What Is ‘Centering’ in CoD? Important FPS & Call of Duty Mechanic Explained

Whether you’re new to Call of Duty or on your tenth title, you’ll probably have come across the term ‘centering’ in some capacity. Here, we’re taking you through what it means, whether it’s important and how it can improve your performance in CoD and FPS titles generally.

What Is Centering in Gaming?

Centering, in a FPS context, means placing your crosshairs where you want to shoot ahead of aiming-down-sights and pulling the trigger.

In Call of Duty, you’ll notice that the HUD includes a crosshair that stays in the center of your screen, whichever way you’re aiming or turning. Essentially, moving so that the enemy is in the middle of your screen (and therefore your crosshairs) is centering. Once they’re there, you can open fire and know your bullets will hit their target instantly.

Most players will center automatically when they aim, but making it a conscious part of your gameplay will doubtless improve your performance. It’s better to center before aiming down sights because, whatever your sensitivity, it’ll be faster to turn and aim when your weapon isn’t scoped in.

Is Centering Important?

The short answer is yes, especially as you improve at Call of Duty. Better players (like those you’ll encounter in Ranked Play) will respond and aim faster, meaning you have to respond faster too. Centering allows you to essentially speed up your accuracy and lay down precise fire faster.

If an enemy is centered, all you have to do is aim in and fire, following them as they move and try to evade you. If you aim in and fire prior to lining up an opponent, you’ll miss shots and have to re-aim as you’re firing. That means you’ll have to deal with recoil, enemy movement and the slower ADS speed.

It’s a particularly good skill to improve if you’re a sniper. If an enemy is already centered, you can scope in and know that, as soon as your weapon has been drawn, it’ll be on target. Watching the best CoD snipers – like Spratt and Pamaj – will show you how fast you can snipe if your centering is perfect. It makes ‘quickscoping’ a lot easier, as opposed to the slower ‘dragscoping’ or ‘hardscoping’.

Don’t mistake it for just being valuable to snipers though because the principles apply whatever weapon you’re using. Having an enemy centered is good for hip-fire accuracy as well, which is best to use on SMGs.

How To Get Better At Centering

The simple answer here is practicing. Make a conscious effort to go into a game and center before aiming and firing. This’ll likely entail using the right analogue stick on your controller (or moving your mouse) to lock on to enemies. Then you can scope in and fire. Soon, you’ll be doing it subconsciously and in a split second. That’s when you’ll become a handful for enemies.

You can use a physical marker on your monitor or TV, like a small piece of blu tac. This small item will make it more obvious where the center of your screen is and you can practice that way. Do not start scribbling on your monitors, please.

That’s all there is to know about centering in Call of Duty. It’s sure to be important as Warzone powers through seasons and the 2023 annual installment approaches.