Paintball tips that work
Twelve skills, from the first step to tournament breakouts. Each one is a short drill in the game's LEARN & TRAIN academy, so you can read it here and practise it in a minute.
1. Live in cover
One hit and you are out, so the bunker in front of you is your health bar. Move from cover to cover, sprinting across open ground and never stopping in it.
How: Sprint (Shift) between bunkers and plan your next one before you leave.
Common mistake: Standing still in the open to aim. Get to cover first, then aim.
2. Slide into bunkers
A slide gets you behind a bunker faster than running up to it, and it keeps you low the whole way.
How: Sprint, then press crouch (C) while running. Start the slide a few metres before the bunker.
Common mistake: Running right up to the bunker standing tall: you are easy to see for the last few steps.
3. Lean, don't step out
Leaning shows only your marker and one eye. Stepping out shows everything.
How: Aim first, then lean out (Q or E), fire, and lean straight back in.
Common mistake: Leaning out before you have aimed, then staying out while you find your target.
4. Lead moving players
A paintball takes time to fly. If you aim at a running player, the ball lands where they were.
How: Put the dot ahead of them, in the space they are running into: about one body width for every ten metres.
Common mistake: Chasing them with your aim and firing late.
5. Aim high at long range
Paint slows down and drops over distance, just like a real paintball.
How: Past thirty metres, hold the dot above their head. At fifty, about one body over them.
Common mistake: Aiming straight at a far target and watching the ball land at their feet.
6. Curve the ball
Balls spin, and a spinning ball bends. You can hit a player tucked behind the edge of a bunker or a tree.
How: Lean right to spin the ball right, lean left to spin it left. Aim a little to the other side of the obstacle and let it bend back in.
Common mistake: Shooting straight into the edge of the bunker again and again.
7. Lob over cover
Nothing flat gets past a tall bunker, but a high ball drops in behind it.
How: Aim well above the top of the bunker and let gravity bring the ball down on the player behind it.
Common mistake: Lobbing at a player who keeps moving: lobs are slow, so use them on players who sit still.
8. Snap shooting
Good players come out, shoot and go back in before you can react. You can do the same.
How: Aim at where they will appear, then fire the moment they do. Pre-aim the spot, do not search for it.
Common mistake: Shooting at the bunker while they are hidden. It only wastes paint.
9. Shoot the gap
When a player runs past a gap between bunkers you only see them for a moment.
How: Aim at the gap and fire when they are a body or two away from it, so the ball and the player arrive together.
Common mistake: Waiting until you see them in the gap: by then the ball is too late.
10. Change your peek
After you peek one side, the other player aims at that side.
How: Come out the other side, or lower down, or a second later than they expect.
Common mistake: Peeking the same side twice. The coach in LEARN & TRAIN points this out every time.
11. Win the breakout
In Speedball the first seconds decide the point. Every second in the open is a second they can paint you.
How: Know your first bunker before the horn, sprint off GO the whole way and slide in at the end. Or stay back and shoot the lane the runners cross.
Common mistake: Hesitating at the start, then running while everyone is already set and aiming.
12. Count who can see you
Most outs come from someone you did not know was watching.
How: Before you lean out, count the players who have an angle on you, and lean out on the side only one of them is watching.
Common mistake: Taking a fight against two players at once.
Want a list for your very first match? Read 10 tips for your first matches. For the physics behind curve and drop, read aim, curve and movement.
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