[2019] An Average* Gamer's Guide to Reaching Predator

Preface

First off let me define "average gamer" so I don't mislead people into thinking "anyone can do it". It took me between 745-770 games to go from Bronze to Predator. It's not the best, but I don't think it's too terrible either. I consider myself a "gamer" I play between 2-6 hours a day, generally 4, but I'm not the most mechanically adept person. I'm decent, better than the casual player (who will play maybe 1-2 hours a day), but there's definitely a lot of people with more talent than me. I had to practice.

Another thing, I climbed the ranks at an awkward schedule so some of my tips might not be relevant anymore. Meaning the skills and play styles of certain ranks are more than likely different. The spread of player skill across the ranks is more than likely different than when I did my climbing. For example, reaching Diamond a week into ranked release holds a lot more weight than being Diamond a month after release.

That being said, I think most people can reach predator. Its possible, but you'll need to give it time, energy, and practice just like anything else and most people are capable of that effort. It whether or not you invest in it or not, though it is just a game so don't stress too much about it.

Mechanics & IQ

Mechanics and IQ have a weird relationship. Purely mechanical players can only get so far, and purely IQ can get so far themselves. When I was Diamond, my friend, who was much more mechanically inclined than myself, was stuck in Plat. Mechanics can get you to a high skill floor, but IQ will determine how high that floor is. That being said, Mechanics is a lot easier to practice than IQ. You'll figure out what you need to work on once you start peaking. When I got stuck in Diamond 3, I had to start actually practicing my mechanics.

Find Your Perfect Sensitivity

This is one of the things that most noticeably helped my game. Perfect sensitivity is different for everyone, there's not a magical number. Though for console gaming lower is generally better for the boost in aim assist.

DO THIS COLD (no warm ups, before you play your first game)

1. Go into training mode, up to the part where you get to shoot the guns, and turn on on advanced look settings.
2. Pick up a gun, go near one of the moving targets, and stand as far away from it as you normally would engage an enemy.
3. Now ADS at the center of the target and follow it back and forth, keeping your aim in the center. It should be one smooth movement.
4. If your aim jerks ahead of the target, your sensitivity is too high. Lower horizontal ADS. If it lags behind, your sensitivity is too low. Increase it.
5. Use the deadzone slider to make smaller edits to your ADS sensitivity.
6. Keep making small edits until you can smoothly track the center of the moving target.

It will take some tweaking here and there, but once you find your perfect sensitivity you'll feel more comfortable playing the game.

Recoil & Aim

I knew my aim was garbage, especially against higher skilled players, so I started doing drills in training mode. Doing drills is one of the biggest things that helped me after I peaked. Get comfortable with all of the guns, especially the ones you're not good with.

The game has predictable recoil patterns

1. Go into training mode, pick up the guns you want to practice with, and stand a distance away from a wall.
2. Aim at the wall, and shoot the gun WITHOUT trying to control for recoil.
3. Now look at the pattern of where the bullets land. Thats the pattern you want to inverse on your mouse/thumbstick.
4. Generally, for guns that use light rounds, you should recoil control down/left. For heavy round guns, its usually down/right.
5. Practice shooting Bloodhound. Hes the most accurate model the training provides. Keep practicing.
6. Aim for the neck/sternum/collarbone area. By the time you correct for your vertical recoil, you should be at or near headshot level, without overshooting bullets if you were to aim at the head from the beginning.
7. Don't forget to hipfire in CQC, you don't always have to aim.
8. When sniping aim for the crown of the head, slightly above the forehead. Not above the head, or in the middle of the face.

Try some aim drills as well. I would pick up the long bow and slide down and aim for the heads of the targets, aiming back and forth between far right and far left. Figure out your own drill though, it'll make it more fun and meaningful.

I would practice like this for like 5-15 minutes before my first game of the day.

