The full reveal of Abyss, VALORANT’s latest map, is finally here with details of its treacherous lack of boundaries and more.
It has been an eventful June 8, or June 9 if you're in Shanghai, for Riot Games. Part of their new map's trailer leaked, forcing their hand to release the full thing themselves. And now, they have officially revealed everything we need to know about Abyss, the newest and perhaps most dangerous map in VALORANT.
We'll still need to wait for the Showmatch taking place at VCT Masters Shanghai to see it in action for the first time, but we've got you covered on all the details of the latest map to enter the first-person shooter's rotation.
When does Abyss launch in VALORANT?
Per Riot Games, Abyss arrives in VALORANT on June 11, 2024. The update will go live that Tuesday, and the new map will be playable in the FPS.
It slots into the map pool with patch 8.11. This will see the exit of Breeze and Split, with Abyss joining the rotation and Haven returning.
Abyss is VALORANT's first map with no boundaries
Most of the maps in VALORANT have some sort of gimmick. For example, Bind has the teleporters, Lotus has the three sites and revolving doors, and Fracture has the ziplines with unique spawn points.
When it comes to Abyss in VALORANT, the gimmick is zero boundaries. That means you can fall off the map if you aren't careful. Pitfalls and vertical gameplay are the takeaways here in this secret fortress of the Scions of the Hourglass.
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Key features
Here are some key features that better put Abyss into perspective when it comes to VALORANT:
- Two Spike sites
- A three lane layout
- "Death drops," meaning losing your life if you take a wrong turn
- Creative "jump shortcuts" found throughout the map
- Branching mid paths on the map
Per Joey Simas, Lead Map Designer for VALORANT, here's what the inspiration was for Abyss and its concepts:
"We think players want to chase that 'clippable play' and we wanted to lean into this by allowing more creative freedom around the map. We’ve always enjoyed high risk high reward gameplay and wanted to bring a bit of that thrilling danger into VALORANT without it feeling overwhelming."
Simas also states that the map had much more verticality at the start, with jump pads and crash pads as new mechanics. Eventually, those were removed and the current state of the map was settled upon.
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