How to control recoil and spray patterns in Valorant

Like many old school competitive shooter games, Valorant isn't as straightforward as your average Call of Duty or Halo when it comes to shooting enemies. Arcade gameplay more suited to these games is in favor of a more serious and focused set of mechanics that are firmly grounded in reality.

This means you can't just run around shooting other players while moving and aiming on sight, and hope to maintain a semblance of precision. If you think Call of Duty hindsight is unfair or harsh, maybe Valorant isn't the game for you.

But for those who want to play and improve, there are things you can do to improve your recoil control.

Learn more about the efficiency of the tap

Unfortunately, shooting amounts to shooting more frequently in bursts. The game uses a system called Tap Efficiency, where there is a certain level of accuracy for a certain number of shots where you aim before the recoil takes effect, making your accuracy worse. Also, you have to wait for a small recovery window before resuming shooting to benefit from this tap efficiency.

This means that after a number of successive shots you will lose the accuracy of your reticle. It also means that to maintain accuracy you should only shoot short bursts of a few bullets in any situation except tight quarters.

However, we're all human, and in the heat of the moment it can be easy to forget that, and holding the fire button takes over. While you should try to avoid doing this whenever possible, if it does happen, automatic weapons act the same as their real life counterparts. They don't have a definite pattern that you'll see when they spray, but they will move in a general direction, and usually it's upward.

With that in mind, the best place you can aim if the spray takes over is at the feet of an enemy. With the natural lateral movement of recoil when firing, the pistol won't be as accurate as the focused shot, but it would be your best chance to land multiple shots on the enemy.

You can test this out in the shooting range on the training dummy, but it's also a good place to try and control the recoil of the in-game assault rifles. Keep in mind that shooting in burst will be more accurate in the foregrounds and you will be able to show better accuracy in no time.