Deep Freeze R6 New Operator

[Elijah Rakestraw]

Feelthe chill of the new Zoto Canister. The Zoto Canister is a throwable device that can slow enemies, freeze devices to pause their deployment and prevent use, and even leave footprints behind if the frozen area is walked on.

Consisting of three floors with navigation and flow optimized for competitive play, this map has multiple entrances to its sites, and many opportunities to try different playstyles. Each floor has a distinct theme that connects the whole, with facilities for mercenaries, support staff, and Deimos himself, and the unique exterior has entry points to all three floors.

This season introduces a Reputation System update, and we are now entering a new phase with the Grace Period. We've added information about the impacts a player's standing will have in the future and updated the Reputation section to provide more details about a player's standing and what's affecting it.

Starting this season, all players will have entered grace period to onboard and adapt to the new system. Once the grace period is concluded, players can expect impacts to become live. For now, these updates are to warn players and give them a chance to improve their standing without any penalties.

First, the power level of Frag Grenades was lowered so they're more in line with other gadgets, rather than being as effective as Operator abilities. To achieve this, we have removed the ability to cook Frag Grenades. This will even the playing field by making them no longer as viable or in some cases even better than Operator abilities. We did not make this decision lightly and explored multiple options before deciding this was the right course of action to ensure over-all balance and health of the game.

Thanks to this change we can now more comfortably redistribute this secondary gadget throughout the operator roster opening up new synergies and tactics. Frag Grenades, they have been added as an option to Osa, Lion, IQ, Blackbeard, and Sens. Players will still have some control over the gadget because Frag Grenades have been given the same fuse system as Stun Grenades, meaning the fuse time is reduced to 2 seconds with the first bounce if it was higher before.

MIRA

The bulletproof glass of Mira's Black Mirror can also be shattered if a projectile drills into it and explodes from the inside, such as Ash's Breaching Round or Kali's Explosive Lance.

On November 12, players will be able to register for a chance to access the new R6S Marketplace, which will enter beta in early 2024. R6S Marketplace is a safe and anonymous web platform for eligible players to trade their eligible items. Transactions made in R6S Marketplace can only be made using R6S credits, and there will be a 10% transaction fee.

We are adding a playlist with newly designed AI opponents to offer players a space to train in a low-stress environment.

Versus AI opponents have two difficulties: Beginner and Advanced. Newcomers must play a practice match against these brand-new AI before switching to the Standard multiplayer playlist. The Advanced difficulty lets players engage AI opponents in real-match situations.

The Versus AI playlist beta is launching this season with the Clubhouse map. Players can play it solo, in a Squad, or with other players online. They can select from 6 Attackers: Recruit, Sledge, Glaz, Thermite, Thatcher, and IQ. AI opponents select from 5 Defenders: Kapkan, Valkyrie, Smoke, Mute, and Bandit.

Adding this new AI system means we can no longer support the old AI used in Training Grounds and Situations. Because of this, those two playlists are being removed this season. Newcomers can find all the benefits of those two playlists and more in Tutorials, Versus AI, and the new Map Training playlist.

CONTROLLER DEADZONE CUSTOMIZATION

New options were created for Trigger Dead Zone customization.

Due to popular demand, the existing Stick Dead Zone options were updated to let players set them to 0.

CONTROLLER LEAN BEHAVIOR (MID-SEASON)

Coming later in this season is a new option that allows players to switch the lean behavior on controllers. Players can choose to use the current Controller Lean Behavior, which cancels leaning when no longer aiming down sights or the Alternate variant where players remain leaning while not aiming down sights.

MULTIPLE SPECTATORS

The limit of spectators allowed in a match was increased to 4, and a button was added to the lobby that allows players to switch between spectating the match or playing in it.

Battle Pass grid has been updated to include two levels of zoom, so players can interact and select their rewards in both views of the Battle Pass grid. Zoom in to see all the details or zoom out to get an overall view of your progression on the grid.

