Astra

Agent Introduction

VALORANT’s fourth Controller, Astra’s abilities channel the cosmic energy of the universe into a powerhouse kit capable of clogging up enemy plans and toppling their timings like no other… but only for those with the foresight to play her right.

The chess-like pre-emptiveness of her kit makes Astra one of the most divisive agents in VALORANT. But whether you love or hate her, she has the power to provide insanely versatile utility to her team.

If you’re a disciplined, strategic thinker looking for the most satisfying two-steps-ahead victory around, Astra’s the agent for you.

“Relax, my friends. Time and space are, (chuckles), they're not what you think.” Efia “Astra” Danso

Quick answers

You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers…

Where is Astra from? She’s from Accra, the capital city of Ghana, in West Africa.

How old is Astra? She’s somewhere between 25 and 30 years old.

Is Astra good? When she first joined VALORANT, Astra was seriously OP. A few heavy nerfs brought her down a peg or two, leading many to call her “dead”. Despite these claims, Astra is still an excellent agent if you use her right. Don’t worry, we’ll show you how to play her like a pro.

Is Astra hard to play? Astra’s unique kit comes with a price – she’s about as far from an easy-to-handle agent as it gets, and arguably the hardest Controller in VALORANT. She’s a poor choice for anyone who plays impulsively, and has one of the steepest learning curves in the game.

Who is the best Astra player? The best Astra players are ones with impeccable timing, top-notch comms skills, and forward-thinking brains. Pro players like mindfreak, Melser, SugarZ3ro, and Marved are some of the best around at playing Astra.

How does Astra’s Ultimate work? VALORANT Ults don’t get weirder than Astra’s really, since her whole kit technically relies on her Ultimate/Astral Form. The actual Ultimate ability, Cosmic Divide, cuts the map in two between any two points you select.

“Ghanaian Agent Astra harnesses the energies of the cosmos to reshape battlefields to her whim. With full command of her astral form and a talent for deep strategic foresight, she's always eons ahead of her enemy's next move.” Riot’s official description of Astra.

THESPIKE Dossier: Astra

Bio

Callsign: Astra
Real Name: Efia Danso

Age: 25–30
Height: 170 cm
Origin/country: Ghana
Classification: Radiant
Gender: Female

Affiliation(s): VALORANT Protocol
Agent number: 16
Agent type: Controller

Difficulty level: Hard
Signature weapon: Eclipse Ghost
Basic abilities:
•Nebula
•Nova Pulse
•Gravity Well
Signature ability:
•Astral Form/Stars
Ultimate ability:
•Astral Form/Cosmic Divide
Ult points: 7

Release date: March 2, 2021
Voice actor: Effie Nkrumah
Astra’s playlist

Personality analysis

Callsign Astra is a bold, energetic, and forthright agent who shows no fear of expressing herself.

She’s not one to beat around the bush, and approaches most interactions with a default setting of friendly banter.

Despite her seemingly carefree, bubbly, wise-cracking personality, a deeper look at Astra’s behavior hints at an internal gravity that she is apparently set on hiding.

It seems likely that this comes from her responsibilities as not merely an agent of VALORANT, but an Astral Guardian, as well. She is often heard advocating for ideas that otherwise sound irrational, claiming that she “sees what most cannot”.

This suggests that her cosmic powers have a strong effect on her and how she interacts with the world. In all likelihood, this could explain her constant hunger for liveliness, and her dislike of people and places that lack “color” or “personality”.

Since she frequently visits a cosmological realm that no other agent can ever experience, this also opens up a world of questions about what effect visits to this nebulous “higher plane” have on Astra.

In Fade’s blackmailing dossier, she describes Astra seeing “the emptiness between” the stars in the night sky, and “the impossible cold”, and draws attention to how there is “much more darkness than light”, all of which seems to support this interpretation of Astra’s attitude.

On the surface, she shows nothing but care for her fellow agents, and concern for their wellbeing while on missions.

She will often playfully refer to other agents by nicknames anchored in their homelands, like Morocco for Cypher, and Babylon for Phoenix.

Astra seems to be always calculating and weighing the morality of her decisions, and has been observed displaying OCD-like behavior that borders on perfectionism.

