Ubisoft has officially revealed the first Operation for Rainbow Six Siege Year 6. It’s called Crimson Heist and will start the new year for the game off with a bang. Literally. In this guide, we’ll cover the Rainbow Six Siege Operation Crimson Heist release date and every other detail we have right now. The launch date isn’t that far away, so this should be everything that you could need to know.
Rainbow Six Siege Operation Crimson Heist Release Date
Operation Crimson Heist releases on March 16, 2021. This will mark the official start of Year 6 for Rainbow Six Siege. The season will last for around three months, after which we’ll get news about the next season coming to the game. This season is similar to the last few, in that there’s only one new Operator and a map rework. On top of this, the time that Battle Pass holders have to play as the new Operator for before everyone else has been extended to two weeks instead of one.
Let’s cover those details next.
Rainbow Six Flores
Flores is the brand new Operator being added with the game. He’s an attacker with a powerful gadget up his sleeve. His explosive drone is exactly what you’d expect it to be. It’s a modified drone from the base game, with an explosive device attached.
The drone moves forward perpetually, only stopping when the explosive is triggered, or it is shot. When the explosive is triggered, it takes three seconds before it blows up. During that time, it’ll stop dead in its tracks and armor up. This makes it invulnerable to bullets. Any defenders in the way will be at risk of being killed, and any defensive items nearby will be destroyed.
It looks like Flores can use a lot of these devices after a small cooldown period between each. They’re a powerful new ability for the attacking team that can pass directly under pretty much every defense.
Flores is packing two rifles and a silenced pistol, but this update adds something awesome for other Operators to use too.
Gonne-6
The Gonne-6 is a brand new secondary weapon that a select number of Operators can have in their loadout. It’s a single-shot explosive launcher that will add a little more firepower to an Operator. It’s designed to offer a decent counter to Flores’ new gadget without rendering it irrelevant.
It looks like this weapon will also open up the meta for loads of new loadouts. This could make some under-picked Operators far more viable once again. It’s a nice way of tweaking our favorites without making them overpowered through their gadgets. Overall, this is an improvement that most fans should enjoy.
Border Rework
The map that has been reworked with this season is Border. The map is now far more open in areas where it was closed off. This makes for a more continuous flow within the arena. It should be a vast improvement for those Operators who rely on speed to stay alive.
In addition, there are two new staircases. There’s one outside, and one inside, adding more verticality. This opens the map up as well, providing a few new spots to hide in.
Other tweaks to this map include noise reduction. The helicopter and PA man have always been too loud and distracting. The PA man will only now speak during the preparation phase. As for the helicopter, it’s had a silencer added to make it much quieter.
Match Replay
Once thing that’s been sorely missing from Rainbow Six Siege is a match replay system. This would normally allow you to replay a match against a team. You’d typically use it if you had a good time playing against that team, and want to try again. However, on PC, it’s been missing for ages.
With Operation Crimson Heist, the match replay feature is entering a new beta phase. PC players will be able to try it out and provide feedback as they see fit. This will help Ubisoft perfect the system before they push it for a full release. Hopefully, this makes for a much more enjoyable time for PC players in the game.
No More Year Passes
Ubisoft has completely overhauled how they’re offering content in their Year Passes. They’ve gotten rid of them. Instead, they’re introducing the Premium Battle Pass as the only way to get new Operators on day one of an Operation.
The Year Pass was an old system that failed to generate as much money as Battle Passes could. It cost too much for players to invest in one go when a Battle Pass was less than half the price. As a result, we now have a Battle Pass for every season.
This is a great change though, because it means players can buy the Battle Pass for the seasons they want to play. Otherwise, they’re stuck with content for a game they might not be playing in a year.
The Battle Pass includes premium content, including the new Operator for a season, at the start of the track. After that, there will be a load of cosmetic items to pick up as the season progresses. The Battle Pass will also grant access to the season’s event, which usually comes in the middle of it. This will be extremely attractive to hardcore fans, despite it being more expensive overall.
Concluding Thoughts
Flores looks like just the kind of Operator needed to mix up the Rainbow Six Siege formula. He’s got the kind of gadget that undermines the new defenses added with the last Operation. A map rework is always nice, but Border was never one that was in rotation too often. I think this change will fall by the wayside compared to the loadout shifts.
The real star is definitely the new explosive weapon that some Operators can equip. It’s going to totally change the way people play this game. Now, there’s no need to drop grenades early. With this weapon in hand, you can open up more paths and really mess the enemy up before they can strategize.