How to aim

NOTE This guide was originally posted by u_AimbeastAlphaMale aka Paytrolah, but the guide is not reachable anymore. You can usually find him over at the Pudma Aim discord and the people there are always friendly and helpful. I've also compiled a few tools and resources that pair well with this post.

Hi. First of all, I am AimbeastAlphaMale. Or, if you are a regular on certain aiming communities, Paytrolah. I click on dots as a hobby, and I enjoy talking about clicking on dots and I know far too much about improving my aim to be socially acceptable. I don't claim to be the best aimer yet (I am not bardoz), I lost the world record I held to madbadman (easily in the top 5 aimers in the world, so I can't exactly be mad); but I intend to start setting more in the future.

I have decided to make this post due to the frankly extreme amount of misinformation and downright guesswork this subreddit has on a daily basis, with people pitching in their 2 cents on topics they don't really know anything about past their own experiences and guesses they can make from it. I intend to fix that, with a mega post that will include a truly COPIOUS amount of links and evidence throughout it so that you can trust what I am saying as much as possible. I'll also have various examples from my own gameplay across various games demonstrating what I am describing.

This post exists to ONLY cover aiming. If you want to learn how to rank up this post is NOT made for that. Nor is this a training routine, this post is to give people information on aiming and how to know what to look for when they train. However, if you want to learn what there is to know, this will cover the basics more than enough to get there; and if you want some more specialised knowledge leave me a question in the comments!

The theory of aiming is very complex and is still an ever evolving topic, but as of 2021 we have now determined a lot of information about how it works, and why it works. Here I'll briefly skim over some of the basics, so that we are all on the same page.

1.) How do you measure sensitivity, and what is my sensitivity? The most modern and best way to measure sensitivity is via "CM 360". This is quiet literally the measurement of how many centimetres of IRL mouse movement is required for you to do a 360 degree turn in game, on a given sight. This calculator https://jscalc.io/calc/owqD7YSQyTD3Rli1 will give you the exact values on every sight in siege. You can find calculators for almost any game these days, even roblox games and skyrim https://www.calconic.com/calculator-widgets/game-to-cm-360/5d08a12213f02c0026baad73 . Using a cm 360 gives you a universal measurement that will work across every game (although obviously FOV will change how it feels, a 1x zoom 50cm and a 12x zoom 50cm aren't even close to feeling similar).

2.) Is muscle memory a factor in aiming? The fact of the matter is that muscle memory is not an important factor in aiming (or potentially even a factor at all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_8HV4x8iqo&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=hebe ). Your aim is essentially a combination of your fine motor control, hand eye coordination and mouse control combined together https://twitter.com/vf_aimer7/status/1166236781592961024?lang=en. The idea that "muscle memory" is something important is an outdated idea from a decade ago that absolutely holds players back in improving, but is still something repeated a surprising amount.

Interestingly, changing sensitivity can actually help https://docs.google.com/document/d/14zwQOFlQPsdli_rRz4EftlMYbiSfK6IzyjHwVus87Zk/edit develop mouse control, as it forces your brain to operate a 100% power rather than lazily repeating something it is already comfortable with. Think of how a gym and building muscle works, if you are doing some half assed workout while not pushing yourself; your body does not grow. Even then, marathon runners do INCREDIBLE amounts of exercise but are very lean and light. You can play siege all you like but at a certain point your aim will no longer improve past crosshair placement, essentially turning you into a macie jay clone with little to no raw aiming skills.

I can change my sensitivity and play pretty much the same within under 30 seconds. I have a player in my ESL team who is able to change his sensitivity mid round multiple times per game and play... pretty much the same? However I obviously don't recommend that kind of changing as it will lower your comfort and may effect consistency (changing when you do something wrong is a bad habit and stops you from actually addressing the problem directly), but you should never be afraid that you will one day magically forget all of your aim. I play on different sens in each game (45cm in titanfall, 70cm in siege for example) and it is not a problem.

3.) How does DPI work? DPI is how many movements your mouse detects per second. That is it. On double your dpi, your sens is doubled. This can be counteracted by halving your sensitivity. Lower DPI can cause pixel skipping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jss9Zo37MCQ&ab_channel=RocketJumpNinja where you do movements smaller than the sensor can pick up, but these are usually non visible and don't have an impact in game. For most people 800 to 1600 https://old.reddit.com/r/FPSAimTrainer/comments/kcuvuv/does_mouse_dpi_actually_matter/gfsthqz/ is perfectly fine, although if you use mouse accel you will want to 4x your dpi due to the accel increasing pixel skipping exponentially. Overall, don't worry too much about dpi, but I simply cannot recommend going below 800.

4.) What kind of peripherals are good for aiming? You want the lightest mouse possible with the shape that suits you the best. The lighter the mouse the smoother, faster and more precise your aim will be. If you have problems with having shakey aim that will be covered in this post, but train smoothness and tracking. You want a mousepad that is not worn out and works for you (if you like having really fast low friction aim use a fast pad, if you like precision and control use a slower control pad), and you want the highest refresh rate monitor you can get. I won't go any deeper than this since this is all stuff that has been covered a million times by now.

