Ubisoft reinforce Rainbow Six Siege with a chunky mid-season update

Rainbow Six Siege is a dying game AMIRITE? Actually, it’s not. Believe it or not, more people are playing the shooter today than when it launched late last year.

And to keep the momentum going, Ubisoft have just introduced mid-season reinforcements in the form of a new patch. It contains changes to three operators, new gadgets and attachments, weapon balancing, and a whole lot more (via VG247).

Operators

First up, the operators. Twitch, Blackbeard, and Doc have all received a host of tweaks. Here’s a quick summary of what’s changed:

• Twitch: Shock Drone has been buffed (30% faster, less sound when moving, red light removed, dart range up to 7m from 5m). Two normal drones replaced with a second Shock Drone.
• Blackbeard: mounted shield has been nerfed (down to 150hp from 800hp). Blackbeard now has two of them instead of one, and he can cycle through with a queue system.
• Doc: stim pistol has been buffed. It can now heal an ally (or himself) up to a max of 120 total health points. The over-heal effect is temporary, and decays at a rate of 1 health point every 2 seconds, back down to 100 health points.

Gadgets and Attachments

Who doesn’t like a few extra toys to play with? Here’s what’s new with the update:

• Claymore (Attackers):  Some Attackers can now use the Claymore mine, a deployable gadget to cover their backs while progressing forward, flanking, or when in a vulnerable positon like sniping or droning. Plant the Claymore and once a Defender crosses on of its three laser rays, it will explode in a front-facing directional pattern.
• Impact Grenade (Defenders): Select Defenders now have access to the Impact Grenade, a grenade exploding on impact or after 1 second of throwing it. Perfect for close range firefights when things go south, and it can be used to open holes in the environment.
• Muzzle Brake: This attachment diminishes first shot recoil, putting an emphasis on precision. Weapons this can be applied to: G36C R4-C, MP7, SR-25, MK17, C8SFW, CAMRS, UMP45, MP5, P90, AK12, OTS-03, 552 COMMANDO, 416-C, 9x19VSN, MP5K, FMG-9, AR33, L85A2, 556xi, F2, 417, MPX.
• Heavy Barrel: With this barrel attachment equipped, damage at long distance doesn’t decrease as much, in tradeoff for extra recoil. This means that there is less falloff damage, which will vary per weapon but will be around 10-20% damage increase at long ranges. Weapons this can be applied to: 416-C, beretta m12, C8-SFW, MAC-11, P90, Para-308, R4-C, 9mm C1, UMP45, Mk17 CQB.

Weapon Balancing

A host of weapons have received tweaks. I’d recommend checking out the patch page for a full breakdown, but here’s a quick overview of the damage changes at least:

Team Killing

Team kills are never a pleasant thing, particularly if they’re done on purpose. What if it was all an accident however? This patch aims to find a balance between the two with the following changes:

• We have reduced the limit of team kills allowed in a match before getting auto-kicked from a match.
• Killing the Hostage is now considered to be multiple team kills.
• We have reduced the limit of team kills allowed in the early phase of the match before getting auto-kicked from a match.
• Early team kills add up throughout the whole match, and will not reset in-between rounds.

The mid-season reinforcements update also contains a host of bug fixes and other general improvements. It’s all a bit too much to put here unfortunately. In fact, everything I’ve listed above is just a brief summary of all the update’s content. If you’d like to read up on everything in detail, I’d suggest you head over to the official update page.

Last Updated: September 13, 2016