Today, after the conclusion of the first day of the Jönköping Major, Ubisoft held the full reveal panel for the upcoming season, Operation Solar Raid.
Operation Solar Raid is the final season of Year 7, after Operation Demon Veil, Operation Vector Glare, and Operation Brutal Swarm. Operation Solar Raid will introduce new features to Rainbow Six Siege, shaking up the game significantly as well.
Keep on reading for everything you need to know about the upcoming changes.
Read more: Jönköping Major introduction video potentially teases new grenade
Jump to:
- New operator: Solis
- New map: Nighthaven Labs
- Ranked 2.0
- Cross-Progression and Cross-Play
- Operator speed and health changes
- Reputation System and new Anti-Cheat
- Drone Customization
- New Battle Pass progression system
- Iana Elite and Maverick NieR Bundles
- Gadget firing mode selector
- Operation Solar Raid launch date
Meet Siege's new operator, Solis
Solis, from Colombia, will join Rainbow Six Siege with the release of Operation Solar Raid. She will be part of the faction Ghosteyes, which also arrives in the game this upcoming season.
Solis is a two-speed, two-health operator that has access to the P-90, the ITA 12L, and the SMG-11. She can also bring two impact grenades or a bulletproof camera.
Solis' gadget is the SPEC-IO Electro Sensor, which allows her to detect attacking devices through surfaces. Solis can be combined with different operators to make the attackers' jobs more difficult. As of now, it looks like she will be very useful at giving Bandit and Kaid a hand with tricking walls against hard breachers.
New map: Nighthaven Labs
After being initially planned for release in Operation Brutal Swarm, Nighthaven Labs is finally ready to drop in Rainbow Six Siege with Operation Solar Raid.
Nighthaven Labs is a colorful map and it's Nighthaven's home. Aesthetically, the outside gives us some hard Coastline vibes, while the interior reminds us of Tower. Nighthaven Labs will join the Ranked pool, as players won't be allowed to ban it for the first weeks of the season. You will have to adapt to it!
Nighthaven Labs has three floors, the basement, the first, and the second floor. While hard breachers will be an important part of any attacking lineup, soft breachers and roamers will also have their say.
Ranked 2.0
Rainbow Six Siege is reworking the Ranked game mode with Operation Solar Raid. From now on, MMR won't determine the rank of a player. Instead, a new concept called "Ranked Points" will.
Another update is the introduction of a new rank, called Emerald. On top of that, placement matches will disappear, as the players' Skill Rating won't disappear.
Ubisoft has also fixed the MMR limitations when playing in a squad. Before the change, players separated by more than 1,000 MMR points couldn't be in the same squad. From now on, such limitations disappear.
Cross-Progression and Cross-Play
Cross-Progression and Cross-Play will be introduced to Rainbow Six Siege with Operation Solar Raid.
Players with accounts on a Console platform and PC can share progress, whether it is from two, different active accounts or from one new (active) account and one old (inactive) account.
Xbox and Playstation players will also be allowed to face each other, but will be able to disable the Cross-Play feature if they so choose. PC players, however, will not be allowed to play with console players -- at least not in the near future.
Speed and health changes to operators
Rainbow Six Siege has announced that all operators will have the same ADS (aim-down sights) movement speed as three-speed operators. This makes gun fights more even and less dependent on the speed of the operator.
As a result, there will be numerous changes to the speed and health of Rainbow Six Siege's operators. Starting with Osa, Dokkaebi, and Sens, these characters are going to see some modifications.
Sens will change from a three-speed to a one-speed, Osa's will change from a two-health to a three-health, while Dokkaebi will change to a three-speed operator.
However, there are far more changes than revealed during the panel. After the full reveal of Operation Solar Raid, the Test Server went live and allowed us to take a look at further changes to the operators' speed and health values.
Here's the list including all of the operators affected by these changes:
Attackers
- Sledge: From two-speed to one-speed
- Thatcher: From two-speed to one-speed
- Zofia: From two-speed to one-speed
- Zero: From two-speed to three-speed
Defenders
- Mute: From two-speed to one-speed
- Echo: From one-speed to two-speed
- Ela: From three-speed to two-speed
- Melusi: From three-speed to one-speed
- Aruni: From two-speed to one-speed
Reputation System and new Anti-Cheat
Rainbow Six Siege has revealed some information about a new security update for the PC population called "QB" to fight the cheaters.
On top of that, Reputation Standings will be now open to everyone, as players will be able to check their progress. Players will be divided into three categories depending on their toxicity levels. Ubisoft will provide players with new updates and features to fight toxicity.
Drone Customization
With Operation Solar Raid, Rainbow Six Siege has introduced Drone Customization. Ubisoft is willing to open the door to drone cosmetics, which will be progressively introduced to the game throughout events and, in the near future, the game store.
New Battle Pass progression system
Ubisoft is also reworking the Battle Pass, giving players the option to "customize" their Battle Pass.
Players will be able to decide what cosmetics to unlock, as they will have Battle Pass tokens. With these, players will be able to unlock the items they wish to get. This feature allows players to not have to play and unlock all the tiers with Battle Points just to get to the desired cosmetics.
Iana Elite and Maverick NieR Bundles
It's finally here! Iana will finally have her own Elite Bundle, as Rainbow Six Siege has partnered with NieR Automata to release this insane bundle.
A week ago, Rainbow Six Siege had already announced a partnership with NieR Replicant to give Maverick an incredible cosmetics bundle on top of his regular Elite.
Gadget firing mode selector
Operators will now be able to change the firing mode of their main gadgets, such as the Zofia launcher, X-KAIROS launcher, or the Capitao crossbow, without having to pull out the gadget. As such, you will not have to equip Zofia's gadget first to change from shock grenades to impact grenades, or vice versa.
Operation Solar Raid launch date
Operation Solar Raid will be released on Dec. 6. However, if you can't wait to try out the new features coming with the new operation, you can try out them on the Test Server... today!
Keep in mind that the feedback provided to Ubisoft is important, as they will decide which are the features ready to see the light of day by the next month.