5.) What should I look for in an aim trainer? Aim trainer are a surprisingly sparse resource, the main 3 of note being Kovaaks, Aimlab and Aimbeast. All of which have their own advantages and downsides.

Kovaaks is the biggest and the defacto, but it costs the most (that being said all aim trainers are cheap), but provides a MASSIVE community and incredible resources. If you are the kind of person that likes following a set routine, this is the way to do. Last time i checked a year ago it had around 6000 or so scenarios and It only goes up, so you won't run out of things to train, even niche ones. If you buy kovaaks do not play the default routines in the game, they suck, use something like bardoz's valorant routine (bardoz is very likely the best aimer alive and is an absolute rollmodel to any aimer) or voltaic benchmarks https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1XbXf8Q_WTW5ekxuZWhvO64-kvNBvusqX3bghhBaok4I/edit . Kovaaks is also the best for benchmarks, a system where you play a series of scenarios in order to test your scores, that is then calculated and gives you a rank. Not everyone cares for these, but some people love the challenge and motivation they may provide. Several members in my ESL team love to challenge themselves with these benchmarks.

Aimlab is free. That is the advantage. Aimlab has had some controversy https://twitter.com/vf_aimer7/status/1285222748051120130?lang=en in the past due to their very slow development cycle and focus on promoting streamers to play than development. Frankly none of the default aimlab scenarios are worth ever playing, and the custom ones (while I am glad they finally added it) will still need a while before they catch up to what other trainers have. User made scenarios are the key to training.

Aimbeast (the one I personally use) is possibly the smallest, but has some unique features (extremely fast boot up time, a built in sensitivity randomiser, scenario customisation, a built in ranked gamemode with scenarios picked by top aimers and ability to download and modify sceanrios). However, if you are someone who prefers using a routine this is not the way to go as you will not find many other than my own https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srm1aq, meaning you have to find your own scenarios. Personally if you wish to use aimbeast, use my playlist and find other scenarios that you like and add to it. Aimbeast also has some updates ahead and some kind of DLC.

I wouldn't say there is any one "correct" choice, but in its current state I simply cannot recommend aimlab and I have yet to see any non sponsored member of the aiming community actually recommend it. I am sorry, that is just the truth. For most people kovaaks will be the de-facto and a great way to start, but aimbeast absolutely has its merits. Pick one of the two, maybe do some research into them as well.

1.) What kind of aim is relevant to siege? Siege is a precision based game. In a more flick based game like playing quake instagib (a gamemode in which everyone has a railgun that oneshots), having aim like this can be extremely effective. But at the same time having amazing flicking does little if you are having gunfights like this constantly.

Siege, is a game that requires primarily flicking, smoothness and PRECISION above all else. For siege you should be training small dot targets as much as possible and make that your primary goal. This kind of training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzYBXvaURV4&ab_channel=dracoo is near useless for anything as the targets are simply far too large, and is only something a beginner should use to learn flicking for the first time. This kind of training https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdVmeU79U34&ab_channel=bardOZ is EXTREMELY relevant in siege and has a massive help, as well as targets even as small as this. Obviously flicking large distances on small targets is very hard, and as a beginner there is nothing wrong with starting with larger targets in order to learn the motion first.

2.) Okay, what should I train then? When I first started aim training I saw this exact video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZl-ZLbQwU&ab_channel=huddled and thought "Wow that is insane, I want to be like that!" and started doing tile frenzy an hour a day. All It did was give me finger pain (very dangerous) and had almost zero impact in siege, past my aim getting faster. This is a prime example of training the WRONG things. When training you should always focus on having a good variety in order to develop your mouse control. Even things with seemingly little relevance to siege are worth doing for a minute or two, just to ensure your mouse control is developing correctly. If you train only one thing, or maybe only several things, you limit your overall development.

For years I struggled with having INCREDIBLY shakey aim https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/820305439215321118/835868641051279420/Tom_Clancys_Rainbow_Six_Siege_2021.03.06_-14.45.21.04.DVR_Trim.mp4 . Even on a super low sens my arm would do things like this https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/820305439215321118/835868688368009246/Tom_Clancys_Rainbow_Six_Siege_2021.02.27-_17.31.21.03.DVR_Trim.mp4 at random, and even when it wasn't doing things like this my long range fighting in general wasn't confident.

All of this is because I lacked SMOOTHNESS. Smoothness is the key to having consistent and confident aim. Your smoothness is literally your brain's ability to activate muscles in sequence cleanly and precisely, as well as your raw fine motor control personified. The smoother your aim the more consistent and accurate your flicks will be, the more precise your aim will be, and the better your tracking will be. Try training things like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAz-HBNRLlM&ab_channel=TRAKSKI on 0.5, 1 and 2x your normal sensitivity in order to develop all areas of your aim (wrist, hybrid and arm).