Whether this is a trait she was born with or developed as a result of her astral visits remains to be seen. What’s clear is that mystery surrounds Astra’s life, and it has given her a bottomless hunger to learn all she can about her powers and her place in the world.

Origins

The early life of Efia Danso is something of a mystery. She comes from Accra, the capital city of Ghana in West Africa.

Agent Fade’s blackmailing gives us a scrap more insight, revealing that Danso was a “city girl” who was “drawn” to Lake Bosumtwi – Ghana’s only natural lake, located in a meteoric crater over a million years old.

Since Lake Bosumtwi is roughly 144 miles from Accra, we can assume Danso was drawn to this fabled lake to receive her powers and become an Astral Guardian.

Whether she was a Radiant before this event or not is unclear. As are the details of her role as a Guardian, and how she came to possess her enigmatic golden gauntlet. We do, however, have confirmation that her gauntlet is not the source of her cosmic powers, but merely a means to contain and harness them, which hints at the extreme reaches of her power.

Though we know nothing concrete about her family or life before becoming a Guardian, she has hinted at the possibility of some of her ancestors also holding the same mysterious mantel.

Astral Guardians

The Astral Guardians are responsible for defending reality itself. They safeguard the space/time continuum, and quiet any calamitous ripples from significant reality-altering events.

Based on her translations of their language, Astra has voiced her belief that the Astral Guardians are from another world.

Given that members of Astra’s lineage may have also been Guardians, and that she was “drawn” to Lake Bosumtwi – a radianite hotspot – to receive her powers, it’s likely that her cosmic powers are not like typical AFL Radiants’.

It’s uncertain whether or not Astra is alone in her role as Guardian, though this seems possible as we have yet to encounter another.

Astra has made it clear that she has access to knowledge left to her by previous Guardians, though she describes this information as “vague” and “incomplete”. We’re unclear whether this knowledge was passed down through her family, or from an unknown cosmic source, though Astra hints that it has not been viewed by anyone in centuries.

It’s through this knowledge that Astra has begun learning the Astral Guardians’ language, and came to realize the role they play in maintaining harmony throughout the universe.

Likely this is also where she learned to use her powers, and how to travel to other planes and dimensions.

While how Astra came into possession of her golden gauntlet is a mystery, we know it to be an artefact of the Astral Guardians – one which, alongside Harbor’s bracelet, unlocked the City of Flowers.

So far, Harbor’s bracelet is the only other confirmed Astral Guardian artefact, though since his is the source of his powers, and Astra’s gauntlet merely helps her control her powers, we can assume not all Astral artefacts are the same.

Building on this, we can also infer that the Guardians knew the secrets of radianite and how to harness its power-giving potential with more refinement than any human has yet discovered.

With VALORANT

Astra was recruited into the VALORANT Protocol as its sixteenth agent, though she takes on these duties alongside her role as Astral Guardian.

Mostly, she serves as any other agent, though there have been times when her Guardian duties mesh with her work for the VP. The first of these occurred shortly after Killjoy completed VALORANT’s Alpha–Omega portal and the VP’s first mission to Omega Earth.

Astra offered no specifics on the matter, but simply stated mysteriously between missions that she had to ensure that “ripples do not become waves”.

The second major crossover between her VALORANT and Guardian roles happened when the Protocol was tracking Varun Batra, a fugitive from his former employer REALM. The case piqued Astra’s interest when she discovered Batra had been chosen as the wielder of another Guardian artefact – a bracelet and set of five rings.

Excited and intrigued, Astra became a strong advocate for Batra’s recruitment into VALORANT. When he joined, becoming Harbor, the two agents combined their esoteric knowledge and deciphered engravings on the artefact that identified it as a key to the lost City of Flowers.

Since Harbor had already discovered the fabled city’s location and confirmed it had been completely destroyed, Astra began looking into an Omega Earth counterpart.

Her investigations revealed that not only did an Omega version exist, but that their VALORANT Legion were looking for it. She also discovered the city was a Nexus, which would cause the deaths of millions in Alpha Earth if Omega’s Legion were to activate theirs.

