All You Need To Know About VALORANT Maps
Welcome to GGRecon’s Guide to VALORANT Maps. Riot Games’ First Person Shooter launched with less than a handful of actively playable maps, but we already know that more are coming soon. Let’s check out the existing ones.
VALORANT Maps - Bind
Click to enlargeBind is a map with two bomb sites but without a middle area. As that design feature would likely limit strategical choice too much, Riot had to come up with a solution to make rotations less predictable. So teleporters became the unique feature of Bind, connecting A Short with B Short, and B Long with A Lobby.
Orbs are located in A Bath and outside of A Teleporter, arguably putting each Orb in control of a different faction.
The B Short or as it’s affectionately called “Hookah” has emerged as a location of spectacular strategy, from Cypher Tripwires off cushions to incredible utility angles for a lot of projectiles.
Bind is generally considered to be a quite balanced map between attack and defence, so if you are winning your half, you’re likely on the way to victory.
VALORANT Maps - Haven
Click to enlargeThe dust2 of VALORANT as some have started to call it, is the only map currently in the game with three bomb sites. The name of the game is rotations, as site-anchoring Agents will require immediate help as the attack starts to collapse onto a site. Retakes are still quite common and feasible, though.
Orbs are once again located on the wings of the map on A Long and C Long, and it could be argued that orb control is easier for Attack than for Defence.
Haven is utility heaven as almost every Agent has some exciting line-up, boost or angle to take advantage of their Agent kit. Given the sheer amount of points of engagements for Attack, crisp communication is especially important because of the aforementioned requirement of heavy rotations. Currently, double Operator defensive line-ups are a great choice on Haven.
VALORANT Maps - Split
Click to enlargeFor the longest time, Split was immensely defence-favoured and only through several updates have we come to a point where it’s slowly evening out. Mid-control is a big deal on Split, and it used to be relatively easy for Defense to maintain control also because anchor Agents like Sage could easily gain space control and maintain it for an obnoxious amount of time. Worse yet, the space was so narrow that Agents like Raze had a field day with utility. To put the cherry on top, it used to have a bunch of 90° angles which were impossible to clear safely by oneself.
All of this is a thing of the past and Split it much more enjoyable to play. Mid control has to be fought for on relatively even grounds, and once Attack has opened up this space, it allows for quick and unpredictable rotations to each of the two bombsites.
The Orbs are located on A Main and B Main, with Attack being favoured in controlling these.
The signature feature of Split are the robes which no other map has. Once a team has gained mid-control, the shenanigans start around Mid Vents with lots of weird up down duels taking place.
VALORANT Maps - Ascent
Click to enlargeAscent is the first map released after the launch of the game, also sticking to the two bombsite design philosophy. The big difference to the other maps is that Ascent comes with a wide-open mid-area in which Operators have a field day. Four entrances lead into the much-contested space, and usually, the best Defense can hope for are cheeky picks and gathering information as to where the attack is going to come from.
Orbs are located on B Main and A Main, and are rather free for the Attack.
The key features of the map are the closable doors in Mid Market to the B Site and A Link to A Site, allowing controllers of the space to eliminate an angle with relative ease.
Are new VALORANT Maps Coming?
Yes! Each Episode a new map has been announced to be released. The duration of an episode is around six months, so we are getting closer to a new one. An approximate release date is late December or early January for the fifth map. By the way, a new Agent is estimated to hit around late October or early November.
This concludes our VALORANT Map overview. Check out the rest of our VALORANT section with guides, esports news, interviews and more!
Images via Riot Games