Free Fire Guide: High Ranked Tips for Players Stuck in Low Ranks
Have you ever wondered what a Grand Master player would tell you if they got the opportunity to coach you? Whether you’re brand new to the game or have been playing the game for a while, they might actually tell you some of the same things. Now obviously they’re not going to tell someone who’s been playing the game for a year, they need to learn what the abilities do, but they might tell that player they need to focus more on their crosshair placement, or their movement. The crazy thing is a lot of players who have been playing the game for a long time still struggle in a lot of the areas this guide is going to address. The #1 thing players NEED to focus on when playing Free Fire are the mechanics of the game.
Mechanics
Basically, the mechanics need to come first, because everything is derived from mechanics. You can’t really effectively focus on anything else until you understand how the game functions and how to use those functions to your advantage until you learn how to aim properly, until you learn what character abilities do, until you learn how the maps are designed. Every other part of the game can’t really be improved until you’ve learned these things. If you’re a visual learner though, imagine a pyramid with the game mechanics at the base with game sense above it and teamwork above it. The top of the pyramid will be adorned with the META. Notice how a pyramid is like the perfect shape for this concept, and having mechanics at the very base of this pyramid paints the perfect picture.
So if you have less understanding, or mastery of the mechanics in the game, your pyramid is going to have a smaller base. Meaning your expertise with all of these other things is going to be affected as well. As the base shrinks, all other things on top of it do as well. Because if you’re fighting against the mechanics of the game, it’s going to affect your ability to make intelligent decisions throughout the game. It’s also going to affect your ability to know how to play around with your teammates effectively as well. This is why it’s most important for you to master the mechanics of the game before you even start worrying about all of these other things.
Mentality
You shouldn’t worry about timings, or rotations, or combo-ing skills, or really any of these things, if you’re new to Free Fire. Just try to build an understanding of crosshair placement, positioning, and how to use your abilities. But another thing that gets in the way of you playing the game to your full potential, is your mentality. Specifically, your ability to not get tilted, or frustrated when playing the game. Part of the reason why many players get frustrated is that they just don’t understand all of the mechanics in the game. It’s easy for one to get angry when they don’t even understand how the game works. They have no investment in this game, everything is new, and they’re just experimenting and figuring things out. But as you start to take the game more seriously, and actually start looking to improve, it becomes a little more frustrating. This is when you start to experience a little bit of push back. You feel you have an okay understanding of the game but are finding it difficult to improve. This is when it’s most crucial for you to keep your headspace clear and actually focus on your gameplay.
You will hear this from multiple top tier players, in a number of different games. The fastest way to lose a ranked match, in any game, is by losing your cool, and getting angry. It’s going to happen to you and eventually, there will be a time when you start to catch yourself getting irritated. Maybe you’ve died for the 4th time in a game, or maybe your 11 year old teammate is screaming at you for losing a 1v3, but there will be a time when you just want to tear your hair out. That’s when you need to take a step back, tell yourself, “We can win this game” and have a quick mental reset.
Some players hit Heroic off of sheer attitude. They just aren’t the players to scream at their teammates and get especially frustrated, and that’s why they win games. It’s not because they’re the best players in the world, there are probably lots of players better than some of these players in Heroic and Grand Master. But they are better all around, because they don’t lose their mind in every single match. One of the most frustrating things in ranked games is coming across players who actually have really solid mechanics, but are toxic, so they’re stuck in low ranks.
They’re just players that have so much potential, but aren’t able to make anything of it because they’d rather get angry than actually try to improve. Free Fire is a game, it’s not worth getting angry for. If you genuinely want to improve at the game, you need to acknowledge that improvement is bigger than just one match. You’re going to lose sometimes, and that’s okay. Just keep going. This is something many veteran players struggle with a lot. It’s important to remember that’s literally all in the mentality: you control whether or not you get angry over things in the game. You just have to relax.
