Welcome to High Calibre, which will bring a plethora of changes to “Rainbow Six Siege” with the Y6S4 update. This is including, but not limited to: a new defender gun, a nerf to gadget cameras placed outside buildings (specifically targeting Valkyrie), reworked bulletproof cameras, a new HUD, and an overhaul of Outback.
When is High Calibre releasing?
Maintenance for PC players has now begun. By 16:00 UTC, you'll be able to download and play High Calibre on all platforms!
According to an announcement from Ubisoft, High Calibre will be hitting live servers Nov. 30 at 14:00 UTC. By 16:00 UTC, you'll be able to download and play High Calibre on whatever platform you choose to play on.
Welcome Thorn to Team Rainbow
Thorn is the newest member of Team Rainbow. She hails from Ireland, and will wield a completely new weapon to the “Rainbow Six” arsenal, something the casual fans have been asking about for quite some time.
It’s called the UZK50GI SMG, an UZI chambered for .50 caliber rounds, and boy do they pack a wallop. The UZK50GI does 44 damage per hit, but only has an ROF of 700. It handles decently, and with manageable recoil, seems like a solid choice at all distances.
Thorn’s gadget is the Razor Bloom Shell; a combination of Ela’s Grzmots and Kapkan’s EDD mines. It’ll kill you if you get too close, and it’s a sticky mine like the Grzmot Mines. Try using it in conjunction with Melusi’s Banshees, or in other high action areas of the map, you never know when you’ll get a lucky kill while someone’s distracted.
As for a secondary gadget, Thorn will get Barbed Wire and a Deployable Shield. According to the devs, the Deployable Shield was added based on feedback from the competitive playtesters, who said it synergizes well with her kit.
Camera changes, Valkyrie nerfs
UPDATE: Due to a bug found through Ubisoft's testing process, this change will not go live with the rest of High Calibre.
Since Valkyrie’s release, throwing her cameras outside the building to do cheeky runouts on sometimes unsuspecting defenders has been a part of the game. Well, those days are mostly over. Any camera placed outside: one of Valkyrie’s Black Eyes, Maestro’s Evil Eyes, or a Bulletproof Camera secondary gadget will only be online for ten seconds after it’s placed.
Essentially, you’ll be able to catch other players off guard at times, but your cameras won’t function outside for the entire round like they used to.
Outback Rework
Outback has changed on multiple fundamental levels. Certain rooms in the upstairs parts of the map have been spaced out, and external soft walls have added more ways for attackers to enter the building. The ground floor remains mostly untouched.
Time will tell how players react to one of “Siege”’s most hated maps’s facelift.
3D skins looking slick
Next season's battlepass will feature more "3D" skins as Ubisoft attempts to push boundaries for neat skins. The best one, for Zofia's M762, is a futuristic look akin to something you'd see for a mid-tier price in "VALORANT".
Please submit your issue to R6 Fix … 2.0?
R6 Fix has needed a fix itself for some time. Rolling out with the new season is a sleeker, more user-friendly version of the website. The search feature has been buffed up, and devs can now communicate directly with players who submit their bugs and other issues into the website. All in all, this seems like a great change that will open up more lines of communication with frustrated players who can now see their issues being worked on in real-time.
Finka is the new Zofia
Finka’s Adrenal Boost can now pick herself up from a DBNO state. Her Adrenal Surge has also been tweaked; its cooldown is now at 20 seconds, up from 10 seconds, and it also will not have a recoil reduction effect.
Back to the lab
Coming after the launch of the new season, the Test Server will get a boost as well: the “TS Lab”.
When the devs want to test something potentially controversial, game-breaking, or just plain fun, it’ll go onto the Lab for testing. This will also coincide with the other Test Server functioning as a place for bugs to be found and squashed.
The test server will be open for three separate specific purposes: testing new season content, testing new, experimental content, and testing balancing changes
Other changes
Elite 2.0 finally makes it into the full game.
A streamer mode of sorts is being tested with a small focus group and will be available to all players soon. It’s called a “Privacy feature”, but it won't be available immediately, according to a press release. Streamers will be most interested in this feature, as it may enable them to avoid 'stream-snipers' when playing the game.
Your HUD will be reworked with a new compass, new customizable colors for friends and foes, a new bottom-row organizational system for your gadgets, and slick new advanced motion prompts for actions like vaulting or rappelling. There’s a new UI as well.