If you just started playing Valorant, you might get a bit confused by all those terms you see in the game — especially if this is your first major shooter.
In this guide, we’ll list the most frequent Valorant terms and tell you what they mean.
Valorant Terminology Guide
A
Ace – One player kills all the members of the opposite team. Read more about Ace and Team Ace rewards in this guide.
Aim Prediction – a feature that helps you to keep your crosshairs lined up with your enemy’s head. Use it with Aim Skill for the best results.
Aim Skill – the ability to accurately switch between targets. Use in combo with Aim Prediction.
C
Call Outs – locations on the map that you can use to communicate information to other team members about the actions taking place or the strategy to use.
Camping – a player who’s camping, remains in one spot waiting for the members of the opposite team to get near that area.
Clearing Corners – staying as far away from corners as possible. If you move to close to corners, your enemies will spot you before you see them
Clutch – the last man standing in a team actually win the round for the team by taking out the entire enemy team or by defusing the bomb.
Cooldown – how long you need to wait between using your agent’s abilities. The more important the skill you want to use, the longer the cooldown.
Counter-Strafe – the act of stopping in the opposite direction of your sprint-strafe in order to get an accurate enemy shot off.
E
Eco – a round where your team relies only on default weapons and skills and doesn’t buy new rifles or abilities.
F
Flawless – there are no casualties in the winning team, all the team members are alive.
Full Buy – a round where you spend a lot of money to buy the most powerful rifle and upgrade all your skills.
I
In-Game Leader or IGL – the player who leads the team, chooses the strategies to use and organizes the team.
L
Long – the longest path leading to a plant location characterized by lack of cover.
P
Plant – the action of activating the Spike bomb at the designated place. Once activated, the bomb will detonate after 45 seconds.
O
One-tap – a term that designates a one-shot to the head.
Orbs – special collectible balls that add one point to your Ultimate ability charge.
R
Rotation – this term is used when a team changes their position on the map.
Rush – an attack strategy whereby the whole team runs towards the enemy team in a strike-once-kill-all attempt.
S
Saving – a round when an individual player does not spend money to upgrade their weapon and abilities. It is possible for individual players not to spend any money, while the other team members go Full Buy.
Short – the shortest path to a plant location usually guarded by defenders.
Slow Play – a strategy where the whole team waits in a given location for the enemies to approach. This is some sort of an ambush strategy.
Spike – a special bomb that your team needs to plant at a designated place. If the player carrying the Spike dies, another one can pick it up.
Spraying – a player is spraying when they are firing without stopping for a long time.
T
Team Ace – all the team members of the opposite team got killed by a different team member of the winning team.
Thrifty – at the end of a round, the team that spent less money on weapons and abilities gets this label. Of course, having more expensive pieces of equipment should theoretically give your team the upper hand.
U
Ult – the ultimate ability of an agent. These powerful abilities should not be wasted and used only when it’s absolutely necessary.
W
Wall Bang – a technique to take out enemies hiding behind objects that bullets can pass through such as doors, boxes and so on.
Are there any other Valorant terms we should be adding to this list? Let us know in the comments below.
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