As a result, Astra, Harbor, and Skye took on a mission to travel to Omega Earth and neutralize the potential threat. They journeyed from Lisbon to Southern India, and thwarted VALORANT Legion’s attempts to activate their Nexus.

Though this left many of Astra’s questions unanswered, her team’s efforts saved millions of lives. She has since spent time investigating any potential Alpha Earth repercussions.

Other observations

• Astra is deathly scared of snakes.
• She doodles and takes notes in a sketchbook to help her understand people and events.
• She’s a fan of jollof rice

VALORANT Protocol relationships

Callsign: Brimstone (VP agent 01)

Brimstone and Astra show a clear and consistent respect for each other, though Astra is often quick to throw banter at him, specifically relating to his “old age” and status as one of the “boomer” generation.

Callsign: Omen (VP agent 03)

Omen’s unnatural, spectral behavior seems to unnerve Astra – so much that she has quite casually referred to him as a “thing”, and is open about not being sure what Omen is exactly.

Omen, meanwhile, finds Astra’s powers mesmerizing, and seems to be nothing but complimentary of her.

Callsign: Phoenix (VP agent 09)

Astra and Phoenix share a friendly camaraderie and a love of jollof rice. Though she playfully calls him Babylon, in reference to his English origins, Astra is quite open with her occasional distaste of Phoenix’s brash attitude.

She seems to sense his potential though, and often calls him out, reminding him that a warrior “is known by his deeds, not his mouth”.

Callsign: Reyna (VP agent 11)

As seen in Astra’s sketchbook, she appears to have given a lot of consideration to the allegiances of Reyna, seemingly landing on the conclusion that she’s both good and bad.

Despite this, she regularly refers to Reyna as a “creature” who enters “beast mode”, and seems to carry a general dislike of her.

Callsign: Raze (VP agent 12)

Astra and Raze’s lively personalities have led to a strong friendship between the two. Astra often refers to Raze as “my girl” or “my queen”, and is nothing but complimentary of Raze’s explosive style.

Raze, meanwhile, shows great awe for Astra’s abilities, and a lighthearted desire to learn from her.

Callsign: Chamber (VP agent 18)

Chamber has expressed great interest in Astra’s gauntlet in the past, though it’s not something he vocalizes any longer. This suggests he has a vested interest in the Guardian artefacts, most likely due to their connection with radianite and his own experiments with harnessing the substance’s power.

Though these agents have little to do with one another, it is likely that Chamber is still keeping a watchful eye over Astra. Given the similarities between his golden tattoos, and the two known Guardian artefacts – Astra’s gauntlet and Harbor’s bracelet – it is possible that studying the Guardians feeds into Chamber’s mysterious endgame.

Callsign: Harbor (VP agent 21)

Astra was a strong advocate for the recruitment of Harbor from the moment she discovered that he too had been “chosen” by artefacts left by the Astral Guardians. She has shown utter amazement that Harbor, a human, is able to wield such an artefact.

The two agents make a strong team, both as intellectually curious people searching for answers about the Guardians, and as agents of VALORANT.

Gamer’s Astra guide

VALORANT’s Controllers play best when using their abilities to manipulate the enemy and set their team up for victory.

Blocking areas, cutting sightlines, disrupting movements, and generally making a nuisance of themselves – it’s all in a day’s work for Controllers, and it’s never been more important than with VALORANT’s cosmic Controller.

Astra’s abilities call for the kind of strategic thinking that sly chess players who love staying several moves ahead of the game will love. But that kind of pre-emptive play comes with a steep learning curve that you’ll need to master if you want to learn how to play Astra like a pro.

In this guide section, we’ll show you how to do just that, as we take a look at Astra’s abilities and how you can use them to absolutely dominate.

Quick-hitting advice

Before we jump into Astra’s kit in more detail, here are some key tips and tricks to show you how to play this Controller like an absolute boss…

🎯 Know where your team will be and support them when they need it most – this will make your plays 1000x better.

• Astra’s all about fluidly placing utility across the map whenever your team needs it.
• Clear communication and teamwork are absolutely essential to achieve this.
• It’s the secret to becoming a force to be reckoned with as an Astra main.

