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Map · 3 sites

Lotus

🇮🇳 Western Ghats, India

Lotus takes up the principle of the three spike sites and adds rotating doors, a door that can be destroyed and a silent descent. It is the map with the highest density of shortcuts in the game, and the one where a piece of position information three seconds old is already not worth much.

The Lotus map in Valorant
LocationWestern Ghats, India
Spike sites 3 sites
LayoutThree sites, two doors
Mechanic Doors, Verticality
Added in2023
Layout Callouts Key points Strategies Agents
The ground

THE LOTUS MAP LAYOUT

Lotus spreads out three spike sites, A, B and C, linked by a network of corridors rather than by a central courtyard. Two rotating doors and one breakable door open extra passages, which multiplies the possible routes towards each site and makes the flanks constant. In the lore, the map sits in the Western Ghats, in India, around an ancient temple overrun by vegetation.

Annotated callout map of Lotus
A Site The most complex side of the map: A Main and A Rubble open the fights at range, then everything tightens up as you approach the site. It is also where the verticality of the map is found, with the rope that climbs to A Top and the silent descent into A Drop.
Mid On Lotus, the middle is not an open courtyard but two corridors, A Link and C Link, which link the outer sites to B Site. Holding them means controlling the speed of the rotations of both teams.
B Site The smallest site in the game, set into the center of the map, with a central hollow as its only cover. It is taken quickly, but the defenders come back to it through A Link, through C Link and from above.
C Site A wide site approached through C Main, with C Mound as the lock upstream of it. The rotating door on the C side comes out onto B Main, which makes it as much a gateway towards B as an access to C.

The doors of Lotus

The map has two rotating doors operated by a button present on both sides: one on the A side, between the area of A Main and A Rubble and A Tree, and one on the C side, between C Mound and B Main. Once triggered, they pivot slowly, open a temporary shortcut and destroy any utility placed in their path, traps and cameras included. There is also a breakable door between A Main and A Link: it is destroyed by gunfire, makes a lot of noise and stays open until the end of the round.

Vocabulary

ALL THE CALLOUTS ON LOTUS

Lotus has a lot of callouts, because the map is large and the routes look alike: it is the map where an imprecise call costs the most.

Callout In plain English Tactical role
A Lobby The A lobby The attacker starting area on the A side. It opens onto A Main and is easily trapped to cover the flanks.
A Main A main entrance The major attacking route into A Site, well suited to duels at range. One of the first areas contested in the round, and one of the ways through towards A Link.
A Rubble The rubble The area of debris adjoining A Main, on the attacker side. Together with A Main, it is the sector both teams fight over from the opening.
A Root The roots A passage lined with large roots, running parallel to A Rubble. A classic sightline for an Operator player early in the round.
A Stairs The stairs on A The stairs linking A Main to the upper part of the site. A flanking route popular with lurkers and a common holding angle on defense.
A Tree The tree on A A position on A Site, next to the large tree, and the end of the rotating door on the A side. A good place to surprise a player planting the Spike.
A Top The top of A The upper part of A Site, reached by the rope at the back of the site. It gives a view down over the plant area.
A Drop The drop on A The area you land in coming down from A Top. The descent makes no noise at all if you walk instead of running, which makes it the most discreet way of taking someone from behind on the map.
A Link The A link The corridor linking the A side to B Site. The breakable door of A Main comes out into it, which makes it the fastest rotation on the map once it is open.
C Link The C link The corridor linking the C side to B Site. A major retake axis for the defenders and a discreet way in for an attacker playing back.
B Pillars The pillars on B The central corridor the attackers take to go down towards B Main. It is the middle route in the literal sense, the one that leads to B Site by the shortest way.
B Main B main entrance The frontal entrance to B Site, narrow and heavily watched. It is also the end of the rotating door on the C side, and therefore a possible second way out from C Mound.
B Upper The top of B The upper part overlooking B Site and its entrance. The best holding angle on the site, and a spot to clear before any plant.
B Lower The bottom of B The central hollow below B Site, the only genuine cover in the plant area. You also hear it called B Pit.
C Lobby The C lobby The attacker starting area on the C side. It leads to C Mound and to C Main.
C Mound The mound on C The earth mound upstream of C Site, the lock on the C side just as A Rubble is on the A side. It commands the access to C Main and to the rotating door towards B Main.
C Main C main entrance The main attacking route into C Site. Long and open, it calls for smokes to be crossed cleanly.
C Door The door on C The name given to the rotating door on the C side, between C Mound and B Main. Its opening is visible to both teams, and therefore never discreet.
C Waterfall The waterfall The waterfall area, on the flank of C Site. A common flanking angle on defense and a way through used by the attackers to pinch the site.
C Bend The bend on C The bend in the C Main corridor, just before the site. A natural breaking point where you pause before entering.

