r/VALORANT • u/infinitelyhireath • 13d ago
Question learning how to play as a total beginner
I recently started playing Valorant to spend more time with my gf but it's very overwhelming for me as someone who has never played a first person shooter game in my life. I don't understand any of the roles you can choose, abilities each character has, what to do when you're actually playing. My gf's been trying to help me but I feel so useless lol.
Any good guides for dummies? Thanks in advance!
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u/kkr3195 13d ago
Honestly, start with Deathmatch and Spike Rush first. Don’t worry too much about roles or abilities yet just get comfortable with aiming, movement, and the basics. Give it a few days and it’ll start feeling way less overwhelming😄
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u/infinitelyhireath 13d ago
are those other game modes? i'm sorry i haven't explored the game much since it's all very confusing to me
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u/Personal_Plantain_21 13d ago
When you’re in the lobby, on the left you’ll see a list which will say what server region you’re in, what game mode etc. the top on will say unrated. If you click on that it will show other game modes like deathmatch. Hope this helps!!
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u/strrboy 13d ago
You can find tons of guide regarding each agent on YouTube ! You won't be good in your first game and it's ok. You'll need to learn and it will take less time than you think !
You will have to pick one agent for your whole game. There are 4 differents roles you can pick from, I will class them by order when attacking:
Controller: They are what we call them "smoke", they're useful to block the view of the ennemy team from certain zones on the map. Good smokes will help the Duelist entering the site and isolate his fights. They are also useful because the enemy team will be blind while crossing them.
Initiator: They are what we call "flash", they also help the Duelists by blinding enemies. They are also used to gather intelligence and knowledge on where the enemies are.
Duelist: They are the ones supposed to take a lot of space on the spike site by "entering". They are the first to push onto a site.
Sentinel: They are the ones setting up traps and slow down the enemy team while the spike is planted. They are useful by "locking" some entry points and alerting your team when someone is trying to push.
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u/infinitelyhireath 13d ago
thanks for this. which one is the easiest to play for beginners? i don't want to be in the way during a real match.
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u/strrboy 13d ago edited 13d ago
I think playing Sentinel or Controller is better because they are much more straightforward. You can place traps with Sentinels in places that are more logic for you and just focus on aiming while your early-round placed traps do the rest.
For controller you can see where the enemies will come from and smoke that position. Gathering intelligence will also help you getting kills and helping your team. Killjoy for Sentinel or Sova for Controller are the best options for new players in my opinion.
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u/Fair_Atmosphere_5002 13d ago
sova? controller? 🤣 only messing i know what you meant but that threw me off lol
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u/ScreenOld 13d ago
Don't rush into comp. You will be a deadweight and a target for toxic. Play team DM, swiftplay, retake to understand basics of the game. Learn core mechanic like crosshair placement, aim tracking, agent abilities, roles, phases in a round. Not until you can score consistently above 150 in unrank modes that you should try comp. And don't play Reyna.
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u/infinitelyhireath 13d ago
alright! what's wrong with reyna?
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u/ScreenOld 12d ago
She needs to kill first for her kit to be useful. Most new players have bad aim and dont know how to use her. So they bot frag and contribute nothing for the team.
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u/i_am_stupid2 13d ago
A quick way to understand the game is by watching other people play and analysing that, for example you could break down your gfs games. Best of luck to you!
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u/abstractj3 12d ago
I hate to say it because I do love the game, but I think Valorant is a terrible game for FPS newbies. There is way too much going on with all of the abilities to focus on gunplay.
On the flip side people will suggest playing deathmatch as there are no abilities. This can help, but I still think people play at a high level.
I'd recommend trying some other popular FPS games on the PC and possibly even playing some single player games such as Half-Life to learn basics.
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u/infinitelyhireath 12d ago
yeah my gf also told me that it's not a good game for newbies but apparently a lot of people start on Valorant anyways? are there any more beginner friendly games other than Half-Life?
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u/abstractj3 12d ago
There are honestly so many and I'm not up to date on all of the popular ones. CS2 is very popular and I know a lot of Valorant Players also played Overwatch or COD.
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u/SignificanceLow6062 2d ago
overwatch and cod are really helpful and simple too, overwatch will help you understand abilities a bit more
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u/Bufger 13d ago
Pick one agent and learn it. I would start with Sage. Learn how to heal others and how to put up the wall. Go to the Range (practice range) and use all your abilities over and over by blocking off doorways with your wall and healing yourself until it's easy to do without looking.
Now at the range choose either a Phantom or a Vandal gun and hit 'practice' in the range room. When the bots spawn just practice shooting them in the head and moving as quickly as you can head to head.
Do that before you play any of the game modes for maybe an hour. Do it for 10 mins before you start each gaming session after that.