Big Changes Are Coming To Rainbow Six Siege's Crystal Guard Season
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Ubisoft has officially revealed the next season for Rainbow Six Siege titled Crystal Guard. Osa, will be the new Attacker Operator coming to the game, but that’s not all as there will be map adjustments for Coastline, Bank, and Clubhouse, a few other improvements to other operators, and a lot more.
Osa and her Talon-8 Clear Shield
Osa is a new attacker equipped with a rather unique shield that can be used for different situations. Initially, the Talon-8 can be used as a bulletproof shield to protect her and her team but can also deployed either on the ground or on windows to provide cover support. Take note that this gadget is see-through on both sides of the gadget.
While seeing the shield in action, I thought about a lot of interesting applications, like giving operators attacking vertically some reliable cover to protecting your flank by blocking an adjacent window. You can even smash the shield with your melee to obscure vision, a viable tactic. It’s going to be a lot of fun seeing clever ways players will make use of Osa’s shield.
Map reworks: Coastline, Bank, and Clubhouse
Classic maps such as Bank, Coastline, and Clubhouse received a complete facelift as the developers changed the layout based on how each of these maps are approached on either the attacker or defender side for years. Once Crystal Guard goes live, these maps will never be the same again. We’re not talking about a few changes here and there. New pathways were added in, specific windows blocked off, and even new points of entry to certain sites.
Stun grenades will work differently in Crystal Guard
A surprising change is how stun grenades will work in Rainbow Six Siege in the next season. Ubisoft is addressing the effectiveness of the gadget as it’s rather easy for defenders to counter it (just look away from the blast), not giving the right amount of confidence to the player using it.
When Crystal Guard goes live, when a flash grenade lands near you, whether or not you’re looking at the opposite direction or not, you’ll get blinded. The real change is how long the effect will last, so if you’re far away or partially blocked, you’ll get a substantially shorter blind duration.
Operator changes - Twitch, IQ, and Fuze
Base operators Twitch, IQ, and Fuze are getting some love as well in the Crystal Guard season. Twitch will now have a more reliable shock drone as it can now jump just like other drones, and it’s shots (used to destroy defender gadgets) is switched from an electric shot to a laser shot, meaning the drone has infinite range, making distance no longer a problem when taking out a camera or gadget far away.
Oh, and she now starts with a normal drone at the start of the round. That means Twitch will have 3 drones available to her in every round: 1 normal drone, 2 shock drones.
IQ’s scanner is enhanced as well. When you scan the area with her gadget for electric devices, you’ll be informed by what type of gadget it is as the icon of that gadget will flash in her device. The player can now use IQ’s gadget to use the game’s smart ping feature to ping gadgets through walls to inform teammates what they’ve found.
Fuze has the most interesting change as his cluster charges can now be used on reinforced walls. It’s an insane change but there’s a big trade-off as deploying his gadget in these walls will result in a longer activation time, so defenders should have ample time to get out of harm’s way, or simply take it out as there will be an obvious tube sticking out spitting out explosive devices.
Other changes
Armor rework
The changes on the new armor system — introduced during the start of Year 6 —will finally go live this season. Armor in the game will now mean an increase in overall health instead of reduced damage, so operators with a 3 armor stat will simply have a bigger life total compared to someone with a 1 armor stat. Rook’s gadget will be affected by this as equipping his protective vest increases the total life of your operator.
RIM Lighting added to opponents
Ubisoft made it easier for players to distinguish an enemy player that is using a skin that can easily blend in certain environments in maps To combat this, opponents will have a reflective light on their character to make it easier for players to spot enemies. The purpose is to hopefully remove any advantage players will get when using specific skins. If you have no problem with spotting enemies and the change comes out as a nuisance, it is said you can simply turn it off and play the game as it used to be.
Elite customization
For those that own legendary skins, players can now equip any headgear while using the skin, giving more ways to customize your preferred operator while retaining the cool animation attached to these skins that plays when you get the MVP award in a winning match.
Crystal Guard, Rainbow Six Siege’s third season for Year 6, and all the changes coming to the game will go live on the game’s Test Server on August 17. The new operator Osa will then be available for testing on August 18. There’s no official release date given by Ubisoft for Crystal Guard, but if previous seasons are any indication, we could be playing in a new version of R6 in three-to-four weeks time.
