Lotus

Three sites · Rotating doors

Doors change the route mid-round, so a rotation read can be wrong twice.

3 sites · 28 published callouts · in the Competitive pool. Rewards Initiator · Sentinel.

Both defaults, and the buy

Attacking: Use the door as the fake, not as the entry.
Defending: Close a door early and make the map two sites instead of three.
First buy: Buy for the door you intend to open, and keep one player watching the one you did not.
Utility: One utility on the door, one on the site — the rotation read can be wrong twice.

Say it in three

Way in: A Main
Plant zone: A Site
They arrive: A Link

All of A: Top · Drop · Site · Hut · Tree · Door · Main · Rubble · Root · Lobby · Link · Stairs. Callout names are Riot’s own; the reduction to three is ours.

Lotus on video

City of Flowers // Lotus Official Map Trailer - VALORANT — VALORANTVALORANT on YouTube · plays here

Published by VALORANT on YouTube, 6 January 2023.

3 years old. VALORANT has been patched since, so watch it for how the kit plays, not for numbers — the rest of this page is written for the current patch.

It plays in YouTube’s own player once you press play. Nothing is downloaded or re-hosted here, and nothing loads from YouTube until then.

Five minutes in a custom game

1Walk in through A Main, B Main and C Main.1 min
2Stand in A Site, B Site and C Site and find two pieces of cover you can plant behind in each.2 min
3Hold A alone and time how long the rotation takes to reach you.1 min
4Retake through A Link and C Link — the route the defence uses.1 min

What the library can do here

A · Delay DefenceA Link → A Main
C · Block vision AttackC Lobby → C Main
B · Deny plant DefenceB Upper → B Site

Open the whole library

A tested starting point

Use the door as the fake and the second site as the answer.

Omen
Fade
Skye
Killjoy
Raze

What it covers, and what it cannot do

Lotus balance history

Riot's notes from patch 1.01 to 13.06 change Lotus in 2 patches. The latest is patch 12.05, published 2026-03-17.

Patch 12.052026-03-17
- Attacker lobby wall thickened to remove wall penetration off barrier drop.
AFTER
- Jump up to Vines moved to help attackers get out of Lobby and avoid utility dump.
- Wall outside of Tree room has been reinforced to remove wall penetration.
- A-site plant zone has changed so you can no longer plant for breakable/link
Why, in Riot's words
Overall we are happy where Lotus is at as a map in the pool. But as part of our effort across all maps to reduce weapon spam when the barrier drops, we have changed some walls on A side of the map. We also have been seeing consistent ability usage towards the A-lobby choke when barriers go down. We don't want to stop this completely, but feel moving the jump up to vines will give attackers a better chance to fight for rubble.
Extra room added outside of A-site stairs to help hold A-site and let defenders play further back from rubble
Patch 6.012023-01-18
- The Lotus-only queue has been removed.
- Lotus will now be included in the map rotation for Unrated and Competitive.
Why, in Riot's words
The volume for the rotating doors has been reduced while rotating. Please let us know what you think.

Every Lotus callout (28)

A: A Top · A Drop · A Site · A Hut · A Tree · A Door · A Main · A Rubble · A Root · A Lobby · A Link · A Stairs
Attacker Side: Attacker Side Spawn
B: B Pillars · B Main · B Site · B Upper
C: C Lobby · C Door · C Waterfall · C Link · C Mound · C Main · C Bend · C Site · C Hall · C Gravel
Defender Side: Defender Side Spawn