Astra is VALORANT’s controller from Ghana. Her skills offer the tactical shooter an astounding, unimaginable amount of utility. Although her kit might have seemed intimidating when she first came out in early 2021, she quickly became dominant as soon as players discovered how to work around her utility. She is now more comparable to her controller agent counterparts after being balanced in patch 4.04.
When it comes to playing as Astra, much alone mastering her, there is a lot to learn. But all you need to master her is this useful manual and straightforward brain.
Is Astra the Right Agent For You?
Strengths:
- Can easily trigger her abilities anywhere on the map.
- With proper communication, can easily initiate a push or a kill.
Weaknesess:
- Can’t use her abilities without having been at least once in Astral Form.
- Can be easily get initiated when in Astral Form.
- Placing her stars can give a lot of information to your enemies.
Astra Abilities
Place Stars in Astral Form (X) ACTIVATE a Star to form a Gravity Well. Players in the area are pulled toward the center before it explodes, making all players still trapped inside fragile.
Place Stars in Astral Form (X) ACTIVATE a Star to detonate a Nova Pulse. The Nova Pulse charges briefly and then strikes, concussing all players in its area.
Place Stars in Astral Form (X) ACTIVATE a Star to transform it into a Nebula (smoke). Use (F) on a Star to Dissipate it, returning the star to be placed in a new location after a delay. Dissipate briefly forms a fake Nebula at the Star’s location before returning.
ACTIVATE to enter Astral Form where you can place Stars with PRIMARY FIRE. Stars can be reactivated later, transforming them into a Nova Pulse, Nebula, or Gravity Well.
ACTIVATE (X) to enter Astral Form where you can place Stars with PRIMARY FIRE. Stars can be reactivated later, transforming them into a Nova Pulse, Nebula, or Gravity Well. When Cosmic Divide is charged, use SECONDARY FIRE in Astral Form to begin aiming it, then PRIMARY FIRE to select two locations. An infinite Cosmic Divide connects the two points you select. Cosmic Divide blocks bullets and heavily dampens audio.
Brimstone’s playstyle will be familiar to many players because of the plethora of abilities that are effective in other tactical shooters and are well-known for it. Sky Smoke serves as three precise, deployable smoke grenades that can be used simultaneously, whereas Incendiary serves as a Molotov for zone control.
Stim Beacon offers your team Rapidfire and an increase in speed throughout combat, and his ultimate strike, Orbital Strike, can eliminate some entrenched enemies within a specific target region. He significantly contributes to the battle whether you’re defending or attacking a bomb site.
The Road to A Astra Main
She Has a Global Presence
Astra can actually place her skills anywhere on the map thanks to her Astral Form, which is a cosmic fusion of many different agent powers. Her versatility as an Attacker and a Defender is greatly increased by this.
On the attacking side, she has the ability to smoke off two paths or sightlines, concuss a defender in another, and pull another defender out of hiding all at once. She might complete her four-ability strike as early as the first round because of the free Star she receives every round and the low cost of each extra Star at only 150 credits. She also doesn’t have to wait back while the team pushes because she can activate the Stars once they’re on the ground without being in Astral Form. This also implies that, if necessary, she can protect a spike plant while maintaining angles with her gun and still use her skills. However, she is unable to shoot during the brief animation that occurs while these abilities are activated.
A Reliable Defender
Her defensive skills are difficult for attackers to overcome. She could theoretically just smoke the same point off five times in a row in the round because each ability has a reset timer. The Star recall cooldown has been greatly increased since patch 4.04, making the choice of where to position the Star at the start of a round much more crucial now that you can no longer rely on your skills returning as fast.
With other agents, there could be some powerful team-up strategies. Her gravity well could be used in conjunction with a Killjoy grenade or a Viper Snakebite to trap a weak player in the dangerous region. She may extract a lot of value out of each Star she places when paired with a powerful initiator or sentinel.
Her Ult Is Infinite
Finally, because she has an unlimited ultimate, you can utilize it to block off a variety of entrances and hiding places so that your teammates can travel through uninjured and possibly undiscovered. Cosmic Divide can also be a crucial ultimate for a post-plant defense plan because it entirely cuts off the opposing team from view. Astra has one of the finest zoning ultimates in the game.
Astra has fluctuated in and out of the meta as players reevaluate her function and her areas of strength, but there is no denying that, in the proper hands, her kit is exceptional and potent.
Best & Worst Maps for Astra
On any map, having up to five smokes is crucial, but with effective teamwork, Astra can grant her allies free kills from any location on the field. Particularly on Split and Haven, where there are a lot of narrow passageways where enemies can step over your stars. Astra undoubtedly ranks among the top 5 on Split and Haven thanks to her tremendous level of value.
With her concussion and Gravity Well, Astra can eliminate opponents, but her smokes and ultimate don’t exert the same strain on Fracture. Astra struggles against controllers who can use their ultimates to chase foes away from a location, like Brimstone and Viper.
Best
- Split
- Haven
Worst
- Fracture
And that should be it. If you want to learn more about other agents as well, check our Agent Guide List
