Ascent can be a tricky map to play on. Here’s a complete Valorant Ascent Map Guide to help you win more games.
Valorant has a handful of beautiful and unique maps in the competitive pool. Each of these maps has a different layout and requires various strategies and techniques to be successful. You can’t simply run it down mid every time and hope to win the match.
To help you out, we’re breaking down all of the Valorant maps and listing down the various callouts, best strategies, and best team compositions. Today’s guide will be all about Valorant’s Ascent map. However, we’ve also already made a Bind map guide if you’re looking for that instead.
If you’re having trouble picking the best Valorant agent for Ascent, memorizing the callouts, or simply finding out where to play, this guide will surely help you out. Here’s our complete Ascent Valorant map guide to help you increase your success on Ascent.
Valorant: Ascent Map Guide
Ascent was the first map that Riot Games released once Valorant was officially launched. It came with Reyna and a global launch of Valorant, making it available for everyone to play. It’s a little over 2 years old at this point, released on June 2, 2020.
The map is located in San Marco, Venice, Italy, and features very aesthetic designs inspired by medieval Italy. It even comes complete with a pizzeria, a fancy Italian restaurant, and a gelato place.
Ascent is one of the most popular maps in Valorant and has the highest play rate among all maps in professional play. It currently has a play rate of 23.12% over the past 6 months across all regions.
According to the stats, it’s a defender-sided map, with defenders winning 52.74% of the time in pro play. It seems that EU teams play very well on Ascent, with orgs like G2 Esports, FunPlus Phoenix, Acend, and Team Liquid all having at least a 74% win rate on the map. NA teams struggle a bit, with Cloud 9 being the only top NA team with over 70% win rate on the map.
Like most Valorant maps, Ascent also comes with a gimmick. Its gimmick is the irreversible metal doors that can only be closed using a switch or opened by completely destroying the door. The doors separate A short and A site, and B site and market.
The doors add an additional layer to the game and can be very useful when used correctly. Some prefer to destroy the doors at the start of the round, while others prefer to use them for their own good.
Ascent Callouts and Strategies
The next part of our Ascent map guide will involve talking about the different callouts for each site and the best positions and strategies to play. These are the essential things you have to know in order to succeed in Ascent.
Ascent was designed to have a more traditional layout. It’s one of the first maps to have a huge middle area that can unlock a lot of possibilities for your team. Initiator agents like Sova, Fade, and KAY/O are very powerful on this map because of their ability to clear different angles and help your team take control of various areas.
A good strategy on the attackers side for Ascent is taking control of the middle area and trying to get picks from either A short or bottom mid. Then have the rest of your team split on the site that you want to attack. You can also try to take control of mid first and decide where to attack depending on what happens in mid.
For defenders, market and A short are two valuables areas that you want to defend as much as possible. Giving up control to these areas unlocks so much for attackers and allows them to pinch you from two different sides.
We’ll talk about individual strategies, positions, and best agents to pick later on in our Ascent map guide.
A Site Callouts, Strategies, and Positions on Ascent
These are the common callouts that you can use when communicating positions on the A site of Ascent. Almost all Valorant players should be familiar with these callouts and can help you flawlessly communicate with your team.
A site has a pretty large open area, so you don’t have to worry about shotguns that much. Usually, only the entrances to A main and A short are the areas where cheeky shotgun plays are made. So just be cautious when entering the site or use your abilities to clear these tight corners.
Start the round by picking from top mid into bottom mid, or you can also choose to smoke bottom mid. Either way, you can try to split between A main and A short. Close the doors for extra protection and watch out for heaven peeks or cheeky hell plays. Common smoke spots for attackers are bottom mid, heaven, and A short door.
For defenders, you’ll usually want to play one sentinel on site and another player holding A short. Alternatively, you can also assign two players on site and another holding short. As defenders, you can play from heaven, hell, default, and generator. You can also try to boost onto bricks if you have abilities that can reach it. Some people also like closing and destroying A doors early so the enemies can’t use it against them. But it depends on your team’s play if you want to use this strategy.
B Site Callouts, Strategies, and Positions on Ascent
Next up, these are the callouts for B site. You should know these standard names and places on Ascent’s B site. B site is a little bit smaller than A site, and there are a lot more close and cheese angles that defenders can play.
The orb on B is a little bit safer to get because you can push up a bit before trying to collect it. Be careful, though, because defenders commonly hold or peek at this angle at the very start of the round.
A good defending strategy is having one player on site and another holding from market. You can also have a sentinel like KillJoy or Cypher solo hold the site and playing from a safe spot like defender spawn or market. You can also peek from B main early at the start of the round to try and get a kill. Just make sure to aim your crosshair at head level, so you don’t have to aim much.
