"I was two years old when Papá first took me to the museum. I asked to visit my ‘yaya’ so often that we went every Friday, rain or shine. I think it helped him to get me out of the garage! But as I grew up, those visits became less and less important."


“They say time heals all wounds. What does it do for those that never began to close in the first place?”

"Now, looking back on her life, I realise I know so little. My earliest memory is of her smile, but her dreams, her desires – her fears – those are all missing. What I love most is the light her memory brings to my father’s eyes. She is still very much alive in his heart. Now, whenever I visit, I spend hours listening to him talk about her, trying to capture that light for my own.

The death toll of a war never tells the whole story. It says nothing of the casualties that occur after the treaties are signed. Bad habits, old wounds, memories – these kill so much more slowly. We can never understand, but we can remember and maybe, God willing, we can keep such a tragedy from ever happening again."

-- SPECIALIST ELENA “MIRA” MARÍA ÁLVAREZ


“The past gives us a lens through which to view our future. Inspiration and opportunity come from introspection and observation.”

With Ember Rise release, comes the latest balancing changes. Our goal is to offer you a list of what has been adjusted for the new season and to share our thoughts on these tweaks.


SOFT WALL DESTRUCTION

Shotgun destruction
We are continuing to improve the reliability of soft wall destruction with shotguns. Our goal is to make sure that any wooden beam preventing the creation of rotation hole is consistently destroyed. By doing so, we hope to make site preparation easier for defenders.

Keratos .357 and LFP 586.

The Italian and the French revolvers destruction output will be on par with the D-50. We expect this minor improvement to offer more viable loadouts and increase their attractiveness.

WEAPON BALANCING

G8A1 LMG
Added 100 extra bullet to the G8A1 LMG.
IQ’s LMG, which will also be Amaru’s is receiving more ammo to be on par with other weapons of the same class as this LMG had even less ammo than most of our assault rifles.

417 DMR
Expanded magazine capacity by 10 rounds.
To try and make the 417 a more appealing option, we have decided to increase the number of bullets per magazine. Twitch and Lion will be able to rely on 10 extra bullets per mag with this DMR upgrade.

PDW9
Base damage: 34.
Damage at 18m: 34.
Damage at 28m: 26.
The SMG will now boast regular damage drop-off, like any other weapon of its class. It will still remain a completely viable option for the Spanish Operator.

AUGA3
AugA3 damage increased from 33 to 36.
The TCSG12 continues to be Kaid’s weapon of choice, but we would like the Aug A3 to be a viable alternative. Now that the Moroccan defender has received a C4 and impacts, he is able to remodel any site to his convenience, even without a shotgun. Increasing the AugA3 damage should bring the SMG on par with the TCSG12.

OPERATOR BALANCING

WARDEN
Penalty on posture change: 30%
Penalty on movement: 20% per meter
Time before penalty removal is set to 0.1s
Full recovery is changed from 1s to 0.5s
Penalty on rotation is removed
Penalty on lean: 20%
Following last season changes brought to Glaz, we are looking to implement a similar system to Warden’s ability. The system used for the Russian sniper enables us to have more options to tweak Warden’s vision.

This modification is also a good opportunity to reduce his movement penalty. The greatest mustache in Siege should now be more comfortable to play with, have more mobility and be a bit more powerful.

CAPITÃO
Improved visual and sound effects for Capitão’s Fire Bolts.
Fire bolts will now have the same visual and sound effects as Goyo. This change is primarily made for consistency but will also increase the visual feedback of his ability. It should now become easier to figure out if you are going to roast your toes.

FUZE
Changed fuze deploy speed from 2 seconds to 1.6 seconds.
Fuze’s ability is very risky to use, especially on windows. With an improved deployment speed, his gadget should be safer to use and more likely to surprise an unsuspecting enemy. Our goal here is to try to find a way to increase Fuze’s attractiveness and boost his pick rate.

SHIELD OPERATORS
Increase the ADS time when the shield is equipped from 0.4s to 0.6s.
Operators using shields were too complicated to take down and the window of vulnerability they offered when switching to ADS was limited. We hope that increasing the time needed to ADS when using a shield will result in more fair gunfights.

