Can you dodge a bullet?

Bullet dodging is difficult to master, but a highly effective skills to learn. Impossible you say? Well, technically yes... you can't really dodge a bullet, but what you can do is learn to dodge an opponent's trigger finger. His hands are no faster than yours, it's just the timing.

Of course this tactic wont save you in a close combat fight against an automatic weapon, the spray will take you down before you have a chance to do anything, but against long range burst fire, 1v1 pistol showdowns, or even a long range awp it can give you a fighting chance. I find it the most useful in pistol rounds at the start of most league matches where everyone is equipped with a basic handgun and you don't have to be afraid to take a couple light hits.

How to dodge a bullet

Short answer: step out of the way. Duh? Player hit boxes aren't as big as you may think, especially at medium-long range. All it takes is a 1/2 second side step and you've avoided the shot, they will miss or have to take the time to correct their aim again.

Now dancing back-and-forth isn't enough, a good player will just watch your dance pattern and let you walk right into his crosshair. You have to learn to dodge out of the way of the bullet just before he fires it. The key is anticipation - if you know when he's going to fire, you can move out of the way. If you move too soon, he'll correct his aim... if you move too late, you're as good as dead.

So the next question is, when will he fire? There are several queues to watch for, a moving player will typically stop before firing, an awper usually takes roughly the same length of time to activate the scope and line you up, but the most effective trick is to listen for repetitive fire sequences. Almost every player will empty an entire clip a consistent rate of fire. This is healthy and expected, a consistent rate of fire lets a player line up his shots and expect his own bullets to fly without feeling "panicky" and flailing around, but it gives you an advantage. After the first couple of bullets, you should have the pattern nailed down and be able to anticipate every shot. This is when you make your move.

Training Exercise

Don't expect to read this article and step out on the battlefield tonight dodging everything like Agent Smith. This tactic takes training, and wont always work in every situation. Learn when to use it. As with anything, the best way to learn is to practice, practice, practice. Find a buddy and duke it out with pistols once in a while, over time you'll start to learn how to anticipate the shot. First concentrate on dodging his bullets for as long as you can... when you get good you should be able to run your opponent through at least 2 or 3 clips before you go down. Once you've mastered the dodge, the next obvious step is to learn to shoot back! You can't dodge 'em all, you need to master adapting your firing rhythm to match the opponent's sequence, correct your aim accordingly, and gun him down while taking minimal damage.

The sponsored FPS God server will be running "pistols only" mode for the next few days if you'd like to give it a try. Join up @ 209.247.83.189:27015, I hope to see you there.