15 Paintball Tips for beginners – Common Mistakes to Avoid

Last updated on October 15th, 2023

Paintball can be a lot of fun, but it can also be pretty intense. If you’re just getting into paintball, there are some paintballing tips you need to know in order to have the best experience possible and not get too frustrated.

In this post, we’ll talk about some paintball tips for beginners and common mistakes to avoid during paintball. So whether you’re a first-time player or just looking for some new pointers, read on for essential information on how to have a great time playing paintball!

1. Never Take off your Mask

Most beginners get overwhelmed when they see a group of people having fun on the field and take off their mask. They instantly get yelled at by the Referee and are removed for the day. Apart from that, the Paintball travels at an average speed of 180 FPS (200 miles per hour) which can harm your eyes. There’s a common paintball saying “Better to lose one round, then one eye”. MASK ON!

So never remove your mask. You can take the mask off in the staging areas during the breaks but not during some active game.

2. Shoes – What not to wear?

Wear appropriate shoes! Wear cleats or hiking shoes. But for the love of GOD, don’t wear casual shoes, slippers or worn out runners. We have seen beginners coming to the paintball field following all other tactics yet wearing work boots, fancy shoes or sandals. Later they had sore feet for days and even serious concussions from tripping.

3. Anti Fogging

Buy a thermal lens! With a non-thermal lens, Fogging might cause an instant blurry vision. Or in case you get shot on the mask, you won’t be able to see anything. In such situations, players lift their mask off and end up getting shot on their face. You love your eyes, Get a dual pane anti-fogging thermal lens. Check out our best masks buying guide.

4. Pocket Microfiber: 

You can’t take down what you can’t see! Very often you will be get a hits on your mask lens. In such situations, a pocket microfiber, that you can take out quickly and wipe the lens, is very handy.

Also, For situations where a paintball might burst inside the barrel, you could keep barrel swabs for that moment. You could quickly swap that gunk out Hence, your next shots could be accurate without breaking any more paints inside the barrel. So, a pocket Microfiber and barrel swab/squeegee.

Pro Tip: Keep your swabs in your regular pockets rather than swab pockets. Swabs are most likely to fall out of your swab pockets, keeping them in regular pockets have worked well for us. Similarly, you can also put your microfiber in your waist with your harness.

5. Don’t lose the Barrel Cover

You’re in the woods, The game starts. You take off the barrel cover, start shooting, thinking that you kept the cover in the pocket. The Game ends, everybody’s walking out, the referee whistles asking you about your barrel cover.  Yep, We all have been there.
So Before the adrenaline rush starts, make sure to keep your barrel cover inside your pocket before you start playing.

6. Team Up!

Even if you come to the field with a few of your friends, Be sure to join a group and talk to them about the game plan. We have seen rental groups getting overwhelmed and running in every direction without any strategy. Compose a team, stick to them and don’t tear apart.

7. Extra Padding:

You would wanna wear extra paddings or a padded jersey so you could take all those bounces. Extra cushioning will reduce the impact of hard paintball hits. We personally prefer a bit of extra padding, some extra cushioning to forearms and shoulders works well. If you going for sliding and diving, elbows pads and knee pads are must. Just like mast they are equally important. Extra padding is definitely a great investment.

8. Check your Tank

Before the game starts, make sure to check your tank. We have seen that happening very often that when the game starts, you get a couple of shots and realise “oh goodness! I forgot to fill my tank”. Most of the tanks have gauges, so make sure to keep an eye on the gauge and refill before the game.

9. The Batteries

If you’re using an electronic hopper or something of that sort, be sure to fully charge your batteries the night before the game. An electronic paintball gun with dead batteries will just ruin your whole day. If you have been using them all season, make sure to keep an eye on their health and timely replace them if required.

10. Wave to walk out

If you get hit and you’re behind a bunker, just wave your hand a couple of times, shout loud that you got shot and you would be good to walk off the field safely.

11. Don’t just sit there

Don’t just sit there when you’re out of paint. Ask for more paint from your fellow players or just walk off the field. You won’t do any good to anyone by just sitting in the field.

12. Extra clothes – waste bag

Although the paint used these days is mostly washable, still, by the end of the game, your clothes would be full of paint stains, grass and dirt. So keep extra clothes with you, that you could wear on your way back home.

Therefore, the person taking you back home won’t be mad about the paint mess in their car. Whenever we’re going for paintball, we always keep an extra plastic/garbage bag with us. You’re gonna need an extra plastic bag where you can put your dirty clothes.

13. Cash

Bring extra cash. Paintball is a full action packed game and during an adrenaline rush, you would be shooting hundreds of paintballs. So bring some extra cash so you could consume the rental packages, buy more paintballs or any such expenses. It’s a rule of thumb to buy twice the paint you think you need in the game.

14. Bring snacks and water

Bring snacks and plenty of water with you. Especially if it’s summer, you would want to stay hydrated. Avoid drinking soda and don’t have a heavy breakfast that day.

15. Buy your own gears: 

If you’re just getting started with paintball, first try to get rental gears to see what suits you the best. Later on, when you know how to paintball properly and you decide to continue it more seriously, We would highly recommend getting your own gears. You wouldn’t want to continue renting as the cost of rental admissions, gears etc would stack up pretty big after a couple of days. So I would highly recommend investing in your own gears.

With these paintballing tips in mind, you’re ready to hit the paintball field and start playing. At the end just Remember,don’t take anything seriously, just get in there and try to have as much fun as possible. For more paintball tactics and strategies, stay tuned to our blog.

Related Posts:

• Top 10 Best Paintball Guns Guide
• Paintball Masks Buyer’s Guide