I used to think that since siege has little tracking there was no point training it, and while of course I still do the majority of my training as flicking and precision, I still do smoothness every day to warm up and I do some tracking every night before bed.

3.) Don't over focus looking cool over being effective. This https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/820305439215321118/824539307763171408/Quake_Champions_2021.03.25_-20.02.27.11.DVR_Trim.mp4 is a really cool flick, and something I can do reliably. It's worth training to do this of course. But, here https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/820305439215321118/831430452337967114/Tom_Clancys_Rainbow_Six_Siege_2021.04.13-_16.02.46.04.DVR_Trim.mp4 is a round of rainbow six siege, I want you to note how many flicks I did in this clutch. The answer is zero.

Training your flicking will improve your mouse control (your raw ability and confidence to MOVE and control the mouse position, nothing in that video looks particularly impressive but being able to be confident and aim is a big part of it), but only training flicking will underdevelop other areas of your aim. I recently started doing this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNcjcZmXlBA&ab_channel=INS and for some reason I saw a HUGE increase in my aim in siege, even though it doesn't seem directly relevant. This is because it is improving an area of my mouse control I have never developed, and my ability and confidence in onetapping moving targets. This is a good example of something you should train a little bit, but not obsess over.

4.) What kind of mindset works, and do mindsets effect aim? Aiming and aim training are a purely mental task, meaning that the more you focus on the training, the more effectiveness you will get out of it. I personally did hundreds of hours of thunt without knowing anything about training and my aim got... better, but never got good. Yes I could hit amazing flicks, and my precision wasn't too bad, but I was never above plat 3 ish level aim realistically and honestly If I went back in time I would never have done the hundreds of hours.

When you train focus on the training and ensure that it is hard enough to be a challenge. If you are doing it on "autopilot" or not really focusing, you are limiting the effectiveness. A certain amount of training ends up being instinctive and subconscious, but you should avoid it when possible. Don't be afraid to listen to music while training.

This Is just some interesting tips and tricks, and things the average person is unlikely to know.

1.) Is mouse accel actually bad? No, not at all. Personally I use mouse accel in the form of rawaccel https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/704823700582695053/839667541894103060/unknown.png as it allows me to get a higher sensitivity when flicking (which is good for super low sens players like me) whilst also getting a lower sensitivity for slower gunfights at range. DO NOT USE WINDOWS ACCEL AT ANY COSTS! The windows "enhance pointer precision" https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/101691-turn-off-enhance-pointer-precision-windows.html option is ticked on by default in windows and is HORRIBLE. Here is an example of a very basic custom accel Windows accel is so bad that 99% of people believe all accel is horrible because of it, it has poisoned the entire concept to many people.

For high/medium sens players mouse accel isn't anywhere near as useful, but it is potentially worth learning if you are a low sens player, but it may take you anywhere from a few minutes to a few days to learn depending on how extreme the curve is and how good your mouse control is.

That being said this is ABSOLUTELY not necessary, and the the tool of an enthusiast, not a beginner. If you are not willing to spend time tinkering around and learning how to use rawaccel, this will just be a really confusing mess for you that will probably serve little more than frustration. There is a reason why this is under "AIMING SECRETS/TIPS" and not a primary piece of advice.

2.) What is the ideal warmup? One that avoids over fatigue, but gets everything you need as fast as possible. Personally I do about 15 minutes of aim training (majority flicking, but I ALWAYS do precision and smoothness directly before playing) with a thunt or two just to get my movement and crosshair placement feeling right. There was a period where I tried to do hour long warmups, and I found that it mentally fatigued me and made me play worse. This is a VERY common problem, and also one that is very hard to diagnose.

3.) Why am I aiming like shit today? Drink more water. Seriously, it helps. Also try alt tabbing and doing a minute or two of training, I have gone from 0-8 in a ranked game to 15-2 the next because i spent 5 mins re-warming up. You should also understand siege is a gamesense that is more based on your brain than your aim, sometimes you will get outplayed and no amount of aim can fix that. You should accept that sometimes you just get unlucky, don't freak out about a bad performance unless you were legitimately potatoing.

4.) What is RSI and can I get injuries from gaming? RSI (repetitive strain injury) is a VERY serious and dangerous injury that can be caused by any repetitive movement. I myself have severely damaged wrist tendons from gaming far too much to the point of pain, and after 2 years they are still just as bad. When I am I almost ONLY use my arm, with about half a degree of wrist movement at max. You should always do stretches and ALWAYS stop when you feel pain.

I'm not a doctor so seek professional advice over my own word, but changing my sitting posture by raising my chair up and bringing my elbow inward helped stop a pain I was developing in my back. Even then, there is only so much you can do to avoid strain, as even in perfect posture if you work a muscle enough it will get sore. Take regular breaks and drink plenty of water, you DON'T want to hurt yourself for life.

I could add more sections but this post is already MASSIVE and I don't want to go into ultra detailed stuff. Please ask for clarification if wanted. Thank you.