Here's the video link if you're lazy to read

Peeking is one of the most important skills and it is often overlooked. Everyone talks about aim and crosshair placement, but knowing how to peek properly is what separates the lower and higher ranks.

In this post, I'm going to teach you how to peek better in Valorant so that you get kills more consistently and climb the ranks easier.

The Basics

First, let's start off with the most common mistake players make when peeking - shift-walking when peeking an angle.

If you peek while walking, you make yourself a very easy target for the enemy. The difference between someone shift walking and someone who is peeking at full speed is very significant (shown in the video).

It's much harder for the enemy to react to you when you're not walking all the time. If you watch any pro or high-level Valorant gameplay, you'll see that they're barely peeking while holding shift. This is also the reason why you shouldn't be using ADS to peek corners, as it'll make you much slower than normal.

Another thing is that, if the enemy already knows your location, it's useless to be walk-peeking someone. This happens a lot in clutch scenarios, so just be aware of what info has been given away.

But wait, I want to remain silent while I peek. If I run, then I'm going to make a sound?

If you didn't know, you can peek angles at full speed w/o making a sound by releasing the movement key after half a second (ish). I'm not 100% sure on the timing, but try it out in a custom game, and you'll feel it for yourself. There's a set distance you can move before making a sound and You should get used to the timing, as you'll want to almost always be peeking this way instead of shift-walking as, again, it'll make you a much harder target to hit.

When peeking common angles, you also want to pre-aim your crosshair to the spot where an enemy's head will be. This means that you're factoring your end location into your crosshair placement. Oftentimes, you're going to be aiming at the wall right before you peek, but after you've moved to your end location, your crosshair placement directly on the enemy's head. Pre-aiming is something that goes hand in hand when peeking common angles but doesn't work for off-angles.

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The Goal of Peeking

A good peek is centered around either gaining information, baiting a shot, or killing an enemy, all while making it hard for the opposing player to hit you.

Now, each peek you make will have different goals but whatever the goal of your peek is, the main thing is that you want to be isolating angles and not opening yourself up to multiple sightlines.

There isn't a "default" peek as you're going to have to judge how wide you need to swing in order to clear certain spots, and it's going to be a trade-off based on educated guesses on where the enemy will be.

For example, if I want to clear CT on Haven A site from Short/Sewers, I'm going to have to expose myself to Heaven. You can try to peek as close to the wall as possible, but w/ how the angles work, you're still going to be exposed. This is where utility comes in, as it helps isolate angles to make peeks easier.

A lot of lower-ranked players will peek an angle, put themselves out in the open, and then complain that they died to someone from another area when in reality, they were open to a bunch of angles.

In order to remedy this problem, I'm going to teach you the different types of peeks and how to utilize them properly so that you can bring value to your team more consistently.

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The Different Types of Peeks

1. The Jiggle Peek

The goal of this peek is to gain information while still being relatively safe. This is the peek where you barely show your body to the opponent, sometimes you even have your knife out to increase movement speed. It's a precise peek that takes some practice to master as you want to have the bare minimum of your body showing so that stay hard to hit.

Sometimes, players will pre-fire when they jiggle an angle, which is a great way to try to get some kills. You want to be using this peek often, as it provides the best risk vs reward outcome.

Remember, the goal is to isolate angles. If you're jiggling and opening yourself up to multiple angles, then it's useless.

2. Wide Peek

This is the opposite of peeking narrow, as you're going to swing far from the corner. You generally don't want to be wide peeking alone as you tend to open yourself up to multiple sightlines, but this is map dependent. Usually, you're going to be wide peeking when you have a teammate peeking narrow, or following up after your peek. If you're wide peeking alone, you're going to be punished heavily if you don't hit your shots.

3. Crouch Peek

this is Peeking and crouching at the same time to throw off your enemies' crosshair placement. Depending on your rank, this could be a good and bad thing. I'd suggest not doing this peek in lower ranks as players tend to have worse crosshair placement, and might accidentally headshot you because they were aiming for the body.

In higher ranks, this is a great way to mix up your gameplay, as players generally tend to aim for the head.

4. Jump Peek

This peek is used to solely gather information, unlike the jiggle peek. To perform this, you need to jump to the right or the left and air-strafe back to your original position using the opposite movement key and backward or the S key. If you do this properly, you barely show yourself and throw off your enemy's crosshair placement. Now, this might take some time to master as well, but if you can perfect it, jump peeking for info is a great tool to have in your arsenal.

The most common use of this is on Top Mid on Ascent, where the attackers will usually jump peek the box to bait the OPer, or B site on Split for Defenders.

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Pro Tip to Get More Kills

This might already be known, but for those who don't know this, you can ping a spot on the map to help align your crosshair. This will ping the ground, so be sure to compensate for height and try to imagine where the enemy's head will be.

This is great for entry fraggers and peeks at the start of the round because it gives you a better idea of where the enemy will be as you can see the ping through the line of sight. It's also perfect for areas that have smoked or blocked off. More importantly, if you're dead and in a post-plant situation, you should be pinging the bomb for your teammates so they can spray through smokes.

I primarily use this when peeking Mid on Ascent, A long on Haven, and A short on Bind, but feel free to use this wherever. I find it very helpful in improving the quality of my peeks, and it's gotten me a bunch of entry frags in the past.

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Final Thoughts

If there's one thing you should take away from this video, it's that you shouldn't be shift-walking or aiming down sights when you peek someone. If you have that habit, then you need to unlearn it because it's what's holding you back from getting a higher rank.

You should be switching up the way you peek to keep the enemy on their toes and make you less predictable.

Anyway, that's it for this post. If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to me on discord (Eggwick #7855). Hope this helps, and good luck on the grind! :)