Killjoy is one of the best sentinels for B site. You can pretty much shutdown rushes using your turret and lockdown B lane using your Alarmbot and Nanoswarms.
Attackers can usually smoke off defender spawn, market, and sometimes stairs to quickly get into the site. You can all push through B main and then split towards lane, stairs, and closing the market door. On the other hand, you can also split via mid and B main if you can gain mid control.
Generally, you’ll want to check for cheese plays from logs, boathouse, and main. You also need to be wary of the aforementioned Killjoy traps, Cypher Trapwires, and Chamber’s Trademark. This is where your Initiators shine the brightest because they can help you find these traps.
Middle Area Callouts, Strategies, and Positions on Ascent
Now let’s head over to one of the most crucial areas in Ascent, the middle area. The central part of Ascent is such a vital area because if your team has control over it, the map opens up so much.
There are only a few callouts in mid, so it’s pretty easy to remember. Make sure you’re familiar with these areas so that you can easily locate your enemies when callouts are made. Winning a round or two using mid control can quickly shift the game into your favor and allow you to increase your overall Valorant win rate.
A common strategy for attackers is to peek early at the round’s start. If you’re targetting B site, you can also smoke off A short and focus on attacking and entering the site through market. On the other hand, you can smoke bottom mid so that you can crawl through catwalk and push through A short.
If you prefer to peek early instead, make sure to use an Operator or a Vandal for the most efficiency.
The default defender spots are the opposite of the attacker spots. You can peek from A short or from bottom mid to try and get an early kill. These defenders can also safely retreat to tree and market, respectively, if they run into any trouble.
You can also choose to simply smoke mid link or top mid instead. Just be careful of aggressive players pushing through the smoke. If you want to play a little more aggressively, you can also try to push and pinch the enemies from behind. However, this won’t work against all opponents, so make sure to switch it up every now and then.
Ascent Map Guide: Best Smoke Spots
This next chapter on our Valorant Ascent map guide will be focused on the best areas to smoke when attacking and defending. Smokes are essential to the game and can give you extra cover or buy some time. When used correctly, smokes are one of the most powerful skills you can use in Valorant.
Although smoking is usually the Controller’s job, it still wouldn’t hurt if you knew the best smoke spots on Ascent. This can help you predict enemy smokes or tell your Controller what areas they should be blocking off.
The smoke spots will also largely depend on the Controller agent you are using. Brimstone has three smokes and can cover a wide area. Omen and Astra only have two smokes and would have to compromise, while Viper will cut the sites in half using her wall. We’ll try to include as many smoke setups as possible, to be fair to all of them.
Best Smoke Spots on A Site
These are all the smoke spots and smoke setups you can use on A site. The most common setup is smoking A doors and heaven. Brimstone can cover a majority of heaven because of his additional smoke. This makes it easier for your team to enter the site without worrying about snipers.
However, Omen and Astra can use one smoke on A doors and then another on heaven just close to the wall. This ensures that enemies will have to wide swing into the open area if they want to contest your push. If you have an Omen or Astra, it’s crucial to have at least one player watching heaven while entering the site.
You can mix it up by only smoking heaven and challenging A doors. Just make sure you have a teammate watching the site to ensure that no one jumps from heaven or swings from the site.
You can throw your wall from the cubby near A main for Viper. This cuts the site in half and blocks heaven, generator, hell, and A doors. This allows you to freely enter the site. Just be careful about enemies pushing through the wall and trying to get kills.
For defenders, it’s best to smoke the entrance on A main to try and prevent rushes. Make sure that the edge of the smoke is a little towards the site. You can do the same for Viper with her Poison Cloud by throwing it at the start of the round. Optionally, placing your wall near the entrance of A main is a great way to ensure that everyone gets decayed when they enter.
Best Smoke Spots on B Site
For B site, the best smokes are the simplest smokes. Smoke off CT spawn, market doors, and you can also drop one on stairs or cubby if you have an extra smoke. These smokes should cover most of the areas defenders commonly play on. Once these smokes are set, you can easily get to the site without much problems.
There’s a Viper wall that you can use on Ascent’s B site that cuts off market, logs, and CT spawn. It’s thrown from the corner of B link and covers everything you need it to. Unfortunately, if there’s a Killjoy turret placed on top of the barrels near spawn, it’ll still be able to see you entering from B main.
There’s only one real smoke that you should always place if you’re on defense, a B main smoke. This is one of the best ways to prevent pushes on B. You can also match this with a Brimstone molly, Astra pull, or Omen blind to help buy some more time.
The same goes for Viper. You can put her Poison Cloud smoke on the entrance or place her Toxic Screen to cover B main and arch. However, the arch wall may not be that beneficial when you have a player watching mid.
