How To PROPERLY Play Lotus | Strategies and Guides
Lotus is the newest map in VALORANT, while it has been out for quite some time now it is still new to the meta and has way too many different strategies and approaches.
In today’s guide, we will teach you the best ways so far to play Lotus, strategize, and effectively execute any plan on both the attacking and defensive sides.
Attacking Side
Starting off with the attacking side on Lotus. In order to effectively play this map, you need to get an overall understanding of how the structure is looking like. Right off the bat, we can conclude that Lotus is similar to Haven due to the fact of having 3 bomb sites.
Now when you are attacking, the most important factor is pathways into site. Let’s try to identify those.
B site acts like a center connecting all choke points together. If you look closely, you can easily find a way through B into any site on the map.
But B is also the smallest site, making it harder to fight for especially in retakes.
C site on the other hand is a much easier site to access when you’re attacking. The key to that is a heavy execute, most likely, there will be a sentinel holding down C as it’s relatively harder for defenders to keep it safe.
For that, you will need at least 4 players heavily attacking to take space which will force any sentinel out of site to play for a retake.
Remember that C, is also still accessible through B site, but that would require a late lurk as you can’t fight for 2 sites at the same time.
Now onto the A site on lotus, you notice that you have only 2 main ways of getting into the bomb site itself. And that is through A long and Tree.
In order to properly attack you will definitely need to maintain control of A tree, which we believe is a mandatory pathway into A site.
The biggest mistake that is often happening during ranked games is ignoring tree completely and going through A long to A site, this will cause you to be pushing against too many unknowns. This essentially means without that control, you will be cornered by defenders from Tree, site, and CT.
Early Peeking Spots
Early peek spots are positions that defenders take to peek you at the start of the round aiming for a pick to gain numbers advantage. Usually, you can just avoid that with using utility like flashes or playing as a team to where you trade each other. But in a new map like Lotus, this can be challenging as you may not know where defenders can get to as soon as the barriers go down. Here are some spots on each site to worry about:
First one is on A site. We have 2 common positions that you are likely to face enemies on. CT where usually operators hold, or a jett with dash enabled looking for a risky fight that you should look out for.
There is also the very sneaky corners which is next to B side link, hiding there is not quite expected especially if the defender managed to slip through quickly without anybody noticing. You should always clear that corner expecting an enemy on it, as much as it seems unlikely there will be that one round you wished you had cleared it.
Don’t forget that there’s also the boxes that defenders can either get on top of or hide behind, but as long as you account for the fact that there might be somebody there and use utility accordingly you will get through.
On B site there’s only one common spot that you will enemies peeking of. Which is right at B main, it is too common for a Jett to push through trying to earn a pick so keep mindful of that.
Sometimes, defenders choose to play more passive aggressive which results in them hiding behind the Box on B main, make sure to clear that or at least spray through it before you enter.
On C site especially defenders are much faster to peeking than you are. The barriers are placed to where it allows them to get perfectly in time before you, so be mindful of these 2 positions that you may end up facing an enemy on.
Some defenders tend to hide behind the sand hill too, which is very sneaky but if you are aware of it you can punish them very easily.
Defending Side
Defense on Lotus isn’t quite easy but there are a few tricks you can do to enable your power on the defensive side. Here are the best tips and tricks:
On A, the best thing you could do to take control and space is using any sort of molly or nade utility like Raze has right as the barrier drops into the spot shown in the picture.
This, will 100 percent catch any pushing attacker and end up killing them if it was an ability like raze’s nade. During the time of your nade, you are allowed to cross over to any spot you would like or even coordinate a push with any teammate.
On B site, it’s best to play with an ability like a Sage wall. However, it is not necessary but rather preferred. The key is, placing a crossfire like the picture is showing. While Raze hides behind that box, Sage should try to fire and make sounds to distract the enemy leading them right into Raze for free multi kills.
Similarly to B site, it’s perfect to place a crossfire on C. While sage would wall B to secure it and hide behind the rotating door, raze will be awaiting enemies to come closer.
Upon count, open the door and peek at once which will create a difficult situation for any attacker.
CONCLUSION
Lotus is a very difficult map to master as it’s very new to the valorant meta. But that doesn’t mean we haven’t discovered any good tips and tricks you can do to ease your time played on the map.
For all we know, attacking should be more slow-paced and rely on defaults to choose the proper site to hit.
While on defense, your offense is much more valuable and can often bring out good results.
