Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Shifting Tides and its new Operators are out now

Rainbow Six: Siege's final season of Year 4, Operation Shifting Tides, has begun. It introduces a pair of new Operators, Kali and Wamai, from the Nighthaven Special Intervention Group, as well as map changes, Operator balancing and a fancy new limb penetration system.

As always, season pass owners get first dibs on the new Operators, so technically Kali and Wamai aren't out in the wild yet. If you don't have the pass, you'll be able to buy them next week.

Kali is an Attacker with a nasty rifle that can not only gets through barricades and hatches in one shot, it's also got an LV Explosive Lance attachment for added destruction. The LV can destroy Castle's armour and, when shot at a wall, it destroys all gadgets on either side of the surface, including reinforced walls.

Her pal Wamai, meanwhile, is a Defender with a very handy gadget that neutralises enemy projectiles. Toss out the Mag-NET System and it will attract enemy projectiles and then self-destruct, stopping them from doing any harm. Wamai can get up to five Mag-NETs.

If you've been thinking of picking up some existing Operators, you can get seven of them for a discount. Hibana, Echo, Dokkaebi, Vigil, Zofia Nomad and Kaid’s prices have all been reduced.

Theme Park has undergone some renovations with the update, changing both map's indoor and outdoor areas. Outside, line of sight has been restricted to stop spawn peeks, and the whole rail platform has been ripped out. Inside, parts of the building have been altered and brought more in line with the map's theme, and the layout has also changed.

Limb penetration seems like the biggest new addition. Weapons now have different penetration values, from none, where they don't pass through anything, to full, where the shot doesn't just pass through limbs, it passes through whole bodies, potentially hitting a second Operator for reduced damage.

Shifting Tides also includes the addition of a rappel exit prompt, an Elite set for Capitão, new weapon skins, and some tweaks and fixes. The update is available now, and here's the patch notes and a list of bug fixes.

TOPICS

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.