Best Smoke Spots for Mid
Finally, the smokes you should place in mid is arch and A short. It will depend on where you want to go. If you’re trying to push A short from top mid, block off arch and crawl towards short. If you’re trying to go from mid to B, smoke off A short and push through arch. That’s pretty much it.
If you’re only Controller on the team is Viper, it’ll be pretty hard for you to push through mid using her wall. You’ll almost always want to use her Toxic Screen when entering the site instead. You can manually throw your Poison Cloud, but it will not be as reliable as the smokes from other Controllers.
When playing as defenders, the common smokes are top mid and B link. That should discourage any action and cut off an Operator’s line of sight. Just make sure to ask your team first if anyone is peeking those angles with an Op before smoking them off.
It’s the same story for Viper. You’ll want to save your wall for the main entrances of each site since they’ll probably be more useful there. You can always just manually throw your Poison Cloud if you really want to smoke off top mid or B link. It’s pretty easy to land once you do a few practice throws in a custom game.
Ascent Map Guide: Best Wallbang Spots
Getting wallbanged can be one of the most annoying things in Valorant. It makes you feel helpless and unable to fight back. However, getting a wallbang kill is also one of the most satisfying things in the game. You don’t even have to see your enemies to get kills.
Simply spraying through a wall can sometimes lead to easy kills or dealing a good chunk of damage to your opponents. Either way, it’s something that you should learn to do, especially as you climb the Valorant ranks.
All Green Boxes
One thing that’s 100% wallbangable in every map in Valorant are the green boxes of Radianite. These are scattered in different places in Ascent, but there are a few that you should know. The boxes on B site, the box on top mid, and the box on A site are all wall bangable, so you can easily spam them if players are hiding behind them.
The other green boxes are too close to a wall or in bad locations where you can barely wallbang them.
The Entire Boathouse
The entire boathouse in B site is also wallbangable. This allows for some very unique plays, from unique post-plant wallbangs to insane spam kills. It’s also a great way to check the corner behind switch without face-checking. You can also easily destroy Killjoy’s Lockdown if ever she places it anywhere in boathouse.
B Main Wallbang Spot
Now, this is one of the most famous wallbang spots in the entirety of Valorant. Almost all Valorant players know that you can wallbang B main from the lane. All you need is an Ares or Odin and fire away at the wall.
Your enemies can’t fire back at you unless they also buy an Ares or Odin. This pretty much makes it impossible to push B main without getting damaged, at the very least.
Mid B Link
The wall in mid B link is also wallbangable, but there’s a catch; you’ll have to destroy its protection first. There’s a metal layer on top of both walls in B link. Once you destroy these metal sheets, both walls can be wallbangable.
Bottom Mid
There’s another spot that you can wallbang in bottom mid. Both walls near arch are wallbangable. Rifles can penetrate the walls, allowing you to spam opponents using your Vandal or Phantom. Be careful because opponents can still swing at you and catch you off guard.
The Entire A Site Heaven
Heaven on A site is completely made up of wood. This means that this area is wallbangable from both sides. It’s a great way to flush people out of hiding, and it’s also a great way to deal some damage to people playing on heaven. Obviously, spraying an Ares or an Odin works best and leaves them with little room to work with, but a Vandal or Phantom will do fine as well.
A Switch
For our final wallbang spot, we have a very cool one. Not many people know that the wall near A switch is wallbangable. When pushing A site, one of the first things people do is going to the switch and close the door. If you spam the wallbang spot here, you can get some free kills without even peeking.
Unfortunately, you’ll need a high penetration weapon like an Ares or Odin to get some shots through. One of the best strategies is to close the door yourself once the round starts and wait for the enemies to smoke doors. Once you hear them coming in, go ham and spam them from the other side.
Best Agents and Common Team Compositions to Use for Ascent
Next on our Valorant Ascent map guide are the common team compositions that professional teams use on the map. These comps were taken from teams who have had a high success rate on Ascent at the highest level.
- Chamber, Fade, KAY/O, Omen, Sage
- Jett, KAY/O, Killjoy, Sova, Omen
- Fade, Jett, KAY/O, Killjoy, Omen
- Chamber, Fade, KAY/O, Omen, Raze
- Fade, Jett, KAY/O, Omen, Sage
- Jett, KAY/O, Killjoy, Omen, Sova
These agents and teams work best on Ascent if you’re playing with a squad. The pro teams that use these lineups practice them regularly. They have played numerous hours on Valorant, practicing these team compositions. So it’s best if you played with a squad if you want to try these picks out.
However, if you’re more of a solo queue demon and are only looking for a single agent to play on Ascent, we’ve still got you covered. Here’s our list of recommended Valorant agents you can use to solo climb on Ascent.
Brimstone
Our first agent recommendation you should use on Ascent is none other than daddy Brimstone himself. Brimstone has three smokes with some decent range. This allows him to cover a lot of areas in one quick button press.
