The third season of Rainbow Six: Siege’s eighth year has been revealed, and it’s filled with new additions and changes. While some of these changes, such as Frost’s rework and Grim’s continued buffs, were to be expected, many of Ubisoft’s other reveals were explosive, to say the least. With a brand-new, meta-defining operator announced alongside a number of adjustments to pre-existing characters, weapon and game-mode changes, and a batch of technical improvements, there is a great deal to cover, so let’s dive into Operation Heavy Mettle, releasing officially on August 29, 2023.
New Operator: Ram
The newest addition to Rainbow Six: Siege’s roster is Ram: a one-speed, three-armor South Korean attacker with an explosive gadget. Ram hails from an all-female unit within the South Korean Special Forces, and her background within this organization influenced her character design greatly. In order to reflect this, along with her gadget’s less-high tech, more-industrial appearance, Ubisoft sought a “grittier”, “hardened” design: something especially clear through Ram’s face paint and uniform.
Ram’s Concept Art and Final Design.
Ram’s Gadget: Bu-Gi
The latest gadget entering the attackers’ arsenal is the Bu-Gi Auto-Breacher: the largest throwable added to Rainbow Six: Siege. Ram has four of these Auto-Breachers, and it being a throwable means she can lob them into the building at an angle, while crouching, or while rappelling. The Bu-Gi is unique in its ability to destroy, being able to do so vertically and horizontally as it is able to shred the floor below its path of forward destruction as well. However, the Bu-Gi is only able to breach soft surfaces, meaning Ram will be able to strip the ceilings of most rooms, but not all. The gadget is also able to have its directional path set, and players will be able to choose whether the drone travels forward, or around left or right corners.
The Bu-Gi Shredding the Ceiling of Chalet’s Kitchen.
The Bu-Gi Auto-Breacher is also bulletproof, and defenders will need to resort to impact grenades, nitro-cells, or a well-placed bullet to the canister on the back of the gadget (similar to Mira’s Black Mirror or Osa’s Talon Shield) to stop its reign of terror. Alongside this, Ram is also able to activate her gadget from anywhere on the map, meaning the Auto-Breacher can act as a significant distraction and draw defender attention above while attackers breach from below.
Ram’s Loadout
Ram has an array of weapons to assist with her slow-paced, long-range playstyle. Equipped with Ash’s R4C and Zofia’s LMG-E in her primary slot, Ram is the first to receive either weapon since their original operators in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Unique to Ram, however, is the ability to pair the R4C with a 1.5x or 2.0x scope, something fans have rallied for for some time. Aside from this, Ram’s options for her secondary are the MK1 9mm pistol, and ITA 12S shotgun. For utility, Ram brings stun grenades and hard breach charges: both secondary gadgets that provide significant synergy with the Bu-Gi Auto-Breacher.
Ram’s Final Loadout and In-Game Model.
Operator Reworks and Changes
Grim Rework
Also releasing with Operation Heavy Mettle are a number of changes and reworks to pre-existing operators, including Grim, Frost, and Fuze. As expected, this season was to bring further Grim buffs, and this it has. Grim’s Kawan Hive Launcher now has alternate firing modes, allowing him to choose between on-impact detonations or bouncing canisters. This is a massive change, as Grim players will now be able to fire around corners or bounce shots off walls, gathering intel in hard-to-reach spots. These changes increase the range and capability of the Kawan Hive Launcher greatly, further bolstering Grim’s place in the meta.
Frost Rework
Another operator receiving significant changes to their gadget is Frost, who is finally receiving her rework after short delays. Attacking players now have the option to free themselves from Frost’s Welcome Mats, no longer needing to rely on teammates to free them from the gadget’s clutches. Freeing yourself from a Welcome Mat, however, will take four seconds, leaving the player with 20HP and a debuff, allowing defenders to see and follow a blood trail to your location. Aside from this, players can still receive an assist from a teammate, and while this will prevent the debuff, it leaves both you and your teammate vulnerable for a quick double-kill.
An Attacker Freeing Themselves from Frost’s Welcome Mat.
This change will not release immediately with Operation Heavy Mettle, rather releasing later within the season.
