Located in the depths of Norway, this guide will explore the new Valorant Map Abyss. Playable and being added to the Competitive Map Pool at the start of Episode 9 on June 25th, Abyss has a unique feature that allows players to fall off the map and die. This map guide will discuss the best strategies, Agents and features on Abyss, allowing players to have a leg up on their competition from day one.
Attack
In theory, Attack feels like the stronger side of the map because once the spike is down, teams can just play post-plant spray on both sites. There isn’t much a defender can do about it outside of the small windows of time made available to defuse with abilities such as Sage Wall or Harbour’s Cove. The other alternative is to push into the enemies playing post-plant, but that will generally favour the attackers every time as teams need to push into fire rather than the other way around. What this suggests is strong site holds being king, rather than full retakes.
This means executes need to slice out areas of the site well if you can push the enemy off-site and get the bomb down, there is still a high potential to win even if the team is down in numbers. The ability to check rat spots and have strong recon abilities will allow executes to flow smoothly. In this sense, double controller or initiator seems like the way to go comp-wise, and teams should aim to flood the site as a unit with fewer lurks than normal maps as the ability to trade and have another body on site is probably more valuable than catching a rotate or knowing enemy reposition timings.
Despite this, the nature of the map forces attackers to default unless rushing due to the sheer space and scale of the map. The breadth of the map makes it difficult to maintain map control fully with 5 Agents, so spreading out is the only way to fight against quick flanks or aggressive pushes from defenders. Mid looks like a two-lane Sniper Fest, A looks like Split’s B site except you can fall off the edge and B site has a unique map design.
These two ideas contradict each other as there is a need to default to be wary of enemy pushes but also 5-man executes onto the site are probably the strongest attack method outside of a well-sold fake. Knowing when to rush, when to slow things down, how to split the team up and what areas to contest will become vitally important. While mid may seem like fool’s gold, the viability of the attack Operator is strong so that’s one area that could also be contested unconventionally. Ultimately the ability to trade and map macro will probably be the most important factors around Abyss at the map’s introduction.
Curious about Abyss?
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Defence
Defence on Abyss is interesting for various reasons including the dilemma around mid, the strength of holding sites and the priority of not allowing enemies to get the spike down for free. Let’s start with mid. Mid is interesting because flanking through mid will take a long time which means in theory it favours defenders, and if you aren’t hard holding one angle, one Agent should be able to hold it fully outside of being sniped by an unexpected angle. Despite this, mid-control isn’t completely useless. Walking into enemy spawn as a defender isn’t useless and catching timings through mid isn’t very difficult.
As I mentioned in the attack, this map favours the post plant so strong site holds and spike planting denial will be king. Being able to rat on site will have inherent value, and playing with your life or getting rid of the planter should be top priorities when being pushed as a defender. If the objective is to stop enemies from getting plants down for free, weapons such as the Odin spraying default plant areas make it powerful. Another idea is to get aggressive in their defence execute with counterpunches and look for favourable trades to whittle enemy planters and delay the post-plant phase.
Falling off the map? The Valorant Protocol keeps sending Agents to dangerous areas.
I think the Judge is going to be stronger than ever on site-holding Agents, and the ability to play your life while delaying plant will become the main priority for defence. Enemies should flood defenders, but if they can stand their ground and delay an open plant, it makes the next round phase so much more winnable.
A possible idea is to get aggressive in the map control. As a defender, pushing is a high-risk high-reward type of play that doesn’t happen every round with good reason. With Abyss, pushing out of site to contest space early should be considered often as if the spike does get planted, the rest of the round is generally a whole lot of pain for the defenders. Snapping opponent pushes early and meeting their aggression with yours is one way to make sure that opponents cannot plant comfortably. If enemies are defaulting, perhaps defenders may be able to overpower them with sheer numbers if attackers can’t back off quickly enough.
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Best Agents
Neon
Neon has been buffed in recent patches and her space-taking ability will allow her to thrive in both organised play and solo queue levels. Individually, her kit will allow her to become the primary entry duelist, and her abilities make it so she is a headache to deal with 1v1, which makes her strong on attack when isolating duels quickly, while on defence, she will excel at pushing aggressively or rotating quickly.
Compared to the other agents such as Jett and Raze who are traditionally entry duelists, she will be able to do more for the team at an individual level with vision denial, CC and space-closing all inside her kit. Neon used to be a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, but now her breadth of abilities and their power make her both relevant and the most viable choice.
This doesn’t take into account the playstyles and experience of players on the Agent. If your team needs an Operator presence, Jett will be better, and nothing will make up for hours of experience on Raze, and her utility is still very powerful. Neon’s slides being buffed makes her difficult to track and easier for the Neon player to hit their shots, and on such a large map, her speed will make a difference for quick flood rotates or more presence on angles within the map.
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Harbour
Harbour is in a strange spot in the meta for both organised and competitive play because he hasn’t been able to replace Viper’s role as the walling smoke Agent. Still, he should be powerful in niche situations. Queue Abyss. This map is the strongest postplant map to date, with a massive scale meaning both Cove and Harbour’s walls are well suited to the map design.
Cove is good on both attack and defence because of the precarious post-plant positions, and his walls applying slows to enemies will make it easier for teammates to trade each other and cover off multiple angles at once. As both solo smokes playing for their life in Competitive or as part of a double controller setup in more organised play, Harbour should be a strong pick if the team can properly lean into his strengths. His Ultimate is also great for shoving opposition off the post-plant positions which makes me wonder if the dev team made a map designed around Harbour’s core strengths due to his lacklustre pick rate since his introduction to the game at all levels of play.
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