IQ

Kind of hard to teach, and it comes with experience, but here's some pretty simple principles and tips you should follow:

1. High ground is generally the strongest point on the map, and heavily increases your chances of winning fights/games.
2. Cover is essential.
3. If you knock someone, or severely injure someone, take advantage of it and push as a team.
4. Pick your fights. In higher levels, everybody is going to third party you. If you don't finish a fight in a minute, get out.
5. Hording Health/Shields becomes more important the higher level you play.
6. Heal before you loot, grab body shields out of boxes for immediate shields.
7. Work with your teammates. Dying and winning a fight is much better than living and losing it.
8. Communicate.

There's a ton more to know, but these are just some of the basic things that popped to my mind.

Gameplay

Team Composition

Meta team: Wattson and Pathfinder.

Being able to know where circle ends, and being able to lock down an entire building is extremely strong and meta in high tier games. Fill the third with whoever, but I'd recommend Gibraltar or Wraith. Gibraltar's entire kit comes in clutch late game, and he doesn't die in CQC. Wraith is nice because there are so many people still alive late game, that you'll more than likely get pinched and need to escape through her portal.

Countering Meta-Wattson teams: Wraith, Pathfinder, Caustic.

Wraith can phase portal her team passed Wattson fences, Pathfinder can shoot the team over fences, and Caustic can easily break her fences with his gas traps and ultimate. Once you take out Wattson's ultimate, Caustic's Ultimate is death for their entire team.

Loadout

AR/99/PK + Any Long range.

Long range is meta in ranked, you can pressure people and pick up kills with minimal effort and minimal risk to yourself. If you're stuck without a sniper, you're going to be sitting ducks and wasting a lot of consumables to heal.

Prioritize Heals and Shields.

Grenades are niche in the current meta due to Wattson. Though they do come in handy adding pressure to non-wattson teams or the doors of wattson's buildings.

Strategy

The Drop.

So simple, yet so crucial. You want to drop somewhere with enough loot for your squad, but without there being more than 1 other team there. If you land in a spot with 2 teams or more, pick up whatever is next to you and run away. You have to realize you're in lobby filled with people just as good as you or better. There's no more pub stomping.

The Rotation.

There's 2 strategies that have been successful for me: Playing inner circle, and Playing edge of circle.

Playing inner circle is the safest most consistent way of earning RP. This is the current meta-playstyle where a team will use Pathfinder to guesstimate where the circle will end, and use Wattson to post up and defend a building in the final circle. This gives you the strongest position in the late game, and is almost a guaranteed win if the circle lands on your fortress. However, the downside is there's a good chance you will be under looted, lack good body shields and consumables, and you will be at a disadvantage against the people who played the edge of the circle in a heads up fight. Here's some tips for this playstyle:

1. Avoid bottle necks, and get into the inner ring ASAP. The edge of circle is where all the teams will be colliding to avoid the storm. Chances are there will be around 3-5 teams in the area.
2. Loot inwards toward the circle.
3. Pick up as many consumables as you can.
4. Don't be picky with your loot, you should be mechanically comfortable with a white body shield and an alternator.
5. Set up as early as possible.
6. Horde body shields/consumables in your base.

Playing edge of circle is high risk high reward, and is the most inconsistent way of earning RP. It takes the most mechanical skill and IQ to play this way. But even if you do everything right, there's still a high chance of you getting 4th/5th/6th partied. Nonetheless, you earn points fast and get kitted for the end game. This strategy you pay more attention to where the entire lobby drops, and you want to push towards the side of the map where the least amount of teams are. Play the edge of the circle, and push or third party the teams straggling or getting caught in the edge of the circle. Once you clear them out, you now control that entire side of the map. Knowing no one is behind you, makes it easier for you to third party the people inner circle. Here's stop tips for this playstyle:

1. If you're not third partying and are in a heads up fight, leave if you haven't merked the entire squad after a minute or two. Pick and choosing your battles is super important on the edge of the circle, because there is a high amount of people going to be there.
2. If you're going to gatekeep people coming into the circle, don't do it at the immediate edge of the circle. Do it a little bit inwards, that way you're in a better position to avoid 3rd parties and instead BE the 3rd/4th party.
3. Once you get to lategame/inner ring. Harass and contest the most powerful positions. Chances are its a meta squad with little to no loot, and by then you're at a huge advantage over them. Break wattson's ultimate, and fences, and push them. If you win that push, you're now in control of the strong place on the map, and have a high chance of winning.