Fuze Changes
Fuze is also receiving a major improvement to his gadget: the Cluster Charge. With Ubisoft citing adaptability as their justification for the change, Fuze players will now be able to place Cluster Charges on reinforced shield and Osa’s Talon Shields. This is major, as Fuze will now be able to essentially place Cluster Charges in doorways, given they are blocked with a shield. While allowing for adaptability by using defender’s reinforced shields against them, this also allows for coordination and synergy between attacking players, with Fuze and Osa now being able to deliver an explosive combination.
Fuze Placing a Cluster Charge on a Reinforced Shield.
Weapon Reworks and Changes
Coming with Operation Heavy Mettle are also weapon changes, focused primarily on shotguns and their place within Rainbow Six: Siege. Using the SAS’s M590A1 shotgun as a foundation for these changes, Ubisoft described their desire to place shotguns on par with other, fully-automatic alternatives. With Operation Heavy Mettle, shotguns will now provide a tighter, more precise spread when aiming-down sights than when not, the latter allowing for a wider, more destructive spread. Hipfiring while moving makes shotguns most effective at destroying walls, a function already present on the Bailiff 410, now applied to the entire weapon class. These changes will transform shotguns into a more consistent option, opening more avenues for players in terms of choice and playstyle.
Game Modes and Tutorials
The long-awaited Quick Match 2.0 has finally been unveiled. With Ubisoft describing their want for the game mode to be faster, Quick Match will now have reduced round timers, a smaller map-pool, and preset reinforcements. This new feature, known as “pre-setups”, will have defenders spawning into a site already reinforced and “set up”, including holes in soft-walls for rotations or peeking. Additionally, Ubisoft announced changes to the matchmaking algorithm that will speed up and improve matchmaking.
Operation Heavy Mettle will also see changes to Unranked, now known as “Standard”. Ubisoft hopes Standard will serve as a better mid-point between Quick Match and Ranked than Unranked, having removed operator and map bans from the mode. Aside from this, Standard also separates itself from Unranked through rule changes, as the former now has one overtime round as opposed to the three that came before it.
A new Arcade mode has also been revealed: Weapon Roulette. This mode is a deathmatch-style mode wherein all players have the same weapon which switches to another after a certain amount of time. This, paired with new tutorials, will allow for new players to gain a better grasp on the basics and weapons of Rainbow Six: Siege. The new tutorials, structured as missions, guide players through the fundamentals of the game, ranging from basic movement to gadget usage to gunfighting.
A Screenshot of a Tutorial Mission’s User Interface.
Updated User Interface
Also coming with this season are changes to the Battle Pass, mainly in the way of user interface. Rainbow Six: Siege’s Battle Pass system received an update last year, and given player feedback, Ubisoft is now updating it again. The Battle Pass now features a new menu, titled “Intro”, to help boost discoverability and navigation of new items. This new “Intro” menu provides a simple and comprehensive view of the Battle Pass and its primary rewards.
The Updated Battle Pass UI.
Reputation System Changes
Operation Heavy Mettle also expands greatly upon the already-introduced yet somewhat barebones reputation system by adding commendations. With commendations, players will be able to award two teammates at the end of their match according to three categories: Valor, Dedication, and Guidance. As described by the new user-interface and dedicated reputation menu, Valor-related commendations should be awarded when your teammate is “positive and level-headed”, Dedication when they are “reliable and [stay] engaged”, and Guidance when they are a “knowledgeable strategist”.
The Post-Game Commendations Screen.
Alongside this, players who receive commendations consistently will be rewarded with increased Alpha Pack drop rates, while players who receive a number of reports for misconduct will receive warnings and penalties. All of this information will be viewable in the updated reputation interface, available on Rainbow Six: Siege’s main menu.
An Explosive Season
With a flurry of changes and additions, Operation Heavy Mettle is set to be the most explosive season of Rainbow Six: Siege yet. Between new and reworked operators, changes to weapons, and new game modes, excitement is high. Unfortunately, fans will have to wait about two weeks until Operation Heavy Mettle releases on Rainbow Six: Siege’s live client on August 29, 2023. Until then, you can prepare using our dedicated and in-depth Rainbow Six: Siege guides.
Source: Official Reveal Panel
