When playing first-person shooters, it’s normal to get completely destroyed by more experienced players.
Beginners are often flanked and surprised by experienced gamers who can jump in the middle of a chaotic gunfight and walk away without a scratch after taking down several enemies.
Most players who have attempted to mimic the actions of really good players instantly know that things are not as easy as some experienced people make it look.
One of the hardest things for newcomers is aiming consistently and hitting most bullets when firing with a Rifle or an SMG. The recoil of those weapons is a challenge in itself, making the guns sway away from the target and often getting you killed for not taking down the enemy soon enough.
For that reason, we decided to write a guide that will help players learn how to control recoil in Battlefield 2042.
Although these tips won’t instantly solve a player’s problems when it comes to aiming, following our guide and practicing will undoubtedly make a difference.
The Two Different Types of Recoil
Battlefield guns have horizontal recoil and vertical recoil. Each has its own peculiarity and a different way to handle it.
Vertical Recoil
This is the recoil that moves your aim upwards while you hold the trigger. This is what often makes you miss your follow-up shots when you first aim for the head.
Vertical recoil is reasonably easy to learn how to control since it only goes in one direction. Once you hold the trigger, the vertical recoil will push your gun upwards, and you can drag down the mouse to compensate for it.
Although it might sound simple to handle, it isn’t, and it demands practice. You need to get used to a gun and try it to control its recoil consciously when shooting.
The recoil of each weapon is different, and it’s not like you will feel as if a rifle has no recoil, but with practice, you can become much more precise.
Alternatively, you can also go for attachments that make the vertical recoil less of a problem and easier to control.
Horizontal Recoil
This one is harder to deal with because it goes in two directions instead of just one like the Vertical Recoil.
In this case, the gun will sway left and right. This recoil, combined with the vertical one, is what usually makes certain weapons so hard to control.
When that is the case, you might just choose the weapon that you consider the easiest to aim with. If there is an assault rifle that you feel like you can control better than others, you should probably stick with it.
Mixed Recoil
This is not really an official term or an actual type of recoil that you find in the game. It is actually the combination of Horizontal Recoil and Vertical Recoil, something that can make a weapon behave weirdly, like going up diagonally after a shot.
Unfortunately, there really isn’t a way to predict or deal with that since it is often the result of a weird combination of attachments. When you face that issue, you should consider mixing and matching some attachments to see if you can get rid of as much horizontal recoil as possible.
Tips to Control the Recoil
Players can do a few things to make the weapon shake a little less when a trigger must be held.
Fire in short bursts
Try out using many short bursts instead of holding down the trigger and unloading all your bullets on the target. This will make your weapon much more manageable, and it can also improve visibility in some situations by avoiding unnecessary dust covering the target.
Short bursts are especially effective with weapons such as Assault Rifles or certain SMGs. If you already have the best PP-29 attachments for that extra damage and accuracy, this technique will work very well.
Get Down When Aiming Down
Strafing will help you avoid enemy soldiers, but it will also make it very hard for you to control your recoil and hit your targets. So if you are doing that with a hard-to-control weapon, you might check attachments that control the horizontal recoil.
However, there are ways to go around that problem. The recoil will become less problematic when you crouch or lay down on the ground by holding Ctrl or pressing Z.
You do become a static target, but if you suddenly crouch and burst down an enemy, you might have a better chance of surviving than having to deal with the recoil of the weapon while moving left and right.
Final Thoughts
Recoil Control takes practice. Each weapon has a different feel and a different recoil. Some guns have a significantly high Rate of Fire that generates a lot of recoil. Those weapons are most likely not meant to be controlled.
Some good early-game guns with low recoil are the LCMG and the PP-29, but they might need some attachments to be decent. The PP-29 is even considered one of the best starting weapons in Battlefield 2042.
Once you find a good weapon with low recoil, practice with it, try out different attachments, and practice firing from a distance until you get the hang of it.