🎯 Use your smokes liberally – whether attacking or defending, always be smoking those angles (who’s a good Controller? - you are!).

🎯 Combo Gravity Well with Nova Pulse – it’s an evil mix that most players will have a hellish time escaping.

• Don’t do it all the time though, it can be overkill.
• It’s best saved for when time is running out or you’re in a 1 vs. 1.

🎯 Turn common choke points or defender-friendly spots into waking nightmares – it’s practically what Nova Pulse and Gravity Well were made for!

🎯 Time your trips to Astral Form carefully!

• Avoid going into it out in the open.
• Don’t stay in it for longer than you need to.
• Always be wary of where your enemies might be when you use it.

🎯 Play patient, not aggressive

• Hang back while your team pushes, and be ready to activate Stars.
• Focus on getting your team on-site and stopping enemies from re-taking.
• Astra plays best when she hangs back, throws smokes, stays alive, follows her team, and adds a boatload of utility to stop the post-plant.

🎯 Avoid being predictable with your Stars

• Mix up the abilities you trigger and keep your enemies guessing.
• Only use pre-round placement if it plays into your team’s strategy.

🎯 Place your Stars strategically, carefully, and before you need them

• Astra’s abilities all have a long cooldown, making planning super important to successful plays,
• Rely on your gun and your aim if the enemy doesn’t stumble into your already-placed Stars – a quick trip to Astral Form to place a Star and hit them with abilities is a big risk.

🎯 When attacking, try plays that handle multiple angles, like this…

• Smoke off two pathways or sightlines while concussing a defender in another, and gravity welling another out of a hiding spot, all at the same time.

🎯 When defending…

• Combo Astra’s abilities with other agents’ abilities, like Killjoy’s nades or Viper’s Snakebite.
• Clog up known choke points (like Hookah on Bind, or Heaven on Ascent), to force aggressive enemies to hesitate… then punish their push!

Abilities

Star (Astral Form)

Astra’s abilities aren’t exactly like other VALORANT agents’, and it’s part of what makes her one of the hardest agents to get to grips with.

Star isn’t an ability on its own, it’s technically part of Astra’s Ultimate, but we’re listing it separately here as her signature ability… and you’ll soon see why!

• Ability type: Signature
• Cost: 150 creds
• Default diameter: 10m
• Dissipate cooldown: 25s
• Max charges: 4

Astra’s abilities only work when you’ve placed a Star and then trigger the ability on that Star.

To place a Star, you have to activate Astral Form with X – yes, the same X that activates Astra’s Ultimate.

From her lofty Astral Form, Astra can drop Stars strategically anywhere on the map, to be used when she returns to her body whenever you need to use one of her abilities.

Setups and use guide:
Nebula, Nova Pulse, and Gravity Well – before you can use any of those abilities, you have to place a Star.

This makes Astra’s gameplay totally different from any other agent’s, and makes her the kind of Controller that absolutely has to think multiple moves ahead.

You get 1 free Star per round, but you’ll probably want to top that up with at least one or two more Stars (and at only 150 creds, that’ll hardly break the bank, even on eco rounds!).

If you want to play Astra like a winner, you’ve got to place your Stars strategically. Knowing your maps is absolutely essential for this.

Take advantage of your time before a round starts, and place Stars wherever you expect to need your abilities. Think of places like…

• Common camping areas.
• Choke points.
• Site entries.

And, of course, anywhere that will help you support your team, since that’s your main job as a badass Controller!

If you are dropping Stars before the round starts, keep in mind that enemies will see any Stars you place for just 2 seconds before the round begins – not long enough to really change their plans, but long enough for them to potentially anticipate your strategy.

Plenty of people hate this pre-meditated way of playing, but it can give you some seriously devious plays if you master it.

Including the opportunity to be one sneaky tilt-causing devil of an opponent to your enemies when you use Dissipate to recall Stars…

Until recently, being in Astral Form meant you couldn’t hear anything going on around your body, but as of patch 7.05, you’ll hear everything, so keep that in mind with your plays.

Full ability description:
ACTIVATE to enter Astral Form where you can place Stars with FIRE.

Stars can be reactivated later, transforming them into a Nova Pulse, Nebula, or Gravity Well.

