Ascent: Valorant Map Guide

Time to take your game to new heights and learn more about Ascent. Here's our complete Valorant map guide for Ascent.

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Anwell Patdu

Ascent Valorant map guide title card.

Valorant Ascent: Key Takeaways

  • Ascent was released on June 2, 2020.
  • It’s set in Venice, Italy.
  • Ascent’s main gimmick are the two mechanical doors found on the plant sites.

Ascent is one of the most popular maps in Valorant because it’s well-designed and pretty balanced. It allows for a variety of playstyles and lineups, making it an overall fun and enjoyable map for most players.

Have you started to master the best ways to play on Ascent? Follow our Valorant map guide and learn more about the beloved map.

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Ascent Overview

A photo of the callouts for Ascent.
Image via Riot Games.

Ascent was the map Riot Games shipped with Valorant when it was officially launched. This means that the map was released on June 2, 2020. It’s a map located in San Marco, Venice, Italy, which is evident by the numerous references like a pizza place and a gelato place.

There are two sites on Ascent. Both sites have mechanical bomb doors that can be controlled via a switch or destroyed. Ascent also features a middle area that grants access to A short and B market. Mid also has quite long sight lines, making it a common angle for Operator players to play on.

Common Attacking Strategies

Ascent provides a ton of unique attacking opportunities because of its great layout. The most common strategy, of course, is to simply pick one site and brute force your way through main.

Controlling mid will also open up a lot of areas for you to attack. You can conduct a split by having a couple of people pushing mid while the rest of the team attacks A or B main. 

You can also split up and have someone watching A main, another watching B main, and then the rest controlling mid. Try to get early picks on mid, and then choose a site when you’re ready to attack.

Common Defending Strategies

Having an Agent like Killjoy or Sage is definitely a must on Ascent. It makes defending sites way easier and allows the rest of your team more freedom to roam or find picks elsewhere.

A common setup is having one player, ideally a Sentinel, on the B site and another on mid/market. The market player can easily rotate towards B to offer some help if enemies are rushing. The market player can also quickly rotate to A to provide some additional assistance.

On A, you’ll typically have one player on site, another on heaven, and the last player on A short. The A short player will primarily help the mid/market player while also being an extra body on A. The main job of the other two is to gather information and try to get early picks without them being traded.

Best Agents on Ascent

A photo of the Best Agents on Ascent.
Image via Riot Games.

Now, let’s move on to some of the best Agents you can use on Ascent.

Killjoy

Killjoy is a defensive monster that can easily hold sites on her own. She can do crazy setups on B site and make it almost impossible to rush without having the entire enemy team at half hp. Her ultimate is also an incredibly useful delaying or retaking tool because it can cover up either of the sites with ease.

Sage

Sage is great on Ascent primarily because of her wall. She can use her wall to block off A short, A main, B main, and mid, making it hard for attackers to creep up without your team knowing. Her slows are also great delaying tools, especially on a map like this, where she can cover a lot of areas using her Slow Orb.

Jett

Jett is one of the best Operator Agents you can use. This makes her incredibly powerful on Ascent. You can peek from A main, B main, A short, mid link, top mid, and market early on and dash out when needed. Her Updraft also allows her to reach the many vertical angles on the map, like on generator or on top of boxes.

Sova

Sova is another solid pick because of his great information-gathering abilities. He is great because of the slow-natured attacks on the map. He can also use Recon Bolt to scan enemies and wallbang them through the different wallbang spots found on the map for easy kills. This makes Sova easily the best Initiator for Ascent.

Omen

Finally, we have Omen. Omen’s long-range smokes make it easy for him to lurk in mid and try to get picks. This makes him a crucial Controller on Ascent. His From the Shadows ultimate is also one of the best ways to rotate between the two sites and catch enemies off-guard.