Riot Games has been teasing the last Agent Valorant for weeks, and it’s finally here in the form of Astra, the galactic controller ready to wreak havoc.
Riot Games loves to tease the Valorant fan base. Yoru was one of the hottest agents in the game to date, thanks to all the little snippets players have seen online.
With small packets of information about Agent 15 falling through the month of January, the newest addition to the list has finally been revealed.
Meet Astra, the space-themed agent who comes from Ghana. She “uses the energies of the cosmos to remodel the battlefields according to her whims. With total mastery of her astral form and talent for a deep strategic vision, she is always eons ahead of her enemy’s next move. “
Who is Astra in Valorant?
Astra is a full controller, but she has a unique style of play and skill set. As the leaks suggested, she has the ability to drop ‘Stars’ (the bright lights we saw floating around the Future Earth) and then manipulate them at her whim.
With her gravitational well, she pulls her victims into the heart of her nearby star, which immediately explodes and applies itself fragile to enemies. Alternatively, she can use the sparkling lights as landmines that cause concussions with her Nova Pulse.
It’s your Ultimate that is completely unlike anything we’ve seen in the Land of the Future, however. Giving her the ability to connect two of her stars and form a bullet-blocking shield, it’s safe to say that the ability is out of this world.
Astra Skills
- Skill 1 – Gravitational Well: Place stars in astral form (X). ACTIVATE a star to form a gravitational well. Players in the area are pulled towards the center before they explode, making all players still trapped inside fragile.
- Skill 2 – Nova Pulse: Place stars in astral form (X). ACTIVATE a star to detonate a New Pulse. Nova Pulse invests briefly and then attacks, causing a concussion in all players in its area.
- Signature Skill – Nebula: Place stars in astral form (X). ACTIVATE a Star to transform it into a Nebula (smoke).
- Skill 4 – Dispel: Use (F) on a star to dissipate it, returning the star to be placed in a new location after a delay. Dissipate briefly forms a false nebula at the location of the star before returning.
- Maximum capacity – Astral form / cosmic division – ACTIVATE to enter Astral Form where you can place Stars with PRIMARY FIRE. The stars can be reactivated later, turning them into a New Pulse, Nebula or Gravitational Well.
When the Cosmic Division is loaded, use SECONDARY FIRE in Astral Form to start aiming, then PRIMARY FIRE to select two locations. An infinite cosmic division connects the two points you select. Cosmic Divide blocks markers and strongly dampens the audio.
The stars have never been more deadly.
Astra inspiration
Looking to create a character based on notions of “African Futurism”, character producer John ‘Riot MEMEMEMEME’ Goscicki writes that “to ensure that these basic elements have been adequately represented, we work with a Ghanaian consultant on the details”.
Astra’s own conception, Senior Game Designer Jordan ‘Riot Wrekz’ Anton recalls that “with Astra we wanted to make a controller that would think about the entire map. Its global presence was there from the start. From there, the fine tuning was to find the right skills to balance the prediction of enemy actions and the reaction to changing circumstances in the game. “
“We wanted the expression of his skill to be to gather information and turn it into a plan, where the execution phase was less about the precise goal of a grenade launch and more about how to see if your reading about the enemy came together as you expected. ”
On a more humorous note, Goscicki writes that “strangely, while working on Astra’s Character Select animation, there was a day when his eyelids became corrupted and stretched / flew across the screen throughout the animation. That was incredible and disturbing at the same time. “
Astra’s cosmic division means that she is not afraid of a 1v5.
Astra release date
Astra will be released with Episode 2, Act 2 in March 2nd. She is accompanied by the new battle pass and all of her cosmetic goodies. Make sure to come back with Dexerto for all the latest news about the latest addition to the Future Earth fight.