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Valorant is a game full of agents with unique skills. Therefore, the game is suitable for players of all mindsets. But those that like to play strategically might have difficulty with some agents. Astra might be the best agent for individuals who like to play mind games with their enemy.
She’s a relatively new agent to the game, and her abilities are great for anyone that wants to take the game slow and easy. Here’s a detailed guide about the agent: her history in the game, her personality traits, how she’s suitable for the game, and much more.
Let’s check how you can clutch rounds with Astra, but before that, let’s take a peek at a brief introduction on Astra.
A Brief Introduction
Astra is a controller who lost her charm in the game as time passed. In the beginning, she was an exciting agent for players to choose from due to her effective kit, but later on, everybody realized that playing with Astra made it seem boring and repetitive.
Therefore, she’s not the first choice of players in terms of controllers. Nevertheless, she is still an important agent for those that like to stay behind and make moves in the game that affect the enemy substantially. She is a great choice for beginners that want to become a controller in the team.
However, she isn’t available from the beginning, and players must complete her contract until Level 5 to pick her in matches. She is a great pick if you’re tired of playing as duelists like Raze, or sentinels such as Killjoy. Astra can manipulate the map to her will and, change the tide to her benefit in any round easily.
Let’s take a look at Astra’s story and personality.
Astra’s Background
Astra’s real name is Efia Danso. She works as a controller in the game, one of the primary functions. During development, she also had the name Rift and was the sixteenth agent to join the Valorant Protocol. Astra hails from Ghana and is Radiant by nature.
She has superhuman abilities, and therefore, she isn’t a normal agent like Brimstone or Raze. Furthermore, Astra’s power relates to cosmic energy; consequently, she has substantial knowledge about all the other agents. The agent was once part of the Astra Guardians, who maintained a balance on the Earth. They were responsible for keeping the universe out of chaos. Astra also uses some technology that the group used for their motives.
A deleted source reports that a company revealed early on that Astra received her powers from a spirit in Lake Bosumtwi. But it didn’t come from an official Riot source; people refuse to accept it as credible canon information. The Dossier also provides a deeper insight into making certain speculations about the character.
The Dossier reports that Astra didn’t have to be at the meteor site that crashed millions of years ago. According to the Blackmailer, Astra looked up in the sky to see if there were stars, but she found darkness. This occurrence is an excellent reference to the agent, who considers herself a ‘star.’ She glanced at the sky to see if she could find other stars like her, but she saw darkness, meaning that Astra was the only one left to perform that duty.
Therefore, Astra is an agent now working with others in a position nobody can understand. She’s alone in performing duties any other Radiant could ever wish to have. But her hopes of finding another Astra Guardian are still alive, and she wishes to see more allies who share the same vision and powers as her.
Astra became part of the Valorant Protocol to continue fighting for virtue. She knows it is the right decision to work alongside agents like Brimstone, Jett, Phoenix, and several others. Considering it as the morally correct side to push evil forces off, Astra works in the Protocol to provide them an edge in fights they might have lost otherwise.
Astra’s Appearance and Character
Astra has a dark skin tone. She dons a braided mohawk style on her hair with several gold beads. Astra also wears jewelry on her nose and ears, like a nose ring and a pair of big hoops, and her left ear has a few gold earrings.
The agent’s outfit comprises a blend of her Ghanaian culture. Astra wears a blue shirt with a brown sleeveless vest. She also wears a pair of jeans and shoes, both purple. Astra also wears some protective gear on her kneecaps and a purple hoodie that she pulls up in her Astral Form.
Astra’s left arm is golden in color and mechanical in nature. Some believed that her main source of Radiant powers was in her left arm, but lore confirms that it only contains her powers and is not the ultimate source. Astra’s right arm remains open with nothing but a purple fingerless glove and a gold bracelet on her wrist.
Astra doesn’t live and work blandly. She is energetic and joyful and doesn’t hesitate to say what’s on her mind. She’s popular among the Protocol for being sarcastic and humorous. However, Astra remains worried about her teammates and instructs them to use caution.
The agent remains organized and sometimes works too hard to implement and promote perfectionism. According to some agents and Astra herself, this heightened need for completion seems to be Astra’s biggest weakness.
Other than that, Astra is a friendly agent that engages in competition with her teammates. She also knows many secrets about them, as we see in her voice line for Cypher.
“Why, Cypher, like, you think I don’t see you. I know who you are, man!”