E - Nebula/Dissipate

Trigger Stars to create smoke screens.

• Ability type: Basic
• Cast time: 0.75 seconds
• Radius: 4.75 meters
• Nebula duration: 14.25 seconds
• Dissipate smoke duration: 1 second
• Cooldown: 25 seconds
• Cost: Free
• Max charges: 2

With Nebula, you get more than an Omen-like hollow smoke… you get a secondary ability mode that’s overflowing with mad utility value!

Setups and use guide:
Nebula is great in any situation you’d want a smoke for – choke points, entries, Heaven areas, corners, you know the drill!

Where Nebula shines, though, is in Astra’s ability to place Stars literally anywhere on the map. No other Controller’s smokes give you that kind of air-tight guarantee that they’ll be there whenever you need them.

Plus, this reach is simply far greater and easier to use than Brim or Omen’s smokes.

But it’s in Dissipate that this ability finds its real winning potential.

Dissipate (activated with the F key), recalls a placed Star and drops a super brief smoke in the process. That 1-second smoke can be an absolutely tide-turning tilt-heavy move if you play it right…

Using Dissipate just to recover a mistakenly placed Star is level 1 stuff. If you want to play Astra like a pro, here’s how you can get creative with it…

• Use it to surprise enemies with a fake smoke.
• Use it for quick rotates and angle changes.
• Use Dissipate to cross short angles.
• Use it to counter Operators.

A fake smoke can really upset enemy plans – they’ll be clueless about which way you’re going if you place 2 Stars and Dissipate both to cover your movements.

When you need to cross a long area and just know there’s a Jett camped out with an Op lined right on your path, drop a Star, Dissipate it, and use that split second to get past Jett’s line of sight.

(we give you full permission to gloat fiercely at their shock when you pop them from that angle they were trying to deny you.)

It’s a little more risqué, but Dissipate can work a treat even in locations enemies are expecting you to smoke. When your smoke vanishes way sooner than they expected, it’ll throw their timings off big time.

Just always keep in mind – you don’t get your Star back immediately after using Dissipate. Plan ahead for the 25-second cooldown before you can place the recalled Star.

That delay is only during a match though, using Dissipate during the buy phase will recall the Star immediately (just without the 1-second smoke).

Full ability description:
ACTIVATE a Star to transform it into a Nebula (smoke).

USE a Star to Dissipate it, returning the Star to be placed in a new location after a delay.

Dissipate briefly forms a fake Nebula at the Star's location before returning.

Q - Nova Pulse

Trigger Stars to create a concussive explosion.

• Ability type: Basic
• Cast time: 1 second
• Radius: 4.75 meters
• Stun duration: 4 seconds
• Cooldown: 45 seconds
• Cost: Free
• Max charges: 1

Aka Astra stun, a powerful blast capable of affecting you and your allies too – so watch out!

Setups and use guide:
Nova Pulse is quite possibly the ability of Astra’s you’re most likely to rely on.

This ability triggers fast, and that’s part of what makes it so effective. Even if enemies react the second you trigger it, with their gun out they’ll struggle to clear its range. This gives Nova Pulse a lot of epic plays…

Drop this stun on enemies that are planting, defusing, pushing up a long hall, or hiding deep in a cheeky corner – they’ll either bolt for their escape route, or you’ll get an easy frag against a stunned enemy.

When it comes to clearing corners, this ability is an absolute beast.

That said, it’s really all about how you use it (like pretty much all of Astra’s abilities). If you predict enemy locations well, you can utterly devastate them with Nova Pulse, and make it impossible for them to take sites.

It’s a force to be reckoned with when your team is pushing sites, too. Time it with your team’s peeks and you can give them fewer angles to worry about, and make taking sites soooo much easier.

Combo this ability with Gravity Well and you’re laughing all the way to the win as you watch your enemies helpless to escape the Pulse’s blast. This is a top-tier way to boost your K/D ratio.

Full ability description:
ACTIVATE a Star to detonate a Nova Pulse.

The Nova Pulse charges briefly then strikes, concussing all players in its area.

C - Gravity Well

Trigger Stars to draw in nearby agents, then explode and inflict Vulnerable for a 2x damage debuff.

