Mastering Valorant: A Beginner’s Guide to Jumping in the Game
Are you new to Valorant and wondering why jumping is such a crucial aspect of the game?
We will explore the importance of jumping in Valorant and provide you with valuable tips on how to jump effectively.
From basic jumping mechanics to advanced techniques like bunny hopping, we will cover it all.
Discover the benefits of jumping, such as better movement and positioning, as well as the risks involved, such as reduced accuracy.
Get expert tips on mastering the art of jumping in Valorant and taking your gameplay to the next level.
Contents
Key Takeaways:
What is Valorant?
Valorant is a First-Person Shooter game developed by Riot Games. Inspired by Counter-Strike, Overwatch, and other games, Riot sought to create a game where each character is unique in playstyle and design, and distinct from other characters. The game remains in development with new characters, maps, and weapons occasionally released along with frequent updates. The storyline is set in the near future on an Earth-like planet.
A cross-dimensional ticking bomb threatens to destroy everything as a group of so-called Radiants, humans gifted with unique powers, fight to disarm it. The Radiants operatives of VALORANT faced disaster when the first disarming effort failed thanks to turncoats. So a new group of operatives taken from all over the planet and alternate dimensions comes together to stop the Radiant’s enemies – of course, using highly aggressive shooting tactics.
Matches in Valorant put two teams against one another as Attackers and Defenders with each character having unique abilities and varying weapons. Team coordination is critical in completing game objectives and winning matches. Esports leagues have flourished since the game’s release and developers specifically designed Valorant to encourage competitive play and the growth of the professional gaming world.
Why is Jumping Important in Valorant?
Jumping is important in Valorant if you gemed jump in certain situations to improve aim during a firefight or to peek over a wall. After hopping in a custom game to pass the time while opponents on Team B did not connect during a practice match against Team A. Despite Team B showing up six minutes late, THreat’s tactic actually won the game for them, as Team B claimed map advantages to be implemented as compensation.
How to Jump in Valorant?
In Valorant, jumping can be a useful tool for breaking up predictable firing lines or gaining a different shooting angle on targets more quickly. Besides normal movement during a gunfight, players can jump to dodge sniper shots from Operator rifles possessing wall penetration, as the sniper scope zoom can make the player an easier target.
Because accuracy and movement speed is greatly reduced when jumping with automatic weapons, jumping should only be used when they must rapidly change shooting angles or dodge incoming fire that they know will kill them with only one more shot. Rapid crouching and standing are more effective at sustaining good mechanics and present smaller hitboxes as a target.
Basic Jumping Mechanics
Valorant jumping mechanics are based on a good number of maximum movement speeds, gun and movement tactical decisions that fit the style of play you are looking to achieve warranting the need for a deeper look at all the elements of jumping, movement, and shooting within the game. What should be known are the two most common methods of jumping. Not even fully understood by the game developers themselves, at least according to lead gameplay researcher David Cole. He claims the game encounters bugs with strafing.
Bunny Hopping
Bunny hopping is a technique in which the player can gain short bursts of speed through the air by jumping immediately after landing to exploit the game’s movement mechanics. Bunny hopping differs from normal jumping because you jump as soon as you hit the ground from the previous jump. This technique is rarely useful in the highly tactical world of Valorant, as skilled hopping can vary a player’s hitbox movement in a predictable way that is easier to hit for opponents.
Toast, a Facebook gaming streamer, showcased how to bunny hop continuously for ten consecutive jumps on Bind at B-Cubby. The starting shot shows how hopping can quickly and consistently move the player such that they can rapidly peek different angles. Bunny hopping can also be effective in surprise flanking, such as the jumping corner shot onto B-Hookah at Bind.
While normal jumping is unavoidable in airstrafing, bunny hopping offers few measurable benefits. It is able to confuse the enemy in close-quarters combat with its unpredictability, but is more often than not a hindrance for accurate jumping and catching the eyes of enemies. Bunny hopping is also harder to pull off, as there is a narrow window between landing and jumping. Bryn Fitzsimmons, a strategic Valorant creator and contributor to The Game Haus, suggests valorant player jumps with an interval somewhere in between two items every 3-5 items. Hold Shift When Bunny Hopping. Holding Shift while moving forward stops a player from making any noise at all while moving, even bunny hopping. This is done to mask the audio profile of the player’s movement allowing them to get a little bit of extra speed/wiggle while still minimizing predictability from an enemy’s perspective.