OPERATORS LOADOUT CHANGES

• Smoke: Impacts replaced with a Deployable Shield.
  
• Rook: Deployable Shield replaced with Barbed Wire.
  
• Jager: Deployable Shield replaced with Bulletproof Camera.
  
• Frost: Barbed Wire replaced with Deployable Shield.
  
• Mira: Deployable Shield replaced with Barbed Wire.
  
• Lesion: Deployable Shield replaced with Bulletproof Camera.
  
• Maestro: Deployable Shield replaced with Impact Grenades.
  
• Warden: Impact Grenade replaced with Deployable Shield.
  
• Dokkaebi: Stun Grenades replaced with Frag Grenades.
  
• Glaz: Claymore replaced with Frag Grenades.
  
• Nøkk: Stun Grenades replaced with Claymore.

The arrival of the updated Deployable Shield has forced us to rethink the utility used by all our operators. We want attackers to have the right tools to counter any defence relying heavily on these shields. Also, Warden and Nøkk will finally receive their initial secondary gadgets, which were temporarily replaced.

DEFUSING TIME INCREASE

• Defusal planting or deactivation increased from 5 secs to 7secs.

Planting or deactivating a bomb defuser proved to be too short. To try and reward effective control over a bombsite more fairly we have decided to increase the planting or the defusing of the device to 7 seconds. We hope that this change will give more time to both teams to react accordingly.

Full Ember Rise patch notes are available here.

Try out the latest Rainbow Six updates on the Test Server and earn an exclusive charm through the BugHunter program.

Follow us and share your feedback on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and on our forums.

With Operation Ember Rise coming to the live servers, we wanted to shed some light on the Casual Playlist changes coming at the launch of Year 4 Season 3, and around the 3.3 patch.

We currently have a total of 22 maps; 14 in the Ranked Playlist and 20 playable in Casual. As announced on the Seasonal Patch Notes, we will implement a new Casual map pool rotation. This Playlist will now have 14 maps instead of the current 20. Moving forward we will rotate 4 maps in and out of the playlist with each rotation.

With the release of Operation Ember Rise, this is what the Casual map pool will look like:



In a mid-season patch, we will replace Skyscraper, Hereford, Fortress, and Chalet, with House, Plane, Favela, and Tower. We will post updates on social media channels before it reaches the live servers.

Bartlett University and Theme Park will not be playable during Season 3. The latter will be receiving a rework with the release of Y4S4 and won’t be available throughout this season.

Our goal is to give players the ability to familiarize themselves with a more curated selection of maps. We are also aiming to make the playlist more dynamic and enjoyable. Remember to follow us and share your feedback on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook and on our forums.

Something new is on the horizon, and Operation Ember Rise will shed light on it. Two operators, Amaru and Goyo, were recruited from Peru and Mexico, bringing with them innovation and change to Rainbow Six, along with a thrilling rework to Kanal.

Besides that, numerous changes and new features are on their way. As you scroll through the Patch Notes below, you’ll find more information on our plans for a Battle Pass, the new Champions rank and Unranked playlist, our new Operators menu, changes to the Shop interface and Player VS AI, and which Operators are getting a price decrease.

View Patch Notes

“Save you once, shame on me. Save you twice? Well. You’re family now, and we don’t keep count.”

"They said I’d never make anything of myself. They said that if I couldn’t be taught, I’d never learn anything worth knowing. Well, I’m here to tell you that’s all rubbish. You’ve had to sit through years of them filling your heads with what they want you to think, all for a fancy bit of paper. Worth it, was it? I’ll tell you what. You get out there, you never hold back, and someday some professor who doesn’t remember tossing you out of his class will ask you to come and inspire the next generation. Lucky for all of you, I’ve got a bit of skin in the game as far as young whippersnappers go, so you’d better shape up to be something pretty bloody marvelous.



