Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Skull Rain goes to Brazil for two new operators

The next Rainbow Six Siege expansion is called Operation Skull Rain, which is the sort of title I would've considered seriously bad-ass when I was 12. That minor quibble aside, it sounds like it could be fun: This time, following the chill of Black Ice and the grit of Dust Line, Ubisoft is taking its show to the sweltering cities of Brazil.

Operation Skull Rain will add a pair of new operators from Brazil's Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais, aka BOPE. The defender, Caveira, has a “Silent Step” skill that gives her the ability to sneak up on enemies, immobilize them, and then interrogate them to reveal the locations of teammates. She brings an M12 and a SPAS-15 to the party as her primary weapons, a PRB92 secondary, and Nitro Cell C4 and Barbed Wire as gadgets.

Her attacker counterpart, Capitão, packs an M249 LMG and Para-308 as primaries, a PRB92 secondary of his own, and frag, stun, and micro smoke grenades. He also has is a tactical crossbow that fires oxygen-burning “asphyxiating bolts."

Operation Skull Rain will also add a new map set in a Brazilian favela, free for all players, which Ubisoft said will be its “most destructible map to date.” It will make numerous “tweaks and improvements” to the game, add a new angled-grip attachment and “surrender system,: and a new custom game mode called "Tactical Realism."

“By popular request, the Tactical Realism mode prevents players from marking enemies, allowing only the timer, compass, gadget, and weapon panels to be visible in the HUD. Additionally, there are no kill confirmations, and more realistic magazine management will be put into play,” Ubisoft explained. “The idea is to push players to rely even more on their teammates and communication for information on enemy locatios and kill counts.”

And here's your daily dose of trivia: BOPE was actually the inspiration and basis for the Unidade de Forças Especiais, aka UFE, the special forces police unit based in Sao Paulo, Brazil that served as one of the antagonist factions in Max Payne 3. Hopefully it can perform better in combat against teams of the best special forces soldiers in the world than it did when confronted with a self-loathing middle-aged man with anger management issues and a pill problem.

Operation Skull Rain is set to go live on August 2. The two new operators will be available immediately to season pass holders when it goes live, while everyone else will have to wait a week. More information will be revealed on July 30, during the Season Two Xbox Pro League Finals livestream.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.