Deathmatch is, in my opinion, the best way to currently improve gunplay in Valorant. I have learned a lot with this gamemode and I want to share the best ways to improve with it, and what you gotta pay attention to, when practcing in it.

From personal experience, I have more than tripled my headshot% in games after exclusively playing deathmatch for two weeks. Climbing ranks is way easier for me, as I also don't fail in as many easy gunfights as I used to.

Please, correct me in the comments in I said anything wrong in this guide

The key takeaways from deathmatch for me were:

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1: Wide / Jiggle Peeking:

When an enemy is holding an angle, hiding inside a corner, or both players expose themselves at the same time, doing a wide swing yourself is a better strategy than performing a narrow / tight peek (trying to expose as little of the body as possible), as it will force your enemy to reposition their crosshair to hit a moving target, and that is a hard thing to do in this game.

When doing a narrow peek, there are two problems:

a) the crosshair of your enemy, as said above, is most likely placed at the edge of the wall you are peeking from, which gives them an easy shot;

b) in some parts of the maps, if the enemy decides to swing at you, in case you miss your shots against them, you are gonna be the one holding a very akward angle, so you are besically dead. (This is true only for gunfights happening in 45º or less angles. The best example for this sort of angle where you have to fully commit to a gunfight instead of narrow-peeking is defender's spawn on Bind. When it comes to corridors and angles like Bind B Short see the important note below)

In theory, narrow peeks would be more useful, as you are exposing only part of your body during your peek and you can shoot as soon as you see the target. But the fact that the player holding an angle probably has their crosshair placed in a position where they expect a narrow peek from, you are probably dead by the time you see them. Narrow peeks at close range can be useful only if you pre-fire the said angle or corner that the enemy is located at, but this depends on information to work consistently.

On the other hand, jiggle peeking has three very good uses:

a) getting info before fully commiting to a fight / wide swinging;

b) baiting shots, especially from AWPs

c) taking long range fights, where you briefly expose yourself, shoot two or three bullets, and quickly return back to cover

Important note: wide swinging may not work when the enemy can quickly hide from your peek before you even shoot and they can also repeek you afterwards when you are completely exposed from that failed swing. Because of that, be careful when swinging a door or corridor, like the one from A link on Haven or the corridor on B short on Bind. Scenarios like these are why crosshair placement, map knowledge and reaction time matters.

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in case everyting I said above was hard to understand

45º Corner = wide swing and fully commit to a fight; Long corridor or door = be careful if the enemy is able to hide if you miss your shot and repeek back at you afterwards if you wide swung them; both players swing each other = move so that don't give them an easy shot; have information where the enemy is = narrow peek or jiggle peek with a pre-fire.

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2: Holding Angles / Hiding in Corners:

When holding angles or hiding in corners, you have to be ready for the enemy to both wide swing you or narrow peek you. I'd recomend (from personal experience, you may prefer doing something else) placing your crosshair somewhat close, but not too close, to the edge that the enemy would come from and be ready and readjust it in case they end up wide swinging you. Holding angles involves some actual aiming and you cannot fully rely on your crosshair placement. This is true even for very good players. Placing your crosshair at a tight-ish angle for a narrow peek and aiming in case you are swung by the enemy is better than doing the opposite thing because the enemy kills you faster in a narrow peek (thus your crosshair placement will be correct a higher % of the times, since you don't know how far the enemy will swing before shooting you)

Also, two other important things to note:

a) when hiding in corners, staying on it in the deepest spot possible will help you, because it gives you the best angle possible over the enemy, since it will be harder for them to clear it because of angle advantage. If you have the information that an enemy is approaching, though, you can benefit from peekers advantage and swing them or strafe around the corner to catch them off-guard, but this depends on how aggresive your playstyle is.

b) when holding an angle, beeing as tight to the wall (your cover) as possible will make your life easier, because, if an enemy swings you, they're gonna have to hit a harder shot (as your body is partially covered by the wall you are hiding behind) and, if you hide after they swing you (depends on the agresiveness of your playstyle), they are gonna have no cover to go back to, meaning that, if you swing them back, your advantage on that fight will be massive.

Hiding in a corner = be ready to aim if they swing; Holding an angle on a corridor = expose yourself as little as possible, use your cover to your advantage.

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3: Angle Isolation

Don't expose yourself to more angles than you need to. It will reduce the ammount of the times you are shot from your back.

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4: Your HP

The HP affects the way you engage in fights. Don't be agrresive while you are at low hp, as swinging becomes way less effective. In real games, playing around utility, catching your enemy off guard, baiting for a teammate or working on getting as much info as possible are better ways to help when you are in a fragile state.

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5: Improving crosshair placement

Crosshair placement, in this game, is something that heavily depends on focus and attention. What helped me to improve my crosshair placement in general were these simple two habits:

a) imagine where the enemy's head is most likely going to be at all times before you open a new angle, or while holding an angle. You are not going to be correct 100% of the times, but neither the pros are.

b) Your eyes have to be focusing on your crosshair. Make an effort to always remember that. Aim is composed of had-eye coordination. Focusing on your crosshair will help you with microadjustments, flicks, tracking and overall crosshair placement

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6: Pre Aiming

tl;dr pre aim common angles, trace corners elsewhere

When peeking/swinging a common angle, always pre-aim it and place your crosshair so that, if there is an enemy there you just gotta stop and dink their head. No mouse movement required. When walking on an area of the map where that isn't the case, you will be better off tracing corners. If you pre-aimed every possible angle in the game, the time would run out before you even got to a bombsite.

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7: Flicking / Aim Traning with AimLab

There are some situations where you will need to rely on raw mechanical skill to win. This is something that you will learn better using AimLab / Kovaak than deathmatch.

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I hope these tips helped you in any way! English is not my main language, so forgive me for any mistakes or poorly-written phrases. Valorant is a very nuanced and complex game, so explaning concepts about it is hard.