Astra is Valorant’s newest addition, and a new agent means one thing: a new Valorant agent guide. In this Astra guide, we’ll show you how to play the cosmic powerhouse from Ghana.

A long introduction is not necessary. If you’re not familiar with Astra yet, here’s our agent introduction:

So here we go. We’ll start with what makes Astra special – the Astral Form.

Valorant Astra Guide: Astral Form

Astral Form is as cool as it sounds: You see the map from a bird’s eye view and can move freely to place your stars. This is the key to everything, since the stars are what she needs to use her abilities. Astra works differently from the other Valorant agents: You don’t buy her abilities as usual. With Astra, you buy her stars for 200 each – in addition to the two stars she gets for free at the start of each round.

Sound strong? Well… It is. Astra really allows you to get creative and shave your opponents.

One thing you need to know, though: Just because you’re in Astral Form doesn’t mean you’re invulnerable: You are rooted to the spot and vulnerable! It’s only fair, though, since you can literally place your stars anywhere in Astral Form. Real controller-agent flair here.

As mentioned, you need the stars to activate your abilities: Nebula, Nova Pulse and Gravity Well.

Astra abilities: Gravity Well

Gravity Well does what the name promises: you pull the lobes into the core of their gravity and anyone sucked in is vulnerable.

Astra Abilities: Nova Pulse

Basically a concussion grenade: your enemies become disoriented for 5 seconds.

Astra Abilities: Nebula

Astra’s fancy name for a smoke grenade. 15 seconds of smoke to give you enough privacy.

At the beginning of each round you have 2 stars, plus the stars you bought. As for your abilities, they cost one star each and have a 10 second cooldown. That means that if you have the maximum number of five stars, you can do whatever you want with them: 3 Nebulas and 2 Nova Pulses or 4 Gravity Wells and a Nebula…. it’s up to you.

As if that wasn’t creative and flexible enough, you can even re-place stars you misplaced. Yup, Astra is flexible, and not just about that.

Astra Abilities: Ultimate – Cosmic Divide

To use her Ultimate, go into Astral Form and right-click to activate Cosmic Divide. You can then choose how you want to place the Cosmic Divide. As the name suggests, it is a wall. It’s infinite in length and blocks bullets, but not players. Because, you know, nothing can stop a player.

Valorant Astra Guide: How to play her

You don’t play them, Astra plays you. Ha! Ok, sorry, moving on….

Astra is a control agent with tremendous versatility on offense and defense, and she brings a lot of variety to the game:

How to play Astra on the offensive

Smoke out defenders, shake others, and one more Gravity Well on another: Some are in the dark, others are dazed, and the rest are vulnerable – all at once. That’s Power, Baby.

Once the stars are placed, you can activate them without going into astral form. So you can be in the middle of a fight, covering corners with your weapon, while elsewhere you’re annoying the defenders with your abilities.

So if you’re playing Astra, you’ll need to keep an eye on the map and be in all places at once. If you’re a one-track player who only focuses on one place, that agent is wasted on you.

How to play Astra on the defensive

Remember how your smoke lasts for 15 seconds, has a 10-second timer, and you can basically cast 5 Nebulas in one round? Yes… you can smoke out 75 of the total 100 seconds in a round.

As for the Gravity Well, combine it with Phoenix’s Hot Hands or Viper’s Poison and you have an AoE Gravity-Poison-Fire Well. You see what a problem this Ghanaian warrior is for her enemies, right?

Last but not least, your Ultimate – Cosmic Divide. The wall is infinite and if we have to explain what you can do with an infinite wall, then… how about a simpler game like Candy Crush to get you started?

Valorant Beginner’s Guide

Overwhelmed with Valorant? No wonder… Without experience in similar games (such as CS:GO or Overwatch) the start in Valorant is difficult. But don’t worry, we are here to help you with our Valorant Beginner Guide.

Valorant is a special game. Many think that getting into the game is easy, but without shooter experience, you’ll quickly be on the ropes. Even CS:GO veterans can get into trouble… In Counter Strike, there are no flying knife-throwing things-people. But that’s why we are here.

This beginner’s guide is meant to help you get started in Valorant and introduce you to the world of Valorant. After that, the most important features should be clear to you, so that the fun in Valorant is not lost.

Valorant Beginner Guide: Basics

Let’s start with the meaning behind the game. In other words: What is Valorant anyway? Valorant is a first-person shooter in which two teams consisting of five players face off. The first team to win 13 rounds wins. Both teams have a different role – attacker and defender.

The goal of the attackers is to place a spike and protect it until detonation. This must happen on one of the three spots (A/B/C). In turn, the defenders must prevent the attackers from doing so.

Each match consists of two halves. After the first half (12 rounds), the two teams switch roles. The attackers become defenders, the defenders become attackers. Easy.

Agents

Before the start of a match, each player must choose an agent. Agents have unique skills, which in most cases also require a certain playstyle (offensive, defensive, support, etc.). Currently there are 16 agents in total, but new agents have already been leaked and should be added soon.

As a new player, you can initially choose between 5 free agents: Brimstone, Phoenix, Sova, Jett and Sage. To unlock more agents, you will have to sign contracts, which is mostly done via Daily Quests or earning experience points.

Valorant Beginner Guide: The best agent to start with

Phoenix is by far the easiest agent to start with in Valorant. His skills are not too complicated, can be combined well in any situation. But watch out with the flashbangs (aka your Q skill)! You’ll probably flashbang yourself and your mates quite often in the beginning, but practice makes perfect!

Valorant Beginner Guide: The best mode to start with

Stay away from Unrated mode for the beginning. This may sound strange, but especially the beginning of Valorant might be hard for you. Frustration will lead to quick quits, which in turn will get you involved in penalties and XP loss. That’s why you should start with Spike Rush first. An average game here lasts 8 minutes, while other modes can easily go over 50 minutes. In Spike Rush, you’ll be quickly released from suffering without having to take any penalties.

In addition, you don’t have to do any eco rounds in Spike Rush. This means that you’ll be able to try out your agents’ abilities, as well as the most varied weapons. Spike Rush is a great mode to learn the basics of Valorant. When you feel like you’re firmly in the saddle, you can try your luck in Unrated mode. After 20 matches in Unrated mode, you’ll gain access to Competitive mode, where you can earn ranks.

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