• Ability type: Basic
• Cast time: 1.25 seconds
• Radius: 4.75 meters
• Gravity duration: 2 seconds
• Vulnerable duration: 5 seconds
• Cooldown: 45 seconds
• Cost: Free
• Max charges: 1

Aka Astra’s “suck”, Gravity Well combos well with Nebula or Nova Pulse.

And if you think you need to catch enemies for the full explosion/debuff effect to see any value from this ability, you’re dead wrong!

Setups and use guide:
Astra’s Gravity Well is a cruel and versatile ability that, used right, can put a major hurtin’ on your enemies.

One of the simplest tips for a top Gravity Well strat is to play it on long areas and make easy targets of your enemies by drawing them right into your crosshair, even through smokes.

Or, use it on common angles players like to hold and you’ll make life painfully difficult for them. Whether they’re displaced or hit by the double damage debuff, they’re in for a hard time!

Escaping Gravity Well isn’t impossible… but it’s not easy unless you have your melee weapon out.

It takes players about 3 seconds to escape this ability while fully running with a gun out – that’s 3 seconds where your enemies are gonna be stupidly inaccurate and a dead easy mark! Fish, meet barrel.

Even if your enemies do escape the suck, they’ll be running to do it, which will totally nuke any plans they had of being sneaky.

And if enemies hold their ground or fail to escape, they’ll be clocked by a brutal 5-second double damage debuff – the perfect time for your team to push the advantage and take the kill!

So you see, Gravity Well is a win-win, whether it hits for the full effect or not.

It’s also a top way to turn cheeky peeks on their heads and score some free picks.

Dealing with a high-traffic area or looking for a way to drag enemies out of those pesky camping spots we all love to hate? Gravity Well’s great for that too!

Those who learn how to play Astra like a pro will often combo Gravity Well with Nebula – especially when used a short distance apart to cover a main entrance, this can make things insanely hard for enemies trying to push through.

This ability can be perfect as a post-plant utility – it’s a great way to pull enemies off the defuse, but precision is everything if you try this. Place your Star at the edge of the max diffuse range.

• If it’s too far from the spike, enemies can defuse still at the edge of the defuse circle, without getting hit by the suck.
• Place it too far and you’ll hit enemies with the suck, but you won’t pull them off the defuse.

Our final tip for Gravity Well is to combo it with a molly from the likes of Brim, Phoenix, or Viper, and laugh while your enemies burn.

Full ability description:
ACTIVATE a Star to form a Gravity Well.

Players in the area are pulled toward the center before it explodes, making all players still trapped inside fragile.

X - Astral Form/Cosmic Divide

Enter an orbital spectral state to place stars on the map that Astra’s other abilities use.

When Cosmic Divide is charged, use it to create a wall that blocks bullets and mutes noise on the other side.

• Ability type: Ultimate
• Cosmic Divide duration: 21 seconds
• Ultimate cost: 7

It’s kind of like a bulletproof Viper wall that lets abilities through, and cuts through the whole map between the points you place.

Setups and use guide:
Unlike other agents’ Ultimates, because it’s key to how you use all of Astra’s abilities, you can enter Astral Form at any time. You’ll only be able to activate Cosmic Divide though once it’s charged.

Used right, it’s an incredibly versatile Ult – but you’ve got to be careful, as a poor placement could be just what your enemies need to turn the tide against you.

The duration of Cosmic Divide is what makes this Ultimate so effective, and a perfect play for when you need to execute a site, plant the spike, and get into a strong post-plant position before it drops.

It’ll also come in dead handy when you’re retaking.

It’s not always easy to use this Ult, especially reactively mid-round. As with all Astra’s abilities, using Cosmic Divide well takes thinking strategically a few moves ahead.

If you’re using it to protect you while planting the spike (or in any situation, really), watch out for the audio cue that signals it’s about to disappear.

Full ability description:
ACTIVATE to enter Astral Form.

When Cosmic Divide is charged, use ALT FIRE in Astral Form to begin aiming it, then FIRE to select two locations.

An infinite Cosmic Divide connects the two points you select. Cosmic Divide blocks bullets and heavily dampens audio.