Jumping to Avoid Enemy Fire
Jumping in Valorant to avoid enemy fire is generally not a good idea, as it leads to a decrease in weapon accuracy. However, if you are unexpectedly caught in the open with low cover options, jump in conjunction with a 45-degree crouch strafe. This is a dynamic movement and a jumping trick in Valorant due to the variable accuracy of weapons, which works best with Ligh Guns and SMGs.
Valoranter, Kevolution demonstrates these movements in the video linked below. Keep in mind, as the video demonstrates, that using this jump technique is more effective when the expected incoming fire has Low Fire Rate. He says this is mainly beneficial for guns with 2.0-second accuracy reset time or slower (with the Phantom being slightly faster).
Jumping to Gain Higher Ground
Use a C jump strategy as an Agent to gain the higher ground according to the information shared in Riot Game’s Valorant Astra Agent teaser at 0:40 through 0:50 seconds. If you are approaching a platform that is on a slightly higher level than where you are at, then C jumping at the base of the platform is the way to go to land at the top of it.
You can also C jump strafe while pushing onto an area of the map to make yourself a harder target to hit on the way there.
What are the Benefits of Jumping in Valorant?
The primary benefit is that movement while in the air allows you to adjust your trajectory when being attacked. This makes it difficult for the enemy to hit you and allows you to either take cover or to dodge behind a corner to avoid projectiles. It is especially useful in picking routes that bother the enemy team, such as a location that has a one-way exit.
Jumping in Valorant makes a distinctly loud noise that can alert you to enemy presence around corners, as well as disturb enemies by letting them know you are nearby. Players are unable to stop themselves for short moments in the air the way they can on the ground. They are likely to have reduced accuracy owing to the fact they are in the air. It is a good tactic to jump in Valorant as it makes it less likely that you are hit by enemy fire. So it is possible to bait the enemy into revealing their position as well as faces by jumping through areas.
Better Movement and Positioning
Two Radiant tier players, Josh oday Nissan from G2 and Christine Potter Chi from Gen.G, spoke on the Valorant Champions Twitch stream about key differences between players at various tiers. On movement, both noted that in general the higher ranked you are in the game the less you move. This is because lower ranked players will move when they do not need to, and very often are shooting while running which is highly inaccurate in Valorant.
Learn to slow down movement and improve on positioning as a standard way of playing. Only move to change positioning or reposition, advance, pull back, or to dodge a shot. Never move when holding an angle or unneeded during a firefight so that you can improve your aim and win more battles. Practice your positioning and movement while aiming and shooting in the shooting range.
Harder to Hit by Enemies
Jumping is harder to hit by enemies. When a player jumps in Valorant, their hitbox changes position based on where it was before the jump. The player makes a parabolic arc while jumping, which changes the possibilities for an enemy to hit their targets as lateral acceleration is thrown in the mix.
Valorant creator Riot Games has two major hitbox categories, aiming and general, which are independent of factors like jumping. Aiming hitboxes are only slightly larger than the characters while their general hitboxes are their full shape, which means the general hitbox accommodates for the animations of jumping. Hence, it is statistically harder for enemies to hit you if you are in the middle of a jump. A case study was run by Reddit user rin12390 on the impact of jumping with the Bucky where the enemy did 225 damage. Despite this material testing not finding significant benefit from jumping, players have often found better results from jumping when wielding Bucky or other shotguns.
Easier to Reach Higher Areas
You jump in Valorant to more easily reach higher areas. Since it is a tactical multiplayer shooter focusing on map awareness, jumping can provide several benefits. These are some examples of when you would want to activate the VALORANT jump command in order to traverse elevated terrain.
- Accessibility: To claim areas that can’t be climbed, the competitive side of Valorant is high-fidelity.
- Speed: To quickly get across an overview map or to peak.
- Stealth: To leap around corners and shock opponents during electronic play.
- Improvement of Sightline: To reach higher vantage points to gain better sight over the enemies.
- Defense: To prevent specific locations from becoming easily accessible by jumping onto windowsills or high boxes.
In Valorant, there are two primary heights to which players can jump, 0.67 meters and 1.0 meters. According to LOBA School’s ListeLo, the difference in height jumps allows players to leap to different elevated places for a reason. For example, according to Valorant stat tracking and transaction site blitz.gg, approximately 12% of the spot height range is 0.67 meters high, equating to roughly 84 spots on the map including grass that can be occupied. Using Riot’s Breeze example, the concept is shown in a practical sense where statues in Planting B garage from mid-window require a 1-meter jump, while boxes from garage require only a 0.67-meter jump.
Utilize the jump command to access different boosted locations throughout the game.
What are the Risks of Jumping in Valorant?
The risks of jumping in Valorant are not knowing how you will land or where you will land in relation to enemy positions, inaccuracy during jumping causing difficult follow-up shots after landing, slower movement, slightly louder movement, slower strafing, predictability of jump trajectory, and not being able to shift walk while jumping/plant macro during jumps in tactical scenarios.
Jumping can be effective when the risks are minimized, but hazards make it a risky but high-yield tactic. Opposition players will be able to predict where you will land when you are in the air – potentially able to shoot/block you upon landing.
Fully jumping to go over an enemy side-flash to close rage may endanger your own life if you do not kill with all first shots. Be aware of jump noise and jump from behind objects or corners to throw enemies off.
Slower Movement Speed
Valorant allows for strategic tactical movement options particularly focused on walking (Shift key as the default). When a player toggles walking on or off, the sound changes and thus the type of info the other team has access to can also change.
Walking movement effects in VALORANT:
- Audio cue change: This advanced feature is not yet common in FPS, where normally there are few if any wind noises. Once a player puts their gun away, walking not only removes any footsteps, but there is a rustling noise similar to leaves moving that plays.
- Raise defuse/plant audio level: Not only are the gun and step noises reduced while walking (walk making noise and run making noise sounds are scrapped), the raise in audio for sounds like planting or defusing are easier to differentiate.
- Hitbox expansion: While a player walks, one pixel by one pixel their character model spreads out on their arcade screen, and that walk model is added on top of the normal bullet site model.
- Gives the enemy circle using audible cues: The edge of your walk circle is very precisely the edge when using the audio queue. When these cues are times joined with spectral cues then players can spam into an area where they think you are and shoot you with a gun bullet technique from a distance.
Restricting movement to a walk, particularly when shifting from a crouch or run, takes extensive practice to master and even then often proves challenging. No announcement has been made by Riot to affect future movement or running mechanics so a jump in speed is still speculated to be out of the question.
Reduced Accuracy
Reduced accuracy concerns the right-click and aim-down-sights (ADS) mechanics. Hitting a target with the right-click reduced accuracy jump can work in upper body areas depending on the agent and the gun, but it is difficult to execute. Across all agents and guns except shotguns and sniper rifles and the agent the Marshal of the gun, jumping in Valorant is synonymous with the term bunny hopping in Counter-Strike in that it helps the player move more unpredictably and reduce the accuracy of enemies, not to improve their own accuracy.
Vulnerable to Enemy Fire
Vulnerable to enemy fire is a jumping penalty in Valorant given by the game developers to prevent players from jumping around without punishment. Players must stand still for a split second once they jump to reduce in-air accuracy to refrain from using jump shots from attack peaks and at the start of rounds.
Although an airborne enemy is an easy target, rarely stop moving to shoot. The Corruption of Ew2YouTube video’s analysis on WHEN TO JUMP SHOT! is a quick guide by APU from Tech Sick which shows that one must be stand still or on the ground to reliably take a jump shot against an enemy. Jump shots by Mihai VonGuhren Harnagea in his Jump around the world – FUNNY video are always taken with SMGs or shotguns which are very forgiving of inaccuracy as they provide high close range DPS.
To perform jump shots, stop moving as hitboxes, projectiles, and displacements in the air will be unpredictable. The general rule is to only move in the air if it is necessary to avoid an enemy’s shots as covered in VIPDOF Valorant Mechanics video by The Russian Genius.
Tips for Effective Jumping in Valorant
Tips for effective jumping in Valorant to achieve maximum mobility are to jump to avoid gunfire, jump a lot with Sova, or jump along with dodging. When people turn corners against you, they usually aim at the bottom of doors. So if you turn a corner and they are there waiting to shoot the bottom of doors, they usually aim at the legs and basically crouch and jump to avoid a few burst kills.
Jumping long distances is usually followed by a semi-pause (while in air) until landing, to be able to shoot while stuck in mid-air. Echo, KAY/O, Yoru, and Sage are regarded as weak agents to jump with continually for maximum mobility as they all have jump penalties. A newb valorant player may find it easier to use a pointing device when jumping as opposed to using a keyboard. It is recommended to start playing with a normal jump button before proceeding to using artifacts for gaming. Starting players can then tweak the settings and practice with artifacts.
When you are sova you should take advantage of your quick aerial speed in an isolated CT area where the opponents will not be able to rotate fast. Jumping makes you a harder shooting target when rapidly closing out with an extreme advantage. The best way of ensuring you’ll receive less damage in these situations is by leaping before you land on the ground. Most one-tapping weapons are placeings at head height, so leaping to avoid it is a good solution.
Use your sonic arrow (which must be placed in the ideal position before you jump), and after landing while ulting, then use your recon bolt. A perfect ping area has been created when the enemies will not be able to accurately aim while you leap. Counter-strafing combines your speed and direction while moving which will be a huge problem for your enemies.
Practice Movement and Jumping Mechanics
The minimum amount of speed needed for a B-style hop jump is 100 units/sec. The agent Breach can achieve easily with Air-Smoke Jumping. To practice his movement mechanics volcano routinely jumps around maps by himself, such as around A on Bind. Low-level players can create custom lobbies and spend time experimenting on their own so their team-focused play is not compromised at a higher level of play. Valorant maps are small and only have a few points of interest for movement to be around, so it will not take long to get a feel for defensively and offensively hops and jumps in different situations.
Use Jumping Strategically
Jumping for utility usage is rarely seen in the game of Valorant, but plant defuse and counter-plant defuse jumps are used in particular situations. The primary scenario for this kind of jump utility is when a spike is down and enemy players are looking to defuse. You can make them nervous and waste their time so your team can better position themselves to attack simply by performing safe jumps from behind cover in ways where your shadow is minimally visible until you are ready to appear.
There are some maps in Valorant where you have additional options for counter-plant jumps after a spike is down such as performing the Car Jump at B Garage on Anchor. As teams figure out the value of using jump utility for the plant and defuse, we may see more spots used on more maps. For now, players should simply look at pros and figure out which spots are used the most.
Knowing how and when to jump properly pays off in large dividends for Valorant play. Knowing proper technique and the best scenarios for any jumps will better position you to react to a wide array of threats and opportunities. It is a good idea to develop a comfort level with how your character feels during jumps so that you can use jumps naturally. Additionally make use of them when scouting and peeking to avoid being hit by enemy players sighted before you ideally hit them or to make yourself a more difficult target if you are hit. Once confident in that, build strategy awareness to incorporate jumping to maximize your odds on the field of play.
Coordinate with Teammates
When jumping into a position as a team, the team as a whole might accomplish what one individual cannot. The player can bait shots and attention away from their teammates under cover while their teammates push towards the enemy under the enemy crosshair and after one player has been spotted by the opponents with them having almost no chance to escape. If done correctly, teammates should have a clearer path to victory.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the proper way to jump in Valorant?
The proper way to jump in Valorant is by pressing and holding the spacebar on your keyboard. This will allow your character to jump over obstacles and reach higher areas in the game.
Can I control the height and distance of my jump in Valorant?
Yes, you can control the height and distance of your jump by adjusting the duration of your spacebar press. A quick tap will result in a shorter jump, while a longer press will result in a higher jump.
Are there any special jumping techniques in Valorant?
While there are no specific jumping techniques in Valorant, some players use crouch-jumping to quickly navigate through the map. This is done by pressing and holding both the spacebar and left control keys simultaneously.
How can I jump over obstacles in Valorant?
To jump over obstacles in Valorant, approach the object and press and hold the spacebar while moving forward. Your character will automatically jump over the obstacle.
Is there a limit to how many times I can jump in Valorant?
There is no limit to how many times you can jump in Valorant. However, constantly jumping may make you an easier target for enemies, so use it strategically.
Can I jump while shooting in Valorant?
Yes, you can jump while shooting in Valorant, but keep in mind that this can affect your accuracy. It is best to time your jumps and shots carefully to improve your chances of hitting your target.