Don’t be a Hero
This guide is divided into two sections for you guys though. Those first two tips were things all players, new and old can improve upon. Mechanics are always something that need improvement. Managing your tilt when playing is something that all players need to be aware of as well. But this next thing is something that holds back players so much once they’ve learned their mechanics, and that’s learning to stop making Hero Plays. This one is sort of tough because a lot of players learn the mechanics of the game by limit testing. They go into a match, and look to get those crazy clips where they kill 3-4 players and then post them on socials and feel cool.
The thing you’ll be interested to hear though, is Free Fire at the top level, is a game of trading. This means, when you get into an engagement, even if you kill an enemy, it is likely you’re going to get traded out if their team is playing correctly. So if you go 1 for 1, many times, this can make it so your kill wasn’t really impactful. So knowing this, what do we mean by Hero Plays then? Well, oftentimes you’ll encounter scenarios, where you’re getting pushed alone, and you end up getting a pick. This can be awesome because you do end up getting the kill. However, what many players will do here, is rather than falling back to play with their team afterward, they will try to push forward, and grab more kills.
This results in them getting themselves killed. By doing this, they make the trade, a 1 for 1, and effectively minimize the value that kill had for their team. Unfortunately, that kill still adds to their scoreboard, and boosts their ego, so they have the whole ‘I got mine’ mentality. It’s important to stop trying to be a hero in your matches. You don’t need to push to grab 4 kills every round. It’s okay to grab a pick and regroup with your team, so you can be traded out in the next fight. At the end of the day, regardless of the role you’re playing, your job isn’t to kill everyone on the enemy team. As a team player, it’s your job is to help your team take space. It’s your job to help your team hold space, and gather information more easily.
You should also deny the enemy team info and block off sight lines for your teammates. Notice how none of those jobs require you to grab kills. Now obviously kills are going to be had in the process, but it’s nobody’s specific job to grab kills. As with any of the roles, if you do your actual job well enough, you’re normally going to win your matches. You can carry games with utility if you know how to use them.
Counter-Strafing
Moving onto the last tip. This is about a bit of a more complex movement mechanic, but it’s something that separates a lot of low-rank players from high ranked players. It’s better if you start training this skill early, rather than trying to learn it later. Basically, when playing Free Fire, you’ve probably heard Counter-strafing is an important mechanic to master in the game. There are lots of movement guides out there debating the actual application of counter-strafing in Free Fire. Many say it’s not nearly as necessary, many say it’s absolutely necessary. The truth is, counter strafing isn’t necessary in the regard that it makes you accurate faster, because the difference is minimal in Free Fire.
In Counterstrike, counter strafing by hitting the A and D keys makes your gun accurate more quickly than just waiting to come to a full stop. In Free Fire, that’s not really the case. However, counter strafing is necessary for switching your movement direction and making yourself more difficult to hit. Not only that, but counter strafing is pretty necessary for clearing angles. Because when you’re pushing up to clear angles, you very rarely want to be holding W. Instead what you want to be doing is using your mouse to move your character and strafing using your A and D keys to clear important angles, making it so you can more quickly come to a stop, and land the shot on your enemies. Because if you’re holding W, you’re going not only make yourself easier to hit, but you’re also going to make it more difficult for you to stop.
You cannot counter strafe as easily when traveling forward. Many players have the bad habit of holding W and D or W and A to travel at a diagonal when entering a site. This is generally bad, and when you’re swinging a corner, you want to instead be using the A and D keys to clear the angle. This will give you the ability to swing the angle more quickly, and have better pre-aim to deal with the enemy on the other side. It is very difficult and takes a lot of practice to get down, especially if you’ve already built up a bad habit of holding W everywhere.
Mechanics, character knowledge, and crosshair placement, and aim. These are some of the most basic things in the game that many players in platinum and up believe they have ‘mastered’. But the truth is, if you’ve mastered these things, you’d probably be high immortal at minimum. You’ve all got a long way to go with improving, but try to focus on your basics, and it’ll go a long way.
