AXDefiant is an electrifying shooter with plenty to prove. It was released in May 2024 to a positive reception but will have ongoing issues standing apart from the likes of Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Rainbow Six Siege. As a live service game, it has been promised by Ubisoft that plenty of updates will find their way into the game, expanding it endlessly over time. With that in mind, we’re looking at a core part of that update ecosystem, breaking down all XDefiant maps and ranking them based on how fun they are to play.

XDefiant was released with fourteen core maps, with the guarantee being made that more would be released not long after launch. When the first season of XDefiant was announced, Ubisoft kept true to that promise, revealing more maps coming to the already sizeable offering. There’s a lot to pick from, but out of all XDefiant maps, which can be considered the most entertaining to play?

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What XDefiant Map is Best?

It’s mostly subjective and it’s difficult to narrow down one of the XDefiant maps that we can call ‘the best’, but there are a few close competitors for the top spot. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the full selection of XDefiant maps and list them out, giving a brief indication of their pros and cons.

Arena Maps

These maps are built for small-form matches like Domination and Hot Shot.

Arena: This is a solid map with a good mix of sightlines but it can get very cramped, very fast – especially in modes like Occupy. One of the objectives lands on a raised point in the centre of the map that’s an easy hold for the team to get there first.

Attica Heights: Attica is a brilliant map for fast movers, boasting various angles and obstacles that you can use to your advantage if you’re a movement machine. However, there are several pitfalls – so you might jump over a ledge and fall to your death. Keep an eye on B flag during Domination – it’s hell to retain.

Dumbo: Dumbo is an urban map with a good spread of tight alleyways and wide, sweeping streets. It’s a great map for Occupy but almost every hill is easy to break thanks to multiple entry points to all of them. There are also lots of spots in stores and arcades for campers to hide out, so keep your eyes open.

Echelon HQ: Echelon HQ can get a little wild on account of the air ducts that are winding throughout the walls. Enemies can pop out from anywhere, so you’ll need to learn where these shortcuts are and keep watch for malicious operators sneaking up behind you or getting a quick infil to a Domination flag or an Occupy hill.

Emporium: Emporium has solid placement for objective-based modes but there are a few power play spots. For instance, the top of the two-story section near the middle of the map offers unparalleled sightlines across a huge portion of the map, which makes it a haven for snipers.

Liberty: Liberty is a haphazard map that looks borderline post-apocalyptic. It can be a little confusing at first but once rotations become learned, it’s easy to dominate from a few regular spots.

Mayday: Mayday is set mostly around a crashed plane in the centre of a forest – that just so happens to be Air Force One. It gets a little tight in the centre portion of the wreckage, particularly as objectives rotate there, but the sidelines can still get noisy with longer-range fights and trades. Tip: Go under the plane to sneak to opposite-ended objectives, almost nobody goes down there.

Nudleplex: Nudleplex is one of the most claustrophobic XDefiant maps, boasting tight corridors and small office spaces. The main advantage here is that the floorplan is symmetrical, so it’s easier to get the handle on this three-lane map.

Pueblito: Pueblito is easy to learn and hard to master. Most of the objectives in Occupy gravitate towards one area of the map, leaving a massive open space in the centre that’s effectively no man’s land, and the way they’re set up means they’re easily disrupted by grenades and fire attacks from Cleaners.

Showtime: Showtime is a very easy map to understand – it’s one long street with a few sidelines. That street is where most of the combat occurs, but keep an eye on the windows and doorways on either side, as players can pop up anywhere and at any time.

Linear Maps

These maps are reserved exclusively for Zone Control and Escort, which are larger modes.

Meltdown: Meltdown is one of the coolest looking XDefiant maps, especially if you’re able to get to the final zone of Escort or take over a certain spot in Zone Control.

Midway: Midway is a brilliant map that caters to every style of play, regardless of whether you prefer close-range engagements or picking people off with a sniper rifle.

Times Square: Times Square is great for Escort fans, with the route leading players through a snaking network of streets and leading into a subway complex that’s crumbling under your feet. It looks great and accommodates aggressive, short-range combat or long-range, relaxed engagements.

Zoo: Zoo looks fantastic but is hell for either side of a match. It has so many points of cover and lots of cut-throughs and shortcuts that it’s hard to keep a lock on every member of the enemy team. Even reaching the first checkpoint in Escort can be tough on Zoo.

All the XDefiant maps are brilliant fun to play, but the pick of the bunch has to be Mayday in the Arena category and Zoo in the Linear category. Check back frequently as we’ll cover more XDefiant maps as and when they’re announced. If you’re looking for an upper hand on any map, check out our top M4 build for XDefiant.

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