– Astra, with Ally Cypher
Astra also has a friendly relationship with Phoenix, calling him Babylon (as that was England’s old name). She also worries about Reyna, calling her a ‘creature’ in the voice lines, implying that she is no longer a human by heart.
Astra’s Abilities
Astra has a useful kit to use in the game. Although it doesn’t deal damage to enemies, it aids in keeping them away from a site. But Astra became a hated prospect in Valorant because of her utilities, slowing down play to an extreme limit.
Here’s how Astra’s abilities work:
1. Astral Form
Astral Form is not an ability. Instead, it is a simple power that is important for the agent to enter so she can use her other skills in the game. In addition, Astral Form doesn’t require credits or points for Astra to join so that players can enter it throughout a round.
As Astra can neither see nor hear enemies close to her in Astral Form, entering the Astral Form will leave you vulnerable in a round. Therefore, opponents can easily take her out if she uses it in a dangerous spot.
Astra’s stars are available for purchase in the buy menu. She can buy four stars each round and place them on the map before and after the attack starts. Each of these cosmic structures costs 150 credits and replenishes after 25 seconds when Astra uses her Dissipate. Astra receives two stars at the beginning of every round.
Astra can place the stars in her Astral Form and later activate them during rounds. For example, she can use the stars for Gravity Well, Nova Pulse, Nebula, or Dissipate.
2. Gravity Well
This ability generates a magnetic pull towards its center, causing enemies to stay inside it. Even if the opponents try to get away, they feel resistance in their retreat. After 2.75 seconds, the Gravity Well explodes, leaving all players in its zone vulnerable for five seconds.
The Gravity Well also works on Astra and her teammates, causing them to move to its center after activation. Astra can use one Gravity Well during a round. However, it requires 45 seconds to charge for Astra to use it again.
The utility can also slow down the enemy’s abilities like Raze’s Boom Bot, Skye’s Trailblazers and Seekers, and Sova’s Owl Drone.
Gravity Well is a nice way of surprising enemies and getting some teamplay kills. Activating a Gravity Well in a tight spot will pull multiple opponents into a choke point. Raze can then throw her Paint Shells, dealing massive damage to enemies and even getting important kills.
3. Nova Pulse
Nova Pulse is an excellent ability that concusses players in its vicinity. Unfortunately, Astra can only use one of her stars to generate a Nova Pulse at a time. Players must wait 45 seconds before they can use it again. The ability takes 1.25 seconds to take effect and then stuns enemies for four seconds. During this time, they have blurred vision and cannot aim properly.
Nova Pulse is great to use with other abilities in certain situations. For example, Astra mains can place two stars on a planted spike and use one of them to generate a Nova Pulse.. Then, with several stunned enemies, Astra can easily defend the point. Defending can be even better with the Nova Pulse. Placing stars at an important location that enemies usually rush will create an excellent choke point, which Astra’s teammates can exploit perfectly.
However, most of the Valorant community doesn’t approve of the Nova Pulse for various reasons. It is one of the primary causes why Astra doesn’t get picked that much anymore.
4. Nebula/Dissipate
Astra’s signature ability works in two ways. First, using a star to create a Nebula will establish a hollow smoke at the designated star’s location. The smoke lasts for fifteen seconds.
After using a star for the Nebula smoke, it will not regenerate for Astra after its specific time. Therefore, it is important to use Nebulas carefully. Meanwhile, Dissipate causes a star to return to Astra’s inventory after using it.
It first forms a fake smoke which Astra can disintegrate when she wants. After withering away, the star is available for use immediately for Astra, allowing great utility even if the agent placed it in the wrong location. After using Dissipate for a star, it will return to the inventory, but Astra must use it in the round. It will not carry into the next round. Astra can use either of these abilities twice, and Nebula requires 25 seconds to recharge.
5. Cosmic Divide
Astra’s ultimate ability is a barrier between two points that separates the enemies with no information through visuals or audio. Astra requires seven points to use her Cosmic Divide. To activate her ultimate, Astra needs to get into her Astral Form.
Once there, she can select a point from which to start her barrier and choose two locations she wants to divide. After deployment, the Cosmic Divide forms a wall of cosmic energy impervious to bullets. It also reduces audio nearby, so enemies won’t hear you coming and vice versa.
