How to improve your KD

Part 2/4

By: [LMS]007
8 minute read

Are you struggling to maintain a K/D > 1? Frustrated by players constantly shooting you first? Are you winning only about half the time? If you’re still an average player after years of playing it may be time to have a retrospective.

I have been playing FPS games for over 24 years and reached the top tier in several online multiplayer games (Half-Life and FarCry 3). In this 4-part series, I’m going to share how I did it and what I’ve learned over this decades long journey. Because there are some simple shifts you may be missing that can improve your K/D.

In this series, we’re going to cover:

Part 2: Good Gaming Habits

Make sure to read Part 1 before continuing on. In this next section, we’re going define the two types of FPS genres and how they are fundamentally different, and then we’re going to go over 10 gaming habits that will minimize your risk of getting killed and increase your probability of landing clean, fast and accurate shots.

Types of shooters

Not all FPS games are the same. They fall into one of 2 categories: Tactical vs Movement. The games will dictate when a camping strategy is more effective and when it’s not. The rule of thumb here is as the movement slows down and/or the distance between players expands, then camping and sniping are going to be the dominant means of controlling the game. Generally speaking, round based games such as counter-strike, R6 or even the battle royale genre are tactical, whereas games that allow unlimited respawning are typically more movement-focused.

Movement shooters

If the game has fast movement and especially renders player models in unnatural ways to counter camouflage, then camping is going to be an ineffective strategy. That is not to say, you should always rush your opponents. In fact, taking cover in key situations is vital for staying alive even in fast twitch situations. Small hesitations can pay off if you can accurately predict your opponents’ moves.

Tactical shooters

In games where players are harder to see against the background and movement is generally slow, then you’re going to see a lot more camping and it’s going to work really well–especially in long distance maps. Even in camp-heavy games, making aggressive moves to flank your enemies can pay off. You just have to weigh that gambit against the likelihood of getting killed because you’re moving. Adjust your play style to the game, the map and the situation. Do what works and remember the best strategy is the one where you live and your opponent does not.

10 Habits to Make Your Shots Easy

Good aim starts with good habits.
Having fast and precise aim does not mean you should take low probability fast twitch shots. Good players don’t want to have to rely on low probability shots and in fact, they work very hard to make each shot as easy as possible in the first place. The work that goes into making the shot easy pays off with more kills regardless of your aim skill. A player with fantastic aim, but poor judgment may actually not be all that remarkable–not to mention a red flag for cheating. Here are 10 tips that will help you become a better, more consistent player that goes beyond naturally good aim.

1. Watch kill cameras

If there is a kill cam, watch it often. You may be surprised how exposed you actually look from an opponent’s point of view. I can not stress enough the value of seeing yourself from an opponent’s perspective. Often this will help improve your own awareness by revealing your weakness and vulnerabilities in a new way. Being a great player is not just about having great aim, it’s always making yourself hard to kill. You do that with awareness and anticipation.

2. Check your flanks

Perhaps you already know you’re going to move to the right past the wall, but first do a really quick left turn and then move back to the right. By doing that you only slightly delay your reaction time to the right, but verify at least for the next moment or so that no one will be behind you when you make that turn. These little habits pay off. You’re not going to be able to prevent every bad situation, but the idea is to reduce them as much as you can through habits and routine.

I was surely going to be fragged if I kept walking, but after checking my left flank, I was able to catch two unsuspecting players without taking damage. The other bit of a gambit here was not waiting on the capture point. Instead, I moved through it to secure a larger area and buy time.

3. Don’t always attack your first target

It’s generally best to attack the person that is the greatest threat to you, but sometimes this is not possible and your death is inevitable. Even in those cases if you can finish off your target before the second player frags you, then that’s making the most out of a situation. If the situation is too lopsided, then it’s best to retreat if possible. For example, good players will not attack 3 players at once, but rather try and take on 3 players in quick succession by using the movements and the map to their advantage. You really only want one person to be able to shoot at you at a time.

4. Don’t always attack!

This goes with the previous tip, In some cases it’s best to just retreat and save yourself from getting killed. In some cases landing a frag would have poor probability. The smart play is to retreat and find a new angle against the attacking players. The idea with this sort of strategy is that you’re trying to increase the first strike opportunities and decrease being an easy target. Playing reclusive will lead to lower frag counts, but it may be the smartest play depending on the game, your team or the situation. Don’t be brazen all the time. Sometimes you can be very aggressive, but sometimes, it’s best not to be. If the team you’re facing is significantly more skilled than yours, then it’s best to adapt a reclusive strategy and re-adjust your goals.

Apart from the CAR (op weapon) and cloak cheese, I took a very defensive posture here by using cover, waiting for my tactical, and even using a melee (eww!). I was playing to win the match, rather than going for glorious shots and style points. We were losing the game, but by the end of the clip we were winning–so there.

5. If things aren’t going well, make adjustments

Know when you’re failing! If you start dying a number of times in a row, it’s not because you’re bad. You’re likely out of sync with this game and making yourself an easier target than you could be. Change it up. Slow down a bit, change to a different loadout. Make a cognitive reset. Don’t try and get kill after kill. Observe how aggressive your opponents are and adjust to them. This is simply letting the game come to you.

6. Time your reloads

When reloading, plan to take cover. Moving towards some cover can really make the motion seamless and incidental, but it pays off. Don’t take too much risk reloading around blind spots. If your opponent is low on life but you’re low on ammo, sometimes it’s best to stay aggressive and just finish off the fight without reloading even if you’re moving in and out of cover.

I almost blew it on this play. I should have switched to my alternate weapon after my third kill, or went into that 4v2 with stopping rounds (which I had, but didn’t use). Luckily, I had a teammate right behind me that provided cover, and I was able to finish reloading and frag the 4th player. Not all mistakes end up being a death, but they are still mistakes!

7. Learn the maps front to back

This may seem obvious but it’s worth mentioning that mastery of the maps goes hand-in-hand with mastery of the game. Map mastery is often about movement, location and prediction and greatly complements good aim to round out a top tier player. In my experience, this just happens with time. I’m sure you can consciously learn a map a bit faster, but the more you play, the better understanding you’ll have of the map.

8. Conserve your tactical ability

Against really good players, it more often than not will be much harder to land shots and it will come down to the last few rounds in your clip. Conserve your tactical abilities. If you don’t need it, don’t just waste the tactical! You may end up regretting it later on when you could have used it to edge out a better opponent.

9. Make it hard on purpose

Try different loadouts and/or classes. It may help you learn niche advantages and disadvantages about them so when you fight against players that do use similar loadouts, then you’ll know better how to counter them. You’ll know the timing, nuances and patterns that might emerge from top players that use them. Embrace new challenges and learn from those mistakes. A loss or a low score is just a barometer. Use that as a data point to improve from.

10. Aim & Cover

Aim is a combination of setting your position up for an easier shot (offense) and cover is just making yourself a hard target (defense). Against really top players you must spend a lot more effort with your attack angles and staying in cover. First strike is vital to winning. Don’t stand still unless someone is not looking at you or you have very good aim. The better the competition is, the less time you should spend out in the open as an easy target.

It does tend to be a more straightforward in tactical games like Counter-Strike or Call of Duty where pretty much the first player to shoot and land shots wins, but in movement based games, getting off the first shot does not always translate into a frag especially with higher TTK. More emphasis will be on your movement to set up your own angle of attack and defense.

In Part 3 of this series, let’s dig deeper into aim skills and aim trainers. Are they worth it? Let’s find out.

Continue on to How to improve your K/D (Part 3/4)