Mastering the Drop-in Technique in Valorant: A Guide

Looking to improve your dropping skills in Valorant? Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned player, mastering the art of dropping can give you a competitive edge in the game.

In this article, we will explore what dropping is in Valorant, how it works, the benefits and risks involved, how to drop effectively, the best locations to drop, and tips to improve your dropping skills.

If you’re ready to take your gameplay to the next level, keep reading!

What Is Valorant?

Valorant is a competitive 5v5 tac shooter game similar to Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Developed and published by Riot Games, creators of the popular game League of Legends, Valorant blends the first-person shooter aspect of firing guns and getting kills with the tactical aspect of strategic gameplay, teamwork, and positioning.

The game is referred to by many players as the lovechild of CS:GO (Shooter + Tactical) and Overwatch (Characters with Utility skills). The game is different from its other main competitors in the tactical shooter genre such as Rainbow Six: Vegas, Escape from Tarkov and earlier versions of the CS series as it is free-to-play, class-based, and has agents (heroes) with unique abilities.

What Is Dropping In Valorant?

In Valorant, dropping refers to the action of one player relinquishing their weapon or equipment to another member of their team. This is often done when a player with fewer credits or no credits has asked for a gun after losing a round, as the payer decides to partially or fully upgrade their weaponry at their own expense.

If a player’s weapon on the ground, perceived by some as litter, is dropped by another player, the original owner of the gun loses the ability to claim the gun for strategic reasons of preventing it from being picked up by an opponent.

How Does Dropping Work In Valorant?

In Valorant, dropping is not a feature of the game and occurs only when you are killed by an opponent. When killed, your opponent can take a dropped gun, with or without picking up abilities or armor, that you either purchase at game start or earn and carry over from previous rounds. Armor and abilities are lost when an opponent kills you having no effect on them, leaving your chosen gun as the only progression element to be passed on.

If, however, you are killed, your gun is likely one of the first things that your opponent will pick up – especially if it is a weapon of higher value. These dynamics between the trade-off of carrying expensive weapons, sharing them with teammates, or the benefits of using cheaper weapons (like SMG’s that are often not picked up because of their low resale value) greatly affects Valorant risky strategies.

What Are The Benefits Of Dropping In Valorant?

Benefits of dropping in Valorant include helping the team financially, causing issues to skilled opponents, reducing losses/non-save items to opponents, spreading chaos, learning the mechanics of the weapon, and having access to the best weapons in the game. Team financial benefits are the most critical factor when dropping, especially for a full or half buy. A study on weapon advantages of rifles showed that rifles in Valorant have a 1-shot headshot kill until a certain distance, which only a few other guns also have.

What Are The Risks Of Dropping In Valorant?

The risks of dropping in Valorant are being spotted by the enemy before landing in a desired location, being caught in the open by surprise, losing health to an enemy player already at the drop zone, or crash landing and becoming temporarily stunned. If these risks are not avoided, they can lead to being fragged early in the round, losing a player right at the start.

How To Drop In Valorant?

You drop in Valorant unintentionally as a result of being defeated by players you are competing with. To purposefully drop in Valorant, the only way is to uninstall the game on your PC so that it is no longer playable. Some ancillary tactical aspects of dropping that players use are intentionally losing rounds when the game is all but lost in order to give time for other teammates to join the fray or lose them the first round in order to avoid the mental baggage associated with streak burnouts.

Find A Reliable Dropper

A dropper in VALORANT refers to the player who drops weapons (particularly the rifle) to teammates at spawn in the buying phase to assist their team members in purchasing better weapons. The dropper strategy assumes that the team will win or lose the match as a team. Lower fragger and those short on credits have greater chances of securing good might results thanks to a good weapon in their hands. The rest of the team can win the match if the firggers supported to get more kills with upgraded weapons. This makes the temporary lowering of the dropper 50- and 25-credit fitting. A player attempting to implement the drop can buy the best weapon available for their team member and equip themselves with cheaper weapons afterward to have enough money for the next rounds. Especially in competitive mode, dropping a gun can lessen the risk of teammates purchasing insufficient gear in the next rounds, which can’t be afforded. Just like in the game Team Fortress 2 with medics, if the dropper is trained, it can substantially affect the match.

Felix ollie Zaher is a former Ukelele Producer, Riot Games’ Project A/Valorant Champion, and Former Renegades Pro. The star gamers recommend dropping their gear early so that their teammates are armed in the new round. Once the dropper has given his gear to a teammate, he should retreat from the conflict to make sure that it is not lost early. It is one option, in particular, to depart just after providing the player with the rifle. The Reliable dropper tips include the following. Opt for a teammate who speaks the same language Choose a trustworthy player Choose the Right Site to go to Give teammate time to pick it up However, be aware that this strategy can give low-ranked rival teams an edge. Make sure you have an extra weapon, take utility money into account, and avoid holding big-ticket items in high-risk locations. Here is a great video by Cynla on how to improve your drop tactics in VALORANT.

