Rainbow Six Siege Reveals New Season: Operation New Blood

Ubisoft has revealed a ton of content for the upcoming season, Operation New Blood. You can find an overview of the highlights below.

Operation New Blood
Here you can see all the new changes! | © Ubisoft

Buckle up because the next season of Siege, Operation New Blood, is coming on June 11, and it’s bringing some serious heat.

Instead of introducing a new operator, Ubisoft is giving our good old Recruit a major facelift, making him way more versatile for both attackers and defenders.

Plus, they're finally launching the Siege Marketplace on June 25, where you can buy and sell cosmetics with R6 Credits. This should add a cool new layer to the game’s economy, and there's much more.

Striker & Sentry - The New Recruits

New Recruits Rainbow 6 Siege
The new recruits will be a valuable option for ranked games. | © Ubisoft

In the new Rainbow Six Siege season, "Operation New Blood," they've really shaken things up with the Recruit operator. Now, Recruits can wield any combination of two secondary gadgets on both attack and defense. Imagine bringing an EMP and a hard breach charge to the same party, single-handedly countering electrified walls like a pro. It opens up a ton of strategic possibilities and makes the Recruit more versatile than ever before.

But here's the kicker: they've still taken away some of the fun elements we loved. They are not allowing shields, so no more five-man recruit rushes. The Recruit was always about bringing some lighthearted chaos into matches, and it feels like Ubisoft got a bit too serious with these changes. It's a bummer because those moments were pure Siege fun, and now they seem to be fading away.

Balancing Solis & Fenrir

Solis
Solis got nerfed to the ground. | © Ubisoft

Operation New Blood is bringing some needed balance changes to Fenrir and Solis, two of the game's most dominant defenders.

Fenrir’s changes are well-deserved; he'll now have only four F-NATT Dread Mines to place, and only two can be active at a time. These mines are no longer bulletproof, making them easier for attackers to remove. However, when a mine is destroyed, Fenrir gets the activation code back, allowing him to make full use of his mines. Plus, his barbed wire option is being swapped out for the observation blocker, adding a new twist to his defensive playstyle.

On the flip side, Solis seems to have gotten a bit too much of a nerf. Her SPEC-IO Electro Sensor can no longer be used during the prep phase, giving attackers a breather for droning. During the action phase, the gadget's duration is cut to 10 seconds, with a reduced range of 12 meters, and it needs to fully recharge between uses. Everything until here is well deserved, and I'm okay with it. But no impact nades? It was her "signature move" to denial a plant with impacts from below. I don't know, a bit too much of a nerf if you ask me, but there will be a part two of her rework the season after, so maybe she'll get stronger again.

Other Changes

And, there are a few other minor changes coming in the new season:

  • Membership: You can now pay monthly to get the battle pass and some additional skins and so on. Not sure if it's worth it, but we'll see.
  • Standard Mapfilter: You can choose now between Ranked Maps, All Maps and "Not Ranked Maps". Funny for people, who always play ranked and want some "guaranteed" variety, when they play standard
  • Stadium Update: Now this is a great change. It's a really solid map, if there wasn't this bulletproof glass on the outside walls. They removed most of it, which makes it a good choice now. Give it a try!
  • Caster Cards: They changed a bit in the design, and you can see now what gadget people used, when you're a caster. Good for streams, I guess.
  • Endless Drill: Great news for people, who warm up before playing the game. You can run endless through a map killing those yellow crash test dummies to train your aim
  • The Marketplace: it's open now, for those still don't have access. I hope that gets my skins finally sold.
  • Attrition Arcade Mode: Five Operators get banned every round, and it's random. So you have to play the round without these certain operators, which can be tough depending on map and site.
  • Reputation System: is coming out of Beta. I hope you don't get misconduct anymore, when you tk your friends in a 5 squad.

So that's pretty much it. We wish you all a good season in June and the best rank possible. For any more news on Rainbow 6 Siege, stay tuned!

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Ali Kanaan

As a political science student, Ali has always liked historical games like Assassin's Creed and strategy games like EU4....