Former Overwatch pro dafran jumped into a custom VALORANT game with viewers during his broadcast yesterday, experimenting with the audio of footsteps. The streamer discovered that shooting a Vandal covers up the sound of an entire team running.
Though it’s not the stealthiest strategy, it just might work.
After turning his master volume up, dafran signaled for the enemy team to charge Split’s B site. With no gunshots to mask the sound, all that was heard was a “stampede” of footsteps, according to dafran. When the enemy squad tried it again while shooting a Vandal, however, the results were a bit different.
“Impossible,” dafran said. “This shit is OP. You can hear them when they come here, and that’s too late.”
The non-stop shooting of the Vandal was able to cover up the footsteps of four enemies rushing the site until it was too late. Teams that coordinate this strategy well can potentially overrun points before their opponents can rotate. But loud shooting is also a clear giveaway.
VALORANT players can use this same concept when flanking their opponents. If two teams are in a firefight, flankers can time their runs with gunshots to ambush their enemies faster.
It’s possible that Riot may balance the audio out before VALORANT’s official release this summer. It’s also feasible that this is an intended feature for the tactical first-person shooter.
