How long does it take to defuse the spike in Valorant?

Like CS2 (CSGO), the game of Valorant revolves around the spike. On the attacking side, you must go to the sites to plant the bomb or kill the enemy team before the time runs out. On the defending site, you must hold the site or kill all enemies to win the round.

If you cannot defend the site and the enemy team plant the spike, you can still win the game as long as you completely defuse the spike. But do you know how long it takes to defuse the spike successfully?

Defusing the Valorant spike

If kept uninterrupted, defusing the spike takes approximately seven seconds. The defuser can also half-defuse the spike after an uninterrupted 3.5 seconds.

Once a defender spends an uninterrupted at least 3.5 seconds defusing the spike before canceling the defuse or getting killed, the spike will be half-defused.

All players in range will be given an audio cue if a defender defuses the spike. However, no sound cues will be heard when the defender stops defusing the spike. There is also no different sound cue when the defenders quickly tap the spike, or what we call "fake defuse."

Aside from sound cues, players in the spike range will also be given visual cues when defenders start defusing. For example, when defusing, the spike's lights turn red, and the outer casing rises from the floor to the top.

Riot Games made sure that the spike was easy to guard when planted since defenders can only defuse the spike as long as they are within the radius of the bomb, marked by a white circle.

Planting the Valorant spike

The planting process only takes approximately four seconds. Once planted, all players will be given a sound cue regardless of location, and the spike beings to beep. 

After planting the spike, the players will hear one tick every second for the first 25 seconds. Then, for the next 10 seconds, two ticks every second. Then for the next five seconds, four ticks every second. Lastly, eight ticks will be heard for the final five seconds.

If the enemy team does not have enough time to defuse the spike completely, it will create an explosion after 45 seconds. When the spike explodes, it produces a destructive black sphere that rapidly expands from the spike's location, killing any players it contacts. As a tip, the maximum radius of the explosion is about the same as the player's audio range when running, which is also displayed on the minimap as a circle around the player.

Overall, there is a workaround for defusing the spike without the enemy knowing. Tenz gave a tip on successfully defusing the spike in Valorant by doing the jump defuse. All you need to do is to jump before defusing the spike.