15 tips to rank up in Valorant Rated mode

With Valorant’s competitive mode in full swing, players are starting to settle into their rank, so here’s 15 top tips on how to improve your rating and get past that sticking point!

After weeks of waiting, Riot introduced their competitive ‘Rated’ mode into the Valorant closed beta as part of their 0.49 patch.

After playing five placement games, players will settle into a rank that is based on a number of variables. The outcome of the match and your average combat score will play the biggest role on whether you move up/down in the ranks.

Tips to rank-up fast in Valorant

While solo-queueing will leave you with no control over the teammates you’re dealt, you do have control over how you perform. So one Redditor has come up with 15 tips which could all help you improve your average combat score — and hopefully see you soaring through the ranks.

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Quarkez’ tips cover an array of topics, so we’ve plucked out some of the most helpful ones. Firstly, the Redditor points out that your character icon on the minimap has a circle that highlights the radius at which enemies can hear your footsteps when running.

So if you’re within the vicinity of where you suspect enemies to be, be sure to walk/crouch within the radius shown on the minimap to give you the element of surprise.

On the topic of sneaking up to enemies, if you’re going in for a cheeky knife kill, the Redditor points out that knife damage is 50 (left-click), 75 (right-click) and 150 (backstab right-click) — although be wary of which you use, as the right-click animation takes significantly longer than left-click.

In terms of movement, quarkez touched on both counter-strafing and bunny hopping. While we’ve covered the latter in an extensive guide, counter-strafing is often overlooked as a way of peeking corners (jiggle peeking) to ensure you’re not exposing your full character model when gathering information.

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To do this, press the direction key that is the opposite of your Agent’s moment. So if you’re moving to the left, press right (D) on your keyboard to reduce the impact of movement on your firing accuracy.

Another key topic is the Spike. Knowing how long it takes to plant/detonate/defuse is key in determining how to best utilize your abilities when defending/retaking a Reactor Site. These are summed up below.

• Spike plant time: Four seconds.
• Spike detonation time: 45 seconds.
• Spike defuse time: Seven seconds (full); 3.5 seconds (halfway).
• 45-20 seconds until detonation: One beep per second.
• 20-10 seconds until detonation: Two beeps per second.
• 10-5 seconds until detonation: Four beeps per second.
• 5-0 seconds until detonation: Eight beeps per seconds.

All of these tips (and more) are neatly packaged into a sub-three minute video, where they touch on some Agent-specific tips which could be helpful if they’re your main.

While of course these tips aren’t the only thing between you and climbing to that coveted Valorant rank, they’re definitely worth bearing in mind when jumping into your next game.

If you’re left wondering which Agent to main in Valorant, check out our comprehensive Agent tier list, where we break down each character with their pros and cons alongside showing how they can complement certain playstyles.