against a Sova (or Raze), don't place your Trapwires at the start of the round and wait to bait out their utility before placing.
Jett
ardiis: Do not dash into your opponent -- try to save it for sticky situations. It's more useful to get out of aggressive positions than to get into one (for defense). Obviously, it's also very handy going for aggressive picks but will leave you with no way to get out.
Karim "Infamous" Mahmoud: On A site, you can get on top of the boxes just using Jett passive, no abilities. Simply jump and use passive where shown in the video, then crouch as you approach the box. Jump crouch again to get on top of the truck, where you can access the rest of site fairly quickly through more use of Jett's passive.
Jett on Bind pic.twitter.com/PdMyFsZun1
— ᴀʀᴅᴀ Öᴄᴀʟ (@Arda) May 30, 2020
Infamous You can throw the smoke shown in the Split video to play mind games with the defense and make them guess which angles you are holding. I do this three times to show multiple options of how this can be played round to round.
Infamous This one seems obvious, but as Jett on Haven you want to be switching up your positions each round so the enemy can't predict where you will be, and the boxes on Haven are great for that, as Jett can reach all of them with relative ease.
Jett on Haven pic.twitter.com/YhDpaSEw7w
- ᴀʀᴅᴀ Öᴄᴀʟ (@Arda) May 30, 2020
Brimstone
Yannick "Koler" Blanchette: Brimstone can use his molotov to delay the bomb defuse for a long time -- it's very important to use it.
Subroza: A fun little trick with Brimstone is combining the ult with Slow Orbs from Sage. There are many ways to spread Slow Orbs across whole areas, making it difficult to leave the Brimstone ult. Also using it with a molotov combo to stop the defuse is powerful.
Sage
Travis "L1NK" Mendoza: A trick for Sage that I see a lot of people not doing on Split is that you can safely wall the window from elbow. I see a lot of people sit under the window and die/get spammed through the wall.
Emmalee "EMUHLEET" Garrido: As a Sage main, the opponents will try to target you so you are unable to heal or revive your teammates. Try to keep them guessing where you play by being mobile and making your presence known everywhere in different rounds. This will prevent them from targeting you.
Breach
Adam "ec1s" Eccles: For Breach, the mini-map is the best tool to use for your abilities. It shows you exactly where your abilities are going to go so you can get the perfect lineup and avoid impacting your teammates in a bad way. A good combination can be using Sage's slow as well as Breach's Aftershock -- it can ensure they take maximum damage from Breach's abilities.
Viper
Beyazit "beyAz" Körpe: Viper's poison is actually really strong. To put it into CS:GO terms, Viper has two molotovs, one smoke and one wall in a round. You can reactivate the smoke and the wall as long as you have some poison to play with. Definitely Viper's strongest point is her ultimate. The poison, which is formed in a large area, slowly reduces enemies to one hit point (and allies) and shows them in orange. In the area, the advantage is entirely for Viper, as her opponents see her in normal color. The field of vision is very low. (Putting this poison on spike after it's been planted is a good idea.)
Infamous:Stand on the right side of the edge of the bench on Split, aim slightly above the spot on the wall circled in the video, and run-throw for the A Heaven window smoke. Run back to spawn and aim at the crack in the wall show in the video, then align your blue indicator on your minimap with the corner of the building on A site.
Infamous:Stand anywhere in the corner shown on Bind and aim your wall to where the blue indicator extends and covers the door way of Defender spawn, then use your UI (default UI) to lineup the A Heaven smoke back towards short, in the spot shown. You want to line up the top right corner of the throw indicator for your smoke (the one that pops up when you pull the smoke out) with the corner shown in the video. This smokes heaven and heaven balcony perfect, while the wall gives you a perfect take for the corner of site and covers anyone trying to rotate through lamps/defender spawn.
Viper on Bind pic.twitter.com/CjB4053ESo
- ᴀʀᴅᴀ Öᴄᴀʟ (@Arda) May 30, 2020
Phoenix
Victor "food" Wong: When using Phoenix ult, try to coordinate something with your team so you can capitalize on the map control you get when everyone is running away.
beyAz: The Phoenix character stands out because of the instant flashes. Like Viper, he has a molotov and a wall in his kit. But as an added bonus, Phoenix can heal when touched by his own fire. The flashes are excellent to use. His ultimate is very powerful to get info or engage in a duel, especially when around corners or the Spike has been planted and you are rushing the site.
Omen
Austin "crashies" Roberts: On Bind, you can fake the sound of someone teleporting by jumping into the portal but using your teleport ability right before you go in.
When ulting with Omen on-site, try and coordinate a Brimstone/Breach ult right after your Omen ult to successfully execute a site.
Maps
Bind
ardiis: I often see the teleporters on Bind not being used to their max potential. Causing havoc on one side of the map and instantly being able to be on the other side is something that makes this map unique. The A-B teleporter allows you to rotate, when selling a fake is very beneficial and could cause you to get good timings.
Genghsta: Defender rotations are long, so abusing the teleporter to fake out and pull rotates is a reasonable strat to pull off.
Koler: Ulting U-Hall with Brimstone (Lamps) is good to do.
Split
ec1s: If you hold shift on Split, you can attach to the ropes and go up and down silently.
Genghsta: You guessed it, it's way better to split the sites than to group as five and go, as the sites only have one tight corridor each directly.
As an attacker, try to burn as much utility from the defenders. It'll make it way easier to hit a site when they don't have any Sage slows left.
Haven
Soulcas: At A site, if you run with your knife out behind the bricks at long, the attacking side cannot see you get into that corner.
EMUHLEET: As an defensive OPer on Haven, try to be mobile around the map. To be a strong mobile player, first you want to easily shut down the enemies pushing towards C site. Once you have successfully done this, you can begin to bring your OP everywhere. Sometimes peak garage doors from the garage window, sometimes go for a pick at Long A, and sometimes even boost yourself up in B. Communication between you and your teammates is a key component when being mobile because they need to make you aware of the opponents tendencies. When you do get an initial pick, remember to immediately relocate to keep the enemies guessing where you are and what your next move is.
Subroza: When it's time to play post plant on C and B, you do not have to play the bombsite at all! It's very easy to just play the bomb from either long C or Mid/Grass (if it's planted B). All you have to do is ping bomb on the map or ask your teammate that is dead to do it for you and spam your guns/abilities to stop the defuser. Even if the defenders wall it off or use abilities to block you guys, the ping on the Map will show and with two or three attackers it will be fairly easy to spam.
L1NK: A trick for Haven is that I see a lot of people jump out the window and take unnecessary damage by hitting the floor, whereas you can jump out the window and land on those boxes and not take 20-something damage.