Valorant Astra Guide: The Best Tips and Tricks for Astra

Valorant Astra: Key Takeaways

• Valorant Astra skills: Gravity Well, Nova Pulse, Nebula/Dissipate, Stars, Cosmic Divide.
• Your goal on Attackers as Astra: Provide smokes for your team, help get opening picks using Gravity Well or Nova Pulse, and suggest strategies.
• Your goal on Defenders as Astra: Use your skills to delay opponents, scare enemies off using early Star placements, and prepare your Star layout before the round starts.
• Stay back and provide support for your team.
• Pre-plan strategies so you don’t end up entering Astral Form in the open.

Astra is one of the hardest Controllers in the game. She requires fast hands, great timing, excellent communication, and big brain plays to succeed. Astra can be played at almost any rank, as long as you know how to properly take advantage of her kit.

Here’s our Valorant Astra guide with a couple of our tips and tricks to help you become better at playing Astra.

You Can Have More Than 2 Smokes

By default, you can only turn two stars into Nebula smokes. However, with the Dissipate passive, you can recall stars and turn them into Fake Nebula smokes for a second. This allows you to theoretically be able to use up to four smokes in a round if you can time things correctly.

Using Dissipate on an extra star or two is great for covering more angles than you can imagine. Dissipate is also great for aggressively pushing and catching enemies off-guard. It’s also perfect for faking a site and forcing enemies to rotate.

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Use Stars to Contest Orbs

Your Stars are one of the best ways to contest orbs because you can place them early. Using a well-timed Gravity Well or Nova Pulse on someone trying to collect the ultimate orb can lead to easy and quick kills at the start of rounds.

You can also do a one-way of sorts with a properly placed Star. There are multiple ways of using your Stars and abilities to contest ultimate orbs. Just make sure that you or someone else is prepared to peek upon activation.

Combo Your Gravity Well or Nova Pulse With Damaging Abilities

Both Gravity Well and Nova Pulse have huge area of effects that will slow or hinder enemy movement. They are already great at stalling and engaging. However, they can even be better if you can combine them with damaging abilities.

Abilities like Raze’s Paint Shells or Sova’s Shock Darts are among the best abilities you can combine with Astra.

Use Cosmic Divide to Mask Defuses or Plants

Cosmic Divide is one of the most powerful tools for taking or retaking sites. It oppresses the enemy team and forces them into unfavorable situations when used correctly. Since it dampens sounds and blocks bullets, you can also use it as a way to hide defuses or plants.

Using Cosmic Divide when you’re trying to plant or defuse will force enemies to peek without information. You can also ask your team to create additional noise to further mask the sound of tapping the Spike. You’ll be surprised at how many rounds you can sneak using this trick.

The Best Ways to Effectively Use Astra When Attacking

• Plan ahead with your team and decide whether to place your Stars early for quick executes or late to avoid giving information.
• Use your Stars to fake sites and keep enemies guessing.
• Become familiar with common angles and spots so you can quickly place your Stars.
• Use Cosmic Divide with your Stars, not as a replacement for your smokes.

The Best Ways to Effectively Use Astra When Defending

• Place Stars near the entrances of both sites so that you can help your team even if your site doesn’t get attacked.
• Don’t be afraid to set up your Stars early. Enemies can’t shoot it, and you’re only giving away little information, especially if you’re placing Stars all over the map.
• For the most part, you’re better off playing back instead of being aggressive. However, you should still trade your teammates.