Communicate And Plan With Your Team

When you are trying to drop somewhere non-reactive at the start, let your team know your plan. If you have specific ideas on where to deploy your utility, communicate it. Hopefully, you will be selected as bomb planter, but announcing your site of choice early during the buy phase might convince your team. The following video by Iridius explains the main reasons for communicating with your team.

Coordinate Your Drops

If all 5 members are holding angles that do not overlap and immediately trading one another, drop chances can be coordinated with good success. Consider drops prior to buying equipment or as part of tactical pre-round decisions. Communicate with your team so they know what to expect and have spells ready to ensure success when near the drop. This simple choke by Phoenix induces a standing formation among the attacking huddled defenders in mid on Bind. They quickly learn their lesson, turn around and Firepower loses four members for the price of one.

Practice And Refine Your Techniques

Practice to hone your skills with different moves. You might decide to head towards B-Long on Split to practice the drop. Of course, practice every move on every map, regardless of which ones you may actually use in a match. Familiarize yourself with other characters’ weak spots and timings to take advantage of the drop.

After you practice, learn from what you studied. Go into your don’t-play period and try to figure out new spots or pieces of info to take advantage of for the next time you play. Try to expand your anchor drop play until you can execute it perfectly in just about every scenario. Try drop practices in your regular custom games to find new angles and improve your existing ones.

Now go into play games to execute the tactics and locations you have developed. In play games, occasionally try fake anchor drops and instead suddenly push another bombsite. This strat is often more effective than a standard anchor drop because teams will heavily stack sites expecting a standard anchor drop cap.

What Are The Best Locations To Drop In Valorant?

The best locations to drop in Valorant are those where the agent you are playing can maximize its abilities to control and/or deny large sections of the map. Preferring locations in the middle of the map can help agents get to where they need quickly. The adjacent sector above the middle of the map is favored by the pros as the best for defending, and the adjacent sector below is best for attacking. By following their logic and picking one of those sectors, you should have maximum ease of access to the lanes of fire you prefer.

High Traffic Areas

In Valorant, dropping may take place in different locations. High-traffic areas are one’s which many of the enemy will usually attempt to move through or toward at the start of a round. These are prime locations to drop the spike at as picking it back up will require one to move through the entire map at an impractical and likely dangerous pace. The game-control methods of having a high-traffic area cleared at both the game and the experience control stages are predictable. Consider when there will be fast-moving enemies who could flake a given position and act in the knowledge that they are likely to prevent the draw of the shard.

Areas With Good Loot

Areas within Raze’s Blast Pack range such as ramps or open catwalks with multiple vantage points above the site (such as mid on Ascent and Bind) are the best locations for drop in Valorant. These areas provide a lot of movement options where the Raze player can put themselves in the best position to quickly assist their team when called upon in defending/relocating to a different site to assist the team in cases of heavy opposition.

Where more capital equipment is necessary for a successful defense such as C’s Steel on Haven, Raze can be better utilized outside of the playing site. Thus, leaving her little-to-no risk of being caught off-guard or overwhelmed by a push without her team. Ascent and Icebox’s A Sites also provide many opportunities for Raze players. Ascent’s A Site has many mid-range shoot-out angles where Raze’s Operator is lethal, and Icebox’s A Site is located at an odd corner of the map where enemy teams rarely push (granting opportunities for flanking/assisting team pushes elsewhere), and has ramps for her to access different engagement points.

For the same reasons Sova and Reyna are recommended, Killjoy is too. Her Grenade, Double Shockbolt, and alarm bots can be used to check multiple angles, her molly can zone out enemies and destroy any equipment laid by the enemy team, and her turrets can be used as a distraction to take initial shots at enemies whom they fixate on.

Areas With Good Cover And High Ground

Head to Mid Main on Haven, A Site Split, or A Main on Bind for areas with good cover and high ground that you can immediately fire from when dropping. Use mid lane room on all maps to fight for map control even with minimal cover and high ground points. High ground can help give defenders a seconds-long advantage in target acquisition and even accuracy in many shooting games. Study these high ground areas and use them to take immediate advantage as soon as you’ve dropped.

How To Improve Your Dropping Skills In Valorant?

Improvement from casual to full pro mode requires you to push the limits of your confidence and knowledge in-game. The best way for you to improve your dropping skills in Valorant is to commit to playing aggressively in a way which focuses on increasing your skills and tactics. Here are some ways to improve your dropping techniques:

1. Practice your aim and target selection.
2. Discipline yourself to only call reliable peeks.
3. Make sure to playful-side fall to aggravate enemies.
4. Contact and control the situation in the area by forcing enemies to respond in a certain way or direction.

