Rainbow Six Siege Update Today Is 5GB, Adds Operation Red Crow Content

Although Rainbow Six Siege is in maintenance on all three platforms right now (it should end at 10am PT/1pm ET), the new Operation Red Crow update is beginning to roll out. Roughly 5GB on PlayStation 4, 5.6GB on Xbox One, and 4GB on PC, Rainbow Six Siege Update 5.0 adds two new Operators, the Skyscraper map, new weapon skins, and more.

Here’s the patch notes for today’s update:

New Operators

Hibana (Attack), Echo (Defense)

• With Operation Red Crow, Team Rainbow recruits two of S.A.T.’s finest: Echo and Hibana. The new Operators are immediately unlocked for Season Pass owners, with exclusive access granted for seven days. All players can then unlock the Operators with Renown or R6 Credits after the exclusive period ends.

New Map

Skyscraper

• Team Rainbow has been called to neutralize a Yakuza war brewing high above the streets of Nagoya, Japan. Two of the S.A.T.’s brightest Operators have been mobilized to provide their unique insight and tactical expertise. Perched on top of Skyscraper, you will explore refined works of Japanese architecture inside a dangerous mansion. Be prepared for vertiginous rappels in the haze of the morning sun, where modernity and tradition meet.

Red Crow Weapon Skins

• There are five Red Crow Signature skins available in the shop for Operation Red Crow. Make sure you do not miss out on the opportunity to flash these new designs while rappelling in Skyscraper.

Elite Sets

• We are happy to announce a new customization series for this season with the Elite sets. Each set includes a matching Uniform and Headgear, an Operator Card, a Charm, an Operator Name, and a Signature Victory Animation.
• The first Operators to receive the honors are Kapkan, Sledge and Thermite. Join the Elite with the Vympel, L Detachment and Vintage Bureau sets. Make sure to leave your mark on history with these polished Operator-tailored packages.

Caliber-Based Destruction

• We are glad to announce a polishing of the destruction tool that will improve the physics quality and provide realistic impulses with minimal performance impact. Using our improved tool, our team was able to reconfigure the destruction parameters seen in-game.
• The impact zone and fragility sphere are now weapon-specific: stronger calibers will create bigger bullet holes and generate larger impulses.

Battle Dress Uniforms

• Battle Dress Uniforms are new ways to customize the way your Operators look. We are kicking things off with two Season Pass Year 1 exclusive uniforms for the new SAT Operators, Hibana and Echo. Be sure to pick up the Year 1 Season Pass before these outfits are gone!
• We will also be introducing Battle Dress Uniforms for Capitao, Caveira, Ash, Sledge, Thatcher, Mute, and Smoke that will be available through the in-game shop for all.

Other Improvements

Weekly In-Game Challenge System Update

• We’ve updated the weekly challenges to be more difficult than they have been in the past. We found that they were fairly easy to complete, so we have tweaked the difficulty of the in-game weekly challenges to be more challenging. This also comes with an increase of 500 Renown that you can earn.

Test: 3 Minute Action Phase in the Ranked Playlist

• Since Rainbow Six Siege’s launch, we’ve observed that attacking can be harsher for new players than defending. While both sides require planning and execution, attacking is particularly demanding in terms of communication and synchronization.
• One of the impacts of this can be seen in win rates at different skill levels: defenders tend to win more at low levels, but this changes as the player level rises. Because of that, we’ve decided to test having different round timers in casual and ranked.
• In Casual, the action phase will remain as they currently are with a 4 minute timer. We want everyone to feel at ease while learning how to attack efficiently.
• In Ranked, we are implementing a 3 minute timer. Players in Ranked generally have more experience, and we think having a shorter timer could lead to more meaningful attacking phases where choices matter even more.
• We want to be 100% transparent on the fact that this is a test. While we think there’s a good chance for this test to succeed, we’ll be looking closely at several things. The Ranked playlist attractiveness is very important to us: we don’t want to discourage players from trying Ranked. The global balancing of the game at different levels is also crucial: perfect balancing is impossible, but we always want you to feel like you have a good chance of winning whichever side you’re playing. And of course, your feedback will be invaluable. The objective of any change or update is always to provide a better experience. Please let us know what you think on our forums or official sub-reddit!

For details on the game balancing and bug fixes made with this patch, head over to the Operation Red Crow website.

As Ubisoft recently announced, there will be a second full year of content for Rainbow Six Siege in 2017, beginning in February with the Six Invitational, an event dedicated to fans. The structure for year two will be similar to year one, meaning you’ll find “major updates, new operators, maps, modes, features and improvements.”

[Source: Reddit, Rainbow 6 Game, Operation Red Crow]