The ability lasts for 21 seconds, which can make all the difference. Depending upon the situation, Astra can turn rounds if she uses her power carefully. However, the Cosmic Divide requires precision and foresight for players to use it to the maximum. Angling the wall to suit your team is a skill not many Astra mains could master, and that’s why she fell off the charts.
Astra’s Update History
Since her addition to the game, Astra received some patches for her gameplay. Most of these were just fixes to multiple bugs related to her abilities. However, the agent also underwent major changes in her kit’s working and cost.
Here’s a summary of how she received updates:
- v2.07: Gravity Well pulled agents defusing the Spike. If pulled out of range, defuse stops.
- v3.0: Gravity Well and Nova Pulse cooldown time increased to 25, Astral Form cost decreased to 150 credits, recall cooldown increased to 15, and granted signature charges reduced to 1.
- v4.04: Maximum stars reduced to 4, cooldown after retrieving a star increased to 25, and the maximum distance of star placing increased to 30,000. Gravity Well’s cooldown increased to 45, size reduced to 475, and does not affect anyone fully underneath it. Nova Pulse’s cooldown increased to 45 and does not affect anyone fully underneath it. Nebula’s cooldown increased to 25, size increased to 475, and became sequential from simultaneous.
Astra’s Performance in Official Matches
Astra is now a lost agent. Initially, she was an exciting prospect that guaranteed a bright future for controllers, but soon, she fell off. Several factors led to her downfall, and now, the agent dwells at the bottom. She’s now a finished agent, according to some, but some statistics may say otherwise.
Valorbuff reports disappointing results for the agent. According to the site, Astra has the lowest pick rate out of nineteen characters. However, she’s held this spot for a long time, with a pick rate of 4% in the past month. Phoenix and Cypher are above the agent, with close pick rates of 8.2% and 8.6%, respectively.
However, even with such a low pick rate, Astra has an impressive conversion rate. She has recorded 47.9% matches in victories, coming at the seventh spot on the list. Fade leads Astra by a minor 48.9%. Meanwhile, Cypher and Phoenix are behind Astra in this regard, with the former having a 46.4% win rate and Phoenix winning 46% of his matches.
Astra’s pick rate shows an impressive curve. Iron lobbies have picked Astra the least, with other ranks progressing significantly. Radiants are second in playing with Astra, with just 0.25% more pick rate than Iron players. However, the win percentage of all ranks is barely different, averaging around 47.5-48%. Bronze lobbies have the highest number of victories, with Astra at 48.39%.
Regarding teammates, a good sentinel or duelist has been Astra’s biggest help. Unfortunately, in such a long list of agents, only a few have been able to help Astra appropriately. Killjoy has been Astra’s best helping hand among sentinels, followed by Chamber and Sage. Reyna and Raze are the two most reliable duelists in the game, and they’ve been a big factor in Astra’s extraordinary conversion rate in the past few days.
How to Play Astra
Playing with Astra requires a lot of mind presence and patience. There’s no way Astra main is winning a game by rushing into opponents. That’s not how the agent works! So to be a good controller in the team, one has to be aware of plenty of things.
Therefore, staying safe and planning well is the best way. Teammates are a primary factor in Astra’s success; therefore, every player should be ready to work with the people in their team. Astra will only be successful if her teammates can coordinate, whatever the map, whatever the situation.
A basic approach to the agent is using her abilities timely. Using the Buy Phase to plan an attack and placing the stars appropriately in the time is useful in establishing a basis for the strategy Astra and her teammates are planning. With the stars in position, the enemy will soon be Astra’s mind games victim.
Another ideal tactic that Astra works best with is playing as a support player. Astra can’t stay behind cover and let her teammates die. That’s baiting! So, planning battles with good teammates like Reyna or Jett can benefit the team. There is no use in clutching situations all the time. There’s always a good chance of failing, so it’s best if Astra peeks with a teammate to either finish them off or trade a kill.
Defending rounds are where Astra can make a big difference. The first and foremost task is to use the stars and then deploy them as needed when the enemy is close. It helps to slow down pushes and even cause rotations earlier. A flanking teammate can catch the enemy off-guard and score some kills. Even if the opponent manages to make it to the other site, Astra can use her remaining stars to show presence and hinder the enemy’s plans.
Astra’s abilities are great to use during clutches. Astra can deploy multiple Nebulas to confuse the opponent into searching for the spike while approaching to defuse it. Even if defuse is underway, Astra can use Nova Pulse or Gravity Well to create problems for the rival and take them out. We shouldn’t discuss using the Nebulas for a ninja defuse when Astra is defending, as it is such a basic move!