He also has some great post-plant abilities like his ultimate and molly and provides good entry support through his stim beacon. Brimstone is also very easy to use, allowing you to quickly get a good grasp of his abilities.
Omen
Omen is a controller agent that a lot of pro teams prefer. He is very versatile because he can provide great support, become an entry, or can even lurk. His smokes also have a very long range, allowing him to support his team even though he’s on the other side of the map.
His blind can be used to set up teammates or can be used to get easy kills. Omen’s ultimate can also allow him to rotate easily, get a flank, or clear the opposite site. Omen can also pull off some pretty crazy plays, thanks to his teleport and blind ability.
Killjoy
We’ve already mentioned Killjoy above. She’s very powerful and can easily delay enemies. She’s an amazing anchor on B site as long as you can place your utility correctly. Ascent’s sites are quite small, because of this, her ultimate can cover large areas, if not the entire site. You can also quickly retake sites by simply using Killjoy’s ultimate.
Killjoy is also a great flank watcher, thanks to her turret and alarm bot. She also has great utility for post-plant plays and can be very powerful if you have the right lineups.
Chamber
If you want to use the Operator, but you don’t have a proper Sentinel on your team, then Chamber is your guy. He’s easily one of the best agents to use the Operator with because of his great synergies with the weapon.
Chamber can also easily hold sites on his own without putting himself in too much danger. He can use his Trademark to watch his back and then teleport out to safety when things get too hard to contain. Chamber is also a great agent to peek early angles on Ascent because he has a get out of jail free card thanks to his Rendezvous ability.
Sage
If you’re looking for a support agent, Sage will be your best pick. Sage is a good all-around pick because she does a little bit of everything for her team. She can delay enemies, provide heals, and even bring back an ally from the dead.
Usually, Sage can put her wall in A main, A short, B main, and bottom mid. These are all effective areas where Sage can delay enemies. You can also play a little bit aggressively like Grim and use some creative Sage walls to create sneaky angles.
Jett
Jett is one of the best Operator agents in the game. Although there aren’t many long and open spaces in Ascent, the Operator can still be a very powerful weapon when used correctly. Typically, you’d like to do early peaks as Jett since you can dash out to safety.
If you’re playing with a friend, you can ask them to flash for you and set you up for some easy kills by Updrafting and dashing into the blinded enemies. Jett can solo carry not only in Ascent but pretty much any map as long as you can fully utilize her kit.
Raze
Raze’s utility all have some damage built into them. This allows her to become an excellent entry fragger during the attacker’s side while still being a pretty valuable defender. Her Boom Bot and Paint Shells can also be used to delay enemy pushes, especially from A main or B main.
She can throw her Boom Bot or Paint Shells to clear angles when attacking, allowing her to safely guide her team into the site. One common strategy is to throw the Boom Bot on one side, her Paint Shells on another, and then Blast Pack yourself into the site. Just make sure to ask for smokes from your teammates.
Reyna
Reyna is a great Duelist to pick on almost any map in solo queue. The best thing about Reyna is that she’s a self-sustaining Duelist and can single-handedly carry a match. She’s a great pick on Ascent because of all the close angles and thin walls that she can throw her blind through.
She’s also great when it comes to rushing, which is a pretty solid strategy on Ascent. Reyna also works excellently when playing early peeks on Ascent because her Dismiss ability allows her to quickly escape tricky situations. Reyna’s ultimate is also great when pushing onto the site and spraying with her increased fire rate.
Sova
Sova has always been one of the best agents to play on Ascent. He can scan and reveal enemies hiding on site, he can clear close corners using his drone, and he has some insane post-plant potential through his shock dart and ultimate.
A great Sova player is always very annoying to play against. It feels like he always knows where you are. You never know where the arrows are coming from nor where they will land. If you’re planning on playing Sova on Ascent, make sure to study a lineup or two.
Fade
The final solo queue agent we recommend on Ascent is Fade. Fade does a lot of what Sova does but is slightly easier to play. You can throw her Haunt ability over the wall on A main or through the window from B main. Unlike Sova, you don’t necessarily need to have lineups on Fade, especially on Ascent.
Fade can also clear close corners using her Prowler, but you don’t have vision, unlike Sova. Fade’s ultimate is a great tool to enter or retake sites, especially because it covers the entire sites on both sides of Ascent.
Conclusion
Those were all the tips and tricks we have for our complete Valorant Ascent map guide. Hopefully, you were able to pick up a few strategies or agent recommendations to help you with your Ascent matches.
You can also check out our complete Haven map guide if you’re looking to expand your Valorant map knowledge a bit more.
Make sure to comment if we left out any important details from our Ascent map guide.
