With more and more first-person shooters launching on phones, knowing how to improve your aim on mobile is key to maximizing your enjoyment of the platform. It’s more fun to win than it is to lose, right? And if you want to win, you’ll need to be better than the opposition. Whether it’s PUBG Mobile, Fortnite, or one of the many other mobile shooters out there, perfecting your aim should be your number one priority when trying to earn those chicken dinners or “Victory Royales.” Thankfully, there’s a number of different ways that you can improve your aim on iOS and Android phones. Read on for our list of top tips and tricks.
How to improve my aim on mobile?
How to improve your aim with a mobile phone comes down to a few things:
- Using a comfortable sensitivity
- Ensuring that the sensitivity is correct for the situations you’ll face in-game
- Remaining consistent across all titles you play
- Setting up your mobile phone for gaming
- Incorporating good strategies to help enhance that aim
- Potentially purchasing additional peripherals to take your aim even further
We’ll be taking an in-depth look at each of these bullet points, explaining what they mean and how they will help your mobile aim improve.
What is the best sensitivity for aiming on mobile?
If you’re using your fingers to aim, and you don’t have the luxury of a gaming grip or Bluetooth controller, then we’d recommend a sensitivity that allows you to comfortably turn 180 degrees in one quick swipe, while also retaining the ability to make minor adjustments for long-range shots. In the case of PUBG Mobile and Fortnite, we’ve found the default settings to be about right, though some users will want to lower these sensitivities for better control.
For those of you with game grips or Bluetooth controllers, we’d still recommend the default sensitivity settings. However, if you’re used to playing on console and using higher sensitivities, then bumping up the in-game sensitivity will help to keep your experience as consistent as possible. This is important for building muscle memory that applies across multiple different games and platforms.
Is a high sensitivity best?
While higher sensitivities can be useful, as they allow players to quickly turn on flanking enemies, they aren’t necessarily “best.” When picking a sensitivity that you’re going to be using in all of your gameplay, you need to ensure that it suits your playstyle. If you love grabbing a shotgun and going in close-range, then maybe a higher sensitivity will fit you best. On the other hand, if you’re more of a sniper fan, who keeps themselves away from fights and prefers to pick enemies off at range, then a lower sensitivity may benefit you better.
You want to find a good balance between high and low sensitivities to suit your playstyle. It’s also worth exploring the setting menus of the mobile games you play, as they can often allow for some advanced tweaking of sensitivities across multiple weapons and/or attachments. PUBG Mobile boasts a huge number of sensitivity settings, which really allow players to dive deep into customizing weapon handling. If you’re serious about improving your aim in PUBG Mobile, you’ll want to make adjustments to make every weapon work well in your hands.
Setting up your mobile for gaming
There are a number of things you can do to ensure that your mobile phone is set up optimally for a gaming session. I’m not talking about obvious things like making sure that you have battery life, or cranking up your brightness so that you can actually see… No, I’m talking about blocking notifications with a Do Not Disturb mode, while also ensuring that you limit the number of apps you have open while gaming. Any lag or distraction can affect your aim, so preempt the issues and put a stop to them early.
Before diving into a new shooter, take the time to move the onscreen buttons into a more comfortable position. Many games allow extensive remapping of the controls, which should help you deal with the not-so-ergonomic shape of a modern mobile phone. Maneuver the movement, aim, and fire buttons into your preferred spots, ensuring that you can hit them easily, but not by accident. Unintentionally firing your weapon in a battle royale match is especially unpleasant, as it immediately gives away your position. Take the time to place these buttons optimally.
Some mobile games implement an aim assist feature. Enabling this may seem like an obvious choice for those looking to improve their aim on mobile, but the decision isn’t quite so simple. Sometimes the aim assist can work against your muscle memory, with you fighting it. This can lead to missed shots that would have otherwise landed. Depending upon aim assist too much can also lead to bad habits. While we’d recommend leaving it on default to start with, it’s definitely worth playing around with this option.
Consistency
Once you’ve found the right sensitivity for you, you’ll want to do your best to maintain that same sensitivity across all mobile games you play. For example, if you play both PUBG Mobile and Fortnite, you’ll want to try and match those two games up. This helps to speed up your development of muscle memory, with your hands getting used to one specific sensitivity across multiple games. If you have different sensitivities across multiple shooters, then you’re just going to confuse things.
Practicing is obviously a huge factor for getting better aim. Helpfully, even battle royale elimination games like PUBG Mobile and Fortnite have modes in which players can respawn. While normal battle royale matches don’t allow for many engagements per minute, with most players avoiding encounters to try and survive, PUBG Mobile’s War mode and Fortnite’s limited time modes often incorporate respawn modes, keeping the action constant and gunfights frequent. You should use these modes to try out new sensitivities and get used to them more quickly.
These modes are also useful for warming up. Before jumping into a match where every gunfight matters, as losing means game over, warm yourself up by playing in a respawn or training mode. Play for 10-30 minutes to get your aim back to 100%, then head into the more hardcore modes.
Advanced Tips
Just like with console and PC titles, there are tips and tricks that can be applied to all mobile shooters. Learning how to aim smart, by pre-aiming at points where you expect an enemy to be and strafing to make slight adjustments to an almost accurate shot, is crucial to winning gunfights. While you should absolutely prioritize mastering the basics of how to aim on mobile, the next step is perfecting your map knowledge, becoming of where opponents will be coming from, and then being ready for them. It’s a long road, but you’ll get there with practice!
Mobile gaming accessories and upgrades
Though using your fingers on your phone’s touchscreen is a viable way of playing, there are other options that you may find more preferable. What follows is a list of gaming accessories that aim to enhance your aiming ability on mobile.
Mobile Game Controller
Slot your phone into one of these to benefit from tactile hardware buttons. No more prodding your screen and blocking the view. Simply use the physical controls to maneuver in the same what that you would on a console.
SteelSeries Duo and Nimbus
The SteelSeries Duo and Nimbus controllers are one of the more premium mobile controller options. Solid build quality and satisfying weight in the hand bring it close to how a console gamepad feels.
Best gaming phones
More powerful hardware means better frame-rates and a smoother mobile gaming experience. This can absolutely lead to you developing better aim. If you’re considering a new phone upgrade, then definitely add these gaming-focused phones to your list of potential buys.
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