- PORTER, J., RECIPIENT OF AN HONORARY DOCTORATE IN PHYSICAL AND THEORETICAL CHEMISTRY


“Anyone who says you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure has never made friends with a chemist.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1rfxazAwbg

"Harry -
I understood that our new Operator’s grappling hook made her fast, but I never expected it would have that much of an effect on the pacing of our training matches. In less experienced hands (mine), the Garra Hook is a slightly-more-convenient way of scaling a wall or breaking through a barricaded window. But for her, it’s an extension of her body. The way she swings her legs, the way she tucks her arms into her sides, everything is geared toward making her as agile as possible. I made the mistake of challenging her, one-on-one. Then for a rematch. Each time, she took me down from an angle I wasn’t expecting, with a speed I couldn’t adapt to. I have to adapt to it.

My only consolation is that she works best when her opponents are distracted. If she goes charging in, she’s going to get a bullet to the face. And she’ll deserve it. But for now, with her unpredictability, she’s set to turn our whole routine upside down. I can’t wait.

Our other new Operator is a special one. He’s quiet, but thoughtful. I’m not surprised his invention is the same. In both cases, if you underestimate or misjudge he’ll be on you like lightning.

I appreciate fielding another defense that more than one person can use. We have our cameras, and we need to check them, but the Volcán gives us something else to keep an eye on. Plus, it’s impressive. Smoke’s “toxic babes” keep people at bay, and do it well, but an unexpected explosion causes a split-second of disorientation that leaves you vulnerable to attack. When I’m right there behind my mirror, protected from the blast, that split-second is all I need.

You asked if they’re ready. They are. As for how they’re going to change the way we approach each other, we’ll just have to wait and see."

-- Specialist Elena “Mira” María Álvarez, Rainbow R&D Director

Visit our Rainbow Six Twitch Channel on August 18th for the full reveal of Operation Ember Rise during the Six Major Raleigh.

Updated: 22 July 2019

We will be updating the following list regularly to outline the status of certain issues that are currently pressing for our community. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and should only be used as a reference to give a general idea of where our focus currently is.

SOUND BUGS
Description: Muffled, missing sounds + various sound issues.
Status: We have identified a bug that allows sound to travel more easily that intended through solid objects/walls. We are also continuing to go through videos that are sent to us to identify standalone sound/audio issues.

CONNECTIVITY
Description: Players are losing control on their Operator and then being disconnected and presented with an error message.
Status: We have dedicated a team specifically to these connectivity topics, and have identified a couple of issues that are sometimes interpreted as a “Denial of Service” attacks. These issues are a priority for us.

RANK DISPARITY IN RANKED MATCHMAKING
Description: Players are able to take advantage of the Matchmaking algorithm to play against lower skilled opponents.
Status: [Target: During Y4S3] Currently in progress. We have detailed the approximate values that we want to restrict parties to, and are working on the implementation.

TOXICITY REPORTING
Description: We currently offer a single option for reporting toxicity.
Status: [Target: During Y4S3] We have finalized the design and process for handling additional reporting options. The UI/UX is in progress.

SMOKE GAS CANISTER PROPAGATION
Description: Gas from Smoke’s Gas Grenades clips through walls.
Objective: Our goal is to rework the propagation so it is similar to the new Capitao fire bolt, and use this as an opportunity to revisit the visual.
Status: [Target: During Y4S3] We have encountered an issue and will be pushing this change to Season 3 to ensure that it is released in a more comfortable state.

WEAPON SIGHT ALIGNMENT
Description: Weapon optics are a few pixels off center in some situations.
Objective: We want to implement a system to prevent most misalignment issues in the future. At the same time, we are improving the look of the guns in ADS by adding secondary motion, which is now possible due to the tech that keeps the scopes aligned with the reticule.
Status: [Target: During Y4S3] Feedback is currently being gathered in internal play sessions.

SHOTGUN WALL DESTRUCTION IS UNRELIABLE
Description: Shotguns are inconsistent when being used to destroy wooden beams.
Objective: We want to ensure that the destruction of wooden beams is reliable, for both player comfort and ensuring we do not force players to spend extra time attempting to destroy wooden beams.
Status: [Target: Y4S3] We have it implemented and turned off while we address remaining bugs. Once those are fixed, we will turn it on.

