On August 25, Ubisoft unveiled all of the details regarding Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege upcoming season: Operation Twin Shells.
One day later, Ubisoft have published a blog post including Y9S3's Designer's Notes. These include most of the changes announced in the reveal panel while also unveiling some tweaks that went unnoticed.
Here's everything you need to know about the changes coming to Y9S3!
Operator changes
These are all of the operator changes introduced to Rainbow Six Siege in Operation Twin Shells:
Dokkaebi
Dokkaebi's Logic Bomb will be changed in Operation Twin Shells as players will have to wait 45 seconds from the start of the round to use one of the South Korean's calls. The second one will be unlocked 45 seconds later.
Ubisoft's idea behind this change is to encourage the players to play more passively while also showcasing the importance of keeping Dokkaebi alive until the final stages of the round.
Solis
Ubisoft are introducing the second wave of changes to tweak Solis' gadget. The first changes were introduced in Operation New Blood as Ubisoft nerfed the Colombian.
With Operation Twin Shells, Ubisoft are tweaking Solis' gadget to make it slightly better.
The first update will be adding a change to the detection mechanic, as Solis will only see electronic devices that are inside the central area of the SPEC-IO.
The second update is the addition of the Overclock mode, which automatically refills the battery of the SPEC-IO while also spotting the electronic devices found inside the previously mentioned central area. When doing that, the attackers will detect the Colombian operator.
Finally, the third change will allow players to access the SPEC-IO when it's not fully charged. According to Ubisoft's blog post, "the new set of changes add a good amount of balancing levers that will allow us to tweak Solis power level in the future, we will monitor her performance and take actions if needed."
Nøkk
Nøkk's gadget will be reworked in Operation Twin Shells as the Danish operator will only consume the battery while using the HEL Presence Reduction when moving. To activate Nøkk's ability, players will require at least 20% of the gadget's battery.
Gadget balancing
These are the gadget changes coming to the Rainbow Six Siege in Operation Twin Shells:
Proximity Alarms
The Proximity Alarm has been removed from the Scoring System, as players used it to combine the Proximity Alarm with C4s. For instance, playing Sentry with both gadgets allowed the operator to trigger the C4 when the Scoring System awarded the player with 5 points.
Claymore
Before Operation Twin Shells, the time difference between the Claymore detecting a defender and the explosion allowed the player to either destroy the gadget or even escape the blast.
With Operation Twin Shells, Ubisoft is removing the delay between the detection and the explosion, which currently is 0.2 seconds.
Weapon changes
These are the weapon changes coming to the Rainbow Six Siege in Operation Twin Shells:
R4-C
Ash and Ram's R4-C will get nerfed in Operation Twin Shells. The magazine size will be changed from 30 to 25 bullets and the number of bullets will be reduced from 181 to 151. According to Ubisoft's blog post:
"Our intention when reducing the R4-C magazine size is to balance Ash's overall effectiveness and the number of gunfights she can engage in before needing to reload. A smaller magazine encourages more thoughtful ammo management, reduces sustained firepower, and limits the angles she can pre-fire. R4-C users will need to be more precise with their shots.
FMG-9
Nøkk's gadget is not the only thing getting changed but also her primary weapon, the FMG-9.
The FMG-9 will get recoil changes to make it more manageable. On PC, Ubisoft will reduce the first kick, the horizontal recoil, and the recoil will remain for longer during a sustained fire burst. Meanwhile, on Console, Ubisoft will reduce the lateral recoil.
Win Delta vs. Presence
Additionally, Ubisoft published information about the presence of each operator in the game. Ubisoft's nerfs and buffs are made so most of the game's operators fall into the neutral zone of the chart.
On Attack, four operators are clearly above the rest of the operator pool: Dokkaebi, Ace, Buck, and Ash. All of these characters are crucial to play in most of the maps, as they are the best at what they do.
For instance, Ash, who has been played in more than 60% of the rounds found in PC Ranked matches on Platinum and above, is getting a nerf as the R4-C will lose 30 bullets. Despite the change, we don't expect Ash's presence to fall as her projectiles are very important to get rid of bulletproof devices.
Meanwhile, on Defense, Doc is the only operator who stands out. Lesion and Azami follow the French operator. It's important to highlight how Azami's nerfs have made her closer to the ideal position on the chart. However, her gadgets are still very important.
Unfortunately, Clash is still outside of the chart. Her presence is just 4.9% and her win delta is -5.5%.