When it comes to competitive first-person shooters, the crosshair, which is the on-screen graphic that indicates where you’re aiming, is one of the most underrated aspects of how players view the game. It helps to direct your eyes in the right direction and of course to pop the heads of the enemy team you see.
But with the ability to customize how you can display your crosshair in Valorant, it’s understandable that there’s debate about which crosshair setting works best. Does it have something elaborate, like a large circle, or something more discreet, like a simple dot in the middle of the screen?
Unlike many of the mechanics in the game, where there is a clear method to get the most out of that mechanic, the only real answer to the best look in the game depends on what you feel most comfortable with. View and play style is subjective, meaning something that works for you may not work for others. For example, the professional Shroud streamer uses a small crosshair that shows the four lines of a standard crosshair without any dots to indicate the exact center.
There could be many reasons for this. One could be that it allows you to see where the center is, but a dot can obscure the view of the enemy’s head, so Shroud keeps this off so he can clearly see an enemy in the middle of the screen. . A contrast to this, however, could be this crosshair from the Twitch Onscreen streamer, who has played Counter-Strike professionally in the past.
As you can see, this is just a small dot in the middle of the screen. This could simply be that once you see part of an enemy obscured by the dot, you know you’re aiming directly at them, however it could also be an aid in controlling recoil. There’s no wrong answer with crosshairs, and even some of the wackier crosshairs can work for certain players.
A nice feature of Valorant is that when you look at a teammate after they’ve been killed, you’ll see the crosshair they themselves are using. This will allow you to see what other types of crosshairs look like while you watch, and you can also import and export crosshairs for Valorant. Meanwhile, the practice range will also allow you to try out a new type of crosshair without needing to get into a match situation without trying it out first.
One aspect that players should be aware of is a specific setting within Valorant’s crosshair customization that allows the crosshair to observe movement and trigger the ‘mistake multiplier’. What this setting does is expand the reticle to reflect current movement inaccuracies (such as jumping or walking) or shooting (making the reticle grow as rounds are spent). Like the other options, these are user-dependent, but are worth considering if players are unfamiliar with the precision cooldowns invoked by any of the actions.
Ultimately, the best crosshair setups in Valorant are different for everyone. Figuring out what works best for you will take some time, but practicing with your setup while you’re in the shooting range area will allow you to test to see which one feels right for you.