OPERATOR/GADGET KILL SWITCH
Description: Operators that are disruptive due to exploits being removed from play.
Objective: When an Operator or Gadget is disabled, provide players with feedback on what/why.
Status: [Target: During Y4S3] We have a bit of programming work left, and some UI work as well.

DEBRIS STUCK IN WINDOW/DOOR BARRICADES
Description: Debris sometimes remains stuck in the barricades on doors and windows, causing players to have different sight lines.
Objective: Provide consistency for all players for barricade destruction.
Status: [Target: Potentially Y5S1] We are currently in the design phase to determine how we want to approach this topic. We are exploring and prototyping different options.

MAP POOL
Description: We have too many maps available in the Ranked map pool.
Status: [Target: Y4S3] We are in the process of reassessing the number of maps present in the Ranked map rotation. Additionally, we are determining which maps to include in this reduced map pool.

OPERATOR BANS
Description: We have seen a high ban rate for Blitz, Jackal, Echo, and Caveira in Ranked.
Status: We are discussing how we want to approach topic of balancing around Pick/Ban in Ranked, and the Operators that are affected the most by it.

SMOKE
Description: Adjustments to the damage curve for Smoke’s Gas Canister will move Smoke further towards an area denial role.
Status: [On Hold] We are satisfied overall with how this is developing, but but need to put it on hold until other dependencies are delivered.

The primary focus of the Y4S2.3 patch brings balancing around shields, Glaz buffs, Jackal nerfs and a QOL change for Maverick torch SFX. There’s also a few other balancing tweaks as well as further improvements to the RFF system to moderate griefing teammates. Check out more detailed explanations on the balancing changes in our Designer’s Notes.

The Y4S2.3 patch will release to PC on July 22nd and console on the 24th.


RFF ANTI-GRIEFING

• Addition of further RFF parameters to take into account damage history to a player from the offender over multiple rounds in a match.
  - Continued chip damage to an individual from another teammate over several rounds will stack RFF points more quickly.
  
• Putting a teammate into DBNO will activate RFF.
  - Reviving the DBNO teammate will remove the RFF activation.
  - Bleeding out from DBNO will prompt the dead player to mark the TK as intentional or not.

IDLE KICK TIMER

• Idle kick warning timer will display 10 seconds before a kick.

LAN VOICE CHAT

• LAN/Offline modes in-game voice chat has been removed for optimization purposes.
  
• PvP/Online voice chat will not be affected.

SHIELD HIP-FIRE

• Hip-fire cone increased.
  
• We have standardized the hip-fire penalization when you have a Ballistic Shield equipped. Having a shield equipped will now increase it by the same amount. Spread has increased for every Operator when a shield is equipped, but Fuze, Montagne and Blitz will be the most impacted by the change.

BALLISTIC SHIELD MELEE

• Performing a melee attack with a Ballistic Shield equipped will now only injure and DBNO the opponent, instead of killing them.
  
• The new changes for melee attacks while using a Ballistic Shield will impact Blitz, Fuze, Montagne and Recruit.

ECHO

• Reduced Yokai Sonic Burst disorientating effect base duration to 7 seconds (down from 10s).

We are running low on AAA batteries, so to save energy we’re tuning down Yokai’s power a bit.

GLAZ

• Reduced time it takes to trigger the vision penalty when moving or rotating, lowering the overall vision penalty when moving.
  
• Movement time before complete vision is lost is now 6 seconds (up from 2.5s).
  
• The speed at which the vision penalty is applied when rotating has also been slowed down.

Glaz has been feeling a bit left out so we gave him some incentive to join the party.

JACKAL

• Reduced the number of pings from a scan to 4 (down from 5), reduced time being tracked by 5 seconds.

You can rest easier now. Maybe.

MAVERICK

• Modified breaching torch sound SFX.
  
• Breaching torch sounds will now be easier to hear when Maverick is making a hole close to you.

Can you hear me now?

NØKK

• Increased Nøkk's ability duration to 12 seconds and increased the refill timer to 12 seconds.
  
