Rainbow Six Siege Community Checkpoint Recap: Balancing, Testing Grounds, Hostage and more.
It’s been a big year for Rainbow Siege, most recently with the introduction of Operation Split Fire and Noor, its new Operator, the introduction of the Legend Division, a 3v3 Arcade Mode, and more. Now, as Year 11 heads towards its final season, the Siege devs shared their insights on these updates and give a sneak peak at what’s to come in the most recent Rainbow Six Siege Community Checkpoint. In case you missed it, here’s what to know:
Legend Division
The new Legend Division is a permanent solo queue playlist that launched with the mid-season update. It’s designed to provide an elite competitive environment for Champion ranked players, and you must meet the following requirements to participate:
R6 Shieldguard Secure Platform
Secure Boot
2-Step Account Verification
Currently have Champion rank
Have Clearance Level of 200 or more
Achieved Platinum rank or above in previous season
Reputation Standing level three or higher
Meeting those requirements is essential for keeping the Legend Division competitive, trustworthy, and rewarding, and will help shape the future of ranked and competitive experiences across Siege. Right now, the Legend Division playlist leans towards a more competitive ruleset than Ranked. This allows players to distinguish them more easily, since the stakes and the level of competition are different from each other. Moving forward, the developers will be closely monitoring feedback from the community, as the most important thing is ensuring the playlist meets the expectations of the players investing their time in it.
Ranked Map Pool
Starting next season, there will no longer be seasonal Ranked map pool rotations. While the goal of that feature was to keep the Ranked experience feeling fresh, most players didn’t see map rotations as meaningful new content. More often than not, a rotation would foment frustration in the community, especially when a favorite map was replaced with one the players enjoyed less.
Moving forward, the Siege dev team is shifting back to a “best of” approach, which will keep the strongest maps in the Ranked pool to provide a more consistent competitive experience. This will also allow players to master a stable set of high-quality maps and develop strategy sustainably. Each Ranked season will have a pool of approximately 15 maps, including the nine maps currently played in Pro competition.
Operator and Gameplay Balancing
The Operation Split Fire mid-season update brought several Operator and gameplay balancing updates:
Noor
Horus Lance Launcher drilling time is reduced to 1.5s (from 2s) on soft surfaces, ballistic shields, and hard surfaces
Horus Lance Launcher Guardbreak strength on projectile impact against ballistic shield Operators is increased to 100% (from 30%)
Horus Lance Launcher equip timings reduced to 0.4s (from 0.9s) via Quickdraw animations
Direct impact damage against Operators increased to 80 (from 50)
Horus Lance Launcher now damages ballistic shield Operators during sheild removal animation
General hitbox improvements
Tachanka
Shumika Launcher – added a switch ability to the launcher. It can now fire in Impact Mode (default), in which the projectile will explode on impact with any surface, or Bounce Mode, in which the projectile won’t explode when colliding with fragile objects such as glass or papers. In Bounce Mode, projectiles will pass through fragile items, and the fire will be pointed at the floor from the impact point
Snake
Valkyrie
Captião
Clash
OSA
Reduced deployment restrictions:
Frontal space reduced to 0.25m (from 1.1)
Vertical space reduced to 0.6m (from 6.25)
Space behind player reduced to 0.005m (from 0.3)
Fire
Damage increased to 14HP (from 12)
Affects Tachanka, Goyo, Capitao, Dokkaebi, Noor, and Gas Pipes
Barbed Wire
The team announced that they’ve heard player feedback on the TCSG, and a nerf will be coming in Y11S4.
More balancing updates are coming in the 3.3 update, giving minor but impactful tweaks to Denari, Jackal, and the Commando. However, the 3.3 update will the last of its kind. Based on player feedback that the .1 and .3 updates were too small to notice an impact during matches, starting next season, the .1 and .3 patches will ship fewer but more impactful changes. The season launch and mid-season update patches will still be larger.
If you are also curious about what’s next for Mira and Zofia, the dev team is currently testing prototypes that make those Operators more enjoyable to play, while making them more balanced. However, there are no balancing updates that are planned yet.
Testing Grounds
A new Testing Grounds is coming to Rainbow Six Siege in Y11S4. Testing grounds is a limited-time event that allows devs to test new ideas without affecting gameplay in live matches, the upcoming Testing Grounds will feature Half Reinforcements. These will allow for new possibilities for defensive setup, site construction, and overall team strategy.
With the Testing Grounds, devs can see how players use their creativity in unanticipated ways and hear from the community what works and what doesn’t. If you do check out Half Reinforcements in the Testing Grounds, make sure to use the in-game QR code and take the survey! This way the dev team can refine the features based on your feedback before implementing it in Siege.
Moving forward, the Testing Grounds will have a bigger role in how the Rainbow Six Siege team develops new features and old ideas with the community. Over the past year, the devs have implemented an increased amount of content and more changes to features such as balancing and map updates; added more Arcade experiences; and a generally faster content cadence. Testing Grounds will help the devs be more deliberate about where they focus their efforts and keep quality content updates coming at that rate. It also gives them a chance to test and refine bold concepts, challenge established assumptions and explore ideas that might not otherwise make it through a traditional development process. Not every experiment will make it into the game, but you’ll get to share your feedback and help the developers build a better understanding of what you want Siege to become.
After Half Reinforcements, the next Testing Grounds will feature a Hostage mode rework. It has been in development and has been shaped further by the feedback given by the players and content creators. Now it’s time for the broader Siege community to experience it firsthand and hear your feedback!
Hostage and Casual Playlists
There is a long-term plan to bring Hostage back into competitive Siege after it goes through the Testing Grounds, depending on what feedback comes from that session. Hostage is a strong mode with a clear objective and obvious stakes, but bringing it back into Ranked comes with high expectations. It needs to be fun, strategically deep, fair for both sides, and able to support the kind of competitive experience that players expect. Through the Testing Grounds, the devs will be able to test those components with real players before making any larger commitments or concrete plans.
Looking more immediately at casual playlists, starting in Y11S4, Hostage and Secure Area will be returning to Quick Match as part of the regular playlist rotation. In their current state, those playlists haven’t had the opportunity to evolve as much as Bomb has. As a result, haven’t seen as much player traffic. As the devs rework Hostage, they also want to challenge assumptions about what a casual playlist should be. By adding those two playlists to Quick Match, the team can reintroduce them to Siege, learn how players engage with them, and build a stronger foundation for their future.
3v3 Arcade
Operation Split Fire introduced a limited-time 3v3 Arcade mode, offering players smaller, fast-paced matches that focused on three-pronged attack strategies and triangular defensive tactics. It kept Siege’s tactical core at the forefront while adding an attrition-based element, but with fewer players, shorter rounds, and an overall faster match flow. It quickly became one of the most successful limited-time modes ever offered in Siege, as players returned to the playlist again and again. Because of its popularity, the devs were happy to announce that the 3v3 playlist will return in Y11S4.
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