The Numbers.

D4-Predator = 280 RP

Winning + 5 Kills = 22 games

Winning + No Kills = 35 games

Top 3 + 5 Kills = 35 games

Top 5 + 5 Kills = 56 games

Top 3 + No Kills = 94 games

Top 10 + 5 Kills = 94 games

No Placement + 5 Kills = 280 Games

This is in order of least amount of games to most amount of games to climb. As you can see, at a base level, the game does reward placement more than kills. However, kills become almost a multiplier of placement when they are combined. Simply just getting kills (Top 10 + 5kills = 94 games) or simply placing (Top 3 + No kills = 94 games) are highly inefficient when compared to getting Top 3/5 with Maxed out kills (35 and 56 games respectively). And these are just the numbers not taking into account your lost games.

In my opinion, the best way to climb is not just camping or just grabbing kills. Aiming for 3 kills a game, and going for Top 3 is probably the best way to play. That means taking out 3 squads (landing/drop, 3rd party, endgame/last team).

The Most Important Tip

Chemistry

At the core of this game is teamwork, and in my experience, that is the most noticeable factor in terms of climbing ranked. Finding teammates on the same page as you, will make everything run smoothly. It will reduce your chances of getting caught off guard, and increase your offensive effectiveness as a team. It doesn't really matter the skill level, more the chemistry you have together. Shooting the same guy. Pushing together. Staying close. Providing help and cover fire. Communicating. Making and executing plans. All go hand and hand with team chemistry. If you're not playing as a unit, its much more easier for other teams to take advantage of you.

Miscellaneous Thoughts/Tips

Legends

Pathfinder- IMO, the strongest legend in the game. The ability to grapple to the high ground, dodge bullets, escape, and cover a great distance almost immediately is pretty OP. His passive is extremely strong in ranked as well. And his ultimate provides the strongest point on the map for his entire team. Tip: Heal while in the air after you launch yourself in the direction of safety. Tactical + jump as the grapple hits the ground + slide as you land.

Wattson- Not really huge in casual lobbies, but borderline necessary in Ranked. The recent nerf to her, balances her ranked play a bit, but completely sh*ts on her casual play. She's definitely a team-dependent high skill floor legend. Tip: She counters herself. Lock people in the buildings they set up in. Use her Ult as cover or stepping stool to peak through cracks in buildings.

Gibraltar- For higher level players, completely OP. His kit is amazing. But his gunshield and fortified perk is what really makes him scary. He gets an effective 316 health with purple armor and his gunshield up. At a skill level where nobody really misses, despite how big or small your hitbox is, having that much health is a huge advantage. Tip: His bubble shield will break enemy Wattson fences.

Wraith- I think the current data for her is skewed. I feel like mostly sweats and tryhards are the main population that play her, and as a result her stats are higher than most other legends. The greatest thing about her is her hitbox, but its not that noticeable at higher levels of play. I think her kit has a high skill floor, but it is extremely useful in Diamond. Tip: Use her ultimate for the final circle. Trap people in buildings and make it harder for enemies to get to the circle.

Bloodhound- They are niche but fun to play. The information they provides in ranked games is strong. Knowing where to rotate and where enemies are is a huge part of the game. Their scan is also pretty strong information to avoid traps, as well as locating what corners the enemy is in. Tip: Using his ultimate while on a redeploy balloon is highly effective.

Bangalore- Another strong pick. Her smokes help you avoid fire, her passive lets you get away, and her ultimate is one of the strongest zones. She's a good anti-third party legend. Tip: Use her first smoke to break line of sight, and use her second smoke to bamboozle the enemy team into thinking you went in that direction.

Mirage- A fun offensive character. Timing when to use his ultimate is pivotal, use it too early and you won't be able to flank a team, use it too late and they'll see you coming. His passive is also best suited for the self-revive. Hes not completely useless to his teammates. He just needs to coordinate his flanks with his team. Tip: Using his tactical on enemy traps will give you their location.

