For the first time in a Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six game, players will engage in sieges, a new style of assault where enemies have the means to transform their environments into modern strongholds while Rainbow Six teams lead the assault to breach the enemy’s position. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege gives players unprecedented control over their ability to fortify their position - by reinforcing walls and floors, using barbed wire, deployable shields and mines, and more - or breach the enemies’ using observation drones, sheet charges, rappelling, and more. The fast pace, lethality and uniqueness of each siege sets a new bar for intense firefights, strategic gameplay and competitive gaming.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege also features a technological breakthrough that redefines the way players interact with a game environment. Leveraging Ubisoft Montreal’s proprietary Realblast engine, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege incorporates procedural destruction that is realistic and unscripted, meaning the environment reacts authentically, distinctively and dynamically, based on variables like the caliber of bullets or the amount of explosives used. This advance allows players to leverage destruction in meaningful ways. Walls can be shattered, opening new lines of fire. Ceilings and floors can be breached to create new access points. This ability to modify the level design in real time enables players to create new gameplay opportunities directly within the game level.

Ubisoft revealed the third season of Rainbow Six Siege’s Year 8, Operation Heavy Mettle, will launch on August 29, 2023, kicking into high gear with Ram, a new South Korean Operator, a new commendation system, and important gameplay updates including a Quick Match rework.

Operation Heavy Mettle amps up the anticipation with new Attacker Ram and her BU-GI Auto-Breacher gadget. With an automated tank, Ram can take on the competition by destroying walls, floors, and other elements to offer new vantage points. One tank can shake up players’ strategies by destroying their gadgets and any soft surfaces in its path. Ram is a one speed, three health Operator, and her loadout features a R4C or an LMG-E as a primary weapon and a MK1 or an ITA12S as a secondary weapon.

This season, player protection efforts will bring the brand-new Commendation System: an appreciation system allowing players to rate other players on the experience they had playing together. This system will be monitored to ensure it will be fair for everyone. Highly commended players will also receive rewards. Player protection remains a priority for Rainbow Six Siege, and anti-toxicity measures has already shown good results: 50% of players who received a warning for toxicity changed their behavior after the warning and avoided a penalty.

Game modes receive several updates this season, including a Quick Match rework, a redesign of Unranked (now called Standard), and a brand-new Arcade game mode. Quick Match is faster than ever, with reduced round timers, objective locations automatically revealed, and bomb sites come set up with reinforcements to let Defenders focus on strategic defenses. For Attackers, a 10-second invulnerability at the start of Action Phase will prevent spawn peeking, giving them time to approach the building. The redesigned Standard playlist offers the core Siege experience without Operator or map ban phases and will offer another option for players besides the competitive Ranked mode. Also being introduced is Weapons Roulette, an all-new fast action game mode coming to Arcade playlist, which lets all players start with the same weapon that automatically swaps to a new one after a set amount of time.

Other updates for this season include the second part of balancing for Operator Grim and major improvements to the in-game shotgun ecosystem. In addition, Fuze is now able to deploy Cluster Charges on Deployable Shields and Osa’s Talon-8 Shields, aiming to create a new synergy. Finally, a rework of Operator Frost will be released later during the season with new Operator mechanics around her ability following the TS Lab and players’ feedback.

Operation Heavy Mettle will also add Tutorials, an onboarding tool that aims to make newcomers more comfortable before their first PVP experience. Following the launch of free cam last season in Match Replay, players can now remove the HUD to capture perfect moments and use them in their content, even in spectator mode.

Key Features

• Counter terrorist operatives are trained to handle extreme situations, such as hostage rescue, with surgical precision. As “short range” specialists, their training is concentrated on indoor environments. Operating in tight formations, they are experts of close quarter combat, demolition, and coordinated assaults.
• For the first time in Rainbow Six, players will engage in sieges, a brand-new style of assault. Enemies now have the means to transform their environments into strongholds: they can trap, fortify, and create defensive systems to prevent breach by Rainbow teams. To face this challenge, players have a level of freedom unrivaled by any previous Rainbow Six game. Combining tactical maps, observation drones, and a new rappel system, Rainbow teams have more options than ever before to plan, attack, and diffuse these situations.
• Destruction is at the heart of the siege gameplay. Leveraging Ubisoft Montreal’s proprietary Realblast engine, players now have the unprecedented ability to destroy environments. Walls can be shattered, opening new lines of fire, and ceiling and floors can be breached, creating new access points. Everything in the environment reacts realistically, dynamically, and uniquely based on the size and caliber of bullets you are using or the amount of explosives you have set. In Rainbow Six Siege, destruction is meaningful and mastering it is often the key to victory.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC.