10 Tips On How To Become A Better FPS Player

Hey gamers out there! Today I felt inspired to share some gaming tips with those of you who are looking to gain the inside edge over your friends and rivals in competitive first person shooting games.

I have been playing video games for over 20+ years now, and I have learned a thing or two about how to perfect your skills and stay ahead of the competition. What always provides the edge is dedicating extra time to the game you want to excel in and never giving up. When it comes to multiplayer games, it can be extremely aggravating to start up an online game and instantly start dying. It can also be discouraging for many players to lose a lot especially if they are playing a shooter for the first time. So this post will be dedicated to providing those gamers who are looking to perfect their skills and techniques and to inform more advanced gamers of little tidbits of info they may not know. Specifically with this post I am only going to focus on strategies that apply to competitive FPS games as a whole (such as Overwatch, Battlefield, Halo, Call of Duty, and DOOM, etc.)

Tip 1: Pick the right game – At this point in time there are tons of shooting games available for every major console. When you have settled on a specific shooter you want to get into by yourself or with your friends, take a minute to look up the style of shooter it is. Don’t think just because a game is a shooter it means they are all the same. It may have features that you may not like. So just keep that in mind while you decide, and figure out what you are getting yourself into before you jump on a new game as this may affect your decision to get better at it.

Tip 2: Check The Control settings – Right off the bat once you have chosen your shooter and started playing, check the control settings and make sure the setup and sensitivity on the controller match your preferences. Many players do not customize their controller settings and usually stick to the default layout and this may work for them but it may not work for you. Many times if you feel the movement of the game is too fast or too slow, you can go into your game’s controller settings and tweak them to fit your play style. Depending on the FPS I usually recommend going with a more medium to high analog stick sensitivity, which allows much faster camera movement with less effort on your thumbs. Having a higher sensitivity provides comfortability and will also allow for you to spin the camera around at a much faster pace. This helps you to turn and face opponents more quickly when you are getting shot from an angle where you cannot see them.

Tip 3: Master Movement –  Movement in FPS games is absolutely critical and means the difference between surviving firefights and getting shot down time and time again. Basically if you don’t move you give your opponent an easy target. Practice getting used to moving behind cover in shooters as often as possible as this will provide ample cover from incoming fire depending on the situation. Also when being chased by another player into buildings practice moving to the right or left side of doorways while turning and aiming towards the doorway to try to catch your pursuer as they run in behind you. Also do not forget about moving backwards! Shooters like Halo have lots of verticality in the multiplayer maps and moving backwards underneath a platform could save your life. This movement could trip up an attacking player since they may not be expecting you to move backwards under cover while they are chasing you from the platform above.

Tip 4: Learn what is your favorite weapon (or class) – Some shooters allow the players to make an open decision about which weapons and abilities they prefer to go into the multiplayer game with (ex.COD). Others have weapons attached to specific classes which usually means they have a specific function in the game (ex.Battlefield). Make sure to test out each class to learn what weapons and abilities cater to your play style. By loving the weapons and classes means you will not get bored using them repeatedly. Since perfecting your skills is all about repetition and practice, you will need to use those weapons to figure out which ones work with your play style, which will eventually give you the advantage so make sure they are right for you in every way including its physical appearance. If you don’t like the look of a weapon you may not care for it at all and since gaming is all about the visuals, its only a matter of time before you get tired of staring at a lame weapon and want to either change it and try again, or possibly leave the game altogether.

Tip 5: Stop thinking about yourself – In many competitive shooters there are modes that require teamwork and communication to succeed. If you are a player that solely focuses on your kill count you will be difficult to play with as a teammate, and the entire team will suffer in the long run. Many times in objective based game modes you are going to be disliked by the team, and may even be the cause of their loss if you decide to not assist with the objective in some way. For example, in the Battlefield games each class has a specific ability. So it is each players job to try to maximize the teams success by using those abilities to help each other out which will increase the chances of victory.

An example of this is the Assault class in Battlefield 4 specifically. The Assault class utilizes assault rifles which are great for handling mid and close range battles, but it also has the medic ability. This allows you drop down medkits and eventually you can revive teammates with the defibrillator once it’s unlocked. In order to truly succeed with this class and maximize your experience for the match, you should try to toss out as much health as possible for your teammates and revive as many of them as possible to save them from taking valuable time to respawn at a new location. The goal here is to try to help out when the game allows you as it will help out the overall team to reach the end goal. This is the way to go rather then having every man for himself and no support which leaves the opposing team able to take advantage and kill off lone wolf run and gun players.

Tip 6: Learn what it takes to obtain a kill – This may seem obvious to most players but what I mean by this is to familiarize yourself with how many shots or projectiles it takes to defeat an enemy character online. In Call of Duty for example it usually takes a few shots from a fully automatic rifle to get a kill in a standard match. But in a game like Halo it takes way more then just a few shots, as their over shields need to be taken down first before getting the kill shot. Also understand how the weapon you use may or may not take longer to reach the kill depending on movement, angles, and head shots. The more successful you become in obtaining kills, eventually the amount of shots or damage needed will be easier for you to understand. And as you continue to master this process, taking down targets will become easier since you already know the expected number of shots it takes to kill an enemy, which allows you to focus on the next enemy or the next objective.

Tip 7: Study the map – This is nothing new for veteran players but for newcomers get to know each map as you play. Memorize key areas where you notice choke points or enemy spawn points, so you will not be caught off guard when you meet an enemy in these areas. Most team death match modes have a more simple respawn structure where the two teams usually spawn on opposite sides of each other and eventually end up switching original spawn points. So halfway through a match you can expect to see opponents coming from the direction of where you originally started and you will have the opportunity to take them down before they knew what hit them. It is also crucial to begin to predict where other players are going to be. When you become comfortable enough with certain maps, you will begin to recognize spawn patterns and you will know where enemy players are going to be before they even get there giving you the edge as you will become a ghost. Meaning they won’t have a clue as to where you are, but you know where they are coming from, giving you the upper hand each time and allowing you to get the kills off them before they can even see you.

Tip 8: Use your grenades and gear – Frag grenades are a very under utilized weapon in first person shooters and if used correctly they could earn you some awesome multi kills that could actually win you the game. With grenades the key is timing and accuracy. Especially in the Halo series using grenades is vital to winning matches, and if you practice enough you can use certain angles in the maps to bounce grenades off of walls to reach your opponents without them even knowing. I learned this the hard way as I was destroyed many times by a grenades expert in Halo before. Playing with just grenades in mind keeps you focused on how to use them, which opens up new opportunities to gain kills. Playing custom grenade matches with a friend is key to learning the angles in which to attack your opponents in online matches. In addition, it is not just grenades that are under utilized in shooters, also keep in mind all the extra details in weapon attachments, perks, and additional gear that shooters allow you to use. This extra gear can mean the difference in winning and losing if used properly, but in order to figure that out you need to practice with whats available so you can use whats best for your play style.

Overwatch: Health Pickup

Tip 9: Learn health and weapon spawns – Modern shooters like DOOM (2016) and Overwatch feature a more “arena” styled shooting experience which means there is no auto recovery health system like in Call of Duty. While Overwatch has some exceptions since there are specific characters which specialize in healing, the majority of the time you need to regain health by collecting health pick ups located on the maps. DOOM on the other hand not only features health pickups but armor and weapon pickups as well, which can turn the tide of battle in a team death match or objective game type. Learning where these specific health pick ups spawn among other items will help give you the surviving edge against your enemies since you will already know where to go when you are in a tight spot.

DOOM: Weapon Pickup

Final Tip: Develop a sixth sense – After playing any shooting game for a long enough time you will eventually develop what I like to call a sixth sense. You eventually begin to understand the game in a new way that no one else can. Things like movement, reloading, aiming, throwing grenades, using power ups and abilities become second nature and you are able to focus on a new objective in your mind which is total game domination. When you reach this point in a specific game I feel that you can truly unleash your potential and enjoy the game on a newer scale since you will probably continue to defeat most of your enemies and win most if not all online matches you play.

Alright happy gamers, I hope this blog post helped you out in some way, shape, or form and now you can add this knowledge to your gaming arsenal of strategies to win over anyone you come across in a first person shooter. Please feel free to ask any questions or comment if this has helped you in the comment section. Thanks for visiting my blog.