After months of speculation and teasers within the game, Riot Games has launched a new map into VALORANT called Abyss. This map will contain two plant sites and will have certain unique mechanics in the game. On June 9, the map was revealed worldwide for fans to look at. In this article, let’s take a dive deep into the new map, the in-game lore, unique mechanics, and the release date.
Image Credits: Riot Games
The map Abyss was announced worldwide on June 9 through a cinematic video revealed in the VCT Masters Shanghai finals. In the video, we can see Iso, Omen, and Clove enter and kill all the guards on the map. The map is meant to be a hidden facility within the VALORANT universe. According to the VALORANT lore, it’s a clandestine base of an organization known as the Scions of the Hourglass, which has various unique assassins in the game.
The global release date for Abyss, the new map in VALORANT, will be June 11.
Abyss is a very exciting map as it doesn’t follow the traditional map layout seen within FPS games. When asked about the unique map design of Abyss, Joey Simas, Lead Map Designer of VALORANT, stated the following:
“Abyss also focuses on longer range gunfights while maintaining a straightforward and easy to learn layout. A smaller design goal for Abyss was exploring ways to fight over and around smokes instead of feeling like they can completely block out a choke point.”
Image Credits: Riot Games
Below are some of the new key features that are present on the map:
The first point is that this map will have two Spike sites. Each site has one primary entry path and one path from the middle of the site, allowing players to emphasize the middle of the map. The second is the mid-lane layout. Instead of having one wide path in the mid, there are two narrow parallel paths. There is also a gap between the two paths, which is known as the death drops.
These death drops are points around the map that many players should ideally avoid. If a player falls into the pit, they will immediately die. When asked about the inspiration concerning this map, Joey Simas answered the following:
“We think players want to chase that “clippable play” and we wanted to lean into this by allowing more creative freedom around the map.”
Image Credits: Riot Games
During the VCT Masters Shanghai livestream, Albert Robles was asked about the death drops and the situation where the player with the spike falls into the pit. He replied that if this happens, the player with the spike will die. Instead of vanishing, the spike will now return to the last point on the map where the player was standing. The same goes for the player’s body, as this will allow Sage to easily resurrect players who fell into the drop. When asked about Gekko’s buddies, Dizzy and Wingman, he stated that if they fall into the pit, they cannot be picked up again during the round.
Taking about the Gekko wingman leads into the last prominent feature on this map, the branching mid-paths. These are platforms on the map that players have to jump over to use as a shortcut to the site. One unique thing about Gekko’s wingman is that it can hop over these platforms to plant the spite on the B site.
Image Credits: Riot Games
The location of the map of Abyss is taken from a remote island close to Iceland. The middle of the map is meant to be the library of the clandestine base. This map area consists of skins currently available in the game, making them cannon to the VALORANT universe. The B site of the map is meant to be the research facility. A site on the map is intended to be the Radianite lockups. According to the cinematic released by Riot Games, a person is locked up in prison. Many speculate that it will be the next new agent in VALORANT.
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