The agent is capable of many things. Players may complain about Astra’s playing style and annoying abilities, but only a few will notice her potential. She has a lot to bring to the table, and only the best Astra mains will be able to read situations and make moves accordingly.
What Maps are Good/Bad for Astra?
A bigger map would be better for Astra. There may be long flanking routes for the enemy to exploit, but Astra can hold down an entire map by herself. However, things are different for the agent now, as Valorbuff reports surprising numbers for the maps.
Smaller maps like Ascent, Haven, Split, and Bind have been a clearer choice for Astra mains. These four maps report the agent’s highest pick rates and win percentages. Valorbuff shows that Ascent has the best numbers, with a 6% pick rate and 48.9% win percentage.
Both of these numbers are highest in their respective sections. Haven has the next spot with a 5.7% pick rate, and an impressive 48.2% wins for the agent. Split and Bind have an equal win percentage at 48.1%, but the former takes the lead in pick rate with 5.5%, compared to Bind’s 4.5%. Seeing how such maps are becoming a good choice for Astra players is shocking.
Fracture, Icebox, and Breeze are Astra’s unfavorable maps. Fracture has a 3.6% pick rate and 47.4% win percentage. Astra’s pick rate at Icebox is only 2%, but her win percentage is 47.6%, overtaking Fracture. Finally, Breeze is Astra’s worst map now, with a pick rate of just 1.9% and 46.3% win percentage.
What Guns are Good/Bad for Astra?
For a controller like Astra, there’s no reason for playing with unorthodox weapons. Sticking to the meta is important for such a crucial agent; therefore, Vandal and Phantom are the best weapons for Astra. The Vandal remains the undisputed emperor of rifles, accounting for a 45% kill count for the agent. The Phantom is a good option for those that prefer controlling recoil efficiently, with 18.7% kills to its name.
The Ghost is a more viable option for Astra mains for pistol rounds. Taking down enemies from long range can be advantageous for Astra as she can kill an opponent and immediately block the entire entry with a Nebula. The Ghost has an average kill distance of 16.95 meters, so it’s working well for Astra mains. Those that wish to save money for later rounds can opt for the Classic, as it has recorded 4.3% of total kills.
Half-buy rounds call for a Spectre. The SMG is excellent for scoring some kills on the flank and taking the enemy down from nearby. It has scored 10% of Astra’s total kills from an average distance of 13.98 meters, so Spectre is the right choice when your team needs a quick round on a tight economy.
Those that like a more primary role in the team can opt for an Operator if they have the money. It may have accounted for just 1.7% of kills, but its average kill distance of 28.82 meters speaks volumes about its efficiency in the hands of Astra. Marshal is a better option when a player is out of funds, averaging a kill from 28.66 meters.
FAQs
Question: How is Astra different from other controllers?
Answer: Astra is much more unique than any other agent, let alone controller. Her abilities allow her to play the game from a distance. That means Astra doesn’t have to engage in fights until the last moment. She can fend off opponents from a site alone without dealing damage. Unlike Brimstone and other controllers that can gather important information about the enemy, Astra defends sites without entering the battle.
Question: Is Astra a good agent?
Answer: There are mixed reviews about this statement. Most of the community considers Astra to be a broken agent. Due to her abilities slowing down the game to a snail’s pace, many players don’t like playing against or with an Astra main. Other than that, Astra can be a great agent for learning how to play the game with coordination.
Question: Why don’t players use Astra more?
Answer: In the beginning, Astra’s kit was a bit too overpowered. Too many stars and being able to use them quickly made the agent a valuable member of every team. But soon, gameplay started to slow down significantly. Astra’s Nebula and other abilities were crippling enemy teams so much that they couldn’t do anything other than keep losing rounds. Therefore, the community soon grew tired of the agent’s repetitive and strong utilities.
Astra Valorant Guide: Conclusion
Despite her poor record in official matches, Astra remains an important controller in the game for lower ranks because of her effective utility. She can avoid combat to engage in mind games with the enemy. As a result, she’s the perfect choice for players who love using strategy more than weapons.
There are numerous ways to use Astra without making the game a bore for others, but you’ll need to learn them by playing. Keep practicing in solo lobbies or the Range, and you’ll be the one to take Astra forward with some exciting plays!