Sound

Footsteps are the most important sound in the game. A footstep tells you three things:

• where: the direction (and, with HRTF on, sometimes the height);
• how many: counting different footsteps takes practice, but you can tell one, two or a group;
• how: someone running is moving with purpose (often towards action); someone who goes quiet has stopped or started walking.

Remember, though, that walking players make no noise. If you hear nothing, it does not mean nobody is there: it only means nobody is running near you. Silence is a hint, never proof.

Besides footsteps, many sounds carry information:

• reloads: an enemy reloading cannot shoot for a moment; a good time to swing;
• abilities: almost every ability has a recognizable sound when thrown, activated or when it hits. Recognizing them tells you which agent is there and what is about to happen (a flash coming, a drone approaching, a trap going off);
• the spike: the plant and defuse sounds carry a long way, and are often the most important information in the round;
• landings and jumps: even a walking player makes noise landing from a jump;
• gunshots: where the shots come from tells you where the fight is, and the type of gun (an Operator is unmistakable) tells you what to expect.

You do not have to learn everything at once: start with the abilities of the agents you meet most often.

Precisely because sounds matter so much, they are also used to deceive. An attacker running towards a site and then quietly walking back, an ability thrown onto a site to make the defense rotate: these are fakes made of sound.

To avoid falling for them:

• count: three different sets of footsteps and two abilities are more convincing than one player running;
• confirm: do the minimap and your teammates show something that backs the sound up?
• remember: has the enemy done similar fakes in earlier rounds?

A sound is strong information, but always put it together with the rest.

Sound only works if the team lets it be heard. At decisive moments (a delay on defense, a clutch, a defuse) talking over footsteps can cost the round. A common rule on strong teams: when a teammate is in a delicate moment, everyone goes quiet or uses only very short calls.

Your own noise is part of teamplay too: running next to a teammate who is hiding can give them away as well.

Two aspects of sound are harder to read, and worth knowing about.

Distance. A loud, clear footstep is close, a faint one is far away, but on some surfaces (metal, wood, water) footsteps sound different. Over time you learn how each area of the maps you play most sounds.

Height. Telling whether an enemy is above or below you is harder than telling left from right. HRTF helps, but it does not work miracles: when in doubt, use the rest of your information (minimap, teammates, the shape of the map) to decide.

And remember that you make noise on the same surfaces: walking on a metal stair near an enemy is like announcing yourself.

Your ears are trained like your aim: with attention and repetition.

In matches, a simple exercise: when you hear footsteps, before checking the minimap try to say how many and where. Then check. After a few weeks you will be wrong much less often, and you will pick up things that used to slip past you.

Listening well means three things: having your audio set up properly, leaving room for sound at decisive moments, and reading every sound together with your other information. Do that, and sound becomes one of your most reliable tools for knowing where the enemies are, without exposing yourself.