Rainbow Six Siege will soon receive the third season of year 5 named “Shadow Legacy.” This will bring a new operator, a new gadget, several new and important tools, and is expected to significantly change the game. MeinMMO tells you what is included in Season 3 and when you can expect a release.
When is the release? Season 3 “Operation Shadow Legacy” went live on September 10, suddenly and without warning for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. You can start playing all the content right away.
Trailer for “Shadow Legacy”: The developers have already presented and explained several of the new features in a longer reveal. We have embedded the full video in English for you here:
Squad Finder and Official Tracker
What is the Squad Finder? With Season 3, Rainbow Six Siege will get a tool that allows you to easily search for and find teammates. This will be the “Squad Finder.” It lets you find requests from other players or create your own requests. You can set various parameters, such as:
- which platform and region you play on
- the language you speak and the time zone you live in
- which role you want to fill
- which game modes you are interested in
- at what times of day you want to play
- whether or not you use a microphone
With this information, you can create a request and find players or be found. The tool then allows you to invite other players and form groups. This way, you won’t have to play alone if you don’t want to. Ubisoft demonstrates how the feature works in a trailer:
What is the Tracker? The Stat Tracker is a popular tool that originally comes from the community. With it, you can track how well you have performed in your matches, which operators and weapons you manage well, and how your statistics like wins or headshot rates are looking.
With the statistics, you can then analyze where your strengths lie and where you still need improvement to work on becoming better. Especially for ambitious ranked players, this is a great tool to refine their performance.
Along with this tool comes the ability to view your own games in replay mode. This additionally helps you to deeply analyze the situations where you didn’t react optimally.
New Operator: Sam “Zero” Fisher
Who is Zero and what can he do? The protagonist from the famous Splinter Cell series, Sam Fisher, will be the operator in the upcoming Season 3. In Rainbow Six, he will use the codename “Zero” and be an attacker with 2 armor and speed.
He fulfills the role of an “Intel-denier” and “Intel-gatherer,” ensuring that you have more information and your opponents have less. His loadout is:
- Primary weapons: Assault rifle SC3000K or submachine gun MP7
- Secondary weapon: Pistol 5.7 USG
- Devices: Frag grenade or claymore
- Gadget: Argus launcher
Further info on Zero can be found in his introduction video with tips and tricks for his playstyle:
What does his gadget do? The Argus launcher is a firearm with which Zero can shoot small cameras, similar to the defender Valkyrie. However, his cameras can even drill through walls and can be used on both sides, allowing you to see in front of and behind the wall.
Once they are stuck in the wall, on the floor, or at a hatch, they appear as relatively large stars with three points. This should make it a bit easier for defenders to discover them, so the ability isn’t too powerful.
Since communication and intelligence are key to victory in Rainbow Six, Zero will likely play an important role. By the way, according to a leak, the defender Aruni comes after him:
New Gadget: Mini Breach Charge
What does the new gadget do? The Mini Breach Charge can blow holes in reinforced walls, which until now was actually only reserved for the special abilities of operators Hibana, Thermite, Maverick, and Ace who was introduced in Season 2.
The holes are smaller than those of Thermite or Ace, but are sufficient for firing through and taking away cover from opponents. The following operators will be able to select the Mini Breach Charge as equipment:
- Nøkk
- Finka
- Lion
- Montagne
- Ying
- Amaru
- Capitão
- Fuze
After placing it on the wall, a small Thermite ring activates automatically, which will blow the wall a few seconds later. During this time, the gadget can be destroyed.
How important will the new gadget be? The new Breach Charge will be even more important for Rainbow Six than operator Zero, as it can completely change the meta. So far, on certain maps, the four “Hard Breacher” operators are somewhat mandatory.
Once the Mini Breach Charge comes into play, there will suddenly be many more options for operators to play or ban, which will allow for new combinations for teams.
Destroying reinforced walls means that defenders can no longer easily barricade themselves, that rooms can be easier to scout, or that defenders may feel forced to prevent a breach, thereby putting themselves in danger. The gadget certainly provides more dynamics.
Gameplay Changes: Reinforcements, Ping 2.0, and Map Bans
This is how the new reinforcements work: With Season 3, Ubisoft is revising how wall reinforcements work. Instead of giving each operator two reinforcements, the entire defender team gets 10 reinforcements to share.
This has the advantage that you do not lose reinforcements if a player leaves the round. Whether you’re playing with three or five, you can always reinforce 10 walls. This way, you can even assign an operator who usually does not need to prepare much, while other players set traps.
This is the new ping system: Through a new feature, you can give contextual pings starting with “Shadow Legacy”. This means that when you ping something, additional information is automatically provided, such as:
- the icon of a gadget – including your own
- who placed the gadget (reveals identity, if not done yet)
- a number to assign who pinged when
With Ping 2.0, you will also finally be able to ping with drones and other observation gadgets.
The ping system in Rainbow is therefore modeled after the popular one in Apex Legends, as already announced in February. This significantly improves non-verbal communication. Players without a microphone will soon be able to communicate better with their teammates.
How do map bans work? At the end of each round, you will get to vote on three maps with Season 3. The map with the most votes will be played. In case of a tie, the choice will be decided by chance.
Thatcher Nerf
Another change in Season 3 is the nerf of the operator Thatcher. He is a must-pick for most teams in many situations due to his gadget.
His EMP grenade destroys electronic devices of other operators and disrupts their sights and other functions in a large area.
With Season 3, however, Thatcher will no longer destroy certain gadgets, but only temporarily disable them. More details can be found in the article about the Thatcher nerf at GameStar.
Bug Fixes, Reworks, and Future
Along with the new features, Ubisoft has promised numerous bug fixes. One of them fixes the problem that drones cannot detect bombs, which players have been waiting for for 5 years. More bug fixes can be found in the preview on the official Ubisoft blog.
There are also some important changes regarding the reworks. The map Chalet will be revamped with Season 3, changing some entrances and bomb positions. This will create new chokepoints that are easier to hold.
Moreover, the operator Tachanka is set to receive a rework, even though 200 of his most loyal fans do not want that. Tachanka is one of the weakest, possibly even the weakest operator and will get a new gadget, a grenade launcher. However, it is still uncertain whether this rework will come in Season 3 or only in Season 4.
Although “Shadow Legacy” is set to change a lot in Rainbow Six, the upcoming Year 6 is expected to be even more important. At least, that’s what creative director Leroy Athanassoff claims. He insists: if you think Season 3 is already “Siege 2.0,” then you are not prepared for what Year 6 will do to Rainbow Six.