• With the longer duration, and cooldown, you’ll be able to better leverage her ability.

As per the law of equivalent exchange, you can now spend longer being spooky, but also spend longer getting a full refill.


GAMEPLAY

• FIXED – Under certain circumstances, after emptying the magazine, weapons cannot be reloaded.
  
• FIXED – After joining in progress, any Yokai drones or hacked Mozzie drones outside will not display the jammed VFX to the player who joined midway.

OPERATORS

CLASH

• FIXED – Missing SFX for Clash when equipping her CCE Shield.

MIRA

• FIXED – Sometimes placing Mira’s Mirror on a reinforced wall may not breach both sides of the wall.

LEVEL DESIGN

KAFE

• FIXED – Players can spawn peek the Docks.

USER EXPERIENCE

• FIXED – Starting any situation after completing a Custom Online game will start a Thunt Lone Wolf on the same map and mode as the Custom Online game.
  
• FIXED – Players are unable to reconnect to a Ranked session via the dynamic Play button and remain in queue unless they relaunch.

The constant work of our balancing team aims at improving the game experience and the overall game balance. Statistics gathered since the beginning of Operation Phantom Sight have played a major role in the upcoming changes detailed below.

Balancing changes are also motivated by community feedback, which is often an indicator helping us to pinpoint specific issues. A careful analysis relying on data gathered with our internal tools help us to picture what needs to be done. We are about to give you an insight about these statistics and to explain why certain changes have been made.



Note: these statistics are using a pick rate projection taking into account the Operator ban rate.

TWITCH
With Phantom Sight release, we have increased the recoil of the F2 assault rifle. Therefore, her pick rate has reached a more acceptable level: from 60% to 43% presence per round. However, she continues to boast a high Kill / Death ratio from 1.25 to 1.17 and is still a very lethal attacker.

FROST
Along with Twitch’s F2 recoil adjustment, we reduced Frost Mats health points, this lead to Frost Mats to be destroyed more often as they are now destroyed 75% of the time instead of 68% before Phantom sight release.

KAID
To increase Kaid’s versatility we added the Nitro Cell to his loadout. This option has become more popular with 65% of people using it against 51% using barbed wires during Wind Bastion.

GLAZ

• Glaz’s focus gauge will now be depleted in 6 secs (from 2.5secs).
  
• Glaz’s focus will start depleting after a 120° rotation (from 90°).

Following Glaz’s rework during update Y4S2 and according to the statistics we gathered, Glaz’s rework appeared too drastic and is currently under picked and underpowered.

We are planning on tweaking the penalization while moving and to allow him to hold several angles simultaneously, it is now possible to rotate your camera up to 120° without any penalty.

JACKAL

• Lowered the number of pings from Jackal’s ability to four (five previously).

Jackal found himself in a situation comparable to Lion. Many comments and feedback from the player base deemed his ability slightly unbalanced.

We are aware that he has been identified as one the most frustrating attackers to play against; we are starting to explore how we can address the situation without making him irrelevant.

This change should give more leeway for tracked opponents to survive and lessen the negativity generated by his ability.

ECHO

• Reduced the duration of Echo’s Sonic Burst to 7 secs (10 secs previously).

Echo appears is one of the most reliable and efficient anchor in the game now thanks to his intel gathering and plant denial abilities. We aim at reducing the effect of his Sonic Burst and are also looking at other options for the future.

We also hope that Echo will be less targeted by Operator bans, as he is quite powerful and at the source of frustration in his current form.

SHIELDS

• Increased the hip fire spread when using a ballistic shield.
  
• Using melee successfully with a ballistic shield will now put the enemy in a DBNO state.

Ballistic Shields have been an important source of frustration for players and lead to certain behaviour that were not initially intended. By reducing the hip fire accuracy, we want to reduce chances of shielded operators to score headshots too easily without exposing themselves.

The decision to change the shield melee attack, from lethal to non-lethal was decided to avoid players rushing towards an Operator hoping for a trade. We want to reinforce team play and synergy when using these Operators.

