Rainbow Six Siege is a complicated game to understand. Every operator has its own role, its limitations, and its strengths.
One of the game’s most important roles is the soft breacher. Due to Rainbow Six Siege’s characteristics, most of the walls, floors, and ceilings are soft – which means they can be destroyed. If the operators get the best out of it, their odds to win can increase.
Today we have a look at the soft breaching role, the best operators at it, and Rainbow Six Siege’s new operator Ram.
What is a soft breacher?
In Rainbow Six Siege, a soft breacher is an attacker who has the tools to destroy big portions of the map.
When we think of soft breachers the name of Sledge and Buck comes up as their special abilities are used to open soft surfaces – including walls, floors, and ceilings.
Read more: What is a soft breacher in Siege?
Although Sledge and Buck are the most popular soft breachers in the game, other operators can be considered soft breachers by their gadgets, including breaching charges, shotguns, and more.
For example, operators like Gridlock or Jackal can be used as soft breachers as they can bring a shotgun as a secondary weapon. Other operators like Zofia and Ash can also be used as soft breachers as they can use their explosive projectiles.
Sledge and Buck – Who’s better?
As mentioned earlier, Sledge and Buck are the best at performing soft breaching tasks. But, why? Here’s a brief description of both operators!
Sledge
Sledge is an attacking operator who has access to fragmentation grenades, one of the best (if not the best) gadgets to use while attacking. Fragmentation grenades can be used for vertical plays, destroying bulletproof gadgets, and more.
Although the fragmentation grenades are important for Sledge’s loadout, her most important item when it comes to soft breaching tasks it’s his hammer.
However, Sledge is limited to the floors, as he can’t use his hammer to destroy ceilings. Moreover, the use of his hammer exposes him to the defenders, as it takes some time for him to swap to his weapon.
Buck
Buck’s main soft breaching tool is his Skeleton Key, a shotgun integrated into his primary weapon. As it’s a shotgun, he can use it to destroy walls, floors, and ceilings. It’s perfect to create new angles that defenders don’t expect.
His loadout is versatile as he can bring a Gonne-6 to the battlefield. Moreover, he can also be used as a hard breaching operator thanks to his hard breaching charges. He becomes a great operator to use on maps with plenty of hatches, like Border or Bank.
Following some balance changes to Sledge throughout the last years – including changes to his loadout and his speed – Buck and Sledge are in a very similar position in Rainbow Six Siege’s meta.
Each one, with their own flaws and strengths, can be perfectly used and adapted to each map on the game. As of now, we think that Sledge is still the better option thanks to his two fragmentation grenades and the high destructibility his hammer has to offer.
However, Operation Heavy Mettle brings a third real option – Ram. So, a question rises: is Ram better than Sledge and Buck?
Is Ram better than Sledge and Buck?
To answer the question, we must have a look at each their loadouts, their operator traits, and their abilities.
Loadout
Ram’s loadout is extremely versatile and efficient. She will have access to Ash’s R4C – with 1.5x and 2.0x scopes! – and Zofia’s LMG. These are two perfect guns for entry fraggers, especially the R4C.
Meanwhile, Ram can use the ITA 12S as a secondary weapon, Jackal’s shotgun. So, if her gadget wasn’t enough for soft breaching tasks, her shotgun rounds it up.
Thirdly and most important, players will be able to equip Ram with three stun grenades or two hard breaching charges, which makes her another hard breaching option – just like Buck. If instead of stun grenades she had claymores, she would have the perfect loadout.
In terms of loadout, we think Ram is ahead on the list, followed by Buck and Sledge in second and third place, respectively.
Gadget
Ram’s gadget is the Bu-Gi Auto Breacher, the biggest gadget in Rainbow Six Siege. While in this article we focus on soft breaching tasks, Ram’s drone can also be used to destroy any bulletproof device in the game – including Deployable Shields or Castle Barricades.
If that wasn’t enough, Ram has four Bu-Gi Auto Breachers and most of the drone is bulletproof – except for its back, which contains a red box that can be shot to destroy the device. This means that to stop it, defenders will mostly be forced to use explosives.
Sound-wise, the Bu-Gi Auto Breacher is super loud. It’s the loudest thing this game has ever seen. It feels like there’s construction work inside your headset. While this may sound bad, this can be used to camouflage the sound of other actions such as using a grenade or planting the defuser.
Moreover, Ram doesn’t have to wait for a Bu-Gi to finish its work to use another one. This means that she can have four Bu-Gis working at the same time, which shortens the time the attackers must use to create vertical plays. It also means that the defenders don’t know or can’t anticipate where the attacker will pick from.
If that wasn’t enough, as the Bu-Gis work independently, Ram can sit on a corner while peeking at a door expecting a defender to flank her. This is something that both Sledge and Buck can’t do, as they are completely exposed while using their soft-breaching gadgets.
The Bu-Gi Auto Breacher can also be thrown while rappelling, which means Ram can throw it into windows. There are no limits for the Bu-Gi!
The Bu-Gi Auto Breacher’s potential is so big that it automatically puts Ram on top of the list, with Buck in second place and Sledge in third, as Buck can open ceilings.
Operator traits
Unfortunately – or fortunately, at this point – Ram is a one-speed operator just like Sledge, while Buck is a two-speed operator. This means that Ram is very slow and noisy. Moreover, despite her loadout, her speed makes it very difficult to use her as an entry fragger.
So, is Ram better than Sledge and Buck? Well, looking at how Ram feels as of now with the gadgets, guns, and devices announced with the full reveal of Operation Heavy Mettle, absolutely: Ram is the best soft breacher in Rainbow Six Siege.