As many know by now, Ubisoft sneakily released a huge update, which contained the new season and updates. This new season, which was planned to be released after the Rainbow Six Event in Ubisoft Forward, accidentally went live at 8PM on 10th September. Siege has seen a massive overhaul with this update; and the entire community is happy (well, mostly). Many changes from the TTS were brought on, and some didn’t make it to the final update. In case you’re living under a rock (like Patrick the starfish, except he is cool and you are not), Ubisoft brought tons of nerfs and buffs, some of which are bound to completely change the meta of the game. Don’t worry, we got you. We have discussed some of the biggest changes, and we hope this will help you understand the changes Ubisoft has dealt us with.
Y5S3 Operator: Zero
Ubisoft is really going in for the nostalgia train, and brought back an old friend for the new season. The legend himself, Sam Fisher, protagonist of Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell franchise joins the Rainbow Six team as the new attacker. Well, Splinter Cell is also a part of the Tom Clancy – verse, so it’s kind of like the crossover nobody thought Ubisoft would venture into. Why the leader of the fourth echelon joined team Rainbow has is still unknown, but hey, new drinking buddy for our old men club of Thatcher and Kaid! Sam, or as he is codenamed in Siege, “Zero”, brought some unique features and a huge buff to attackers. Attackers have always lacked in Six Siege, with defenders having a ton of more utilities and info than the attackers. Zero is here to level that field, and brings the new Argus Launcher, a handgun that fires a sticky camera that can be turned to either side of a soft surface and fires one taser that destroys anything that isn’t bulletproof. He gets 4 of these bad boys, and think of it as a combination of Twitch’s Shock Drone and Valkyrie’s Black Eye Cams. His load-out consists of the SC3000k Assault Rifle, Bandit’s MP7, the 5.7 USP pistol of the FBI ops but with an integrated suppressor. Secondary gadgets to choose from include the claymore and frag grenades. (Yes, cry, Buck mains.) Right now he is on early access for 7 days to Year Pass holders, but will be available to everyone after a week.
Y5S3 Map: Chalet Rework
Chalet was one of the most controversial maps in the community; with one side hailing chalet as a good map whereas another saying it’s the worst thing in siege after Lion when he came out. But with the new update, the beautiful house on a snowy mountainside has seen fair amount of balancing, and praise from its haters. It has to be one of the best reworks in my opinion, after Oregon. The biggest change you will notice is how the Dark Corridors is now brightened up and how the map itself is big. New hallways have been added and the bushes inside the map have been reduced, so no fear of players hiding in them. Another big change is, the long slit in the kitchen is boarded up, and the bomb from trophy is now shifted to Dining Hall. Many windows including the double window in office is gone, and the balcony outside the master bedroom is now a big room itself. Trophy Room downstairs is connected with it by a staircase. Library on second floor kept almost all of its original features except some windows being boarded up. The Garden underneath the Library stairs that connected fire place hall is gone too. Basement’s snow mobile garage has seen some massive overhaul too, with a hallway connecting wine cellar with the site. This hall is an extension of the previously known blue stairs. Wine cellar is a bit clearer with many covers gone. I won’t be going in to tell you why this might be a disadvantage. Why don’t you try it yourself, and let us know if you loved this new Chalet? We’ll be interested to know your views on this one.
Images from the Chalet Rework
Y5S3 Meta Change: Siege 2.0?
Let’s be honest, the game was stale with not many huge updates except maps and operators. But Ubisoft really made a massive improvement and almost reworked Siege to its core. While the base game is still attacker vs defender in a search-and-destroy environment, there are a ton of new features that completely made Siege into a different version than it was. First of these changes and the major one is:
New Optics:
Almost everyone’s beloved ACOG sight is now gone. The new optics feature a zoom of 2.0x and 1.5x scopes. In defence, only Vigil retained the ACOG on his BOSG shotgun. Doc’s reign of terror with those spawn-peeks finally ended, with him losing the ACOG, and getting a 1.5x scope instead. Buck, Maverick, IQ and Twitch lost their ACOGs, in favour of the 1.5x too. Lesion, Mute, Wamai, Tachanka and Kapkan gained 1.5 in their SMGs, i.e., the T5, mp5k and the 9x19VSN. Also there are new variants of Holographic and Red Dot sights.
Pool Reinforcements:
Tired of randoms leaving site without walling their reinforcements? Don’t worry, there now exists a common reinforcement pool for all. All of the defenders now have shared reinforcements, and now you don’t need to nag (or shout; as shouting worked better) your teammates to reinforce specific hatches or walling a 3 part soft-wall. You can simply do it all by yourself.
This is a huge boost to defenders like Valkyrie, who tend to be roamers and need to traverse the map to set up their gadgets and/or utilities at positions.
Ping 2.0:
Now you can ping friendly and enemy gadgets to let your teammates know about their position with drones and cameras. Although this one might feel irrelevant for the 5 stacks or 4 stacks, as you automatically tend to communicate that over mics. It’s a great feature for solo queued players.
Secondary Hard Breach:
Your Maverick, Ace, Hibana or Thermite got spawn-peeked and you don’t have any other hard breacher? Don’t worry you can still open hole in reinforcements with this small new gadget. Currently only Montagne, Capitao, Fuze, Lion, Amaru, Nokk, Finka and Ying have this gadget. This can also blast open hatches.
Sound Engine 2.0:
Sound is always essential in a game like siege, and the previous sound engine was bad. Like really bad. Players have complained about it for 5 years, and Ubisoft finally decided to listen to the community. They reworked the sound engine, and sound is now much more prominent and clear, and easier to pinpoint directions which they are coming from.
Map Ban:
We’ve all come across moments when the worst map comes up. Repeatedly. It’s like Lady Luck has decided to mess with you, and there you are, a helpless player. Well now, you can tell Lady Luck to bugger off, with this new feature that allows players to select map of their preference. The game picks 3 random maps for you and each team vote for 1 to be banned. If both team decides on the same map the game selects from one of the 2 remaining.
Optic Colors:
You can now change your sight reticle to your favorite color in the accesibility tab under settings.
Y5S3 Shadow Legacy Battle Pass
With each season, Ubisoft brings in the battle passes that last almost a month. This season the battle pass is upto 70 levels with some pretty great cosmetics. Vigil, Sledge, Melusi, Ace, Lesion, Jackal, Iana, Fuze, Gridlock, Hibana, Nokk, Mute, Finka and Zero are all getting some good skins this time. The ‘Mission Blacksmith’ skins for Iana, Amaru, Gridlock, Ace, Hibana and Melusi are actually very decent looking skins. Mute is also getting 2 legendary pieces of gear which rivals his elite “F Squadron” and Fisher getting his iconic Nightvision alongside weapon skins, charms alpha packs and R6 Credits. The Battle pass costs 1200 R6 Credits for everyone except the season pass holders, who gets it for 840 R6 Credits
Ubisoft really changed the game and it feels way more optimized than it was with better textures and faster load times. Animations are much smoother as well. Enjoy Shadow Legacy as it is the biggest season Ubisoft put up for Rainbow Six Siege till date. Stay tuned in and follow LAG Asia for more content on future releases.