MAVERICK

• Changed Maverick’s blowtorch sound to a louder one.

Since Maverick has been released, the sound generated by his gadget was often said to be too silent.
We have decided to tweak the sound of his blowtorch and recorded and new sample that should be heard more easily by defenders. Let us know what you think!

NØKK

• Increased the duration of the HEL device to 12 secs (from 10 secs).

We would like to increase Nøkk’s performance and to make her slightly more efficient.
We have decided to increase the duration of her ability to allow players to use her full potential.


Try out the latest Rainbow Six updates on the Test Server and earn an exclusive charm through the BugHunter program.

Follow us and share your feedback on Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and on our forums.

Updated: 15 July 2019

We will be updating the following list regularly to outline the status of certain issues that are currently pressing for our community. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and should only be used as a reference to give a general idea of where our focus currently is.

SOUND BUGS
Description: Muffled, missing sounds + various sound issues.
Status: We have identified a bug that allows sound to travel more easily that intended through solid objects/walls. We are also continuing to go through videos that are sent to us to identify standalone sound/audio issues.

CONNECTIVITY
Description: Players are losing control on their Operator and then being disconnected and presented with an error message.
Status: We have dedicated a team specifically to these connectivity topics, and have identified a couple of issues that are sometimes interpreted as a “Denial of Service” attacks. These issues are a priority for us.

SMOKE GAS CANISTER PROPAGATION
Description: Gas from Smoke’s Gas Grenades clips through walls.
Objective: Our goal is to rework the propagation so it is similar to the new Capitao fire bolt, and use this as an opportunity to revisit the visual.
Status: [Target: During Y4S3] We have encountered an issue and will be pushing this change to Season 3 to ensure that it is released in a more comfortable state.

WEAPON SIGHT ALIGNMENT
Description: Weapon optics are a few pixels off center in some situations.
Objective: We want to implement a system to prevent most misalignment issues in the future. At the same time, we are improving the look of the guns in ADS by adding secondary motion, which is now possible due to the tech that keeps the scopes aligned with the reticule.
Status: [Target: During Y4S3] Feedback is currently being gathered in internal play sessions.

SHOTGUN WALL DESTRUCTION IS UNRELIABLE
Description: Shotguns are inconsistent when being used to destroy wooden beams.
Objective: We want to ensure that the destruction of wooden beams is reliable, for both player comfort and ensuring we do not force players to spend extra time attempting to destroy wooden beams.
Status: [Target: Y4S2.3] We are assessing the initial results of the change, and continuing to fine tune the destruction..

OPERATOR/GADGET KILL SWITCH
Description: Operators that are disruptive due to exploits being removed from play.
Objective: When an Operator or Gadget is disabled, provide players with feedback on what/why.
Status: [Target: During Y4S3] We have a bit of programming work left, and some UI work as well.

DEBRIS STUCK IN WINDOW/DOOR BARRICADES
Description: Debris sometimes remains stuck in the barricades on doors and windows, causing players to have different sight lines.
Objective: Provide consistency for all players for barricade destruction.
Status: [Target: Potentially Y5S1] We are currently in the design phase to determine how we want to approach this topic. We are exploring and prototyping different options.

ECHO YOKAI CLOAKING
Description: With the deployment of the Y4S2.2 patch, we implemented a fix for Yokai being seen through the glass sections of Attacker’s shields. This had the unintended effect of making Echo's drone invisible.
Objective: Our balancing team’s intent is to make Yokai Drones more easily spotted in a later update.
Status: [Target: TBD] We will address this issue in a future patch. Once we have more information, we will provide an update.

SOPERATOR BANS
Description: We have seen a high ban rate for Blitz, Jackal, Echo, and Caveira in Ranked.
Status: We are discussing how we want to approach topic of balancing around Pick/Ban in Ranked, and the Operators that are affected the most by it.

SMOKE
Description: Adjustments to the damage curve for Smoke’s Gas Canister will move Smoke further towards an area denial role.
Status: [On Hold] We are satisfied overall with how this is developing, but but need to put it on hold until other dependencies are delivered.