Tubaro is a two-speed, two-health operator with a unique device called Zoto Canister, a throwable gadget that can freeze surfaces for 12 seconds. When the canister is deployed, the area affected is frozen, alongside the gadgets nearby.

The Zoto Canister will be Bandit's best ally, as the gadget stops hard breaching charges from exploding. After 12 seconds, if the device hasn't been burnt by the Bandit or the Kaid, the charge will explode as usual.

Lair is full of soft walls and floors, which makes it perfect for vertical plays. However, players won't be able to play vertically as in Operation Heavy Mettle, as fragmentation grenades are going through an important rework.

Say bye-bye to fragmentation grenades' "cooking" feature! Rainbow Six Siege's upcoming season will include a massive nerf for this gadget, as attackers won't be able to prepare the grenades before throwing them.

With this change, Ubisoft expects players to navigate across the operator's options and not always stick with the grenades. Moreover, the change prevents attackers from using grenades to get vertical kills.

At the same time, Ubisoft expects fragmentation grenades to not increase the pick rate of their owners. As they won't be as important now, Ubisoft is giving them to more operators, including IQ, Lion, Sens, Blackbeard, and Osa.

With this change, we expect operators like Ash or Zofia to become even more important in some lineups. At the same time, defenders can use this nerf to their advantage, as now they can use the windows to force the attackers to waste explosives.

Ubisoft is adding a third Evil Eye in Maestro's loadout in Operation Deep Freeze. The Italian operator will be stronger, as he will be able to gather more information while destroying attacking gadgets.

Ubisoft also announced the arrival of an AI Playlist, which will take place on Clubhouse. There, players will be able to compete against real operators. However, this new game mode will only include six operators.

He's sort of like having Mute's signal jammer in your pocket, except it can be thrown from a distance, starts jamming gadgets instantly, and can interrupt breaching charges that have already begun detonating. It's an intimidating new piece on the board for attackers who've contended with reinforced walls the same way since 2015. Not even mechanical devices immune to Mute's effects, like Ram's breaching bots or secondary hard breach charges, can escape Tubaro's deep freeze.

Ubisoft has a habit of introducing gadgets that appear to just be better versions of older ones, and I do wonder if the Zoto will go on to outclass Mute or even Kaid, but I suspect two key weaknesses will rein him in: the Zoto canister can't destroy gadgets on its own, and it only jams them up temporarily. Frozen gadgets will thaw out as soon as the canister expires (around 10-12 seconds) to finish their job. That means you still need Bandit, Kaid, or a well-thrown impact grenade to clear a wall, or else you've only delayed the inevitable.

It's hard to gauge based on only a few matches with Tubaro, but I'm not sure how an attacking team is supposed to reasonably counter someone who can jam up a wall for over 40 seconds of the round (if he uses all four Zoto canisters). Ubi says the lasers from Zero or Twitch's gadgets can destroy the Zoto from within, but we all know how unreliable a drone infiltration can be. Otherwise, your options are to disrupt wall defense from above (not easy, but counters every wall defense), get a frag grenade into the room somehow (sometimes easy if there's a gap above the wall), or wait the Zoto out. In an ideal scenario he could be instrumental in zapping away hard breach gadgets. At minimum, he can still waste a lot of time that attackers can't spare.

And that's only if you're using him for anti-breach. In a pinch, Tubaro's reactive throwables allow him to deny drone entry, reveal attacker footsteps for an easy vertical attack, or simply make a crucial chokepoint much harder to push in a clutch situation. The only thing holding Tubaro back is surviving long enough to make a difference.

I'll be curious to see if Tubaro is as dominant in practice as he sounds on paper. He'll arrive in Operation Deep Freeze in December, alongside new map Lair, a major nerf to frag grenades (they can't be cooked anymore), and attack training scenarios.

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though."}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Morgan ParkSocial Links NavigationStaff WriterMorgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.

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