Key Takeaways
- Iron is the lowest rank that most amateurs and newbies start out with in Valorant.
- Practice your crosshair placement and take your time before firing.
- Be sure to have healthy communication with your team to ensure superior coordination.
- Pay attention to your surroundings, check corners, and keep an ear out for footsteps.
- Once you climb out of Iron, you can start learning the more core fundamentals of competitive Valorant.
Table of Contents
Iron is the lowest rank in the game, and unless you have some major flaws in your game or play on a potato PC with 30 FPS, you should be able to get out of it with ease. If you find yourself hard-stuck in the lowest pit of Valorant’s Elo, wondering how to rank up in Iron, work on the following skills, and you’ll find yourself in Bronze lobbies in no time.
We recommend playing ranked with friends, so to find fellow Valorant players and compete in tournaments, download the Z league app and use our LFG feature to build your own community.
You may also want to check out our general ranking guide and Valorant Rank Distribution list. With that, let’s get started with the best tips for Iron players.
Practice Your Crosshair Placement
The best tip for an Iron or any low-ranked player is to practice proper crosshair placement. Almost 90% of the players in this rank aim at the body rather than the head. Since headshots deal significantly more damage and can instantly net you a frag(get you a kill), you always want to aim for the head.
Always be aware of where your crosshair is in the game. Use your teammates as markers to ensure it’s at head level so you can take quick headshots when an enemy peeks at you without having to flick your crosshair.
Take Your Time During Fights
It is common for Iron players to panic at the sight of the enemy. When that happens, they start shooting randomly without knowing where their bullets are going. Although a good crosshair placement helps combat that, it is better to take time lining your shots.
During a fight, the person who shoots first doesn’t always win the duel; rather, the person who finishes off the enemy first is victorious. So, it’s completely fine to take a moment to line up your crosshair against the enemy to take your first shot. Iron players don’t always have the best reaction time, so focusing on your precision will help you win more fights.
Pay Attention To Sounds
One thing Iron players consistently lack is awareness during rounds. Valorant requires you to focus on the in-game sound to keep track of enemy locations, but many players pay almost no attention to the sounds of footsteps or enemy abilities in the game. This causes them to get backstabbed by a flanking enemy without understanding how they died in the first place.
You don’t need an expensive gaming headset to clearly hear and interpret various sounds in the game. Just make sure you use whatever headset/earphone you have and pay attention to the sounds of enemies in your surroundings.
Use Your Mic
The importance of using your mic for communication and teamplay can’t be undermined in any rank, as a well-coordinated team usually has the upper hand in the game. However, the use of mics is extremely rare in Iron lobbies. In fact, people don’t even communicate with their team’s Sage asking for heals.
Although at this rank, you don’t need to work on team executes or retakes, using your mic can still be a difference between winning and losing rounds. If you’re constantly talking to your team, giving them enemy locations, and asking them for support with their utilities, you’ll consistently climb the rank ladder.
Be Aware Of Your Surroundings
One of the biggest mistakes players in Iron lobbies make is not clearing corners. Often, if an enemy is hidden in the most obvious corner, they can still take out 2 or 3 players because no one bothered to check it. Therefore, always be aware of your surroundings and ensure you know all the little corners and cubbies(deep, hidden corners) in which someone could be hiding.
Use your utilities like Recon or Molly to flush out the hidden enemies, or keep your gun out and shoot them before they can do anything. A prime example of clearing a cubby during execution is using a Sova drone or Phoenix Molly to clear wine on the Ascent A site.
Congratulations, you should now be able to move up to higher ranks. Once you’re there, be sure to check out our guides on how to climb out of Silver and Gold.
