Do You Need Paddles on Your Game Controllers?

howtogeek.com:

Rear paddles are an increasingly common inclusion on game controllers, but they’re not included on the controller that comes with your Xbox or PlayStation. So what’s the big deal with paddles, and is it worth investing in a new controller to get access to them?

Rear paddles are (unsurprisingly) found on the back of the controller and operated with the fingers you usually don’t use while holding a game controller. Instead of simply gripping the controller, you can use your index or pinky finger to hit a paddle, which can be mapped to a different button on the controller.

These paddles are usually easy to remap on the fly, which means you can quickly change which input they correspond to depending on the game you are playing. Some controllers have profiles that allow you to save your setup. You might find controllers have a single paddle on each side, while others have more than one.

These paddles are ideal for mapping face buttons in first-person shooters but have all sorts of utility. One good example is to map jump or duck (slide) in a fast-paced title like Apex Legends. This means you can keep a thumb on each analog stick while still being able to access buttons for jump, melee, reload, or duck that would normally require you to move your right thumb.

This can give you the edge in competitive multiplayer, particularly in twitch shooters that feature sliding, jumping, and wall-running. Paddles can also be useful in other games for comfort or accessibility reasons. There are no hard rules to follow which is why these inputs are easily reprogrammable.

In PC games, paddles may be used as additional inputs to increase the total number of buttons available but this is dependent on the controller.

You can find controllers that