How can I get more headshots?
When playing with bots up to the hard/expert levels, I can easily stand still and shoot the enemy bots in the head. But when I play online with real humans on the other end, I always seem to miss, either because the enemy player is moving, or I am moving to avoid incoming fire.
What are some useful tactics that I can use to make my bullets hit the enemy('s head)?
Solution 1:
- Don't shoot and move (including jump) at the same time.
- Don't hold down the fire button for an extended period of time.
- Keep your crosshair aimed at head height.
I find these three general strategies have consistently over the years benefitted me in playing counter strike better.
Don't shoot and move (including jump) at the same time.
While your character is moving, your accuracy is greatly reduced. It is almost always better to stand still (or crouch) while you shoot to increase your accuracy. The only time I would be moving and shooting at the same time is if the other player is very close to me (within knifing distance). If you are under fire, there are two strategies you can use to stand still while you shoot back at the enemy while taking fire. The first is to "stutter step". By this I mean, move a little bit, stop and shoot, then move a bit then rinse and repeat that process. The other strategy is to be hiding behind a wall and then follow the stutter step strategy I mentioned above. If you find yourself in the position when you are wide open under fire you will probably die, no matter how good a player you are. Try to avoid these situations by using flashbangs and smoke grenades.
Don't hold down the fire button for an extended period of time.
This is a mistake a lot of newer players make, they see an enemy and quickly unload an entire clip. Because of the recoil in the game, it is very hard for even experienced players to accurately shoot an entire clip - try it yourself on a wall. The method I use is to instead shoot a bullet or two stop and then try again. This works very well in conjunction with the stutter step strategy I described above.
Keep your crosshair aimed at head height.
One of the strategies I use to more consistently hit a player's head is to keep my crosshair always aimed at "head height". If you watch streams of some of the pro CS players, you will notice they tend to always have the crosshair aimed at head height rather than the common chest height. A good way to keep your crosshair at head height is to aim at an ally at the beginning of the round, and to try and keep it at that y-position. Some maps, like dust, have bricks. I use the brick lines as guidelines on where I should be aiming my crosshair. The hardest place for this to work is on areas with elevation changes - so watch out for those areas. As another note, if you know the enemy is weak (has 20 hp left or less) it is more beneficial to aim at the chest as that is a larger area to hit and you will be guaranteed to kill them with one bullet. Also, if you are using the AWP, it is better to shoot at the chest rather than the head because the AWP 1 shot kills and the chest is an easier target to aim for.
Solution 2:
Be aware that crouching in CS:GO has no impact on rifle aiming at all. There is no improvement on recoil, or the time it takes to recover from recoil. You can test this by shooting rapidly at a wall, crouched, and standing. Though it is a good tactic to suddenly crouch, when your enemy is about to shoot, simply because they may be aiming at your head, and miss. But, on the flip side, they could be aiming at your chest, and then get a head shot. Some guns, such as the desert eagle, are better when crouching. Again, you can test this when standing or crouching.
In addition to SimonL said, you can also do a few more things. I have found that with the headshot crosshairs, holding the gun at head level, and doing death match headshot only rounds, along with the suggestions that Simon made, I have increased my headshots to about 60-80% of my death match kills. I used to maybe get 20%.
- Use the training_aim_csgo Map
- Play Death Match Headshot Only Rounds
- Pick a Good Crosshair
Use the training_aim_csgo Map
Go to the work shop, and download the "training_aim_csgo" map. To do that, click "Play", then "Find a Game", and you'll see a "Workshop" tab. You can start the map by typing "map workshop" and using your arrow keys to pick the map. You will need to use "noclip" in the console, to get out of the pit. Then, just hit a gun on the wall with your knife, or another gun, to change guns. Then hit options on the other wall the same way, to change your practise settings.
Always exit the game after using this map, as it messes a few things up, and prevents your user interface from working if you go into a lobby, for example.
Play Death Match Headshot Only Rounds
Play lots of Death Match, with a Desert Eagle only. Go for single shot headshots. The deagle does not do well, when rapid firing, unless at point blank range, so you'll need to learn the recovery time.
Pick a Good Crosshair
Picking a good crosshair, that works for you, is very important. Some people like a single dot, some people like a crosshair like a plus sign. Personally, I figured out how to create a "Headshot Box". You put the person's head in a box, and pull the trigger. I find it is a very good visual cue for my brain to shoot. My current cross hair is below. You can put this in a text file called ch-box.cfg, under C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\cfg. Make sure the file doesn't end in '.txt' or you won't be able to use it from in the game. After that, I bind a key to execute it by running the following in console.
bind o "exec ch-box"
The ch-box.cfg file is below...
cl_crosshairalpha "255"
cl_crosshaircolor "5"
cl_crosshaircolor_b "255"
cl_crosshaircolor_g "0"
cl_crosshaircolor_r "255"
cl_crosshairdot "0"
cl_crosshairgap "-13"
cl_crosshairsize "1"
cl_crosshairstyle "4"
cl_crosshairusealpha "1"
cl_crosshairthickness "3.5"