The most important thing in FPS games, and precisely the competitive ones like Valorant, Counter-Strike, or Call of Duty is not reaction time, not how fast you can move the mouse, and definitely not your ping, or maybe not; you should probably invest in a good internet connection before playing competitive games. But the most important element is having a low mouse sensitivity and how comfortable you feel playing with your current configuration. It’s a vital element yet often overlooked.
You probably watched your favorite YouTuber or Streamer playing with very high sensitivity and still managed to get a lot of frags, and you probably think that you can just replicate their settings and you will be one of the best players in the world. Not really trying to discourage you from doing so, but more often than not, you will see bad results. At first, it will feel so good, fast, and responsive because our bodies adapt fast, but after a while, you will notice and decrease in aiming capabilities. So no, that’s not a good approach.
The good approach is to lower your sensitivity and start increasing slowly until you’re comfortable, but you always have to keep it low, why? Well because of the reason I will mention below.
Precision Aiming
Low mouse sensitivity affords FPS players greater precision when aiming. DPI or Dots Per Inch calculates the cursor movement on the screen against the physical movement of your mouse. When you start lowering that, you will notice how comfortable you can do aim corrections if the target is far away from you. Games like Apex Legends or Valorant where the sniper class requires a lot of fine-tuning for long-range shots, it is necessary to adjust this setting carefully.
Now imagine this scenario, you are so happy to try out the new high sensitivity you just copied from your favorite streamer, you hit play, enter a game, and move your mouse to see how it looks and feels, it feels so fast! Now you see an enemy in the distance, and you are so confident you will hit the target with your new settings, you aim and fire, boom you just hit the tree next to him, now hit again, you hit your friend, and now you are banned for a week just because you just changed your DPI or the in-game sensitivity.
Recoil Management
The recoil mechanic is very well known in modern and old FPS games, it affects the accuracy when you start firing non-stop, now combine that with high sensitivity, and yeah, that doesn’t sound good. You will have a hard time handling that.
In addition to the weapon’s attachments, like a vertical or horizontal grip to limit the recoil movement, having a low sensitivity can significantly improve your aiming by making it easier to micro-adjust and counteract recoil to hit the target.
The recoil differs from one gun to another, that is why you have to choose the weapon that has the least recoil at first and gradually try and explore the other ones. This of course depends on a lot of other factors like damage, rate of fire.. So choose wisely the weapon that goes with your style; do you want high damage or a high rate of fire, as you may know, if you choose the one with a high rate of fire, the damage won’t be that great but you will more chances to hit your target faster. On the other hand, if you choose the high-damage gun, in most cases, it won’t have a high rate of fire and its recoil is also very high, but if you’re confident that you can hit your target, then go for that option.
Reduced Over-Shooting
In some situations where it’s a heated player-vs-player confrontation, it is required to make rapid and accurate responses. However, as mentioned before, high sensitivity will lead to over-shooting and the player’s aim moves past the intended target. Lowering sensitivity helps in these situations, it gives some assistance in a way to adjust comfortably and reduces the chances of missing the mark.
Sometimes, you will encounter a very good player who invested a lot of time in a game that forgot how grass looks like, it happens that they have a high sensitivity, and you just can’t get a frag because of this guy. This leads us to our next point, which is investing time in getting comfortable with your sensitivity and keeping your eDPI consistent across all of your games.
Consistency
Maintaining consistency in FPS games while aiming is very crucial if you want to get more frags and improve your skills overall. This won’t be easy at first, but it is worth it when you eventually get the hang of it, and lowering sensitivity is one way to achieve that.
A popular metric among FPS gamers is eDPI, which is your DPI multiplied by the in-game sensitivity. Keeping your eDPI consistent across all of your games, helps build your muscle memory and avoid frustrations when switching to another game. For instance, an eDPI of approximately 480 helps many players maintain consistent and precise target tracking.
You can easily convert your sensitivity using our tool that was specifically designed to do just that, and it’s also free! Try it here.
Headshot Accuracy
Lastly, the most effective way of getting more frags is headshot accuracy. This requires a lot of practice of course, but you can achieve that easily if you stick to a lower sensitivity.
With this technique, your finer cursor movements become possible, allowing you to focus your aim on the small hitbox that a headshot requires.
Consider this: on a high DPI setting, your smallest possible movement might be too broad to accurately target the head of an opponent. In contrast, a lower DPI setting will allow for the smallest possible movement that is precise enough to aim accurately at smaller targets, thus increasing your chances of a successful headshot.
So in conclusion, fine-tuning your sensitivity is always recommended to find the right movement that gets you the most frags, but mastering lower sensitivity is not that easy either, it requires a lot of practice and patience.
Something else that is overlooked, is your mental state. You can be the best player in the world, but your aim will suffer greatly if you’re in a bad mood or stressed. So, take care of your mental health also as it’s as important as your skills in-game.