The callouts of Lotus, with their zone and their tactical role.

Remember

THE KEY POINTS OF THE MAP

A Site

A Main and A Rubble

The first point of friction in every round. The side that takes this sector chooses whether to attack A or to swing onto B through A Link.

C Site

C Mound

The equivalent of A Rubble on the C side. Holding it gives access to C Main and to the rotating door that comes out onto B Main, and therefore to two sites instead of one.

Mid

A Link and the breakable door

Once the door of A Main is destroyed, A Link becomes the fastest rotation on the map. It stays open until the end of the round, for both teams.

Gameplan

THE COMMON STRATEGIES

Attacking

Take a lock, then choose

  • Invest in A Rubble and A Main or in C Mound from the opening, because these two sectors each give access to two sites.
  • Break the door of A Main early when the swing onto B is part of the plan, so as not to lose time at the moment of the execute.
  • Trigger a rotating door to draw attention to one side, since its opening is visible to the defenders, then strike somewhere else.
  • Use the silent descent into A Drop to place a player behind the defense while the team occupies A Main.
Defending

Contest early, place nothing in the doors

  • Go out and contest A Rubble and C Mound early in the round, because leaving them to the attackers amounts to defending two sites at once.
  • Never place traps, cameras or turrets in the path of a rotating door, which destroys them as it pivots.
  • Watch for the noise of the breakable door of A Main, which announces an imminent swing onto B.
  • Keep a player able to cover A Top and A Drop, the most discreet way of taking someone from behind on the map.
Media

DISCOVER LOTUS ON VIDEO

Riot Games' official map overview, useful for picturing the volumes and the heights before you set foot on it.

Map overview

The video only loads when you click, so it does not slow the page down.

Explore

THE OTHER MAPS

Ascent
Bind
Haven
Split
Icebox
Breeze

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT LOTUS

Rotating doors, three sites, a silent descent: the questions that come up again and again about Lotus.

It is one of the most demanding maps in the game, but it stays playable as a beginner. The difficulty does not come from the doors, which you understand in a single game, but from the number of routes: three sites, two links, two rotating doors and one breakable door make a lot of directions to watch. The useful reflex is to learn the names of the big areas first, A Main, A Rubble, B Main, C Mound, before going into the detail. The rest comes with the games, and it is better to play a simpler map alongside it to work on the fundamentals.

There are two rotating doors on the map, one on the A side and one on the C side, and each of them is triggered by a button that can be reached from both sides. Once activated, the door pivots slowly then closes again, which opens a shortcut for a limited time. Two important consequences: its opening is visible to both teams, so it never serves as a discreet way through, and it destroys any utility placed in its path, traps, cameras and turrets included. In practice, it is used more as a tool for a fast rotation or for an openly assumed fake than as a surprise entry.

A Site has a rope that climbs to A Top, and you can come back down from A Top into A Drop. The particular feature is that this descent produces no noise at all as long as you walk instead of running. It lets you reposition without being heard, on defense to take an angle back, on attack to arrive behind a player holding the site. That is the reason why a defender should always know who, in their team, is covering this area.

The map pushes towards agents able to search short angles and to hold an area with few players. An initiator geared towards the nooks is often worth more than a long range reconnaissance agent, because the fights are played mostly at short range once you are past A Main. A sentinel who locks a site down frees a player up to contest A Rubble or C Mound, the two sectors that decide the opening. Finally, a controller with smokes available often is valuable, because a map with three sites multiplies the fakes and the executes in the same round.

THE MAPS OF VALORANT

Every map in the game, filterable by number of sites and by mechanic, each with its own detailed page.

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Author: Yassine