As Rainbow Six Siege hits its 6th year since its release, we here at GamEir want to give you our hot take on gamings oldest and boldest comeback kid’s Year 6 content. So here’s all the new features, changes and balancing that’s to be expected in Rainbow Six Siege Year 6.
The Argentinian Job
Year 6 kicked off with Operation Crimson Heist (the 20th expansion of Rainbow Six). Right out of the gate, a new Argentinian operator called Flores has been introduced as part of Operation Crimson Heist. Flores’ kit has a new type of drone called the RCE-RATERO, which is basically a drone with a stick of dynamite.
When you deploy the drone a timer starts, when the timer runs out (either by activating it or when the timer runs out), the drone goes into detonation mode, anchors itself onto any surface, becomes bulletproof and detonates in 3 seconds. Flores seems more of a cute one-trick operator to me, but nonetheless, I see his utility in countering Mute’s Jammers or Mozzie’s pests if the situation calls for it. And no you will not get many kills with his drone, as the 3-second detonation timer will give any competent defender enough time to get out of the blast zone. Flores is available for 25,000 Renown, 600 R6 Credits or as the first unlock for the Battle Pass, speaking of which……
You get a Battle Pass and you get a Battle Pass
Year Six has done away with the traditional Season Pass, in favour of a new Battle Pass. This is a welcome change, allowing you to unlock the new operator (and an estimated 31 alpha packs, and a tonne of weapon and operator skins!) as you progress through the passes tiers. The Battle Pass will last from 16th March 2021 until the 25th May 2021, giving you 70 days to unlock all 100 tiers. But fear not, those of you who don’t want to pay for the Battle Pass, there are still a few tiers for you to unlock just by playing.
Bye Bye Secondary
A secondary weapon, the GONNE-6, has also been introduced in Crimson Heist. The GONNE-6 has 1 bullet and 1 bullet only. The round is explosive and I would advise you to use it as more of a gadget removal gun, rather than a traditional side-arm. Keep in mind the GONNE-6 will replace your secondary weapon, so all you Dokkaebi’s be ready to give up your SMGs in exchange for it! Also beware, Jager’s ADS can destroy the GONNE-6’s bullet! Similar to Flores, it’s a cute little gun with some decent utility but I don’t see this warping the meta or anything of the sort.
Year Six new features
Streamer mode is a new feature that’s been added, which will hopefully reduce stream sniping and queue sniping which is a little too prevalent in the Siege community. Another miscellaneous feature includes the new Reputation System which will counter toxic player behaviour. It’s still unclear what this entails, but it seems to be an under the hood feature that is invisible to players as of the writing of this.
Re-Works
Expect a decent amount of re-works on maps in Year 6 as well. Border is the first map to see some major re-works. Favela and Outback will also experience re-works later this year, so expect that down the pipeline. These re-works will probably be along there same lines as what we saw last year in the House re-work, which is good for casual players, less so for ranked/competitive players.
Personally, I’d rather they re-work other maps that seem in more desperate need of it such as Coastline, rather than fan favourites like Favela. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but it’s nice to see re-works for a more casual audience. Additionally, smaller re-works are expected across all maps. I have no idea what this entails, whether it’s moving a door, restructuring or just moving a desk to make the room look bigger.
Balancing, Nerfing and Changes
Some much needed nerfing and balancing has been rolled out this year as well. The one I’m most happy about is Blackbeard’s shield now has reduced HP from 50 to 20 HP, meaning he can only absorb one shot and he is finally more or less useless. A Melusi nerf is on the cards, making her Banshee destructible once triggered. The developers have also speculated re-working the “downtime” phase such as preparation phase and death phase.
This includes allowing you to re-pick Operators during the preparation phase and being able to operate drones after death. These to me are very welcome changes for casual players, but I’m thinking this may cause quite a stir in the competitive community. But again, great changes to see! Armour has experienced a good bit of rebalancing, giving Operators with higher armour class bigger health pools. This is a fantastic change and noticeable change, as now the heavily armoured Operators feel heavy and less like delicate chunky vases.
As for later on in the year, 3 more operators are set to be released and available on the Battle Pass, Nakoda an American Operator, a Croatian Operator, and an Irish Operator. No details yet about any of these new Operators so stay tuned for that.
So expect a lot more this year from Rainbow Six Siege, as it certainly is shaping up to be a great year to jump in, especially casual players.
And stay tuned for all things Rainbow Six Siege from us here at GamEir.
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