The newest season of Rainbow Six Siege is right around the corner, and with this new season comes the usual two new operators, a map rework, and a whole slew of quality-of-life changes, including some gadget reworks, mechanic improvements, and more.
Some of these changes are pretty significant, with one of them having been asked often for quite a long time. Let's dive in!
10 THEME PARK MAP REWORK
One of the most immediate changes players will notice is the Theme Park rework. The map's been added back into the Ranked Playlist, and Skyscraper has been removed (thank the gods). Theme Park has always been a map that's almost great, but has had some lingering problems that have made it a frustrating experience. Many of those issues have now been fixed (including the removal of the train room in the middle of the 2F), and the map should hopefully be able to transition into a healthy, competitive map for the foreseeable future.
9 WAMAI
Wamai is the new Defender coming in Operation Shifting Tides. Wamai's primary function is to be an alternative to Jager, who hasn't had much real competition in his role since the game launched. Wamai is a 2-speed 2-armor operator, with the option of having either the AUG A2 or the MP5K as his primary, with either the D40 or the P-12 as his secondary, and either Barbed Wire or a Deployable Shield. What makes Wamai interesting is his increased versatility in his gadget as compared to Jager. Over time, Wamai refills his stock of gadgets (like Lesion). His Mag-NET's attach to any surface and attracts incoming ordnance before self-destructing them. Most ordnance is still going to have the same effect, but that effect will be wherever the Mag-NET is placed as opposed to where the Attacker intended it to go.
8 KALI
Kali is the new Attacker coming in Operation Shifting Tides, and she's going to be pretty interesting for a couple of reasons. First off, Kali's gadget is going to be the newest (and probably most convenient) Thatcher competition, though her weapons are going to require her to have a very different playstyle from Thatcher.
Kali comes with the CSRX 300, the first bolt-action weapon to be introduced to Siege. This rifle will one-shot DBNO (down but not out) any operator in the game on a body shot, regardless of their armor rating. Her gadget, the LV Explosive Lance, will destroy gadgets on each side of the wall it's fired upon, even if the wall is reinforced.
7 QUICK PLAY
One of the minor changes in Shifting Tides is the name change to Quick Play from Casual. This is purely a name change; the mode is staying the same in functionality. The change is likely an attempt to curb toxicity in the mode, as Casual has been a bit of a revolving door of people leaving and coming in for the whole match for quite a while now. Whether or not this will make any difference is yet to be seen, but it's something.
6 LIMB PENETRATION
Perhaps the biggest quality of life change in Operation Shifting Tides is the addition of limb penetration into Siege. Previously, if you fired at an enemy's head but their hand is in the way of the shot, it would only count as a body shot, instead of a headshot. Now, certain weapons are going to be able to penetrate body parts to varying degrees of success. Close-range shotguns and secondary SMGs aren't going to have any penetration. Most main SMGs, assault rifles, pistols, and LMGs are all going to penetrate things like hands and legs. Lastly, weapons like sniper rifles and a couple of the longer-range shotguns are going to be able to fully penetrate bodies to hit others behind them, for 30% damage.
5 RAPPEL EXIT
One small quality of life change coming in the new season is the rappel exit mechanic. Currently in Siege, when you get to the very edge of the rooftop while rappelling, you automatically transition to the rooftop and exit rappel.
In the new season, there's going to be a button confirmation to come out of rappel to transition to the rooftop, in order to prevent accidentally exiting rappel while trying to play near the top of a window.
4 CAPITAO ELITE SET/NEW SEASON SKINS
The newest Elite set to come into the game is going to be Capitao. From back in the day when he rocked a full head of hair, this Capitao skin is some pretty casual attire to be wearing into the thick of battle, but it does look pretty sweet. Plus, his victory animation shows that he's got some pretty slick soccer (or football, depending on what side of the pond you're on) skills.
With the new season also comes two new seasonal weapon skins: the Vessel Wave skin with aquatic camo, and the Palace Virtue skin with some nice white-marble and blue, green, and gold accents. These skins should, as usual, be able to fit all of the guns currently in the game, and, once purchased, will be available to use forever.
3 JACKAL CHANGE
Definitely the biggest operator rework coming in Shifting Tides, Jackal is getting some changes that should hopefully limit the amount he's going to be banned, while still maintaining his role and keeping his playstyle intact. Now, the number of times that scanning a footprint will ping the enemy is dependent on how old the footprint is; the older the print, the fewer pings. It'll be possible to tell the age of the print now as well, with different colored prints representing different ages. Also, after scanning a set of prints, they will now disappear, as opposed to being able to scan the same set of prints for quite a while, as it was before.
There are also a bunch of small minor changes to Jackal's ability and it's interaction with other operators. If you're looking to give Jackal a go once the new season starts, it's worth reading the full notes here.
2 SMOKE TOXIC GAS
Smoke's toxic gas is also getting a slight change in a way that's a bit of a nerf, but in a way that makes sense. As it stood before Shifting Tides, Smoke's gas would penetrate through walls, regardless of whether or not there was a hole in the wall for the gas to slip through or not. Now, his gas will stop when up against a wall, unless there's a hole in the wall big enough for the gas to flow.
Along with that, his gas is also being changed visually so as not to obstruct vision nearly as much.
1 VOICE LINE CHANGES
Lastly, if you notice a couple of the operators sounding a little different once the new season starts, you aren't going crazy. Both Hibana and Mira have gotten new voice actors, and their currently existing voice lines have been re-recorded. The reason for this being, according to Ubisoft: "...with the expansion of our Universe content, we needed to make adjustments to our talent line up to ensure consistency."