Rainbow Six Siege Y8S4, a.k.a. Operation Deep Freeze, is launching this month, and we have all the details for you of everything coming in it, including the first details on the new operator and so much more! Here’s everything coming to Rainbow Six Siege Year 8 Season 4 launch. 

• Related Reading: Rainbow Six Siege Year 8 Roadmap Update Shares Changes to Upcoming Plans

Rainbow Six Siege Year 8 Season 4 Operation Deep Freeze New Content:

Launch Date: Operation Deep Freeze will begin November 28. 

New Operator – Defender Tubarão

Stats

• 2 Health
• 2 Speed

Primary Weapons

• MPX
• AR-15.50

Secondary Weapon

• P226 MK 25 Pistol

Gadget 

• Nitro – Freezes an area and marks enemies’ footsteps. It can attach to the ceiling, marking the footsteps of enemies that may be above you. It will impair Operator’s movement and will disable all (teams and opponents) gadgets. 
• Proximity Alarm 

New Ranked Map – Lair

Competition heats up this season with the new Ranked map Lair. Lair is the base of operations for Deimos, and the map is designed for players to experiment with different playstyles as they navigate its multiple entrances and three floors. Each floor has a distinct mood and the exterior has unique entry points to all three floors. Just as Deimos created this facility to calculate his operations against Rainbow, players can strategize their navigation of Lair for success during matches.

Player Protection

Player protection efforts continue to grow with a Reputation System update, providing more information on what impacts player standing. This season introduces the Grace Period phase where players will be onboarded, learn more about player standing, and give everyone a chance to improve their standing without any penalties before the Reputation System fully launches. This builds on the Commendation System, which allows players to commend each other after a match and rewards players with increased Alpha Pack drop rates. For more information RainbowSix.com/Commendations

Balancing – Frag Grenade Update

Objective 

• Frags should not be as powerful as Primary Utility
• Make taking Frags a choice, not a default
• Increase the availability of Frags.

Final Changes

• Removed the ability to cook the grenade.
• Reduced initial fuse time to 4 seconds from 5. 
• Bounce-cooking system = Fuse time reduced after bouncing (Stun Grenade).
• 2 seconds fuse after bounce. 

These changes based on internal testing have promoted more picks of gadgets over grenades. 

Frags Distribution

IQ: Frags Added – Will be monitored – The Team understands this combination can be overpowered, but believes they can be incredibly fun. Will watch for feedback.

Lion: Frag Added, Gonne-6 & EMP Removed – The Team understands this combination can be overpowered but believes they can be incredibly fun. Doesn’t see it as being as strong as they are predicting. 

Sens: Frags Added. Gonne-6 removed. 

Osa: Frags Added. Smokes removed,

Blackbeard: Frags added. EMP removed. 

Rainbow Six Seige Marketplace Beta

A marketplace for Rainbow Six Seige is arriving in Year 9, but before it does, the team will be hosting beta testing. 

New Onboarding Features

Versus AI Play – Players will soon be able to compete against defender AI operators to learn and practice with friends. The AI is designed to emulate how players play the game, with two difficulty levels, beginner and advanced. 

Map Run – This tool allows players to learn maps, focusing on how to navigate the maps. Map training tools will include landmark and target drills. In Landmark Drill, random landmarks will be placed with the goal of finding them. Target Drills will have dummies that you can turn on and off, with the same idea of Landmakr Drill but for a specific target. 

Situation and Training Runs (and Terrorist Hunt) are being REMOVED from the game. Ubisoft says it was a very difficult decision, but the team feels the new AI plays and future updates will bring better training that will be closer to how the game plays. 

Controller Improvements Part 1

• Full controller remapping is coming in Y8S4.
• Stick Deadzone can be set to 0 now.
• Hip leaning input features coming later this season. 

Battle Pass Updates

• Map will be interactive this season to improve navigation. 
• This is only the first change, with more to come. 

Seasonal Test Servers

Date: November 13

More to Come Through the Season!

• Controller Improvements Part II
• Balance Update
• 2 Elite Skins
• Seasonal Event
• End of season: Six Invitational 2024

That’s all for this season! Definitely a lot to digest here, and it’ll be interesting to see how the community takes to the balancing changes. Luckily, the test servers are live tomorrow for the public to test out, so be sure to voice your feedback if there are things you do and don’t like. 

Rainbow Six Siege Y8S4 launches on November 28 on all platforms. We’ll have the full patch notes available once they’ve been finalized the day before or on launch.