Riot explain why Valorant players are having hit registration issues

Riot Games has finally addressed the seemingly chronic Hit Registration issues players have had in Valorant, explaining it’s an issue with how the info for each shot is displayed in-game.

Since the closed beta players have complained about the Hit Registration system, which literally seems to be hit-or-miss at times, with shots not tagging or damaging enemies as they apparently should.

Think about it like this: if you play fairly regularly you’ve probably had one of those moments where, by all accounts, you should have your opponent dead to rights with a headshot, but they escape unscathed.

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This happens often enough where clips and screenshots of hit registration issues can be found at the top of Valorant’s Reddit page at least every couple of weeks, so to address all of our concerns, software engineer Kevin Lee explained why shots can feel off, and possible fixes devs are considering.

He explained that the Valorant team first started noticing players’ issues with Hit Registration around beta patch 0.50 and began going through clips that were both sent to them and posted on social media.

“Upon closer review, the majority of the clips had issues not with correctness, but with clarity,” Lee wrote. “The shots were being properly processed, but the visual feedback of the shot was presenting a misleading outcome to the player.”

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To make a very long and in-depth explanation shorter, shots can register and appear differently on the player’s screen than they do for the server every player in the game is on.

In the end, it’s the server that has the final say on where a shot did or didn’t hit, so that’s what actually ends up happening in-game. This all takes a matter of milliseconds though, so to us, it just seems like our bullets aren’t going where they’re supposed to.

As for solutions, Lee hinted that devs had considered “adding multiple particles, some that follow the character and others that spawn immediately at the hit location, based on the client simulation, to mitigate this issue.” But admitted this could cause even more confusion and devs were still looking for the best solution.

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The developer goes into much more detail and even gives several examples of hit reg issues submitted by players in the very in-depth post from Riot Games. It’s a long one, but well worth the read if you’ve ever wondered about or had issues with shots going where they feel like they should in Valorant.