Study Maps And Learn Popular Drop Locations

Players in Valorant who are dropping or getting dropped should study maps and learn the popular drop locations. Adjusting one’s drop location on the map or as part of a team’s strategy in games can make a large difference in one’s in-round play and team success. Knowing where and when to drop is a need-to-understand skill in Valorant that all players should possess.

Learning popular drop locations on maps is quite easy. Browse to any Easily the best map study resource is The Spike, a comprehensive website of information curated by the Hashlob, Protoz, and EvrMoar team which gives pop-up advice as you pass over locations linked to YouTube and Twitch videos. Team Zombs created a similar site with images of the map assigned pop-up suggestions.

This image of Icebox on The Spike has pop-up guides for attack, defense, and agent-strategy suggestions for nearly every room in the Destiny 2 Icebox map. These are not the suggestions you should follow but having a source to see them and others is a good starting point for figuring out which plays work best for you.

Learning popular drop locations on maps is quite easy. Browse to any Valorant Wiki and you will find a large amount of info on every map line-of-sight, high-risk/high-reward locations, hidden pathways to surprise opponents, and angles/cover/help. This will not only help initiators and duelists to drop better but everyone in the team will benefit

Practice Your Aim And Movement

A good aspect to concentrate on when thinking of how to drop in Valorant is practicing your aim and movement abilities. This is because with less money comes less healing from the Health and Vision Stabilizer (commonly referred to as heavy shields). So it is vital to aim for the head and land a kill in order to equalize or give one’s team an advantage.

For this reason, Flikk from team Fnatic says that only purchasing pistols and focusing on their use can help keep one’s aim sharp on a budget. Also, if your movement is sharper and quicker, opponents will have a harder time hitting you while you can focus on hitting them. Simple exercises like training_aim_map 2_d_v2 can help in maximizing aiming skills.

Watch And Learn From Professional Players

Several teams and players in the Valorant Champion’s Tour Circuit have already begun to share their experiences on Twitch and other social media, which provides new players with valuable insights into high-level play. It helps you understand the different aspects of high-level Valorant play and learn from the best. Ninjas in Pajamas, Team Liquid, G2 Esports, Envy, and TSM are some of the top professional Valorant teams to watch and learn from.

Experiment With Different Strategies And Techniques

Into higher-tier competitive matches in Valorant, refine your strategies and techniques down to the millisecond. Prioritize thoroughly understanding the map., and approach opponents with an organized, rehearsed plan., Situational awareness is everything in Valorant. Is lead-footing through follow-up shots, a wallbang peek0 or even a player who uses a smoke to cover a spike defusal., Sure you will continue to learn through trial and error, but take few notes along the way. A famous example in Valorant is the Jump Scout. Jump scouting is simply exploiting the Scouts jumping inaccuracy penalty to the point of using it as your main way to move around the map.

Streamers popularized this strategy into becoming a legitimate strategy where most if not every scrimmaged player you saw was using the Jump Scout. From watching someone actually doing it, people nowadays became familiar that this is an acceptable strategy. Do not limit yourself. Your ever-expanding skill set expands the number of agents you are proficient at using. Expand your playing field into newer agents and constantly push yourself to find and outcompete newer players based on individual agents’ technicality. Their playstyle or coordination strategy will then be incorporated into your overall strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best way to drop in Valorant?

The best way to drop in Valorant is to communicate with your team and coordinate your strategy before the round begins. This will ensure that everyone is on the same page and knows where to drop and what role they will play.

How can I improve my drop accuracy in Valorant?

To improve your drop accuracy in Valorant, try to aim for a specific spot on the map rather than just dropping randomly. You can also practice in custom games to get a better feel for the mechanics of dropping.

What should I do if my teammates want to drop in a different location?

If your teammates want to drop in a different location than you, it’s important to communicate and compromise. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of each location and come to a decision together.

Are there any tips for surviving a drop in Valorant?

Yes, there are a few tips for surviving a drop in Valorant. Make sure to check your mini-map and look for enemy players dropping in the same location. Also, try to land on high ground or near cover to give yourself an advantage.

How do I know which weapons to drop in Valorant?

The best weapons to drop in Valorant are those that fit your playstyle and the current round’s objectives. For example, if you’re playing defensively, a sniper rifle might be a good choice, but if you’re attacking, an assault rifle might be more effective.

Is it important to drop as a team in Valorant?

Yes, it is important to drop as a team in Valorant. Dropping together can help you secure a better position and increase your chances of survival. It also allows for better communication and coordination during the round.