How to counter strafe in Valorant

Counter Strafing is an advanced technique in some FPS game, allowing you to take advantage of bonuses to weapon accuracy that kick in when you are not moving, or when you are firing the first bullet. You can use the technique in Riot’s competitive shooter Valorant.

The idea is to fire single bullets, during a moment of very brief pause, while you are strafing from side to side. This allows you to maintain accuracy while also being a difficult target to hit and avoids mag dumping at enemies when this will make a weapon’s accuracy degrade to the point of giving your opponent the advantage in a gunfight.

How to counter strafe

Before we get into exactly how to counter strafe, we would strongly recommend that you view the above video. Youtuber Ron Rambo Kim does a superb job of breaking down counter strafing, and various exercises you can do in the game to master the technique.

When strafing, you will be using the A and D keys to quickly move from side to side to prevent enemies getting easier headshots on you. The point of counter strafing is to leave tiny, almost impossible to notice pauses in the movement where you will fire your own shots.

The easiest way to practice this is to load into Valorant’s practice area and practice strafing from side to side, firing your shot the moment you switch directions. The shot will need to occur at the exact moment you press the new key to take advantage of the accuracy buff. You can fire bullets into the wall, trying to land the shot in the exact same place each time. This is a simple exercise that covers counter strafing at a fundamental level and is really all about learning the timing between the directional change and firing with your mouse.

This will not directly translate into the game, where you will also need to move in enemy movement as well, but it’s the best way to get to grips with the basics, then practice further in your games until you get the technique down.