How to improve your KD

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 1: Game Prep & Mindset
• Part 2: Gaming Habits
• Part 3: Aim & Aim Trainers (this page)
• Part 4: From Good to Elite

Part 3: Aim Skills and Aim Trainers

Make sure to read Part 2 before continuing on. In this next section, we’re going discuss aim skills and why I don’t recommend aim trainers.

Skill Pyramid

Lets revisit the skill pyramid one more time in the context of aim trainers. Remember, aim is just a small piece of the skill pyramid. Without a proper foundation, a player with exclusivity good aim is not going to be successful against other well-rounded players. Aim trainers can help you speed up your time to fire and accuracy but that in truth, that is only a subset of the aim skills you need in-game. Let’s break down “aim” into multiple sub-pieces:

Definable Aim Skills

And we could probably define many more. So which of these aim skills do aim trainers help improve?

What do aim trainers help with anyway?

There are a variety of aim trainers out there, some better than others. In its simplest form, an aim trainer really only addresses aim skill #1, improving mouse speed and accuracy in a static position. They usually don’t allow much movement, if any at all, and ignore key constructs of a real game like defensive movement (to avoid being shot), offensive movement (to position yourself to set up a shot), ammo management (reloading), and recoil control, to name a few. Strafing while shooting is a paramount technique as demonstrated my MrBlaBlack in this helpful video: “How To Control Recoil And Improve Aim (Top 1 NEW Technique) Apex Legends”. Ignoring these essential game components means that aim trainers are not training you to be a better player, but rather training you to get a higher aim trainer score.

What is visual player/crosshair resolution?

The last two items on the list above deal with being able to see and interpret your targets and see your crosshairs. Both are necessary for fast and accurate aim. Aim trainers typically render things to be easily seen and resolvable. Play a game like PUBG or Battlefield and you’ll soon realize players lurking in the shadows far away are not very easy to spot compared to a bright pink or green ball in an aim trainer.

Secondly, in areas where there is fast motion, high contrast and lots of colors, you may have a hard time resolving your in-game crosshairs, especially if you’re looking away from the center of your screen–which you should absolutely do if you want to find people before they find you! Remember it only takes a small amount of error to miss a target. Gaimglass specifically solves the crosshair problem, and if aim trainers only address aim skill #1, then you are still left with a huge amount of aim skills to learn outside of an aim trainer and tool.

Are aim trainers worth my time?

As we’ve covered, an aim trainer only addresses a small piece of the FPS skills you need to be an elite player, while the rest will have to be learned in-game, so why not just play the game? I’m not suggesting aim trainers are totally useless, but you have to understand that they focus on a subset of the skills you need. I recommend putting your time towards focused gameplay in a game that you enjoy. See Part 2 of this series for 10 good gaming habits to elevate your game, if you haven’t read it already.

Aim to be a well-rounded player

Given enough time, even the worst players can be highly accurate. The trick is being able to be accurate and fast. When players push to be faster or try and hit a fast-moving target, that’s normally when you see the aim break down. Aim trainers can help with your mouse tracking speed and accuracy, but that skill alone won’t get you great aim, and without enemies shooting back at you, you won’t develop fast movement reflexes, awareness, game strategy or defense.

In this short clip, I dispatch 4 players in short order. Pay attention to when I reload, when I don’t. Notice how I never shooting standing still, and in fact jump several times to make myself harder to hit. At one point, I’m facing 2 enemies at once and I quickly slide to the right to get some cover and deal with my targets in series rather than parallel. Notice how I can melt several of these players with strafe aiming alone and very little mouse movement. This is an example of good defense + offence.

Now that we’ve got the right Gaming Mindset and Good Gaming Habits, let’s push a little further. What are top tier players doing that set them apart from the rest? In the final section of this series, we’re going to discuss a few practices that will push you into that next level from average/good to elite. Join me and let’s dive in.