Hot on the heels of an extremely successful beta, Riot Games’ tactical first-person shooter VALORANT began its official launch yesterday. EPISODE 1: IGNITION is what Riot coined the first chapter of the release. With this title comes an abundance of exciting new features including a battle pass, a new game mode, the 1.0 patch, and a new map: Ascent.

Today, we are going to take a deeper dive into Ascent. As the 4th map added into rotation, Ascent continues Riot’s goal to create a unique experience on each and every map. New map mechanics, close quarters combat and spawn gate changes are just a few interesting variables to factor in when navigating this new map.

So, where does Ascent fall in the map pool, and what role does it play? In the 1.0 patch notes, Communications Associate Jeff Landa said, "Ascent is a map set in Italy that features a large, open middle area that both teams can skirmish over. Mid is a playground for diverse ability use and successfully controlling the area opens additional routes for Attackers to both Spike sites." Landa goes on to add, "As our new map for launch, Ascent will be slightly more common in our Matchmaking rotation for the first few days so that you can get more opportunities to play on the map."

Though the middle area of the map is very open, the bomb sites are quite compact. Mix that in with the new map mechanics, and we get a very interesting map style we have not yet seen in the first three maps of Bind, Haven, and Split. With all of this in mind, let's break Ascent down and talk a bit about each part of this new map.

New Map Mechanic: Doors + Damage Pads

That's right, Ascent features two doors, each located next to the A and B sites. Once a player toggles a door, a barrier will lower down to block off peeking from either side. However, the wall operates similarly to a sage wall. Players are able to shoot, use abilities, or knife the wall to break the barrier. Once the wall is down, it will not be available again for use until the next round. If you toggle a door, you will still have time to get to the other side before the door completely shuts. Another thing to note is that doors are not able to be activated by defenders until the round starts.

Another new addition premiering on Ascent are damage pads near spawn gates. These additions have been implemented to ensure bullets cannot immediately penetrate and kill players once the round starts before they even get the chance to peek.

Spawn Gates + Ultimate Orbs

On Ascent, the spawn gates at both sites are very close to each other, whereas the middle gates leave the entire area to be contested once a round begins. Another new addition to these spawn gates are the window gates on the defending side of B. These windows can be crucial in helping defenders kill or stall a quick push onto the site.

Like the three other maps in VALORANT, Ascent has two ultimate orbs to look for. These orbs favor the attackers by being immediately in sight at both A and B main when a round starts. However, the orbs are still very risky to go for. At A Main, defenders can shoot through a small part of the arch leading to the site once they hear you grabbing it without needing to fully peek. At B Main, you not only need to jump up on a box to get the orb, you also have to worry about being directly under the two windows. It can be easy to get caught in a barrage of enemy abilities if you are not careful.

A Site

One new map addition to Ascent is the glass window in the balcony leading up to Scaffolding, also referred to as Heaven. The glass is able to be broken, and it respawns every round. When I hopped into a custom game with a friend, we noticed the glass acts like a wall for its first shot; you are able to penetrate and break the glass, but it will do less damage than a first shot directly hitting an enemy.

On the site, there are three boxes to plant around; keep in mind which ones are able to be penetrated or not when trying to defend a plant or defuse the spike. There is also a much larger area underneath heaven, commonly known as hell. Even though hell is much larger than what we see on most other sites in VALORANT, there is wood purposely placed on each side of the entrance to allow players to lay down some damage or even kill enemies without needing to peek. The door on this site requires you to walk all the way up to toggle it open or closed compared to the switch on B allowing you to toggle the door from farther away.

Middle

As mentioned before, the openness of mid provides a wide range of skirmishes at both close and long range. When pushing up to sites, the objective usually is to take the site fast, plant the spike and close the door. On Ascent, teams will often work mid to try to and grab a pick before choosing what side to focus on. When playing around mid, make sure you are covered at all angles possible. There are far too many peeks to hold at once, leaving yourself in a very open and dangerous position. When getting familiar with the map, try putting yourself in all available positions mid to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each spot as an attacker or defender.

B Site

Haven’t we seen this somewhere before? If you like to warm up in the practice tool often, you may have already recognized that the spike planting scenario has been preparing you for Ascent this entire time. Minus the changes to the visuals on B site and its surroundings, the spike planting scenario contains almost all the same elements of an actual attacking scenario when pushing up from spawn to the site. This also leads to the question: Will we be seeing an iteration of the site from the spike defuse scenario in a future map too?

While pushing through B Main to the site as attackers may be a quick way to get the spike down after trading a couple of kills, the site itself and the boathouse behind it don't offer a great amount of coverage for attackers. After triggering the door and planting the spike, you may want to hold the site from more creative areas such as B Main or one of the cubbies outside of the door blocking off the courtyard to force a 50/50 peek from defenders pushing through. Again, trying out all the options available while the map is new will give you a much better understanding of what works and what doesn't depending on the enemy team's agents. Just remember, with such a large area mid, defenders trying to take the site back to defuse can easily rotate through main to catch you off guard.

What Agent Should I Play on Ascent?

While it is far too early to pinpoint what exact agents or team compositions will thrive on this map, there are still some that easily stand out above the rest. For starters, a big question leading into the launch of VALORANT was whether or not Sage would be impacted by the many nerfs to her entire kit. Both her wall's duration and health got nerfed, and the healing orb cooldown has been increased from 35 seconds to 45 seconds. Even with these nerfs, I still find Sage to be a priority pick in any composition. When it comes to a tactical shooter like VALORANT, being able to have an anchor agent like Sage is too important.

Not only can Sage easily stall opponents with a slow orb and wall for rotations, she can also heal herself and allies after short skirmishes like we'll see often in the middle of Ascent. As defenders, I would highly recommend keeping your Sage around the B-side of mid. Not only can she quickly use her wall mid to stop a push, her slow orb paired with abilities such as a Raze ultimate/grenade, a Sova ultimate, or a Brimstone incendiary grenade can be extremely lethal with good coordination in a small corridor like B main.

Another agent who was viable for the entirety of the beta and continues to be is Cypher. With a large area to cover mid, a Cypher camera can give a ton of information to grab that first blood, as well as snuff out any rotations ahead of time. On both attack and defense, being able to grab the first pick with a Cypher on your team allows his ultimate to give information that makes it much easier to secure the round win.

Reyna, the newest addition to the pool of agents in VALORANT, feels very strong right now. While I believe she will be receiving a decent nerf in the upcoming patch, now is a very good time to try her out and get adjusted to her kit. Even if you don't end up wanting to play her, you'll have a better understanding of what she can do if you end up facing an enemy Reyna.

I've also been enjoying Raze a fair amount on Ascent due to her abilities thriving in the close combat areas of the map. In one of my most recent games, I even ended up grabbing a personal best 45 kills with her.

I haven't been able to try out many other agents just yet, but I see this map being good for agents like Breach, Brimstone, Omen, Sova, and maybe even Jett too after her latest buffs.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I am very interested to see how the community responds to this new map. It will definitely take a bit of an adjustment period for players to get acclimated with Ascent. If I'm being honest with you, I didn't enjoy Ascent the first few times playing on it. But I find myself coming around as I get more and more adjusted to the unique playstyle the map creates. I hope you enjoyed this map guide; now get out there and start enjoying some VALORANT!