Rainbow Six Siege Year 6 Season 1 Major Changes Explained

Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege is gearing up to enter its sixth year of content, beginning with Operation Crimson Heist. The Year 6 Season 1 update is already on the test server and fully releases next month. Big changes continue to come to the long-running game for Crimson Heist, including a new way of unlocking operators, continued release of reworked maps, and brand new items. As always, a new Rainbow Six Siege season brings a rank reset, requiring players to play ten placement matches.

Ubisoft has diligently compiled a list of the changes in a set of patch notes. The seasonal updates are always the largest, and bring the greatest changes, especially compared to the Year 5 Season 4.3 patch. Most notably, seasonal updates such as this offer a new operator, expanding the roster to 59 playable characters. Aside from the major changes, Ubisoft has made small tweaks to several game mechanics and continue their constant fight against bugs.

Those who play the test server can hop in and see the changes for themselves, but all the other allegedly high IQ players will want to get familiar with the changes before the full release. Here’s a quick look at the major points of the Year 6 Season 1 update coming to Rainbow Six Siege.

Rainbow Six Siege’s New Operator: Flores

Hailing from Argentina, the first openly gay R6 operator Flores joins the attackers of Team Rainbow, bringing his explosive drone with him. The RCE-Ratero Charge drone is significantly larger than even Twitch’s drone. Flores’ RCE-Ratero Charge cannot be thrown, and has to be placed on the ground. From the moment it’s activated, Flores has a maximum of 10 seconds to maneuver it before it enters its detonation mode. Detonation mode can also be manually activated, and starts a 3 second countdown during which it becomes bulletproof.

The explosion caused by the Ratero does do enough damage to kill an enemy, however it does provide its would-be victims with a danger indicator even through walls. The drone also becomes immobile once detonation mode is activated, giving defenders three seconds to move out of the blast radius. Flores comes stocked with 4 drones, giving him plenty of opportunities to destroy defender gadgets.

Flores has the opportunity to bring the AR33 or SR-25 as his primary weapon in Rainbow Six Siege, and gets the GSH-18 as his only sidearm. He has a choice between stun grenades or a claymore for his gadget. Like most new additions to Siege, Flores is a 2 armor/2 speed operator.

Siege Year 6 Season 1 Map Rework: Border

Border was the second expansion map added to Rainbow Six Siege way back in Year 1 Season 2, and Ubisoft is continuing the trend of transforming player-favorite maps. This rework seeks to expand the map a bit and allow more room for players to move around. The first floor Bathroom and Tellers objectives have been made larger, with a destructible wall being added between them. Players who have been playing the Road to S.I. 2021 event, which had a Stadium map combining Border and Coastline, will recognize the changes made to the upstairs Archives and Armory objectives. They’ve both been expanded and had their cover shifted around.

The Customs Inspection and Supply Room bomb sites on the first floor got the opposite treatment, and have been made a bit less open. Fewer destructible walls and open sight lines will help defenders hold Rainbow Six Siege’s objectives. A balcony has been added to the second floor, connecting the Break Room to the East Stairs and overlooking the Waiting Room. Border was previously a notoriously small map, and Ubisoft is hoping this small but effective change will aid in player movement. Although mobility has increased, Rainbow Six Siege players will have to be careful about making too much noise. The ambient helicopter sounds have been decreased, and the repeated intercom messages are only played during Rainbow Six Siege’s prep phase now.

Other Changes Coming to Siege in Crimson Heist

A new and powerful secondary weapon is coming to attacker loadouts in Rainbow Six Siege’s Crimson Heist. The GONNE-6 is designed to counter bulletproof cameras and other gadgets that are only susceptible to explosions, such as Melusi’s Banshees. The GONNE-6 is a hand cannon that shoots projectiles which explode on impact, reminiscent of the Charge weapon upgrade from Control. It will be given to Dokkaebi and Finka to replace their C75 and GSH-18 sidearms respectively.

The long-awaited Match Replay feature is finally entering its beta form in Rainbow Six Siege Year 6. Players can watch a recording of their recent matches to study tactics and get a better understanding of the maps. Match Replay will be available from the main menu when Crimson Heist drops. A streamer mode is also coming to the game next month. Streamers will be able to hide personal info from viewers and set up a matchmaking delay in an attempt to combat stream sniping. This change comes just weeks after the code of conduct banned stream sniping.

Mozzie will be getting a slight nerf in Rainbow Six Siege Year 6 Season 1 thanks to an upgrade to drones across the board. An icon will now pulse on attackers’ screens when their drone is nearing one of Mozzie’s Pests. Previously, an icon would appear letting the drone pilot know that a Pest was in the vicinity, but now attackers will have a better sense of their maneuverability.

Attackers will also now be aware when their gadgets have been disabled by Mute, who can now neutralize claymores and Nomad’s Airjabs. These, in addition to drones, breach charges, Hibana’s X-Kairos, Fuze’s Cluster Charge, Thermite’s Exothermic Charge, and Zero’s ARGUS will give the user feedback when Mute has thwarted their plans.

A change is being made in an attempt to ensure Rainbow Six Siege’s bomb defuser gets to the objective and isn’t lost on the other side of the map. Certain operators have been given priority status for receiving the defuser when no one has picked it up in the planning phase. For instance, Ubisoft uses the example of Thermite being selected by the game over Ash to be given the defuser since his role is more objective oriented.

There is a whole host of other small changes and tweaks coming in Year 6 of Rainbow Six Siege, all of which can be seen in the Crimson Heist info page. Ubisoft’s pre-season Designer’s Notes also offer some insight into these changes and why they have been made. Rainbow Six Siege is still going strong, even in its sixth year. Operation Crimson Heist is on the way and there’s plenty for the fan base to look forward to.

Sources: Ubisoft Crimson Heist info & Designer’s Notes

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