Valorant: Essential Tips & Tricks to place Smokes
Apart from rewarding players who are mechanically gifted in terms of aim and reflexes, Valorant puts a heavy emphasis on tactical prowess and strategic execution.
One of the most vital tools in a Valorant player’s arsenal is extensive knowledge of smoke usage as it allows you to control sightlines and execute rotations.
Understanding the nuances of using smoking abilities across all 7 Valorant maps is essential to leveling up your gameplay and increasing your Valorant rank.
Ascent
Offense
When playing offense on Ascent, one of the best plays when attacking A site is to smoke the closing door on the left entrance to prevent any enemies from walking out of the site.
The other smoke you want to place on A site is on Heaven or Tree which prevents opponents from peeking out as well as one between A short and catwalk to prevent opponents from pushing into Tiles.
As far as B site goes, you should always make sure that you’re smoking the market door unless your team is specifically pushing through that area.
Otherwise, good smoking areas are deep mid and especially CT spawns as they prevent any opponents from walking out of B main.
Defense
On the other hand, when defending on Ascent, smoke off both of the entrances into A site and B site by smoking A Main and B Main.
If your team is moving aggressively and wants to take control of the map rather than sit back and wait for opponents, you can use aggressive smokes to help them out by smoking Tiles or Top Mid.
Fracture
Offense
As far as pushing A on Fracture goes, some of the best spots to place smokes are A Rope and A Heaven to block the defenders’ ability to get to high ground.
Depending on your team’s rotations, you have several options for smoking the areas on the opposite end that your opponents can use to pick you off as you enter the site.
On B site, the best aggressive smokes to use are on B Canteen and B Generator, unless you’re pushing through B main, in which case you’ll smoke off Arcade.
On the other hand, if you’re grouping and pushing through Arcade, smoke off B main to prevent defenders from ambushing you.
Defense
Defending Fracture A follows the same formula as the most common spots are attacker entrances to sites where the enemies enter which are A Main and A Drop.
Alternatively, if you’ve lost control of A Sands and you know the enemies are pushing there, you can smoke that entrance to A site as well.
As far as B site goes, simply smoking the B Main and placing a deep smoke on B Arcade will often be more than enough to get you control over your site.
Haven
Offense
When pushing A site, you always want to place your smokes on A Heaven as it’s the best high ground for your opponents to gain strategic advantage.
The other advantageous smoke is best used right below A Heaven as it forces the opponents to fight you directly in the doorway where you’ll have the upper hand.
On B site, your smokes are simple to execute as you only need to remember to smoke A link and C link to be able to enter B unnoticed and place the bomb.
Smoking the C site is also pretty simple on Haven as you only need to throw your smokes at CT Spawn and Garage to give you access to the site.
Defense
If you’re looking to make an advantageous push and gain some territory while playing Haven, using a smoke on A lobby will give you plenty of space to work with.
If you’re staying back and defending the site, however, smoking A short and long will do more than enough.
When defending B and C sites, simply smoke off the entrances to the site which are B door and C long or nearby chokepoints if your team is aggressively defending.
Icebox
Offense
On Icebox, the best spots to place aggressive smokes around A site are A Rafters on the top of the site as well as A Bottom next to Screen.
This allows you to gain full site control and spot enemies without risking being caught and ambushed by your opponents from somewhere like Screen or Rafters.
The best B site smokes when trying to contest the site is on the very top of the B site and in the back so you’re covering the Snowman entrance as well.
Additionally, smoking pathways like Kitchen and Pipe allow you to make aggressive rotations and gain further site control.
Defense
Icebox’s defense smoke strategy is very straightforward as your main goal is to block site entrances and make it difficult for your opponents to push and gain ground.
As far as defending A site goes, main entrances should be smoked when your enemies are approaching, where the location of your smoke depends on your team’s positioning and level of aggression.
When defending B site on Icebox, depending on your opponents’ positioning, you can either opt to block entrances to B Yellow or place deeper smokes from the B Green area.
Lotus
Offense
Placing offensive smokes on Lotus’ site A is fairly simple yet dependent on your team’s advancement on the map which means you can place them in either A Main or A Stairs as well as A Top.
On B site, there are three possible places where you can smoke when pushing, those being the entrances to the site in A Link, B Link, and C Upper.
Last but not least, your C site smokes on Lotus should be placed on C Waterfall and at the entrance of C Hall, allowing you to interrupt enemy rotations to that site.
Defense
If you’re tightly pushed and at the last breach of defending A site, you should place your smokes at the entrance to the site which is near the A Tree and A Entrance.
If you want to contest space and want to push your opponents to their spawn, don’t be afraid to venture further and make an aggressive smoke to a spot such as A Lobby or A Root.
On B site and C site defending is very easy as you only need to block out the main entrances such as B and C Main as well as A Link if your enemies are pathing there.
Pearl
Offense
In the situation where you’re attacking A site on Pearl, there are three key spots that you should look out for from which the defenders can peek.
Those are A Secret, Dugout, and Link, which is why all three are great spots to smoke. The choice between them depends on your team’s rotation on the map and approach to taking the site.
When attacking B site, you can either choose to smoke off the doorway to the Connector or the side link to it if you’re looking to use the Connector without any disturbances and flanks.
Alternatively, if you’re close enough to B, you can smoke Heaven to disrupt opponents from gaining high ground or smoke B Link if you’re facing resistance in that area.
Defense
Knowing your opponents’ position is the most important aspect of defending Pearl as your smokes depend on enemy rotation.
If you’re holding down site A, you’re going to want to smoke off either A Main, or if your opponents are rotating through A Art, you can smoke the A Link instead.
On B site defense, you can use two smokes on both entrances on B Main to fully cover the site and prevent your opponents from rotating through that entrance and having any vision.
Split
Offense
Last but not least, Split is the map where playing pushing A site is much easier with effective usage of smokes on spots like the A Heaven window and the Screens.
If you’re pushing mid with your team, smoking off the key area in Mid Vents will reveal any opponents and force them to reposition, allowing you to rotate normally.
Split’s B site is best attacked along the smokes at spots such as B Alley and B spawn to stop your opponents from having favorable positions to repel your attacks.
Alternatively, if your team is currently on A Heaven, you can replace these smokes with ones deeper in Heaven to avoid smoking out your own team.
Defense
When trying to defend the A site, the most common smoke spots you can use are the A Mains as well as Ramps which will block your opponents from pushing.
You can also block your opponents’ rotations by using deep smokes in Mid on a spot like Mid Top.
If they somehow end up pushing too quickly and you need to swiftly repel, you can use smokes at spots such as A Main or the entrance to A Heaven.
B site, however, is much more simple as the only critical entrance you need to consistently smoke is the entrance to B Main.
