Valorant has a brand-new map added to the game called Lotus and the background of the map is just as lush as the scenery.
The ancient ruin of the past draws from real-world Dravidian architecture and is very beautiful to look at.
With new commentary from the designers of the map, we can now see Lotus in an all-new light.
A backstory for the map has also been developed to showcase just how detailed Lotus really is.
So, let's look at a behind-the-scenes view of Lotus in Valorant and how the designers came to the endpoint.
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A Hidden History of Lotus
These ruins known only by their codename, Lotus were hidden away for centuries in the heavily forested Western Ghats mountain range of southern India.
Harbor, an explorer, adventurer, and the newest member of VALORANT Protocol, had been searching for the ruins for years after hearing rumours of the ancient technology that lay within their walls.
Lead-level designer, Joe "Pearl Hogbash" Lansford stated...
"Lotus was built by a civilization who appear to have been aware of some powerful presence in the mirrorverse. And you’ll see evidence of that in the different shrines and shape language throughout the map.”
But it wasn’t until he found the artefacts which granted him his water-bending powers that Harbor would be able to locate and unlock the Lotus ruins with some help from his teammate Astra.
Something special happened here. Something powerful. Flower power. And the evidence of this plant technology is clearly recognizable as soon as you enter the map.
Lead Concept Artist, Brian “Peppy Yambino” Yam spoke about the science behind the map.
“Root circuitry, we like to call it. The idea was that these plants were mutated by radianite to absorb large amounts of energy from the sun due to their size. As you explore the map, you’ll see these giant lotus leaves encased in blue panels that act as power storage for various features on the map. The ancients who built this place found a way to encase these lotus leaves to extract the energy they’d absorbed.”
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Lotus Layout and Mechanical Features in Valorant
Lotus is a three-site map with corridors that weave each of the plant sites together.
Conveniently located hallways and passages make rotating from site to site quick and easy.
Pearl Hogbash says...
“A big design goal here was movement fluidity,” says Pearl Hogbash. “We wanted to allow teams to flex and pivot as the round progresses more easily than they often can on other maps.”
The main feature that makes Lotus unique is its two, giant mechanical doors that rotate 180 degrees.
These solid pieces of stone take 8 seconds to fully rotate, and during their rotation, they open otherwise blocked hallways for a limited time.
All of these features allow for strategic, satisfying gameplay with the ability to rotate quickly as an attacking team or retake sites as a defending one.
Also, the design team spent a lot of time proving these concepts out in the grey box mesh.
Valorant Lotus Inspiration
Omega Earth might not be real (as far as we know), but it’s still based on a real place.
Yup, you guessed it, Earth.
So of course, the team took inspiration from some real places and real peoples of our planet.
Peppy Yambino commented with...
"We took inspiration from the Petra ruins in Jordan. Petra has very interesting rock-cut architecture. And then somebody mentioned that we had an Indian agent in development. After doing some research, we found that India has similar kinds of ancient architecture. And we thought that lined up perfectly. So then we started looking towards India.”
READ MORE: When does Valorant's new map Lotus come to the competitive queue?
In the words of Astra herself, “The amount of power held here is staggering… There’s still so much I don’t know.”
The secrets of Lotus will be revealed in time. For now, the fighting amongst the ruins is just beginning.