Games such as Minecraft and Portal allow you to get the basics of keyboard and mouse movement down without needing a split second reaction time. If you play a more slow-paced game, it allows you to learn in a lower stress environment. Jumping into a fast-paced, high-stakes game will result in a lot of mistakes and can be discouraging.
Learning how to use a keyboard and mouse is hard. This is just what’s recommended for most beginners.Īs you learn more, you can adjust everything to fit your preferenes.
Keep in mind, there is no right way to configure your settings. If that’s the case, you can crank it up to 800. It will hard to use at first, but you’ll adjust quickly.Ī DPI setting of 400 is ideal, but that might be unbearable for some of you out there. With a lower DPI you’ll need to make larger, more purposeful movements when aiming. Next up is to drop your DPI significantly. It all comes down to the total distance the mouse travels, not speed. With mouse acceleration turned off, each movement should be more consistent, regardless of how fast the mouse moves.
Instead, we want full control based on the distance. Mouse acceleration will speed up & slow down the cursor depending on how fast the mouse moves. This will require larger movements with the mouse and should help build muscle memory for more precise movements (hence “aim with your elbow”). We recommend people start with a sensitivity lower than what they are used to. You want a sensitivity that’s fast enough to lock onto a target quickly, but not too fast that it’s hard to control. Adjust Your Mouse Settingsįinding the ideal sensitive and DPI settings for your mouse is incredibly important for sharp aim. We’ll get into the exact mouse settings we recommend. “Aiming with your elbow” is a popular cue to remind you to make large sweeping movements with your entire arm instead of relying on your wrist. This allows you to maximize muscle memory and make more accurate movements. The more you need to move your mouse, the more muscles you recruit. When gaming with a mouse, your first instinct is to move the mouse with your wrist in small movements at a high sensitivity.īecause a high sensitivity makes you react quicker, right?Īctually, we have found a lower sensitivity combined with more mouse movement results in higher accuracy. Take advantage of this feature to the most of your ability. You want to establish muscle memory so you don’t need to consciously think about where the keys are located.īeing on a keyboard also gives you the advantage of being able to bind certain keys. Keys (such as WASD) will be easier to learn, but then reaching for further keys becomes more of a challenge. I always feel for the little bump on the “F” key before I place my fingers on WASD. It also will help you find your bearings when you reach for the keys further away. Learning where exactly your fingers go will help you gain confidence that you are pressing the correct keys.
While saying “memorize the keys” might seem a bit obvious, when switching over from console gaming, you feel like a fish out of water at first. Right out the gates, the biggest improvement you can do is memorize the keyboard finger placements.
I’m here to give you a few pointers to get you started on your PC gaming journey.
While I’m by no means a pro gamer, I’ve climbed the competitive latter on several FPS based games. Everything felt so foreign and weird.Īt this point, I have years of experience with keyboard and mouse. I still remember how awkward a keyboard and mouse felt in my hands at first. I learned the ins-and-outs of using a controller to maximize my gameplay.Īfter getting tired of the limitations of console play, I decided to switch to PC gaming (which was an awesome decision, by the way). Growing up, I played games exclusively on console.