Caustic- Annoying, but strong legend. Like Gibraltar, he gets extra health and that much of an advantage is huge in higher level play. His traps are more conspicuous than Wattson's and zone a little better than her's too. It unfortunate though, that you slow and reduce your teammates vision. I think he's a huge counter to Wattson, one of his traps can break the majority of her fences and ultimate. Tip: Chuck his traps through the window's of a Wattson building.

Lifeline- A solid pick. Her passive comes in clutch, since at higher levels you're more often to be pushed, and can heal in time to turn the tables. She can bait teams really well. Her ultimate can come in clutch as well, if you are underlooted at the end game. Tip: Always use her drone when in a fight. Post up, drop it, and start shooting people. She's almost unpushable if you have the drone out and a shield battery at the ready.

Octane- IMO Completely useless for teamplay. Though his tactical makes him super fun to play hyper-agressive with. Tip: Use his ultimate as a trap inside buildings to slow down enemies.

Weapons

Peacekeeper/EVA- You don't have to aim with these guns, you're just wasting time and mobility doing so. Their spread is the same ADS and hipfired. Just hipfire them, strafe and jump around.

Mastiff/Mozambique- Aiming with these guns, does decrease the spread of the pellets. I'd suggest ADS with them.

Alternator- Still a strong gun with Disruptors. The recoil is straight up (the easiest gun to control), and you can strafe faster with it while ADS. Though it doesn't hit as hard as it used to, the combination of those two still make it a strong gun.

Prowler- In CQC, you also don't have to aim with this gun. The difference in spread is almost negligible. It doesn't kill as fast as the R99, but if you hipfire it it does come pretty close.

R99- Down left, down left, down left. Once you learn the recoil pattern for this gun, its becomes so much stronger.

R301- Definitely feels different after its nerf, and doesn't kill as fast as I want it to. Yet, still is an accurate gun that most people should start with.

Flatline- Down right, down right, down right. Currently my favorite AR. It hits so hard you don't even need an extended mag. Once you learn the recoil pattern, it becomes a laser and shreds everyone.

Havoc- The recoil is straight down. IMO needs to be nerfed. Has a mag like a Spitfire, Shoots fast like a R301, and hits like a flatline. The recoil is straight down like an alternator, just a little stronger. It's an easy gun to learn, and once you learn it you can confidently fight people with your white body armor on.

Hemlok- Use to be my favorite AR, but it felt like something changed. The key is to keep aiming after you shoot, so that you land the next 2 bullets. Not a fan of it on single fire mode.

Spitfire- Good in Casuals, gets me killed in ranked. Doesn't shoot fast enough to kill someone in ranked. The only way to use it is to hipfire it first and dodge as many bullets as you can, then when they have to reload, ADS and kill them.

Devotion- Like the Havoc, I think its OP. Once it reaches that maximum ROF, you dont have to really recoil control it and everyone dies in a second.

L-Star- Dont really like it unless I'm close range and hipfiring.

Triple take- Easiest sniper to hit people with, and if you hit someone at least twice, it provides a good amount of pressure. It's okay choked up.

G7- Hurts. In a blink you lost 90 health. It's a mid range beast, and provides A LOT of pressure. Harder to use than the Tripletake, but hits way harder. Lightweight think it needs a nerf to its ROF or damage.

Longbow- Takes the most skill to use this gun, but also rewards you the most. Hitting headshots with this gun is the most effective way to use it. A lot of people hate it, but it does take skill to use. It needs a ROF nerf.

Conclusion

Have fun. Don't forget this is a game meant for you to enjoy. Take breaks, and get sleep. If you get caught up in the grind, you will lose your skills/focus. Make sure you get enough sleep, and make sure you don't get too attached. Play other games, and take a couple days off. Self-improve. Don't get mad at the game or at other people, we're all playing under the same rules as you. The only thing you can control is yourself, use that and practice. Set realistic expectations, you're not going to hit predator overnight, and you're not going to get immediately better after reading a guide or tips. You have to practice!

This is also my first type of significant contribution post, and I'd like to thank the people that do this on a daily basis. For the past couple years, I've used the internet for my own gain in knowledge and haven't ever really paid it back. I really appreciate the people that take time out of their lives to help other people. Thank you so much!

If you have questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

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