Riot investigating broken headshot hit reg in Valorant

Andy Williams
Reyna defusing Spike with Raze shooting Showstopper in Valorant.

Riot Games have confirmed that they are looking into one of Valorant’s most infamous issues — crouch hit registration — much to the delight of fans.

Whether you’re playing Unrated, Spike Rush or Competitive, Valorant boasts 128-tick servers across the board — another notch on Riot’s belt to support competitive integrity in their first-person shooter.

Since Valorant is also region-locked, players often play with low ping, which therefore supports low-latency, high-fidelity gameplay.

Although, ever since the closed beta, players have been complaining about the inaccuracy caused by your opponent crouching while you’re shooting — more specifically, the effecs it has on headshot registration.

Player shooting on Ascent in Valorant.
Crouching is typically used by players to minimize movement, and thus improve shooting accuracy.

Riot investigating headshot hit reg bug

Since release, players have been noticing incidents where their opposite number seemingly absorbs a headshot — with the blood splatter animation coming from the enemy player model to confirm a headshot has been registered.

It seems that the crux of the issue is when the enemy player crouches mid-gunfight, which seems to be adjusting the headshot hit box — indicative of a netcode issue.

One player demonstrated the issue first hand, in a clip which clearly shows a player land a headshot (which should be a one-shot kill with the Vandal), but is only rewarded with body shot damage.


One Redditor called upon a Riot Games developer to shed some light on the issue once and for all, labeling it as “biggest problem with the game right now.” Riot Sobey simply responded: “We are aware of this issue and are looking into it!”

While this doesn’t offer much about the cause or timeframe on a fix, it does provide a sense of relief to know that the issue has been acknowledged and is being worked on by Riot.

So next time you think you’ve landed a headshot (and your post-death card says otherwise), just know that it could be due to an inherent bug within the game that needs to be addressed.